scholarly journals Cytonuclear interactions affect adaptive traits of the annual plant Arabidopsis thaliana in the field

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (13) ◽  
pp. 3687-3692 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabrice Roux ◽  
Tristan Mary-Huard ◽  
Elise Barillot ◽  
Estelle Wenes ◽  
Lucy Botran ◽  
...  

Although the contribution of cytonuclear interactions to plant fitness variation is relatively well documented at the interspecific level, the prevalence of cytonuclear interactions at the intraspecific level remains poorly investigated. In this study, we set up a field experiment to explore the range of effects that cytonuclear interactions have on fitness-related traits in Arabidopsis thaliana. To do so, we created a unique series of 56 cytolines resulting from cytoplasmic substitutions among eight natural accessions reflecting within-species genetic diversity. An assessment of these cytolines and their parental lines scored for 28 adaptive whole-organism phenotypes showed that a large proportion of phenotypic traits (23 of 28) were affected by cytonuclear interactions. The effects of these interactions varied from slight but frequent across cytolines to strong in some specific parental pairs. Two parental pairs accounted for half of the significant pairwise interactions. In one parental pair, Ct-1/Sha, we observed symmetrical phenotypic responses between the two nuclear backgrounds when combined with specific cytoplasms, suggesting nuclear differentiation at loci involved in cytonuclear epistasis. In contrast, asymmetrical phenotypic responses were observed in another parental pair, Cvi-0/Sha. In the Cvi-0 nuclear background, fecundity and phenology-related traits were strongly affected by the Sha cytoplasm, leading to a modified reproductive strategy without penalizing total seed production. These results indicate that natural variation in cytoplasmic and nuclear genomes interact to shape integrative traits that contribute to adaptation, thereby suggesting that cytonuclear interactions can play a major role in the evolutionary dynamics of A. thaliana.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril Libourel ◽  
Etienne Baron ◽  
Juliana Lenglet ◽  
Laurent Amsellem ◽  
Dominique Roby ◽  
...  

AbstractAlthough plants simultaneously interact with multiple neighboring species throughout their life cycle, there is still very limited information about the genetics of the competitive response in the context of plurispecific interactions. Using a local mapping population of Arabidopsis thaliana, we set up a Genome Wide Association study to estimate the extent of genetic variation of the competitive response in presence of 12 plant species assemblages, and to compare the genetic architecture of the competitive response between monospecific and plurispecific neighborhoods. Based on four phenotypic traits, we detected strong crossing reaction norms not only among the three monospecific neighborhoods, but also among the different plant assemblages. Accordingly, the genetic architecture of the competitive response was highly dependent on the identity and the relative abundance of the neighboring species. In addition, enriched biological processes underlying the competitive response largely differ between monospecific and plurispecific neighborhoods. In particular, receptor-like kinases and transporters were significantly enriched in plurispecific neighborhoods. Our results suggest that plants can integrate and respond to different species assemblages depending on the identity and number of each neighboring species, through a large range of genes associated mainly with perception and signaling processes leading to developmental and stress responses.


Impact ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (10) ◽  
pp. 18-20
Author(s):  
Akimichi Takemura

Shiga University opened the first data science faculty in Japan in April 2017. Beginning with an undergraduate class of 100 students, the Department has since established a Master's degree programme with 20 students in each annual intake. This is the first data science faculty in Japan and the University intends to retain this leading position, the Department is well-placed to do so. The faculty closely monitors international trends concerning data science and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and adapt its education and research accordingly. The genesis of this department marks a change in Japan's attitudes towards dealing with information and reflects a wider, global understanding of the need for further research in this area. Shiga University's Data Science department seeks to produce well-trained data scientists who demonstrate a good balance of knowledge and skills in each of the three key areas of data science.


Inventions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Rajan Kapoor ◽  
Aniruddha Datta ◽  
Michael Thomson

Conventional breeding approaches that focus on yield under highly favorable nutrient conditions have resulted in reduced genetic and trait diversity in crops. Under the growing threat from climate change, the mining of novel genes in more resilient varieties can help dramatically improve trait improvement efforts. In this work, we propose the use of the joint graphical lasso for discovering genes responsible for desired phenotypic traits. We prove its efficiency by using gene expression data for wild type and delayed flowering mutants for the model plant. Arabidopsis thaliana shows that it recovers the mutation causing genes LNK1 and LNK2. Some novel interactions of these genes were also predicted. Observing the network level changes between two phenotypes can also help develop meaningful biological hypotheses regarding the novel functions of these genes. Now that this data analysis strategy has been validated in a model plant, it can be extended to crop plants to help identify the key genes for beneficial traits for crop improvement.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guillermo Velo-Antón ◽  
André Lourenço ◽  
Pedro Galán ◽  
Alfredo Nicieza ◽  
Pedro Tarroso

AbstractExplicitly accounting for phenotypic differentiation together with environmental heterogeneity is crucial to understand the evolutionary dynamics in hybrid zones. Species showing intra-specific variation in phenotypic traits that meet across environmentally heterogeneous regions constitute excellent natural settings to study the role of phenotypic differentiation and environmental factors in shaping the spatial extent and patterns of admixture in hybrid zones. We studied three environmentally distinct contact zones where morphologically and reproductively divergent subspecies of Salamandra salamandra co-occur: the pueriparous S. s. bernardezi that is mostly parapatric to its three larviparous subspecies neighbours. We used a landscape genetics framework to: (i) characterise the spatial location and extent of each contact zone; (ii) assess patterns of introgression and hybridization between subspecies pairs; and (iii) examine the role of environmental heterogeneity in the evolutionary dynamics of hybrid zones. We found high levels of introgression between parity modes, and between distinct phenotypes, thus demonstrating the evolution to pueriparity alone or morphological differentiation do not lead to reproductive isolation between these highly divergent S. salamandra morphotypes. However, we detected substantial variation in patterns of hybridization across contact zones, being lower in the contact zone located on a topographically complex area. We highlight the importance of accounting for spatial environmental heterogeneity when studying evolutionary dynamics of hybrid zones.


2021 ◽  
pp. 263300242110244
Author(s):  
Alice M. Greenwald ◽  
Clifford Chanin ◽  
Henry Rousso ◽  
Michel Wieviorka ◽  
Mohamed-Ali Adraoui

How do societies and states represent the historical, moral, and political weight of the terrorist attacks they have had to face? Having suffered in recent years from numerous terrorist attacks on their soil originating from jihadist movements, and often led by actors who were also their own citizens, France and the United States have set up—or seek to do so—places of memory whose functions, conditions of creation, modes of operation, and nature of the messages sent may vary. Three of the main protagonists and initiators of two museum-memorial projects linked to terrorist attacks have agreed to deliver their visions of the role and of the political, social, and historical context in which these projects have emerged. Allowing to observe similarities and differences between the American and French approach, this interview sheds light on the place of memory and feeling in societies struck by tragic events and seeking to cure their ills through memory and commemoration.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Paniw

AbstractWith a growing number of long-term, individual-based data on natural populations available, it has become increasingly evident that environmental change affects populations through complex, simultaneously occurring demographic and evolutionary processes. Analyses of population-level responses to environmental change must therefore integrate demography and evolution into one coherent framework. Integral projection models (IPMs), which can relate genetic and phenotypic traits to demographic and population-level processes, offer a powerful approach for such integration. However, a rather artificial divide exists in how plant and animal population ecologists use IPMs. Here, I argue for the integration of the two sub-disciplines, particularly focusing on how plant ecologists can diversify their toolset to investigate selection pressures and eco-evolutionary dynamics in plant population models. I provide an overview of approaches that have applied IPMs for eco-evolutionary studies and discuss a potential future research agenda for plant population ecologists. Given an impending extinction crisis, a holistic look at the interacting processes mediating population persistence under environmental change is urgently needed.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
hideyat zerga ◽  
Asma AMRAOUI ◽  
badr BENMAMMAR

Abstract In the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic that is currently a major global public health issue, social distancing has been imposed to prevent the massive transmission, thus doctors in hospitals have turned to telemedicine in order to be able to monitor their patient notably those suffering from chronic diseases. To do so, patients need to share their physiological data with doctors. In order to share this data safely, prevent malicious users from tampering with it and protect the privacy of patients, access control becomes a fundamental requirement. In order to set up a real-time (Internet of Thing) IoT enabled healthcare system (HS) scenario like telemedicine, Fog computing (FC) seems to be the best solution comparing to Cloud computing since it provides low latency, highly mobile and geo-distributed services and temporary storage. In this paper, the focus is on access control in the telemedicine systems. Our proposal is based, on one hand, the concept of Fog computing to ensure the distributed aspect needed in the monitoring of patient health remotely; and on the other hand Blockchain (BC) smart contracts, in order to provide a dynamic, optimized and self-adjusted access control.


1956 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 645-657
Author(s):  
B. M. SHAFFER

1. A study has been made of acrasin, the agent inducing chemotaxis in the amoebae of cellular slime moulds. 2. A method has been developed for subjecting sensitive amoebae to a fluctuating gradient set up by an artificial source that can be renewed at intervals of as little as a few seconds with fresh test solution. 3. Amoebae orient to a gradient maintained with the cell-free liquid freshly obtained from the immediate surroundings of a natural source. 4. Acrasin solution as secreted loses its activity very rapidly at room temperature. 5. A highly active stable solid is obtained by drying methanolic culture extracts; it resists boiling and exposure to acids and alkalis. Its solubility decreases rapidly in passing up the alcohol series. 6. The original instability has been shown to be due to the presence of another extracellular slime-mould product, possibly an enzyme; it, unlike acrasin, cannot pass rapidly across a dialysis membrane, is heat labile, and can be precipitated by ammonium sulphate. 7. The advantages of the organism's itself inactivating acrasin are considered. 8. Some of the advantages of a source's releasing acrasin in pulses are discussed; but it is not essential for orientation for it to do so. 9. Sensitive amoebae not only are oriented by an acrasin solution but are caused to secrete acrasin: this is the basis of a chemotactic relay system.


2019 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Robert Hutchings

“Truth to power”: it is a stirring phrase, but what does it mean? It certainly does not mean that US intelligence believes itself to possess the Truth with a capital T, but the phrase grows out of the initial mandate given by President Harry Truman: “to accomplish the evaluation and dissemination of strategic intelligence” and to do so independent of the principal policy agencies. This mandate created a built-in and deliberate tension between intelligence and policy—sometimes friendly and constructive, other times conflictual. The Office of National Estimates, set up in the immediate aftermath of World War II, produced some highly regarded national intelligence estimates but acquired a reputation for “Olympian detachment” that led in the 1970s to its replacement by a National Intelligence Council composed of around a dozen national intelligence officers led by a chairman or chairwoman.


2021 ◽  
pp. 329-340
Author(s):  
Anna Kuparinen

Contemporary evolution that occurs across ecologically relevant time scales, such as a few generations or decades, can not only change phenotypes but also feed back to demographic parameters and the dynamics of populations. This chapter presents a method to make phenotypic traits evolve in mechanistic individual-based simulations. The method is broadly applicable, as demonstrated through its applications to boreal forest adaptation to global warming, eco-evolutionary dynamics driven by fishing-induced selection in Atlantic cod, and the evolution of age at maturity in Atlantic salmon. The main message of this chapter is that there may be little reason to exclude phenotypic evolution in analyses of population dynamics, as these can be modified by evolutionary changes in life histories. Future challenges will be to integrate rapidly accumulating genomic knowledge and an ecosystem perspective to improve population projections and to better understand the drivers of population dynamics.


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