An essential prerequisite to safeguard pollinator species is characterisation of the multifaceted diversity of crop pollinators and identification of the drivers of pollinator community changes across biogeographical gradients. The extent to which intensive agriculture is associated with the homogenisation of biological communities at large spatial scales remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated diversity drivers for 644 bee species/morphospecies in 177 commercial apple orchards across 33 countries and four global biogeographical biomes. Our findings reveal significant taxonomic dissimilarity among biogeographical zones. Interestingly, despite this dissimilarity, species from different zones share similar higher-level phylogenetic groups and similar ecological and behavioural traits (i.e. functional traits), likely due to habitat filtering caused by perennial monoculture systems managed intensively for crop production. Honey bee species dominated orchard communities, while other managed/manageable and wild species were collected in lower numbers. Moreover, the presence of herbaceous, uncultivated open areas and organic management practices were associated with increased wild bee diversity. Overall, our study sheds light on the importance of large-scale analyses contributing to the emerging fields of functional and phylogenetic diversity, which can be related to ecosystem function to promote biodiversity as a key asset in agroecosystems in the face of global change pressures.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.165933 | DOI Listing |
Structural changes involving new neurons can occur through stem cell-driven neurogenesis and late-maturing immature neurons, namely undifferentiated neuronal precursors frozen in a state of arrested maturation. The latter exist in the cerebral cortex, being particularly abundant in large-brained mammals. Similar cells have been described in the amygdala of some species, although their interspecies variation remain poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: The reflexive translation of symbols in one chemical language to another defined genetics. Yet, the co-linearity of codons and amino acids is so commonplace an idea that few even ask how it arose. Readout is done by two distinct sets of proteins, called aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (AARS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAncestral sequence reconstruction (ASR) is typically performed using homogeneous evolutionary models, which assume that the same substitution propensities affect all sites and lineages. These assumptions are routinely violated: heterogeneous structural and functional constraints favor different amino acid states at different sites, and these constraints often change among lineages as epistatic substitutions accrue at other sites. To evaluate how realistic violations of the homogeneity assumption affect ASR, we developed site-specific substitution models and parameterized them using data from deep mutational scanning experiments on three protein families; we then used these models to perform ASR on the empirical alignments and on alignments simulated under heterogeneous conditions derived from the experiments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF, the causative agent of zoonotic toxocariasis in humans, is a parasitic roundworm of canids with a complex lifecycle. While macrocyclic lactones (MLs) are successful at treating adult infections when used at FDA-approved doses in dogs, they fail to kill somatic third-stage larvae. In this study, we profiled the transcriptome of third-stage larvae derived from larvated eggs and treated with 10 µM of the MLs - ivermectin and moxidectin with Illumina sequencing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnat Rec (Hoboken)
January 2025
Department of Anatomy, Cell Biology & Physiology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.
Diet is one of a limited set of key ecological parameters defining primate species. A detailed understanding of dental functional correlates with primate diet is a key component for accurate dietary inference in fossil primates. Although considerable effort has been devoted to understanding post-canine dental function, incisor function remains poorly understood.
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