interspecific variation
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2024 ◽  
Vol 84 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Malik ◽  
M. Rashid ◽  
A. Javid ◽  
A. Hussain ◽  
S. M. Bukhari ◽  
...  

Abstract During the present study, specimens were collected from selected sites of Cholistan desert and Kalabagh Game Reserve, Punjab province, Pakistan. Each captured specimen was tagged with voucher number and morphometric measurements were taken. The average snout to vent length was 172.559±1.40 mm and average weight was 92.1±1.30 g. The DNA of Uromastyx hardwickii was amplified and sequenced using 16S rRNA primer set. The obtained DNA sequence has shown reliable and clear species identification. After trimming ambiguous bases, the obtained 16S rRNA fragment was 520 bp while 16S rRNA fragments aligned with closely matched sequence from NCBI comprised of 510 bp. Closely matched sequences of genus Uromastyx were retrieved from NCBI in blast searches. Neighbour-joining tree of genus Uromastyx was constructed based on p-distance using MEGA X. The mean intraspecific variation was 0.095±0.01 while intraspecific variation was ranging from 0-1%. Similarly, interspecific variation of Uromastyx hardwikii with Saara asmussi, Uromastyx alfredschmidti, Uromastyx geyri, Uromastyx thomasi, Uromastyx alfredschmidti was 0-12%, 0-19%, 0-19%, 0-20%, 12-19% respectively. The newly produced DNA was submitted to NCBI and accession number was obtained (MW052563.1). Results of current study provided information about the molecular and morphological identification of Genus Uromastyx. In our recommendation, comprehensive molecular based identification of Pakistan’s reptiles is required to report any new or subspecies from country.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle M. Meyer ◽  
Robert Porch ◽  
Isabella E. Muscettola ◽  
Ana Luisa S. Vasconcelos ◽  
Julia K. Sherman ◽  
...  

2022 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kati Kivisaari ◽  
Sara Calhim ◽  
Philipp Lehmann ◽  
Zbyszek Boratyński ◽  
Timothy A. Mousseau ◽  
...  

Sperm quantity and quality are key features explaining intra- and interspecific variation in male reproductive success. Spermatogenesis is sensitive to ionizing radiation and laboratory studies investigating acute effects of ionizing radiation have indeed found negative effects of radiation on sperm quantity and quality. In nature, levels of natural background radiation vary dramatically, and chronic effects of low-level background radiation exposure on spermatogenesis are poorly understood. The Chernobyl region offers a unique research opportunity for investigating effects of chronic low-level ionizing radiation on reproductive properties of wild organisms. We captured male bank voles (Myodes glareolus) from 24 locations in the Chernobyl exclusion zone in 2011 and 2015 and collected information on sperm morphology and kinetics. The dataset is limited in size and there overall was a relatively weak correlation between background radiation and sperm quality. Still, some correlations are worth discussing. First, mid-piece segments of spermatozoa tended to be smaller in bank vole males from areas with elevated background radiation levels. Second, we demonstrated a significant positive relationship between background radiation dose rates and the proportion of static spermatozoa among males within and among study locations after 10 as well as 60 min of incubation. Our results provide novel evidence of damaging effects of low dose ionizing radiation on sperm performance in wild rodent populations, and highlight that this topic requires further study across the natural gradients of background radiation that exist in nature.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur de Fouchier ◽  
Elise Fruitet ◽  
Rik Lievers ◽  
Peter Kuperus ◽  
Jennifer Emerson ◽  
...  

Abstract Moth sex pheromones are a classical model for studying sexual selection. Females produce a species-specific pheromone blend that attracts males. Revealing the enzymes involved in the interspecific variation in blend composition is key for understanding the evolution of these sexual communication systems. The nature of the enzymes involved in the variation of acetate esters, which are prominent compounds in moth pheromone blends, remains unclear. We identified enzymes involved in acetate metabolism in two closely related species: Heliothis (Chloridea) subflexa and H. (C.) virescens, which differ in production of acetate esters. Through comparative transcriptomic analyses and CRISPR/Cas9 knockouts, we showed that two lipases and two esterases induce lower levels of acetate esters in female pheromones. To place our findings in an evolutionary context, we explored the molecular evolution of related lipases and esterases in Lepidoptera. Together, our results show that lipases and carboxylesterases are unexpectedly involved in tuning Lepidoptera pheromones composition.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Griesser ◽  
Szymon M Drobniak ◽  
Sereina M Graber ◽  
Carel van Schaik

Larger brains should be adaptive because they support numerous eco- and socio-cognitive benefits, but these benefits explain only a modest part of the interspecific variation in brain size. Notably underexplored are the high energetic costs of developing brains, and thus the possible role of parental provisioning in the evolution of adult brain size. We explore this idea in birds, which show considerable variation in both socio-ecological traits and the energy transfer from parents to offspring. Comparative analyses of 1,176 bird species show that the combination of adult body mass, mode of development at hatching, relative egg mass, and the time spent provisioning the young in combination strongly predict relative brain size across species. Adding adult eco- and socio-cognitive predictors only marginally adds explanatory value. We therefore conclude that parental provisioning enabled bird species to evolve into skill-intensive niches, reducing interspecific competition and consequently promoting survival prospects and population stability. Critically, parental provisioning also explains why precocial bird species have smaller brains than altricial ones. Finally, these results suggest that the cognitive adaptations that provide the behavioral flexibility to improve reproductive success and survival are intrinsically linked to successful parental provisioning. Our findings also suggest that the traditionally assessed cognitive abilities may not predict relative brain size.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Lawrence ◽  
Phil Grayson ◽  
Jennifer D. Jeffrey ◽  
Margaret F. Docker ◽  
Colin J Garroway ◽  
...  

Pesticides are critical for invasive species management, but often have negative effects on non-target native biota. Tolerance to pesticides should have an evolutionary basis, but this is poorly understood. Invasive sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) populations in North America have been controlled with a pesticide lethal to them at lower concentrations than native fishes. We addressed how interspecific variation in gene expression and detoxification gene diversity confer differential pesticide sensitivity in two fish species. We exposed sea lamprey and bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus), a tolerant native species, to TFM, a pesticide commonly used in sea lamprey control, and used whole-transcriptome sequencing of gill and liver to characterize the cellular response. Comparatively, bluegill exhibited a larger number of detoxification genes expressed and a larger number of responsive transcripts overall, which likely contributes to greater tolerance to TFM. Understanding the genetic and physiological basis for pesticide tolerance is crucial for managing invasive species.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexa Sadier ◽  
Neal Anthwal ◽  
Andrew L. Krause ◽  
Renaud Dessalles ◽  
Michael Lake ◽  
...  

The discovery of mechanistic rules that underlie phenotypic variation has been a longstanding goal of evolutionary biology. Developmental processes offer a potential source for such rules because they translate genomic variation into the population-scale phenotypic variation. However, our understanding of developmental rules is based on a handful of well-established model species which hindered identifying rules and investigating their evolution. Recent methodological advances, such as µCT scanning on soft tissues, two-photon imaging and modelling have facilitated the study of how developmental processes shape phenotypic variation in diverse, non-traditional model species. Here, we use the outstanding dental diversity of bats to investigate how the interplay between developmental processes can explain the morphological diversity in teeth. We find that the inhibitory cascade model, which has been used to predict the proportions of teeth and other serial organs, poorly predicts the variation in tooth number and size in bats. Instead, by tinkering with reaction/diffusion processes, we identify jaw growth as a key driver of the phenotypic evolution of tooth number and size critical to the different diets. By studying developmental processes in the context of adaptive evolution, we are able to discover a new developmental rule that explain and predict interspecific variation in serial organ number and proportion.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1681
Author(s):  
Xue-Jiao Zhang ◽  
Kang-Jia Liu ◽  
Ya-Chao Wang ◽  
Jian He ◽  
Yuan-Mi Wu ◽  
...  

High genetic diversity and low differentiation present challenges in taxonomy and systematics of Salix. Chloroplast (cp) genome sequencing is efficient for providing new genomic information and elucidating phylogenetic relationships. Salix spathulifolia Seemen, S. cupularis Rehder, and S. annulifera C.Marquand & Airy Shaw are three shrubby willows spread in high-altitude regions in western China. In this study, the integrated circular cp genomes were sequenced and analyzed, and a phylogeny of Salix was constructed on the basis of the cp genomes. The results of chloroplast assembly and annotation information were used to characterize genome feature and interspecific variation. The phylogenetic position of the three willows was evaluated using phylogenetic analysis. Full-length cp genomes were 155,566–155,680 bp with a typical double-stranded circular quadripartite structure, containing one large single-copy region (LSC, 84,431–4552 bp), one small single-copy region (SSC: 16,206–16,221 bp), and two inverted repeats (IR: 27,453–27,461 bp). The cp genomes encoded 130 genes, including 8 rRNA genes, 37 tRNA genes, and 85 protein-coding genes. The guanine-cytosine (GC) content of the overall genome was 36.7%. Comparison among the three willows’ cp genomes revealed high similarity. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that S. spathulifolia was a basal taxon of clade I, while S. annulifera formed a monophyletic group with S. rorida Laksch.; S. cupularis was sister to S. suchowensis W.C. Cheng and S. psammophila Z. Wang & Chang Y. Yang. The complete chloroplast genomes of the three willows provides an additional sequence-based resource for studying the phylogeny and evolutionary history of Salicaceae.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiangchun Hao ◽  
Shuai Zhou ◽  
Lijun Han ◽  
Yu Zhai

AbstractThe performance index of overall photochemistry (PItotal) is widely used in photosynthesis research, but the PItotal interspecies differences are unclear. To this end, seeds of Quercus liaotungensis from 10 geographical provenances were planted in two different climate types. Two years later, leaf relative chlorophyll content (SPAD) and chlorophyll a fluorescence transient of seedlings were measured. Meanwhile, the environmental factors of provenance location, including temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, wind speed, transpiration pressure, and soil properties, were retrieved to analyze the trends of PItotal among geographic provenance. The results showed that, in each climate type, there was no significant difference in SPAD and electron transfer status between PSII and PSI, but PItotal was significantly different among geographic provenances. The major internal causes of PItotal interspecies differences were the efficiency of electronic transfer to final PSI acceptor and the number of active reaction centers per leaf cross-section. The main external causes of PItotal interspecies differences were precipitation of the warmest quarter, solar radiation intensity in July, and annual precipitation of provenance location. PItotal had the highest correlation with precipitation of the warmest quarter of origin and could be fitted by the Sine function. The peak location and fluctuating trend of precipitation—PItotal fitted curve were different in two climate types, largely due to the difference of precipitation and upper soil conductivity in the two test sites. Utilizing the interspecific variation and trends of PItotal might be a good strategy to screen high and stable photosynthetic efficiency of Q. liaotungensis provenance.


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