Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc
December 2024
Plant-plant interactions are major determinants of the dynamics of terrestrial ecosystems. There is a long tradition in the study of these interactions, their mechanisms and their consequences using experimental, observational and theoretical approaches. Empirical studies overwhelmingly focus at the level of species pairs or small sets of species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough plant-soil feedback (PSF) is being recognized as an important driver of plant recruitment, our understanding of its role in species coexistence in natural communities remains limited by the scarcity of experimental studies on multispecies assemblages. Here, we experimentally estimated PSFs affecting seedling recruitment in 10 co-occurring Mediterranean woody species. We estimated weak but significant species-specific feedback.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMendelian Susceptibility to Mycobacterial Disease describes a spectrum of inherited defects, of which complete deficiency of the interleukin-12 receptor β subunit 1 (IL-12Rβ1) is the most common cause. This condition results in a predisposition to severe disease caused by mycobacteria. We report a case of disseminated multidrug-resistant tuberculosis with extensive central nervous system affection with SARS-CoV-2 co-infection, in a 4-year-old child with IL-12Rβ1 complete deficiency.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlant recruitment interactions (i.e., what recruits under what) shape the composition, diversity, and structure of plant communities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe origins of agriculture were key events in human history, during which people came to depend for their food on small numbers of animal and plant species. However, the biological traits determining which species were domesticated for food provision, and which were not, are unclear. Here, we investigate the phylogenetic distribution of livestock and crops, and compare their phenotypic traits with those of wild species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type (ENKTL) is an aggressive lymphoma with a very low incidence in western populations.
Objective: To review the clinicopathological features and outcome of a multicentre series of ENKTL in Spain.
Materials & Methods: A multicentre retrospective study was performed based on cases of ENKTL, collected from 1995 to 2004, from 12 dermatology departments included in the Spanish Lymphoma Study Group.
Premise Of The Study: Microsatellite primers were developed to characterize and evaluate patterns of genetic diversity and structure in the endangered Mediterranean shrub (Rhamnaceae).
Methods And Results: Twenty microsatellite primers were developed for , of which 14 were polymorphic. We evaluated microsatellite polymorphism in 97 specimens from 18 Spanish and seven Moroccan populations.
The idea of pollination syndromes has been largely discussed but no formal quantitative evaluation has yet been conducted across angiosperms. We present the first systematic review of pollination syndromes that quantitatively tests whether the most effective pollinators for a species can be inferred from suites of floral traits for 417 plant species. Our results support the syndrome concept, indicating that convergent floral evolution is driven by adaptation to the most effective pollinator group.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA central issue in ecology is the understanding of the establishment of biotic interactions. We studied the factors that affect the assembly of the commensalistic interactions between vascular epiphytes and their host plants. We used an analytical approach that considers all individuals and species of epiphytic bromeliads and woody hosts and non-hosts at study plots.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlandular trichomes play a defensive role against herbivores in the leaves of many plant species. However, their functional role in inflorescences has not been studied, even though theory suggests that tissues with a higher fitness value, such as inflorescences, should be better defended. Using manipulative experiments, we analysed the defensive role of glandular trichomes against herbivorous insects in the inflorescence of Iberian columbines (genus Aquilegia), and its inter-population and inter-taxa variation in relation to herbivore abundance and potential selective pressure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFolliculitis decalvans is an embarrassing and challenging disease with no established treatment guidelines. In this paper, we described four patients with this disease treated successfully with Tacrolimus ointment. All of them showed significant control of the condition, stopping inflammatory lesions and progression of the disease, although weak transitory outbreaks of inflammatory lesions were observed in some cases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF• The ecological and adaptive significance of plant polyploidization is not well understood and no clear pattern of association between polyploid frequency and environment has emerged. Climatic factors are expected to predict cytotype distribution. However, the relationship among climate, cytotype distribution and variation of abiotic stress tolerance traits has rarely been examined.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMeasuring heritable genetic variation is important for understanding patterns of trait evolution in wild populations, and yet studies of quantitative genetic parameters estimated directly in the field are limited by logistic constraints, such as the difficulties of inferring relatedness among individuals in the wild. Marker-based approaches have received attention because they can potentially be applied directly to wild populations. For long-lived, self-compatible plant species where pedigrees are inadequate, the regression-based method proposed by Ritland has the appeal of estimating heritabilities from marker-based estimates of relatedness.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMultiple cutaneous and uterine leiomyomatosis (MCUL; OMIM 150800) is an autosomal dominantly inherited disease characterized by leiomyomas of the skin and uterine leiomyomas. Recently, association of MCUL with different forms of renal cancer has been described. This syndrome is referred to as hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell cancer (OMIM 605839).
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