Late Acheulean Lithic Assemblages From Locality 010 at Gürgürbaba Hill (Eastern Anatolia)

The province of Van in north-eastern Turkey served as a land bridge between Africa and Eurasia during the Palaeolithic. The region is of particular relevance for understanding the movement of hominins between these continents. This study concerns the lithic remains from a locality at Gürgürbaba Hill, named Locality 010, north of the village of Ulupamir (Erciş district). Locality 010 was dated to 311±32 kya by terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides method, which coincides with Marine Isotope Stage 9 (MIS 9), a Middle Pleistocene interglacial period. The assemblage from this site is attributed to the Late Acheulean and resembles that of the southern Caucasus. This similarity indicates that the artefacts from Locality 010 were probably produced by late Lower Palaeolithic technology in a broad sense. These findings suggest local adaptations of late Middle Pleistocene hominins to high plateau environments.

High-Performance Work Systems in a Cross-Cultural Context

The strategic human resource management field has increased the contributions, comparing cross-cultural aspects, mainly involving the East and West cultures, but there is a gap regarding on knowing how the implementation practices impacts and how they are impacted by cultural differences. Through a qualitative contribution, this research was developed in a multinational company in Sweden with a subsidiary in Brazil. The focus is to answer the questions: How high-performance work systems are applied in different cultural contexts? How do cultural dimensions affect high-performance work systems' adaptation? The findings have shown that strong organizational cultures could overlap country differences, but adaptations could allow innovative exchanges and raise employee commitment and participation. High-performance work systems are practices that could be used in cross-cultural territories, but not without considering cultural and local adaptations. After institutionalized, the local adaptation could be able to enlarge organizational performance.

Territorial Displays of the Ctenophorus decresii Complex: A Story of Local Adaptations

Closely related species make for interesting model systems to study the evolution of signaling behavior because they share evolutionary history but have also diverged to the point of reproductive isolation. This means that while they may have some behavioral traits in common, courtesy of a common ancestor, they are also likely to show local adaptations. The Ctenophorus decresii complex is such a system, and comprises six closely related agamid lizard species from Australia: C. decresii, C. fionni, C. mirrityana, C. modestus, C. tjanjalka, and C. vadnappa. In this study, we analyze the motion displays of five members of the C. decresii complex in the context of their respective habitats by comparing signal structure, habitat characteristics and signal contrast between all species. Motor pattern use and the temporal sequence of motor patterns did not differ greatly, but the motion speed distributions generated during the displays were different for all species. There was also variation in the extent to which signals contrasted with plant motion, with C. vadnappa performing better than the other species at all habitats. Overall, this study provides evidence that members of the C. decresii complex exhibit local adaptations in signaling behavior to their respective habitat, but they also maintain some morphological and behavioral traits in common, which is likely a consequence from the ancestral state.

Invasive predators induce plastic and adaptive responses during embryo development in a threatened frog

Invasive predators can strongly affect native populations. If alien predator pressure is strong enough, it can induce anti-predator responses, including phenotypic plasticity of exposed individuals and local adaptations of impacted populations. Furthermore, maternal investment is an additional pathway that could provide resources and improve performance in the presence of alien predators. We investigated the potential responses to an alien predator crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) in a threatened frog (Rana latastei) by combining field observations with laboratory measurements of embryo development rate, to assess the importance of parental investment, origin and exposure to the crayfish cues. We detected a strong variation in parental investment amongst frog populations, but this variation was not related to the invasion status of the site of origin, suggesting that mothers did not modulate parental investment in relation to the presence of alien predators. However, cues of the invasive crayfish elicited plastic responses in clutches and tadpoles development: embryos developed faster when exposed to the predator. Furthermore, embryos from invaded sites reached Gosner’s development stage 25 faster than those from non-invaded sites. This ontogenetic shift can be interpreted as a local adaptation to the alien predator and suggests that frogs are able to recognise the predatory risk. If these plastic responses and local adaptation are effective escape strategies against the invasive predator, they may improve the persistence of native frog populations.

Local adaptations of Mediterranean sheep and goats through an integrative approach

Small ruminants are suited to a wide variety of habitats and thus represent promising study models for identifying genes underlying adaptations. Here, we considered local Mediterranean breeds of goats (n = 17) and sheep (n = 25) from Italy, France and Spain. Based on historical archives, we selected the breeds potentially most linked to a territory and defined their original cradle (i.e., the geographical area in which the breed has emerged), including transhumant pastoral areas. We then used the programs PCAdapt and LFMM to identify signatures of artificial and environmental selection. Considering cradles instead of current GPS coordinates resulted in a greater number of signatures identified by the LFMM analysis. The results, combined with a systematic literature review, revealed a set of genes with potentially key adaptive roles in relation to the gradient of aridity and altitude. Some of these genes have been previously implicated in lipid metabolism (SUCLG2, BMP2), hypoxia stress/lung function (BMPR2), seasonal patterns (SOX2, DPH6) or neuronal function (TRPC4, TRPC6). Selection signatures involving the PCDH9 and KLH1 genes, as well as NBEA/NBEAL1, were identified in both species and thus could play an important adaptive role.

Eosinophils as Drivers of Severe Eosinophilic Asthma: Endotypes or Plasticity?

Asthma is now recognized as a heterogeneous disease, encompassing different phenotypes driven by distinct pathophysiological mechanisms called endotypes. Common phenotypes of asthma, referred to as eosinophilic asthma, are characterized by the presence of eosinophilia. Eosinophils are usually considered invariant, terminally differentiated effector cells and have become a primary therapeutic target in severe eosinophilic asthma (SEA) and other eosinophil-associated diseases (EADs). Biological treatments that target eosinophils reveal an unexpectedly complex role of eosinophils in asthma, including in SEA, suggesting that “not all eosinophils are equal”. In this review, we address our current understanding of the role of eosinophils in asthma with regard to asthma phenotypes and endotypes. We further address the possibility that different SEA phenotypes may involve differences in eosinophil biology. We discuss how these differences could arise through eosinophil “endotyping”, viz. adaptations of eosinophil function imprinted during their development, or through tissue-induced plasticity, viz. local adaptations of eosinophil function through interaction with their lung tissue niches. In doing so, we also discuss opportunities, technical challenges, and open questions that, if addressed, might provide considerable benefits in guiding the choice of the most efficient precision therapies of SEA and, by extension, other EADs.

The evolutionary pathways for local adaptation in mountain hares

Understanding the evolution of local adaptations is a central aim of evolutionary biology and key for the identification of unique populations and lineages of conservation relevance. By combining RAD sequencing and whole-genome sequencing, we identify genetic signatures of local adaptation in mountain hares (Lepus timidus) from isolated and distinctive habitats of its wide distribution: Ireland, the Alps and Fennoscandia. Demographic modelling suggested that the split of these mountain hares occurred around 20 thousand years ago, providing the opportunity to study adaptive evolution over a short timescale. Using genome-wide scans, we identified signatures of extreme differentiation among hares from distinct geographic areas that overlap with area-specific selective sweeps, suggesting targets for local adaptation. Several identified candidate genes are associated with traits related to the uniqueness of the different environments inhabited by the three groups of mountain hares, including coat colour, ability to live at high altitudes and variation in body size. In Irish mountain hares, a variant of ASIP, a gene previously implicated in introgression-driven winter coat colour variation in mountain and snowshoe hares (L. americanus), may underlie brown winter coats, reinforcing the repeated nature of evolution at ASIP moulding adaptive seasonal colouration. Comparative genomic analyses across several hare species suggested that mountain hares' adaptive variants appear predominantly species-specific. However, using coalescent simulations we also show instances where the candidate adaptive variants have been introduced via introgressive hybridization. Our work shows that standing adaptive variation, including that introgressed from other species, was a crucial component of the post-glacial dynamics of species.

Genetic and functional odorant receptor variation in the Homo lineage

The largest and rapidly evolving gene family of odorant receptors detect odors to variable degrees due to amino acid sequence and protein structure. Hybridization between humans, Neandertals, and Denisovans implies shared behavior1,2, although some speculate that Neandertals were poor smellers 3,4. We identified genetic and functional variation in humans and extinct lineages in 30 receptors with known function. We show that structural changes in receptor proteins altered odor sensitivity not specificity, indicating a common repertoire across lineages. In humans, variation in receptors may change odor perception or induce odor-specific anosmia 5,6. Variation in sensitivity may reflect local adaptations (e.g., Denisovan sensitivity to honey, Neandertals sensitivity to grass and sulphur). Extinct human lineages had highly conserved receptor genes and proteins. We observe a similar pattern in the Neandertal OR5P3 variant, which produced no response to ∼350 odors. Our data suggest that receptor structure was highly conserved in our closest relatives, but not in living humans. The diversity of geographic adaptations in humans may have produced greater functional variation, increasing our olfactory repertoire and expanding our adaptive capacity 5. Our results provide insight into odorant receptor function and shed light on the olfactory ecology of ancient humans and their extinct relatives. By studying the function of ancient odorant receptor genes, we have been able to get a glimpse of the sensory world of our extinct ancestors and relatives, with some of the variants giving specific insights into potential adaptations shown by these long-dead populations. The functional variability we have identified in the molecular structure of the odorant receptor proteins will aid in the more general problem of understanding the function of odorant receptor proteins and the neurons they are carried by, opening the road to linking receptor function to perception.

Genomic Variation Landscape of the Model Salt Cress Eutrema salsugineum

Eutrema salsugineum has long been used as the model for examining salt and other abiotic stress in plants. In addition to the forward genetics approaches widely used in the lab, natural variations undoubtedly will provide a rich genetic resource for studying molecular mechanisms underlying the stress tolerance and local adaptation of this species. We used 90 resequencing whole genomes of natural populations of this species across its Asian and North American distributions to detect the selection signals for genes involved in salt and other stresses at the species-range level and local distribution. We detected selection signals for genes involved in salt and other abiotic tolerance at the species level. In addition, several cold-induced and defense genes showed selection signals due to local adaptation in North America-NE Russia or northern China, respectively. These variations and findings provide valuable resources for further deciphering genetic mechanisms underlying the stress tolerance and local adaptations of this model species.