Transcriptome-Wide Analyses Identify Dominant as the Predominantly Non-Conservative Alternative Splicing Inheritance Patterns in F1 Chickens

Transcriptome analysis has been used to investigate many economically traits in chickens; however, alternative splicing still lacks a systematic method of study that is able to promote proteome diversity, and fine-tune expression dynamics. Hybridization has been widely utilized in chicken breeding due to the resulting heterosis, but the dynamic changes in alternative splicing during this process are significant yet unclear. In this study, we performed a reciprocal crossing experiment involving the White Leghorn and Cornish Game chicken breeds which exhibit major differences in body size and reproductive traits, and conducted RNA sequencing of the brain, muscle, and liver tissues to identify the inheritance patterns. A total of 40 515 and 42 612 events were respectively detected in the brain and muscle tissues, with 39 843 observed in the liver; 2807, 4242, and 4538 events significantly different between two breeds were identified in the brain, muscle, and liver tissues, respectively. The hierarchical cluster of tissues from different tissues from all crosses, based on the alternative splicing profiles, suggests high tissue and strain specificity. Furthermore, a comparison between parental strains and hybrid crosses indicated that over one third of alternative splicing genes showed conserved patterns in all three tissues, while the second prevalent pattern was non-additive, which included both dominant and transgressive patterns; this meant that the dominant pattern plays a more important role than suppression. Our study provides an overview of the inheritance patterns of alternative splicing in layer and broiler chickens, to better understand post-transcriptional regulation during hybridization.

From HRI to CRI: Crowd Robot Interaction—Understanding the Effect of Robots on Crowd Motion

How does the presence of a robot affect pedestrians and crowd dynamics, and does this influence vary across robot type? In this paper, we took the first step towards answering this question by performing a crowd-robot gate-crossing experiment. The study involved 28 participants and two distinct robot representatives: A smart wheelchair and a Pepper humanoid robot. Collected data includes: video recordings; robot and participant trajectories; and participants’ responses to post-interaction questionnaires. Quantitative analysis on the trajectories suggests the robot affects crowd dynamics in terms of trajectory regularity and interaction complexity. Qualitative results indicate that pedestrians tend to be more conservative and follow “social rules” while passing a wheelchair compared to a humanoid robot. These insights can be used to design a social navigation strategy that allows more natural interaction by considering the robot effect on the crowd dynamics.

Changes in Reproductive Traits in Physalis philadelphica; An Unexpected Shift Toward Self-Incompatibility in a Domesticated Annual Fruit Crop

Domestication is an evolutionary process with an impact on plant reproduction. Many domesticated plants are self-compatible (i.e., they lack mechanisms to reject their own pollen), but few domesticated plants are fully or partially self-incompatible. We used the husk tomato, Physalis philadelphica, as a study model to investigate changes in the reproductive strategy of an annual partially self-incompatible plant during the process of domestication. Wild and cultivated populations of this species coexist in close proximity. These different populations present a high level of morphological and genetic variation associated with different degrees of domestication. We hypothesized that artificial selection favors self-compatibility in cultivated plants through changes in their reproductive strategy and some reproductive parameters associated with domestication. To test this hypothesis, we characterized the floral morphology and some reproductive parameters of weedy plants (wild plants), landraces (semi-domesticated plant), and commercial plants (domesticated plants). We conducted an artificial crossing experiment, germinated the seeds, and recorded seedling growth. Commercial plants had the largest flowers and the highest number of ovules. Yet, they did not differ in other reproductive parameters (e.g., herkogamy, size of pollen grains, stigmatic area, and pollen:ovule ratio) from landraces and weedy plants. Physalis philadelphica produced fruits by autonomous autogamy in the artificial crossing experiment. These fruits were the smallest and lightest fruits at all degrees of domestication; however, fruit set of autonomous autogamy was higher in weedy plants. In addition, fruit production was higher when weedy plants donated pollen to commercial plants. Although seeds produced by autonomous autogamy of weedy plants had a low germination percentage, their cotyledons and the embryonic foliage leaves appeared earlier than in landraces and commercial plants. In conclusion, the domestication syndrome in this plant was manifested as increments in flower size and ovule production. Contrary to expectations, there was higher fruit production by autonomous autogamy in weedy plants than in cultivated plants. It seems that artificial selection in P. philadelphica favors self-incompatibility in cultivated plants. Nonetheless, spontaneous self-pollination seems to be advantageous in weedy populations because they produced viable seeds from which cotyledons and the embryonic foliage leaves emerged earlier than in cultivated plants.

With or Without W? Molecular and Cytogenetic Markers are Not Sufficient for Identification of Environmentally-Induced Sex Reversal in the Bearded Dragon

Transitions from environmental sex determination (ESD) to genotypic sex determination (GSD) require an intermediate step of sex reversal, i.e., the production of individuals with a mismatch between the ancestral genotypic and the phenotypic sex. Among amniotes, the sole well-documented transition in this direction was shown in the laboratory in the central bearded dragon, Pogona vitticeps, where very high incubation temperatures led to the production of females with the male-typical (ZZ) genotype. These sex-reversed females then produced offspring whose sex depended on the incubation temperature. Sex-reversed animals identified by molecular and cytogenetic markers were also reported in the field, and their increasing incidence was speculated as a climate warming-driven transition in sex determination. We show that the molecular and cytogenetic markers normally sex-linked in P. vitticeps are also sex-linked in P. henrylawsoni and P. minor, which points to quite ancient sex chromosomes in this lineage. Nevertheless, we demonstrate, based on a crossing experiment with a male bearded dragon who possesses a mismatch between phenotypic sex and genotype, that the used cytogenetic and molecular markers might not be reliable for the identification of sex reversal. Sex reversal should not be considered as the only mechanism causing a mismatch between genetic sex-linked markers and phenotypic sex, which can emerge also by other processes, here most likely by a rare recombination between regions of sex chromosomes which are normally sex-linked. We warn that sex-linked, even apparently for a long evolutionary time, and sex-specific molecular and cytogenetic markers are not a reliable tool for the identification of sex-reversed individuals in a population and that sex reversal has to be verified by other approaches, particularly by observation of the sex ratio of the progeny.

Ecological and convergent validity of experimentally and dynamically assessed social capacity using the Perceptual Crossing Experiment in adolescence

The Perceptual Crossing Experiment (PCE) captures social capacity using real-time social interaction dynamics but has not been externally validated. We tested ecological and convergent validity of the PCE, in a sample of 208 adolescents from the general population, aged 11 to 19. We expected associations between PCE social capacity and 1) quantity and quality of social interaction in daily life, using Experience Sampling Methodology (ESM) (ecological validity), and 2) self-reported social skills using a questionnaire (convergent validity). We also expected PCE social capacity to better explain variance in ESM social measures than self-reported social skills. Multilevel analyses showed that only self-reported social skills were significantly positively associated with social experience of company in daily life. These initial results do not support the ecological and convergent validity of the PCE. However, fueled by novel insights regarding the complexity of capturing social dynamics, we identified promising methodological advances for future validation efforts.

Population history and the differential consequences of inbreeding and outcrossing in a plant metapoplation

ABSTRACTThe phenotypic consequences of inbreeding typically result in a fitness decline proportional to the increase in the inbreeding coefficient, F. This basic assumption of a predictable, inverse relationship between fitness and F has been questioned by a number of empirical studies. We explored the relationship between population history and inbreeding in a metapopulation of the plant Silene latifolia, for which long-term data are available for the historical size and spatial distribution of hundreds of local demes. We used a population genetic analysis to estimate gene flow and bi-parental inbreeding (FIS) in demes with different histories of spatial isolation. A controlled crossing experiment examined whether the effect of inbreeding and outcrossing on fitness-related traits varied with different histories of population size and isolation. Historically isolated demes experienced less gene flow and an increase in FIS, as well as significant inbreeding advantage and outbreeding depression for traits expressed early in life. The causes of variation in the F-fitness relationship among populations will include variance in the distribution of deleterious recessive alleles driven by aspects of population history, including population size, founder effects, gene flow, bi-parental inbreeding, and opportunities for the purging of genetic load. Our findings show that isolation and historical variation in population size likely contribute substantial variation in past inbreeding and the consequences of future inbreeding across the metapopulation.

Basic capacity for social contingency detection continues to develop across adolescence

The main focus on individual social cognition in adolescence has prevented the study of the fundamental capacity to detect and respond to social cues, as this requires capturing interaction dynamics within dyads. To improve our understanding of basic social capacity development across adolescence, we used the Perceptual Crossing Experiment (PCE), to assess real-time social interaction in pairs of 208 adolescents. In comparing early, mid, and late adolescence, we found an overall higher performance of late adolescents on behavioural and cognitive measures of basic social capacity, while the reported awareness of implicitly established social interaction was overall lower in this group. In addition, late adolescents demonstrated faster improvement of behaviour throughout the experiment, compared with the other groups. Our results indicate that basic social capacity continues to develop throughout adolescence, which is expressed by faster social coordination on a behavioural level. This finding underscores dynamic social interaction within dyads as a new opportunity for identifying altered social development during adolescence.

Development of variable-configuration wheeled driving system for enhancing the obstacle-crossing ability of unmanned vehicles

A variable-configuration wheeled driving system is proposed to improve the obstacle-crossing abilities of unmanned vehicles. The effects of the wheel load on the wheels’ obstacle-crossing abilities are analysed using statics theory. Similarly, the effects of the suspension’s stiffness and the adhesion coefficient on the vehicle’s obstacle-crossing ability are analysed. Numerical calculation results show that a higher wheel lift height leads to improved obstacle-crossing abilities. A strategy to adjust the system configuration during obstacle crossing is designed with the wheel lift height acting as the optimisation target. The variable-configuration strategy is verified and the optimal adjustment of the middle axle is determined through simulations. An obstacle-crossing experiment shows that a vehicle can cross a 1-m step obstacle when the proposed variable-configuration strategy is applied. The obstacle-crossing ability of the unmanned vehicle can thus be greatly enhanced.