Anticipating evolutionary responses of mosquito mating systems to population suppression with mass-reared males.

Strategies that rely on the mass release of males to suppress mosquito populations will exert selective pressure on natural mating systems. Here, we investigate how mass releases might affect the mating behaviors of wild target populations. We highlight gaps in our understanding of both variation in these aspects of mosquito behavior and the evolutionary forces that maintain variation within and between populations.

Immunisation of chickens with inactivated and/or infectious H9N2 avian influenza virus leads to differential immune B-cell repertoire development.

Avian influenza viruses (AIVs) are a major economic burden to the poultry industry and pose serious zoonotic risks, with human infections being reported every year. To date, the vaccination of birds remains the most important method for the prevention and control of AIV outbreaks. Most national vaccination strategies against AIV infection use whole virus-inactivated vaccines, which predominantly trigger a systemic antibody-mediated immune response.

Do Sex Ratio Distorting Microbes Inhibit the Evolution of Pesticide Resistance? An Experimental Test.

We are still largely reliant on pesticides for the suppression of arthropod pests which threaten human health and food production, but the recent rise of evolved resistance among important pest species has reduced pesticide efficacy. Despite this, our understanding of strategies that effectively limit the evolution of resistance remains weak. Male-killing sex ratio distorting microbes (SRDMs), such as and , are common among arthropod species.

Sexual selection and life history interact to influence the evolution of paternal care.

Parental care is essential to offspring survival in many species. Understanding why males of some species provide care, whereas others do not, has received substantial attention. Previous research has found that sexual selection can favor paternal care, yet we still do not fully understand why sexual selection favors male care in some species but not others.

Optimal approaches for COVID-19 control: the use of vaccines and lockdowns across societal groups.

Background: By March 2023, the COVID-19 illness had caused over 6.8 million deaths globally. Countries restricted disease spread through non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs; e.

Sex ratio distorting microbes exacerbate arthropod extinction risk in variable environments.

Maternally-inherited sex ratio distorting microbes (SRDMs) are common among arthropod species. Typically, these microbes cause female-biased sex ratios in host broods, either by; killing male offspring, feminising male offspring, or inducing parthenogenesis. As a result, infected populations can experience drastic ecological and evolutionary change.

A theoretical model for host-controlled regulation of symbiont density.

There is growing empirical evidence that animal hosts actively control the density of their mutualistic symbionts according to their requirements. Such active regulation can be facilitated by compartmentalization of symbionts within host tissues, which confers a high degree of control of the symbiosis to the host. Here, we build a general theoretical framework to predict the underlying ecological drivers and evolutionary consequences of host-controlled endosymbiont density regulation for a mutually obligate association between a host and a compartmentalized, vertically transmitted symbiont.

Mechanistic modelling of within-mosquito viral dynamics: Insights into infection and dissemination patterns.

Vector or host competence can be defined as the ability of an individual to become infected and subsequently transmit a pathogen. Assays to measure competence play a key part in the assessment of the factors affecting mosquito-borne virus transmission and of potential pathogen-blocking control tools for these viruses. For mosquitoes, competence for arboviruses can be measured experimentally and results are usually analysed using standard statistical approaches.

Inclusive fitness forces of selection in an age-structured population.

Hamilton's force of selection acting against age-specific mortality is constant and maximal prior to the age of first reproduction, before declining to zero at the age of last reproduction. The force of selection acting on age-specific reproduction declines monotonically from birth in a growing or stationary population. Central to these results is the assumption that individuals do not interact with one another.

Reducing intrusive memories after trauma via an imagery-competing task intervention in COVID-19 intensive care staff: a randomised controlled trial.

Intrusive memories (IMs) after traumatic events can be distressing and disrupt mental health and functioning. We evaluated the impact of a brief remotely-delivered digital imagery-competing task intervention on the number of IMs for intensive care unit (ICU) staff who faced repeated trauma exposure during the COVID-19 pandemic using a two-arm, parallel-group, single-blind randomised controlled trial, with the comparator arm receiving delayed access to active treatment (crossover). Eligible participants worked clinically in a UK NHS ICU during the pandemic and had at least 3 IMs of work-related traumatic events in the week before recruitment.

Temporal dynamics of trauma memory persistence.

Traumatic events lead to distressing memories, but such memories are made all the worse when they intrude to mind unbidden and recurrently. Intrusive memories and flashbacks after trauma are prominent in several mental disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder and can persist for years. Critically, the reduction of intrusive memories provides a treatment target.

Treating intrusive memories after trauma in healthcare workers: a Bayesian adaptive randomised trial developing an imagery-competing task intervention.

Intensive care unit (ICU) staff continue to face recurrent work-related traumatic events throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Intrusive memories (IMs) of such traumatic events comprise sensory image-based memories. Harnessing research on preventing IMs with a novel behavioural intervention on the day of trauma, here we take critical next steps in developing this approach as a treatment for ICU staff who are already experiencing IMs days, weeks, or months post-trauma.

The influences of microbial colonisation and germ-free status on the chicken TCRβ repertoire.

Microbial colonisation is paramount to the normal development of the immune system, particularly at mucosal sites. However, the relationships between the microbiome and the adaptive immune repertoire have mostly been explored in rodents and humans. Here, we report a high-throughput sequencing analysis of the chicken TCRβ repertoire and the influences of microbial colonisation on tissue-resident TCRβ+ cells.

A CRISPR endonuclease gene drive reveals distinct mechanisms of inheritance bias.

CRISPR/Cas gene drives can bias transgene inheritance through different mechanisms. Homing drives are designed to replace a wild-type allele with a copy of a drive element on the homologous chromosome. In Aedes aegypti, the sex-determining locus is closely linked to the white gene, which was previously used as a target for a homing drive element (w).

Positive moods are all alike? Differential affect amplification effects of 'elated' versus 'calm' mental imagery in young adults reporting hypomanic-like experiences.

Positive mood amplification is a hallmark of the bipolar disorder spectrum (BPDS). We need better understanding of cognitive mechanisms contributing to such elevated mood. Generation of vivid, emotionally compelling mental imagery is proposed to act as an 'emotional amplifier' in BPDS.

Emerging patterns of fluoroquinolone resistance in in the UK [1998-2018].

( is the most common causative agent of bacterial food poisoning worldwide and is known to be genetically highly diverse. is increasingly resistant to fluoroquinolone antibiotics, but very few studies have investigated variant-specific patterns of resistance across time. Here we use statistical modelling and clustering techniques to investigate patterns of fluoroquinolone resistance amongst 10,359 UK isolates from human disease sampled over 20 years.

Daisy-chain gene drives: The role of low cut-rate, resistance mutations, and maternal deposition.

The introgression of genetic traits through gene drive may serve as a powerful and widely applicable method of biological control. However, for many applications, a self-perpetuating gene drive that can spread beyond the specific target population may be undesirable and preclude use. Daisy-chain gene drives have been proposed as a means of tuning the invasiveness of a gene drive, allowing it to spread efficiently into the target population, but be self-limiting beyond that.

Pavlovian threat conditioning can generate intrusive memories that persist over time.

Although Pavlovian threat conditioning has proven to be a useful translational model for the development of anxiety disorders, it remains unknown if this procedure can generate intrusive memories - a symptom of many anxiety-related disorders, and whether intrusions persist over time. Social support has been related to better adjustment after trauma however, experimental evidence regarding its effect on the development of anxiety-related symptoms is sparse. We had two aims: to test whether threat conditioning generates intrusive memories, and whether different social support interactions impacted expression of emotional memories.

Life history and the evolutionary loss of parental care.

Parental care has been gained and lost evolutionarily multiple times. While many studies have focused on the origin of care, few have explored the evolutionary loss of care. Understanding the loss of parental care is important as the conditions that favour its loss will not necessarily be the opposite of those that favour the evolution of care.

Risk-benefit analysis of emergency vaccine use.

Emergency vaccine use requires weighing a large number of uncertain risks and possible benefits. In the COVID-19 pandemic, decisions about what evidence is necessary to authorize emergency use have proven controversial, and vary between countries. We construct a simple mathematical model of the risks and benefits of emergency vaccination to an individual, and apply this to the hypothetical scenario of individual decision-making between emergency use of a COVID-19 vaccine without safety and efficacy data, versus waiting for efficacy and safety to be established.

The Challenges in Developing Efficient and Robust Synthetic Homing Endonuclease Gene Drives.

Making discrete and precise genetic changes to wild populations has been proposed as a means of addressing some of the world's most pressing ecological and public health challenges caused by insect pests. Technologies that would allow this, such as synthetic gene drives, have been under development for many decades. Recently, a new generation of programmable nucleases has dramatically accelerated technological development.

Mathematical modelling of the mosquito Aedes polynesiensis in a heterogeneous environment.

Background: The mosquito Aedes polynesiensis inhabits Pacific islands and territories and transmits arboviruses and parasites. In the context of rapid environmental change, understanding the effects of environmental heterogeneity on mosquitoes is crucial.

Methods: First, empirical field data and remote sensing data were combined to model spatial heterogeneity in the environmental suitability for Ae.

Catastrophe risk can accelerate unlikely evolutionary transitions.

Intelligent life has emerged late in Earth's habitable lifetime, and required a preceding series of key evolutionary transitions. A simple model (the Carter model) explains the late arrival of intelligent life by positing these evolutionary transitions were exceptionally unlikely 'critical steps'. An alternative model (the neocatastrophism hypothesis) proposes that intelligent life was delayed by frequent catastrophes that served to set back evolutionary innovation.

Mechanisms of biodiversity between sequence types in a flock of broiler-breeder chickens.

Commercial poultry flocks frequently harbor the dangerous bacterial pathogen . As exclusion efforts frequently fail, there is interest in potential ecologically informed solutions. A long-term study of sequence types was used to investigate the competitive framework of the metacommunity and understand how multiple sequence types simultaneously co-occur in a flock of chickens.

BugSplit enables genome-resolved metagenomics through highly accurate taxonomic binning of metagenomic assemblies.

A large gap remains between sequencing a microbial community and characterizing all of the organisms inside of it. Here we develop a novel method to taxonomically bin metagenomic assemblies through alignment of contigs against a reference database. We show that this workflow, BugSplit, bins metagenome-assembled contigs to species with a 33% absolute improvement in F1-score when compared to alternative tools.