First successful artificial insemination of the endangered Louisiana pinesnake, Pituophis ruthveni.

The Louisiana pinesnake (Pituophis ruthveni) is considered one of the rarest snakes in North America and was federally listed under the Endangered Species Act in 2018. Captive breeding and reintroduction of zoo-bred hatchlings has been successful, however, limited founders in the captive population and the inability to bring new, wild genes into the captive colony presents a major concern for the conservation of this species. The use of artificial insemination (AI) was first applied to snakes in the 1980s but further development of the technique has since received little attention.

Effect of MHC and inbreeding on disassortative reproduction: A data revisit, extension and inclusion of fertilization in sand lizards.

The harmful effects of close inbreeding have been recognized for centuries and, with the rise of Mendelian genetics, was realized to be an effect of homozygosis. This historical background led to great interest in ways to quantify inbreeding, its depression effects on the phenotype and flow-on effects on mate choice and other aspects of behavioral ecology. The mechanisms and cues used to avoid inbreeding are varied and include major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules and the peptides they transport as predictors of the degree of genetic relatedness.

Limited effects of inbreeding on breeding coloration.

Animal color signals may function as indicators of fighting ability when males compete for access to females. This allows opponents to settle aggressive interactions before they escalate into physical combat and injury. Thus, there may be strong directional selection on these traits, toward enhanced signal quality.

Inbreeding effects on telomeres in hatchling sand lizards (Lacerta agilis): An optimal family affair?

Telomeres are nucleotide-protein caps, predominantly at the ends of Metazoan linear chromosomes, showing complex dynamics with regard to their lengthening and shortening through life. Their complexity has entertained the idea that net telomere length and attrition could be valuable biomarkers of phenotypic and genetic quality of their bearer. Intuitively, those individuals could be more heterozygous and, hence, less inbred.

Sprint training interacts with body mass to affect hepatic insulin-like growth factor expression in female green anoles (Anolis carolinensis).

Locomotor performance is a key predictor of fitness in many animal species. As such, locomotion integrates the output of a number of morphological, physiological, and molecular levels of organization, yet relatively little is known regarding the major molecular pathways that bolster locomotor performance. One potentially relevant pathway is the insulin and insulin-like signaling (IIS) network, a significant regulator of physiological processes such as reproduction, growth, and metabolism.

Reduced Mitochondrial Respiration in Hybrid Asexual Lizards.

AbstractThe scarcity of asexual reproduction in vertebrates alludes to an inherent cost. Several groups of asexual vertebrates exhibit lower endurance capacity (a trait predominantly sourced by mitochondrial respiration) compared with congeneric sexual species. Here we measure endurance capacity in five species of lizards and examine mitochondrial respiration between sexual and asexual species using mitochondrial respirometry.

Postnatal expression of is the norm in amniote vertebrates.

The insulin and insulin-like signalling (IIS) network plays an important role in mediating several life-history traits, including growth, reproduction and senescence. Although insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) 1 and 2 are both key hormones in the vertebrate IIS network, research on IGF2 in juveniles and adults has been largely neglected because early biomedical research on rodents found negligible IGF2 postnatal expression. Here, we challenge this assumption and ask to what degree IGF2 is expressed during postnatal life across amniotes by quantifying the relative gene expression of and using publicly available RNAseq data for 82 amniote species and quantitative polymerase chain reaction on liver cDNA at embryonic, juvenile and adult stages for two lizard, bird and mouse species.

Draft genomes for one Microcystis-resistant and one Microcystis-sensitive strain of the water flea, Daphnia pulicaria.

Daphnia species are well-suited for studying local adaptation and evolutionary responses to stress(ors) including those caused by algal blooms. Algal blooms, characterized by an overgrowth (bloom) of cyanobacteria, are detrimental to the health of aquatic and terrestrial members of freshwater ecosystems. Some strains of Daphnia pulicaria have demonstrated resistance to toxic algae and the ability to mitigate toxic algal blooms.

Evolutionary physiology at 30+: Has the promise been fulfilled?: Advances in Evolutionary Physiology: Advances in Evolutionary Physiology.

Three decades ago, interactions between evolutionary biology and physiology gave rise to evolutionary physiology. This caused comparative physiologists to improve their research methods by incorporating evolutionary thinking. Simultaneously, evolutionary biologists began focusing more on physiological mechanisms that may help to explain constraints on and trade-offs during microevolutionary processes, as well as macroevolutionary patterns in physiological diversity.

Expression of insulin-like growth factors depends on both mass and resource availability in female green anoles (Anolis carolinensis).

The insulin and insulin-like signaling (IIS) network is an important mediator of cellular growth and metabolism in animals, and is sensitive to environmental conditions such as temperature and resource availability. The two main hormones of the IIS network, insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) and insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2), are present in all vertebrates, yet little is known regarding the responsiveness of IGF2 in particular to external stimuli in non-mammalian animals. We manipulated diet (low or high quantity of food: low and high diet group, respectively) in adult green anole (Anolis carolinensis) females to test the effect of energetic state on hepatic gene expression of IGF1 and IGF2.

Multiple Paternity in Garter Snakes With Evolutionarily Divergent Life Histories.

Many animal species exhibit multiple paternity, defined as multiple males genetically contributing to a single female reproductive event, such as a clutch or litter. Although this phenomenon is well documented across a broad range of taxa, the underlying causes and consequences remain poorly understood. For example, it is unclear how multiple paternity correlates with life-history strategies.

Tails of reproduction: Regeneration leads to increased reproductive investment.

Trade-offs between life-history traits are due to limited resources or constraints in the regulation of genetic and physiological networks. Tail autotomy, with subsequent regeneration, is a common anti-predation mechanism in lizards and is predicted to trade-off with life-history traits, such as reproduction. We utilize the brown anole lizard with its unusual reproductive pattern of single-egg clutches every 7-10 days to test for a trade-off in reproductive investment over 8 weeks of tail regeneration on a limited diet.

Addressing the Unique Qualities of Upper-Level Biology Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences through the Integration of Skill-Building.

Early exposure to course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) in introductory biology courses can promote positive student outcomes such as increased confidence, critical thinking, and views of applicability in lower-level courses, but it is unknown if these same impacts are achieved by upper-level courses. Upper-level courses differ from introductory courses in several ways, and one difference that could impact these positive student outcomes is the importance of balancing structure with independence in upper-level CUREs where students typically have more autonomy and greater complexity in their research projects. Here we compare and discuss two formats of upper-level biology CUREs (Guided and Autonomous) that vary along a continuum between structure and independence.

The untapped potential of reptile biodiversity for understanding how and why animals age.

1. The field of comparative aging biology has greatly expanded in the past 20 years. Longitudinal studies of populations of reptiles with a range of maximum lifespans have accumulated and been analyzed for evidence of mortality senescence and reproductive decline.

Gene expression of the IGF hormones and IGF binding proteins across time and tissues in a model reptile.

The insulin and insulin-like signaling (IIS) network regulates cellular processes including pre- and postnatal growth, cellular development, wound healing, reproduction, and longevity. Despite their importance in the physiology of vertebrates, the study of the specific functions of the top regulators of the IIS network, insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) and IGF binding proteins (IGFBPs), has been mostly limited to a few model organisms. To expand our understanding of this network, we performed quantitative gene expression of IGF hormones in liver and qualitative expression of IGFBPs across tissues and developmental stages in a model reptile, the brown anole lizard ().

Characterization of two MHC II genes (DOB, DRB) in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus).

Background: The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is responsible for detecting and addressing foreign pathogens inside the body. While the general structure of MHC genes is relatively well conserved among mammalian species, it is notably different among ruminants due to a chromosomal inversion that splits MHC type II genes into two subregions (IIa, IIb). Recombination rates are reportedly high between these subregions, and a lack of linkage has been documented in domestic ruminants.

Mitochondria as central characters in a complex narrative: Linking genomics, energetics, pace-of-life, and aging in natural populations of garter snakes.

As a pacesetter for physiological processes, variation in metabolic rate can determine the shape of energetic trade-offs and thereby drive variation in life-history traits. In turn, such variation in metabolic performance and life-histories can have profound consequences for lifespan and lifetime fitness. Thus, the extent to which metabolic rate variation is due to phenotypic plasticity or fixed genetic differences among individuals or populations is likely to be shaped by natural selection.

The Promises and the Challenges of Integrating Multi-Omics and Systems Biology in Comparative Stress Biology.

Comparative stress biology is inherently a systems biology approach with the goal of integrating the molecular, cellular, and physiological responses with fitness outcomes. In this way, the systems biology approach is expected to provide a holistic understanding of how different stressors result in different fitness outcomes, and how different individuals (or populations or species) respond to stressors differently. In this perceptive article, I focus on the use of multiple types of -omics data in stress biology.

The utility of reptile blood transcriptomes in molecular ecology.

Reptiles and other nonmammalian vertebrates have transcriptionally active nucleated red blood cells. If blood transcriptomes can provide quantitative data to address questions relevant to molecular ecology, this could circumvent the need to euthanize animals to assay tissues. This would allow longitudinal sampling of animals' responses to treatments, as well as sampling of protected taxa.

Five months of voluntary wheel running downregulates skeletal muscle LINE-1 gene expression in rats.

Transposable elements (TEs) are mobile DNA and constitute approximately half of the human genome. LINE-1 (L1) is the only active autonomous TE in the mammalian genome and has been implicated in a number of diseases as well as aging. We have previously reported that skeletal muscle L1 expression is lower following acute and chronic exercise training in humans.

Shoo fly don't bother me: Flies track social primates and carry viable anthrax.

Flies-a small name for an enormous taxonomic group of over 110,000 described species that have unique ecological roles. Nonbiting flies ingest organic material in faecal matter or carrion, which is rich in microbes and nutrients that benefit both adults and their offspring (maggots). These are often referred to as "filth flies" because they are often pests in human settlements and responsible for the spread of enteric pathogens.

Contrasting Responses of Lizards to Divergent Ecological Stressors Across Biological Levels of Organization.

It is frequently hypothesized that animals employ a generalized "stress response," largely mediated by glucocorticoid (GC) hormones, such as corticosterone, to combat challenging environmental conditions. Under this hypothesis, diverse stressors are predicted to have concordant effects across biological levels of an organism. We tested the generalized stress response hypothesis in two complementary experiments with juvenile and adult male Eastern fence lizards (Sceloporus undulatus).

The Coevolution Effect as a Driver of Spillover.

Global habitat fragmentation is associated with the emergence of infectious diseases of wildlife origins in human populations. Despite this well-accepted narrative, the underlying mechanisms driving this association remain unclear. We introduce a nuanced hypothesis, the 'coevolution effect'.

How accurately do behavioural observations predict reproductive success in free-ranging lizards?

Behavioural ecologists often use data on patterns of male-female association to infer reproductive success of free-ranging animals. For example, a male seen with several females during the mating season is predicted to father more offspring than a male not seen with any females. We explored the putative correlation between this behaviour and actual paternity (as revealed by microsatellite data) from a long-term study on sand lizards ( Lacerta agilis), including behavioural observations of 574 adult males and 289 adult females, and paternity assignment of more than 2500 offspring during 1998-2007.