Ecological drivers of taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity of bryophytes in an oceanic island.

Montane oceanic islands possess unique geographic and ecological attributes, rendering them valuable for assessing patterns and drivers of alpha and beta taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity along elevational gradients. Such comparisons of diversity facets can provide insights into the mechanisms governing community assembly on islands. Herein, we aimed to characterize taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic bryophyte diversity on Madeira Island within and across areas at varying elevations.

Effects of an entomopathogenic fungus on the reproductive potential of males.

While mortality is often the primary focus of pathogen virulence, non-lethal consequences, particularly for male reproductive fitness, are less understood; however, they are essential for understanding how sexual selection contributes to promoting resistance. We investigated how the fungal pathogen affects mating ability, fertility, and seminal fluid protein (SFP) expression of male paired with highly receptive virgin females in non-competitive settings. Depending on sex and dose, there was a 3-6-day incubation period after infection, followed by an abrupt onset of mortality.

A metabarcoding protocol targeting two DNA regions to analyze root-associated fungal communities in ferns and lycophytes.

Premise: Detailed studies of the fungi associated with lycophytes and ferns provide crucial insights into the early evolution of land plants. However, most investigations to date have assessed fern-fungus interactions based only on visual root inspection. In the present research, we establish and evaluate a metabarcoding protocol to analyze the fungal communities associated with fern and lycophyte roots.

Trait evolution during a rapid global weed invasion despite little genetic differentiation.

Invasive species often possess a great capacity to adapt to novel environments in the form of spatial trait variation, as a result of varying selection regimes, genetic drift, or plasticity. We explored the geographic differentiation in several phenotypic traits related to plant growth, reproduction, and defense in the highly invasive by measuring neutral genetic differentiation ( ), and comparing it with phenotypic differentiation ( ), in a common garden experiment in individuals originating from regions representing the species distribution across five continents. Native plants were more fecund than non-native plants, but the latter displayed considerably larger seed mass.

A genome-wide analysis suggests pleiotropic effects of Green Revolution genes on shade avoidance in wheat.

A classic example of phenotypic plasticity in plants is the suit of phenotypic responses induced by a change in the ratio of red to far-red light (R∶FR) as a result of shading, also known as the shade avoidance syndrome (SAS). While the adaptive consequences of this syndrome have been extensively discussed in natural ecosystems, how SAS varies within crop populations and how SAS evolved during crop domestication and breeding remain poorly known. In this study, we grew a panel of 180 durum wheat ( ssp.

Polyctenidae (Hemiptera: Cimicoidea) species in the Afrotropical region: Distribution, host specificity, and first insights to their molecular phylogeny.

Polyctenidae bugs are rarely studied, hematophagous, and highly specialized ectoparasites of bats. There are only 32 described species worldwide, including six species in the Afrotropical region. Knowledge on these parasites is limited, and most studies are restricted to the New World polyctenid species.

Shift in beneficial interactions during crop evolution.

Plant domestication can be viewed as a form of co-evolved interspecific mutualism between humans and crops for the benefit of the two partners. Here, we ask how this plant-human mutualism has, in turn, impacted beneficial interactions within crop species, between crop species, and between crops and their associated microbial partners. We focus on beneficial interactions resulting from three main mechanisms that can be promoted by manipulating genetic diversity in agrosystems: niche partitioning, facilitation, and kin selection.

Effects of social organization and elevation on spatial genetic structure in a montane ant.

Studying patterns of population structure across the landscape sheds light on dispersal and demographic processes, which helps to inform conservation decisions. Here, we study how social organization and landscape factors affect spatial patterns of genetic differentiation in an ant species living in mountainous regions. Using genome-wide SNP markers, we assess population structure in the Alpine silver ant, .

Adaptation to a bacterial pathogen in is not aided by sexual selection.

Theory predicts that sexual selection should aid adaptation to novel environments, but empirical support for this idea is limited. Pathogens are a major driver of host evolution and, unlike abiotic selection pressures, undergo epidemiological and co-evolutionary cycles with the host involving adaptation and counteradaptation. Because of this, populations harbor ample genetic variation underlying immunity and the opportunity for sexual selection based on condition-dependent "good genes" is expected to be large.

Hybridization enables the fixation of selfish queen genotypes in eusocial colonies.

A eusocial colony typically consists of two main castes: queens that reproduce and sterile workers that help them. This division of labor, however, is vulnerable to genetic elements that favor the development of their carriers into queens. Several factors, such as intracolonial relatedness, can modulate the spread of such caste-biasing genotypes.

European common frog () recolonized Switzerland from multiple glacial refugia in northern Italy via trans- and circum-Alpine routes.

The high mountain ranges of Western Europe had a profound effect on the biotic recolonization of Europe from glacial refugia. The Alps present a particularly interesting case because they form an absolute barrier to dispersal for most taxa, obstructing recolonization from multiple refugia in northern Italy. Here, we investigate the effect of the European Alps on the phylogeographic history of the European common frog .

Range-wide breeding habitat use of the critically endangered Yellow-breasted Bunting after population collapse.

The population of the Yellow-breasted Bunting , a formerly widely distributed and abundant songbird of northern Eurasia, suffered a catastrophic decline and a strong range contraction between 1980 and 2013. There is evidence that the decline was driven by illegal trapping during migration, but potential contributions of other factors to the decline, such as land-use change, have not yet been evaluated. Before the effects of land-use change can be evaluated, a basic understanding of the ecological requirements of the species is needed.

Adaptive population structure shifts in invasive parasitic mites, .

Comparative studies of genetic diversity and population structure can shed light on the ecological and evolutionary factors governing host-parasite interactions. Even though invasive parasites are considered of major biological importance, little is known about their adaptative potential when infesting the new hosts. Here, the genetic diversification of , a novel parasite of originating from Asia, was investigated using population genetics to determine how the genetic structure of the parasite changed in distinct European populations of its new host.

Reproduction of ectoparasitic mites in a coevolved system: spp.-Eastern honey bees, .

Parasite host shifts can impose a high selective pressure on novel hosts. Even though the coevolved systems can reveal fundamental aspects of host-parasite interactions, research often focuses on the new host-parasite relationships. This holds true for two ectoparasitic mite species, and , which have shifted hosts from Eastern honey bees, , to Western honey bees, , generating colony losses of these pollinators globally.

Impact of field-realistic doses of glyphosate and nutritional stress on mosquito life history traits and susceptibility to malaria parasite infection.

Glyphosate is the world's most widely used herbicide. The commercial success of this molecule is due to its nonselectivity and its action, which would supposedly target specific biosynthetic pathways found mainly in plants. Multiple studies have however provided evidence for high sensitivity of many nontarget species to glyphosate and/or to formulations (glyphosate mixed with surfactants).

Indirect genetic effects allow escape from the inefficient equilibrium in a coordination game.

Social interactions involving coordination between individuals are subject to an "evolutionary trap." Once a suboptimal strategy has evolved, mutants playing an alternative strategy are counterselected because they fail to coordinate with the majority. This creates a detrimental situation from which evolution cannot escape, preventing the evolution of efficient collective behaviors.

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).

Distinct genomic signals of lifespan and life history evolution in response to postponed reproduction and larval diet in .

Reproduction and diet are two major factors controlling the physiology of aging and life history, but how they interact to affect the evolution of longevity is unknown. Moreover, although studies of large-effect mutants suggest an important role of nutrient sensing pathways in regulating aging, the genetic basis of evolutionary changes in lifespan remains poorly understood. To address these questions, we analyzed the genomes of experimentally evolved populations subjected to a factorial combination of two selection regimes: reproductive age (early versus postponed), and diet during the larval stage ("low," "control," "high"), resulting in six treatment combinations with four replicate populations each.

Sex is determined by XY chromosomes across the radiation of dioecious pitcher plants.

Species with separate sexes (dioecy) are a minority among flowering plants, but dioecy has evolved multiple times independently in their history. The sex-determination system and sex-linked genomic regions are currently identified in a limited number of dioecious plants only. Here, we study the sex-determination system in a genus of dioecious plants that lack heteromorphic sex chromosomes and are not amenable to controlled breeding: pitcher plants.

Predicting species occurrences with habitat network models.

Biodiversity conservation requires modeling tools capable of predicting the presence or absence (i.e., occurrence-state) of species in habitat patches.

Bacterial communities within caterpillars are shifted following transition from solitary living to social parasitism of ant colonies.

Bacterial symbionts are known to facilitate a wide range of physiological processes and ecological interactions for their hosts. In spite of this, caterpillars with highly diverse life histories appear to lack resident microbiota. Gut physiology, endogenous digestive enzymes, and limited social interactions may contribute to this pattern, but the consequences of shifts in social activity and diet on caterpillar microbiota are largely unknown.

The early-life environment and individual plasticity in life-history traits.

We tested whether the early-life environment can influence the extent of individual plasticity in a life-history trait. We asked: can the early-life environment explain why, in response to the same adult environmental cue, some individuals invest more than others in current reproduction? Moreover, can it additionally explain why investment in current reproduction trades off against survival in some individuals, but is positively correlated with survival in others? We addressed these questions using the burying beetle which breeds on small carcasses and sometimes carries phoretic mites. These mites breed alongside the beetle, on the same resource, and are a key component of the beetle's early-life environment.

Prevalence and diversity of haemosporidian parasites in the yellow-rumped warbler hybrid zone.

Parasites can play a role in speciation, by exerting different selection pressures on different host lineages, leading to reproductive barriers in regions of possible interbreeding. Hybrid zones therefore offer an ideal system to study the effect of parasites on speciation. Here, we study a hybrid zone in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains where two yellow-rumped warbler subspecies, and , interbreed.