Effect of a locally adapted genome on environmentally induced epigenetic variation.

Both genetic variation and environmentally induced epigenetic changes allow organisms to persist through the heterogeneity of their habitats. Selection on genetic variation can promote local adaptation of populations. However, in absence of genetic variation, clonal organisms mostly rely on epigenetics to respond to environmental heterogeneity.

Influence of genome and bio-ecology on the prevalence of genome exchange in unisexuals of the Ambystoma complex.

Background: Unisexuals of the blue-spotted salamander complex are thought to reproduce by kleptogenesis. Genome exchanges associated with this sperm-dependent mode of reproduction are expected to result in a higher genetic variation and multiple ploidy levels compared to clonality. However, the existence of some populations exclusively formed of genetically identical individuals suggests that factors could prevent genome exchanges.

Facial Mechanosensory Influence on Forelimb Movement in Newborn Opossums, Monodelphis domestica.

The opossum, Monodelphis domestica, is born very immature but crawls, unaided, with its forelimbs (FL) from the mother's birth canal to a nipple where it attaches to pursue its development. What sensory cues guide the newborn to the nipple and trigger its attachment to it? Previous experiments showed that low intensity electrical stimulation of the trigeminal ganglion induces FL movement in in vitro preparations and that trigeminal innervation of the facial skin is well developed in the newborn. The skin does not contain Vater-Pacini or Meissner touch corpuscles at this age, but it contains cells which appear to be Merkel cells (MC).