Limited associations between MHC diversity and reproductive success in a bird species with biparental care.

The selective pressure from pathogens on individuals can have direct consequences on reproduction. Genes from the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) are central to the vertebrate adaptive immune system and pathogen resistance. In species with biparental care, each sex has distinct reproductive roles and levels of investment, and due to a trade-off with immunity, one can expect different selective regimes acting upon the MHC of each parent.

The genomic architecture of continuous plumage colour variation in the European barn owl ().

The maintenance of colour variation in wild populations has long fascinated evolutionary biologists, although most studies have focused on discrete traits exhibiting rather simple inheritance patterns and genetic architectures. However, the study of continuous colour traits and their potentially oligo- or polygenic genetic bases remains rare in wild populations. We studied the genetics of the continuously varying white-to-rufous plumage coloration of the European barn owl () using a genome-wide association approach on the whole-genome data of 75 individuals.

Plastic responses to warmer climates: a semi-natural experiment on lizard populations.

Facing warming environments, species can exhibit plastic or microevolutionary changes in their thermal physiology to adapt to novel climates. Here, using semi-natural mesocosms, we experimentally investigated over two successive years whether a 2°C-warmer climate produces selective and inter- and intragenerational plastic changes in the thermal traits (preferred temperature and dorsal coloration) of the lizard Zootoca vivipara. In a warmer climate, the dorsal darkness, dorsal contrast, and preferred temperature of adults plastically decreased and covariances between these traits were disrupted.

Is It Possible to Monetarily Quantify the Emotional Value Transferred by Companies and Organizations? An Emotional Accounting Proposal.

Social accounting focuses on value transactions between organizations and their stakeholders; both market ones, where the value perceived by the different stakeholders is identified, and non-markets ones, where transactions are monetized at their fair value. There was long awareness of an emotional value translation, linked to the transfer of different products, services, remunerations, and incentives, regardless of whether they were market or non-market. Yet that emotional value seemed to be anchored in the field of psychology and managed to elude economic science.

Molecular evolution of the proopiomelanocortin system in Barn owl species.

Examination of genetic polymorphisms in outbred wild-living species provides insights into the evolution of complex systems. In higher vertebrates, the proopiomelanocortin (POMC) precursor gives rise to α-, β-, and γ-melanocyte-stimulating hormones (MSH), which are involved in numerous physiological aspects. Genetic defects in POMC are linked to metabolic disorders in humans and animals.

New genome assembly of the barn owl ().

New genomic tools open doors to study ecology, evolution, and population genomics of wild animals. For the Barn owl species complex, a cosmopolitan nocturnal raptor, a very fragmented draft genome was assembled for the American species () (Jarvis et al. 2014).

Social Accounting as an Enabling Tool to Develop Collective Organizational Citizenship Behavior in the Diocese of Bilbao.

Religious oriented organizations (ROOs) have frequently higher levels of motivation among their employees, because the aims of ROOs and those of collaborators and stakeholders are usually aligned. However, sometimes, when the management of ROOs becomes professionalized, tensions between aims and efficiency are more frequent, and productivity levels start to decline. The most widespread current management theories are focused on profit maximization and are not especially helpful to religious organizations which try to enhance their productivity levels and, at the same time, achive their mission and aims.

[Social value added index: a proposal for analyzing hospital efficiency].

Objective: The objective of this paper is to demonstrate that it is possible to monetize the social value generated by a hospital and use it to establish a different perspective to analyze the efficiency of public spending.

Method: A public hospital in Spain was selected using the case method. It is suitable for two reasons; first, the hospital activity is small and therefore dialogue with stakeholders is easy; and second, as it is a hospital of a residential nature, it allows an easy, modifiable and testable approximation of social accounting in hospitals.

Lack of statistical power as a major limitation in understanding MHC-mediated immunocompetence in wild vertebrate populations.

Disentangling the sources of variation in developing an effective immune response against pathogens is of major interest to immunoecology and evolutionary biology. To date, the link between immunocompetence and genetic variation at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) has received little attention in wild animals, despite the key role of MHC genes in activating the adaptive immune system. Although several studies point to a link between MHC and immunocompetence, negative findings have also been reported.

Differential fitness effects of moonlight on plumage colour morphs in barn owls.

The Moon cycle exposes nocturnal life to variation in environmental light. However, whether moonlight shapes the fitness of nocturnal species with distinct colour variants remains unknown. Combining data from long-term monitoring, high-resolution global positioning system tracking and experiments using prey, we show that barn owls (Tyto alba) with distinct plumage colourations are differently affected by moonlight.

Expression of glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid receptor genes co-varies with a stress-related colour signal in barn owls.

Glucocorticoid hormones are important intermediates between an organism and its environment. They enable an organism to adjust its behavioural and physiological processes in response to environmental changes by binding to mineralocorticoid receptors (MR) and glucocorticoid receptors (GR) expressed in many tissues, including the integument. The regulation of glucocorticoids co-varies with melanin-based colouration in numerous species, an association that might result from pleiotropic effects of genes in the melanocortin system and evolve within a signalling context.

Baseline and stress-induced corticosterone levels are heritable and genetically correlated in a barn owl population.

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is responsible for the regulation of corticosterone, a hormone that is essential in the mediation of energy allocation and physiological stress. As a continuous source of challenge and stress for organisms, the environment has promoted the evolution of physiological adaptations and led to a great variation in corticosterone profiles within or among individuals, populations and species. In order to evolve via natural selection, corticosterone levels do not only depend on the strength of selection exerted on them, but also on the extent to which the regulation of corticosterone is heritable.

Toward Understanding the Repeated Occurrence of Associations between Melanin-Based Coloration and Multiple Phenotypes.

Melanin is the most widespread pigment in organisms. Melanin-based coloration has been repeatedly observed to be associated with the same traits and in the same direction in different vertebrate and insect species. However, whether any factors that are common to different taxa account for the repeated evolution of melanin-phenotype associations remains unclear.

Selection on the Major Color Gene Melanocortin-1-Receptor Shaped the Evolution of the Melanocortin System Genes.

Modular genetic systems and networks have complex evolutionary histories shaped by selection acting on single genes as well as on their integrated function within the network. However, uncovering molecular coevolution requires the detection of coevolving sites in sequences. Detailed knowledge of the functions of each gene in the system is also necessary to identify the selective agents driving coevolution.

Beyond mean allelic effects: A locus at the major color gene MC1R associates also with differing levels of phenotypic and genetic (co)variance for coloration in barn owls.

The mean phenotypic effects of a discovered variant help to predict major aspects of the evolution and inheritance of a phenotype. However, differences in the phenotypic variance associated to distinct genotypes are often overlooked despite being suggestive of processes that largely influence phenotypic evolution, such as interactions between the genotypes with the environment or the genetic background. We present empirical evidence for a mutation at the melanocortin-1-receptor gene, a major vertebrate coloration gene, affecting phenotypic variance in the barn owl, Tyto alba.

Genomics of coloration in natural animal populations.

Animal coloration has traditionally been the target of genetic and evolutionary studies. However, until very recently, the study of the genetic basis of animal coloration has been mainly restricted to model species, whereas research on non-model species has been either neglected or mainly based on candidate approaches, and thereby limited by the knowledge obtained in model species. Recent high-throughput sequencing technologies allow us to overcome previous limitations, and open new avenues to study the genetic basis of animal coloration in a broader number of species and colour traits, and to address the general relevance of different genetic structures and their implications for the evolution of colour.

Small Ruminant Lentiviruses in Sheep: Pathology and Tropism of 2 Strains Using the Bone Marrow Route.

The objective of this work was to comparatively study the tissue tropism and the associated pathology of 2 autochthonous small ruminant lentivirus (SRLV) field strains using an experimental infection in sheep through the bone marrow. Fifteen male, SRLV-free lambs of the Rasa Aragonesa breed were inoculated with strain 697 (nervous tissue origin, animals A1-A6), with strain 496 (articular origin, animals B1-B6), or with uninfected culture medium (C1-C3). Clinical, serologic, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) evaluations were performed periodically.

MC1R variants affect the expression of melanocortin and melanogenic genes and the association between melanocortin genes and coloration.

The melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) gene influences coloration by altering the expression of genes acting downstream in the melanin synthesis. MC1R belongs to the melanocortin system, a genetic network coding for the ligands that regulate MC1R and other melanocortin receptors controlling different physiological and behavioural traits. The impact of MC1R variants on these regulatory melanocortin genes was never considered, even though MC1R mutations could alter the influence of these genes on coloration (e.

Inter-class competition in stage-structured populations: effects of adult density on life-history traits of adult and juvenile common lizards.

Ecological and evolutionary processes in natural populations are largely influenced by the population's stage-structure. Commonly, different classes have different competitive abilities, e.g.

Detailed analysis of the promoter activity of an attenuated lentivirus.

In spite of an eradication campaign that eliminated clinical cases of caprine arthritis encephalitis virus-induced arthritis in the Swiss goat population, seroconversions are still observed. In the affected flocks, viruses belonging mainly to the small ruminant lentivirus A4 subtype are regularly isolated. These viruses are considered attenuated, except in the mammary gland, where high viral loads and histopathological lesions have been observed.

Post-entry blockade of small ruminant lentiviruses by wild ruminants.

Small ruminant lentivirus (SRLV) infection causes losses in the small ruminant industry due to reduced animal production and increased replacement rates. Infection of wild ruminants in close contact with infected domestic animals has been proposed to play a role in SRLV epidemiology, but studies are limited and mostly involve hybrids between wild and domestic animals. In this study, SRLV seropositive red deer, roe deer and mouflon were detected through modified ELISA tests, but virus was not successfully amplified using a set of different PCRs.

Effect of the MC1R gene on sexual dimorphism in melanin-based colorations.

Variants of the melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) gene result in abrupt, naturally selected colour morphs. These genetic variants may differentially affect sexual dimorphism if one morph is naturally selected in the two sexes but another morph is naturally or sexually selected only in one of the two sexes (e.g.