Gut bacteria are essential for normal cuticle development in herbivorous turtle ants

AbstractAcross the evolutionary history of insects, the shift from nitrogen-rich carnivore/omnivore diets to nitrogen-poor herbivorous diets was made possible through symbiosis with microbes. The herbivorous turtle ants Cephalotes possess a conserved gut microbiome which enriches the nutrient composition by recycling nitrogen-rich metabolic waste to increase the production of amino acids. This enrichment is assumed to benefit the host, but we do not know to what extent. To gain insights into nitrogen assimilation in the ant cuticle we use gut bacterial manipulation, 15N isotopic enrichment, isotope-ratio mass spectrometry, and 15N nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to demonstrate that gut bacteria contribute to the formation of proteins, catecholamine cross-linkers, and chitin in the cuticle. This study identifies the cuticular components which are nitrogen-enriched by gut bacteria, highlighting the role of symbionts in insect evolution, and provides a framework for understanding the nitrogen flow from nutrients through bacteria into the insect cuticle.

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Elaborating the role of reflection and individual differences in the study of folk-economic beliefs

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x18000274 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 41 ◽

Author(s):

Kevin Arceneaux

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Cognitive Processes ◽

Evolutionary History ◽

Behavioral Responses ◽

History Of ◽

Economic Beliefs

AbstractIntuitions guide decision-making, and looking to the evolutionary history of humans illuminates why some behavioral responses are more intuitive than others. Yet a place remains for cognitive processes to second-guess intuitive responses – that is, to be reflective – and individual differences abound in automatic, intuitive processing as well.

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Early origin of sweet perception in the songbird radiation

Science ◽

10.1126/science.abf6505 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 373 (6551) ◽

pp. 226-231 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Yasuka Toda ◽

Meng-Ching Ko ◽

Qiaoyi Liang ◽

Eliot T. Miller ◽

Alejandro Rico-Guevara ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Evolutionary History ◽

Genetic Basis ◽

Sensory Biology ◽

Avian Evolution ◽

Nectar Feeding ◽

Evolutionary Radiation ◽

History Of ◽

Sensory Convergence ◽

Early Origin

Early events in the evolutionary history of a clade can shape the sensory systems of descendant lineages. Although the avian ancestor may not have had a sweet receptor, the widespread incidence of nectar-feeding birds suggests multiple acquisitions of sugar detection. In this study, we identify a single early sensory shift of the umami receptor (the T1R1-T1R3 heterodimer) that conferred sweet-sensing abilities in songbirds, a large evolutionary radiation containing nearly half of all living birds. We demonstrate sugar responses across species with diverse diets, uncover critical sites underlying carbohydrate detection, and identify the molecular basis of sensory convergence between songbirds and nectar-specialist hummingbirds. This early shift shaped the sensory biology of an entire radiation, emphasizing the role of contingency and providing an example of the genetic basis of convergence in avian evolution.

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Adaptive convergent evolution of genome proofreading in SARS-CoV2: insights into the Eigen’s paradox

10.1101/2021.09.11.459886 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Keerthic Aswin ◽

Srinivasan Ramachandran ◽

Vivek T Natarajan

Keyword(s):

Convergent Evolution ◽

Genome Stability ◽

Evolutionary History ◽

Rna Binding ◽

Phylogenetic Analyses ◽

Comparative Genome Analysis ◽

The Family ◽

History Of ◽

Key Residues

AbstractEvolutionary history of coronaviruses holds the key to understand mutational behavior and prepare for possible future outbreaks. By performing comparative genome analysis of nidovirales that contain the family of coronaviruses, we traced the origin of proofreading, surprisingly to the eukaryotic antiviral component ZNFX1. This common recent ancestor contributes two zinc finger (ZnF) motifs that are unique to viral exonuclease, segregating them from DNA proof-readers. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that following acquisition, genomes of coronaviruses retained and further fine-tuned proofreading exonuclease, whereas related families harbor substitution of key residues in ZnF1 motif concomitant to a reduction in their genome sizes. Structural modelling followed by simulation suggests the role of ZnF in RNA binding. Key ZnF residues strongly coevolve with replicase, and the helicase involved in duplex RNA unwinding. Hence, fidelity of replication in coronaviruses is a result of convergent evolution, that enables maintenance of genome stability akin to cellular proofreading systems.

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Morphological stasis in the first myxomycete from the Mesozoic, and the likely role of cryptobiosis

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-019-55622-9 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Jouko Rikkinen ◽

David A. Grimaldi ◽

Alexander R. Schmidt

Keyword(s):

Evolutionary History ◽

Molecular Data ◽

Fruiting Bodies ◽

Ecological Adaptations ◽

Environmental Selection ◽

Morphological Stasis ◽

Ancient Lineage ◽

History Of ◽

Spore Mass

AbstractMyxomycetes constitute a group within the Amoebozoa well known for their motile plasmodia and morphologically complex fruiting bodies. One obstacle hindering studies of myxomycete evolution is that their fossils are exceedingly rare, so evolutionary analyses of this supposedly ancient lineage of amoebozoans are restricted to extant taxa. Molecular data have significantly advanced myxomycete systematics, but the evolutionary history of individual lineages and their ecological adaptations remain unknown. Here, we report exquisitely preserved myxomycete sporocarps in amber from Myanmar, ca. 100 million years old, one of the few fossil myxomycetes, and the only definitive Mesozoic one. Six densely-arranged stalked sporocarps were engulfed in tree resin while young, with almost the entire spore mass still inside the sporotheca. All morphological features are indistinguishable from those of the modern, cosmopolitan genus Stemonitis, demonstrating that sporocarp morphology has been static since at least the mid-Cretaceous. The ability of myxomycetes to develop into dormant stages, which can last years, may account for the phenotypic stasis between living Stemonitis species and this fossil one, similar to the situation found in other organisms that have cryptobiosis. We also interpret Stemonitis morphological stasis as evidence of strong environmental selection favouring the maintenance of adaptations that promote wind dispersal.

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Culicidae evolutionary history focusing on the Culicinae subfamily based on mitochondrial phylogenomics

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-74883-3 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Alexandre Freitas da Silva ◽

Laís Ceschini Machado ◽

Marcia Bicudo de Paula ◽

Carla Júlia da Silva Pessoa Vieira ◽

Roberta Vieira de Morais Bronzoni ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Data Mining ◽

Evolutionary History ◽

Mosquito Species ◽

Whole Genome ◽

Lack Of Information ◽

Fundamental Information ◽

History Of ◽

Medical Importance ◽

Low Coverage

Abstract Mosquitoes are insects of medical importance due their role as vectors of different pathogens to humans. There is a lack of information about the evolutionary history and phylogenetic positioning of the majority of mosquito species. Here we characterized the mitogenomes of mosquito species through low-coverage whole genome sequencing and data mining. A total of 37 draft mitogenomes of different species were assembled from which 16 are newly-sequenced species. We datamined additional 49 mosquito mitogenomes, and together with our 37 mitogenomes, we reconstructed the evolutionary history of 86 species including representatives from 15 genera and 7 tribes. Our results showed that most of the species clustered in clades with other members of their own genus with exception of Aedes genus which was paraphyletic. We confirmed the monophyletic status of the Mansoniini tribe including both Coquillettidia and Mansonia genus. The Aedeomyiini and Uranotaeniini were consistently recovered as basal to other tribes in the subfamily Culicinae, although the exact relationships among these tribes differed between analyses. These results demonstrate that low-coverage sequencing is effective to recover mitogenomes, establish phylogenetic knowledge and hence generate basic fundamental information that will help in the understanding of the role of these species as pathogen vectors.

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Evolutionary history of bulldog bats (genusNoctilio): recent diversification and the role of the Caribbean in Neotropical biogeography

Biological Journal of the Linnean Society ◽

10.1111/j.1095-8312.2012.01979.x ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 108 (1) ◽

pp. 210-224 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Ana Carolina Pavan ◽

Felipe M. Martins ◽

João S. Morgante

Keyword(s):

Evolutionary History ◽

History Of ◽

The Caribbean

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The Role of Biological Significance in Human Learning and Memory

International Journal of Comparative Psychology ◽

10.46867/ijcp.2019.32.03.02 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 32 ◽

Author(s):

Benjamin M. Seitz ◽

Aaron P. Blaisdell ◽

Cody W. Polack ◽

Ralph R. Miller

Keyword(s):

Human Evolution ◽

Evolutionary History ◽

Prior Experience ◽

Biological Significance ◽

Human Memory ◽

Memory Systems ◽

Human Learning ◽

Memory Research ◽

History Of

Deeply rooted within the history of experimental psychology is the search for general laws of learning that hold across tasks and species. Central to this enterprise has been the notion of equipotentiality; that any two events have the same likelihood of being associated with one another as any other pair of events. Much work, generally summarized as ‘biological constraints on learning,’ has challenged this view, and demonstrates pre-existing relations between cues and outcomes, based on genes and prior experience, that influence potential associability. Learning theorists and comparative psychologists have thus recognized the need to consider how the evolutionary history as well as prior experience of the organism being studied influences its ability to learn about and navigate its environment. We suggest that current models of human memory, and human memory research in general, lack sufficient consideration of how human evolution has shaped human memory systems. We review several findings that suggest the human memory system preferentially processes information relevant to biological fitness, and highlight potential theoretical and applied benefits afforded by adopting this functionalist perspective.

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The significance of historical factors for the cholology of Collembola diversity

Proceedings of the State Natural History Museum Vol. 33 - Proceedings of the State Natural History Museum ◽

10.36885/nzdpm.2018.34.87-98 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 87-98

Author(s):

Kaprus I.

Keyword(s):

Evolutionary History ◽

Adaptive Potential ◽

Postglacial Colonization ◽

Mountainous Regions ◽

The North ◽

Last Glaciation ◽

Historical Factors ◽

History Of ◽

Centers Of Endemism

It is established that historical factors are important in the formation of modern areas of Collembola. However, the role of ecological and historical factors in the chorology of separate groups of Collembola is different in connection with the evolutionary history of the taxa and their adaptive potential. The significance of regional faunogenetic processes in the formation of the modern areas of the Collembola of Eurasia is increasing in the north-south direction. The main centers of endemism of Collembola of the temperate zone are concentrated in mountainous regions, as well as in the hills adjoining them, which could serve as the main collembolan refugia during the last glaciation. The faunae of plains are mainly of migratory origin. The hypothesis on the predominance of autochthonous processes in the formation of regional collembolan faunae on the territory of Ukraine and their multiregional postglacial colonization is formulated.

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