Understanding how individual differences arise and how their effects propagate through groups are fundamental issues in biology. Individual differences can arise from indirect genetic effects (IGE): genetically based variation in the conspecifics with which an individual interacts. Using a clonal species, the Amazon molly (), we test the hypothesis that IGE can propagate to influence phenotypes of the individuals that do not experience them firsthand. We tested this by exposing genetically identical Amazon mollies to conspecific social partners of different clonal lineages, and then moving these focal individuals to new social groups in which they were the only member to have experienced the IGE. We found that genetically different social environments resulted in the focal animals experiencing different levels of aggression, and that these IGE carried over into new social groups to influence the behaviour of naive individuals. These data reveal that IGE can cascade beyond the individuals that experience them. Opportunity for cascading IGE is ubiquitous, especially in species with long-distance dispersal or fission-fusion group dynamics. Cascades could amplify (or mitigate) the effects of IGE on trait variation and on evolutionary trajectories. Expansion of the IGE framework to include cascading and other types of carry-over effects will therefore improve understanding of individual variation and social evolution and allow more accurate prediction of population response to changing environments.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0731 | DOI Listing |
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
January 2025
Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405.
Transgenic expression of a double-stranded RNA in plants can induce silencing of homologous mRNAs in fungal pathogens. Although such host-induced gene silencing is well documented, the molecular mechanisms by which RNAs can move from the cytoplasm of plant cells across the plasma membrane of both the host cell and fungal cell are poorly understood. Indirect evidence suggests that this RNA transfer may occur at a very early stage of the infection process, prior to breach of the host cell wall, suggesting that silencing RNAs might be secreted onto leaf surfaces.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement
December 2024
Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS), University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Background: Evaluating sex differences in modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer's disease could provide valuable information regarding the mechanisms by which these factors confer risk. Physical activity is a risk factor that has been shown to positively impact both telomere length, a marker of cellular age, and cognition. The goal of this study was to evaluate whether telomere length mediates the association between physical activity and cognition differently by sex.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMol Med Rep
March 2025
2nd Department of Psychiatry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Attikon University Hospital, 12462 Athens, Greece.
Most psychiatric disorders are heterogeneous and are attributed to the synergistic action of a multitude of factors. It is generally accepted that psychiatric disorders are the outcome of interactions between genetic predisposition and environmental perturbations, which involve psychosocial stress, or alterations in the physiological state of the organism. A number of hypotheses have been presented on such environmental influences that may include direct insults such as injury, malnutrition and hostile living conditions, or indirect sequelae following infection from viruses such as influenza, arboviruses, enteroviruses and several herpesviruses, or the differential expression of human endogenous retroviruses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFScientifica (Cairo)
December 2024
Department of Plant Breeding, RAISE-FS, Stichting Wageningen Research (SWR) Ethiopia, Hawassa Liaison Office, Hawassa, Ethiopia.
For sustainable genetic improvement of crops like sorghum, assessing genetic variability and knowing the nature and extent of the association between grain yield and yield-related traits is a prerequisite. However, there needs to be sufficient information about the genetic variability study as well as yield-related trait correlation and path coefficient analysis for sorghum accessions, especially those from southern Ethiopia. Hence, this field experiment assessed genetic variability, determined the nature and extent of phenotypic-genetic correlation, and analyzed the path coefficients among 17 quantitative traits.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
January 2025
School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, United Kingdom.
Myosin-VIIA (MYO7A) is an unconventional myosin responsible for syndromic (Usher 1B) or nonsyndromic forms of deafness in humans when mutated. In the cochlea, MYO7A is expressed in hair cells, where it is believed to act as the motor protein tensioning the mechanoelectrical transducer (MET) channels, thus setting their resting open probability (). However, direct evidence for this unique role for an unconventional myosin in mature hair cells is lacking.
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