COVID-19: What do we know?

• Evidence regarding the provision of orthodontic care during the COVID-19 pandemic is examined.

Changes in gene expression during female reproductive development in a color polymorphic insect.

Pleiotropy (multiple phenotypic effects of single genes) and epistasis (gene interaction) have key roles in the development of complex phenotypes, especially in polymorphic taxa. The development of discrete and heritable phenotypic polymorphisms often emerges from major-effect genes that interact with other loci and have pleiotropic effects on multiple traits. We quantified gene expression changes during ontogenetic color development in a polymorphic insect (damselfly: Ischnura elegans), with three heritable female morphs, one being a male mimic.

Temperature drives pre-reproductive selection and shapes the biogeography of a female polymorphism.

Conflicts of interests between males and females over reproduction is a universal feature of sexually reproducing organisms and has driven the evolution of intersexual mimicry, mating behaviours and reproductive polymorphisms. Here, we show how temperature drives pre-reproductive selection in a female colour polymorphic insect that is subject to strong sexual conflict. These species have three female colour morphs, one of which is a male mimic.

Macroevolutionary Origin and Adaptive Function of a Polymorphic Female Signal Involved in Sexual Conflict.

Intersexual signals that reveal developmental or mating status in females have evolved repeatedly in many animal lineages. Such signals have functions in sexual conflict over mating and can therefore influence sexually antagonistic coevolution. However, we know little about how female signal development modifies male mating harassment and thereby sexual conflict.

Using Smart Socks to Detect Step-count at Slow Walking Speeds in Healthy Adults.

We examined the accuracy of Smart Socks - a device that measures foot pressure during gait for detecting step-count across various walking speeds. Thirty-six participants (17 men; 19 women) wore Smart Socks (Sock), a pedometer (Pedometer), and a smartphone with a commercially available Phone Application (Phone) pedometer to measure step-count during 3-min of treadmill or over-ground walking at 1.3, 2.

Field estimates of parentage reveal sexually antagonistic selection on body size in a population of lizards.

Sexual dimorphism evolves when selection favors different phenotypic optima between the sexes. Such sexually antagonistic selection creates intralocus sexual conflict when traits are genetically correlated between the sexes and have sex-specific optima. Brown anoles are highly sexually dimorphic: Males are on average 30% longer than females and 150% heavier in our study population.

Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) as a bridge between ecology and evolutionary genomics.

Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) present an unparalleled insect model to integrate evolutionary genomics with ecology for the study of insect evolution. Key features of Odonata include their ancient phylogenetic position, extensive phenotypic and ecological diversity, several unique evolutionary innovations, ease of study in the wild and usefulness as bioindicators for freshwater ecosystems worldwide. In this review, we synthesize studies on the evolution, ecology and physiology of odonates, highlighting those areas where the integration of ecology with genomics would yield significant insights into the evolutionary processes that would not be gained easily by working on other animal groups.

Spatial variation in climate mediates gene flow across an island archipelago.

High levels of gene flow among partially isolated populations can overwhelm selection and limit local adaptation. This process, known as "gene swamping," can homogenize genetic diversity among populations and reduce the capacity of a species to withstand rapid environmental change. We studied brown anole lizards (Anolis sagrei) distributed across seven islands in The Bahamas.

Intralocus sexual conflict, adaptive sex allocation, and the heritability of fitness.

Intralocus sexual conflict arises when selection favours alternative fitness optima in males and females. Unresolved conflict can create negative between-sex genetic correlations for fitness, such that high-fitness parents produce high-fitness progeny of their same sex, but low-fitness progeny of the opposite sex. This cost of sexual conflict could be mitigated if high-fitness parents bias sex allocation to produce more offspring of their same sex.

Vicariance and marine migration in continental island populations of a frog endemic to the Atlantic Coastal forest.

The theory of island biogeography is most often studied in the context of oceanic islands where all island inhabitants are descendants from founding events involving migration from mainland source populations. Far fewer studies have considered predictions of island biogeography in the case of continental islands, where island formation typically splits continuous populations and thus vicariance also contributes to the diversity of island populations. We examined one such case on continental islands in southeastern Brazil, to determine how classic island biogeography predictions and past vicariance explain the population genetic diversity of Thoropa taophora, a frog endemic to the Atlantic Coastal Forest.

Nectar yeasts in the tall Larkspur Delphinium barbeyi (Ranunculaceae) and effects on components of pollinator foraging behavior.

Microorganisms frequently colonize the nectar of angiosperm species. Though capable of altering a suite of traits important for pollinator attraction, few studies exist that test the degree to which they mediate pollinator foraging behavior. The objective of our study was to fill this gap by assessing the abundance and diversity of yeasts associated with the perennial larkspur Delphinium barbeyi (Ranunculaceae) and testing whether their presence affected components of pollinator foraging behavior.

Paternal condition drives progeny sex-ratio bias in a lizard that lacks parental care.

Sex-allocation theory predicts that females in good condition should preferentially produce offspring of the sex that benefits the most from an increase in maternal investment. However, it is generally assumed that the condition of the sire has little effect on progeny sex ratio, particularly in species that lack parental care. We used a controlled breeding experiment and molecular paternity analyses to examine the effects of both maternal and paternal condition on progeny sex ratio and progeny fitness in the brown anole (Anolis sagrei), a polygynous lizard that lacks parental care.

Invasive predators deplete genetic diversity of island lizards.

Invasive species can dramatically impact natural populations, especially those living on islands. Though numerous examples illustrate the ecological impact of invasive predators, no study has examined the genetic consequences for native populations subject to invasion. Here we capitalize on a natural experiment in which a long-term study of the brown anole lizard (Anolis sagrei) was interrupted by rat invasion.

Discordant patterns of evolutionary differentiation in two Neotropical treefrogs.

Comparative studies of codistributed taxa test the degree to which historical processes have shaped contemporary population structure. Discordant patterns of lineage divergence among taxa indicate that species differ in their response to common historical processes. The complex geologic landscape of the Isthmus of Central America provides an ideal setting to test the effects of vicariance and other biogeographic factors on population history.

Characterization of microsatellite markers for Thoropa taophora (Anura, Cycloramphidae), a frog endemic to the Brazilian Atlantic Rain Forest.

Here we characterize nine microsatellite loci for Thoropa taophora collected from a coastal and an island population in southeastern Brazil. The number of alleles per locus ranged from three to 11 for the coastal population and from two to eight for the island population. Observed heterozygosities ranged from 0.

Host spatial heterogeneity and the spread of vector-borne infection.

We analyze how spatial heterogeneity in host density affects the advance of vector-borne disease. Infection requires vector infestation. The vector spreads only between hosts occupying the same neighborhood, and the number of hosts varies randomly among neighborhoods.

Host spatial heterogeneity and extinction of an SIS epidemic.

Spatially explicit epidemic models explore population-level consequences of interactions between neighboring infectious and susceptible individuals. Most such models equate local and global host density, so that each individual interacts with the same number of neighbors. But many natural populations exhibit heterogeneity in local abundance.

Estimating recombination fraction separately for males and females: a counterintuitive result.

In the course of performing a linkage analysis on rats bred from inbred doubly heterozygous parents, we observed the following counterintuitive finding: the lod scores more strongly supported the hypothesis that all the recombinations occurred in one sex (without specifying which sex), rather than that some recombinations occurred in each sex. In this brief paper we explain how this apparent anomaly can arise. We point out that very different values of the recombination fraction vector theta = (theta Male, theta Female) can give rise to likelihoods that do not differ by much.

Growth and phenology of seedlings of four contrasting slash pine families in ten nitrogen regimes.

Seedlings of two fast- and two slow-growing families of slash pine, Pinus elliottii Englm. var. elliottii, were grown in a greenhouse for one growing season in one of 10 nitrogen (N) regimes.

Slash pine bud dormancy as affected by lifting date and root wrenching in the nursery.

Bud dormancy of root wrenched and unwrenched slash pine (Pinus elliottii Engelm.) seedlings growing in a forest nursery was measured on five lifting dates. Determination of bud dormancy was based on days to budbreak (DBB) under optimal growing conditions, mitotic activity in the apical meristem, chilling hours accumulated, and bud morphology.

Parental perceptions of children's modesty: a cross-sectional survey of ages two to ten years.

Modesty has been defined as decorum in relation to physical nakedness, and sexual and eliminative behavior (Newson and Newson 1968). The connection between nakedness, sexuality, and modesty with respect to family members dates back millennia. Leviticus prohibited incest with the phrase, "Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of .