Article
Ecology
Eniko Szep, Himani Sachdeva, Nicholas H. Barton
Summary: This article analyzes conditions for local adaptation in a metapopulation with infinitely many islands, under a model of hard selection. It shows that the conditions for local adaptation are more restrictive for traits with more polygenic loci in rare habitats. Demographic stochasticity is highlighted as exacerbating the decline of maladapted populations, leading to population collapse in the rare habitat at significantly lower migration rates than predicted by deterministic arguments.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Matthew Michalska-Smith, Kimberly VanderWaal, Meggan E. Craft
Summary: Understanding the impact of individual movement on disease dynamics is crucial for predicting and responding to disease spread. This study found that movement between different regions can affect local disease dynamics by reducing oscillations, increasing synchrony, and stabilizing or destabilizing the dynamics in the destination area. These findings provide new insights into the role of host movement in disease dynamics and offer a framework for future predictive modeling of disease spread.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Briana K. Whitaker, Hannah Giauque, Corey Timmerman, Nicolas Birk, Christine Hawkes
Summary: The study analyzed the source contributions to the foliar fungal microbiome of a C4 grass across different spatial scales, showing that plants were more important sources than soil and that contributions from different plant functional groups were similar. As annual precipitation increased, plant contributions decreased and unexplained variation increased. The results suggest that the dynamics of foliar fungi sourcing are primarily local and affected by dispersal limitation and environmental filtering.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Martin Kapun, Esra Durmaz Mitchell, Tadeusz J. Kawecki, Paul Schmidt, Thomas Flatt
Summary: Since the pioneering work of Dobzhansky in the 1930s and 1940s, multiple chromosomal inversions have been identified, but their role in adaptation is still poorly understood. In this study, the researchers investigated the population genomics of the inversion polymorphism In(3R)Payne in Drosophila melanogaster on four continents. Their results indicate that the inversion originated in sub-Saharan Africa and spread globally, with divergent evolution in non-African populations. The inversion was found to be associated with differential gene expression and higher inversion frequency in warm climates.
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Yongsong Huang, Wanqing Xie, Mingzhen Li, Ethan Xiao, Jane You, Xiaofeng Liu
Summary: Unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA) is crucial for transferring knowledge from a labeled source domain to an unlabeled target domain. However, UDA methods without source supervision may overlook minority categories and suffer from pseudo-label noise. To address these challenges, the authors propose a novel class-balanced complementary self-training (CBCOST) framework for source-free UDA segmentation, which incorporates class-wise balanced pseudo-label training and complementary label selection to improve performance.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN MEDICINE
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Manuel Sapage, Susana A. M. Varela, Hanna Kokko
Summary: The study shows that social learning can promote dispersal in individuals, especially in terms of mate choice. Immigrant females can switch to locally adapted preferences through mate-choice copying, thereby mitigating dispersal costs. This results in increased gene flow, reducing local adaptation and trait-preference correlations.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Biology
Victor Boussange, Loic Pellissier
Summary: This study investigates the impact of habitat connectivity and heterogeneity on phenotypic differentiation using a stochastic eco-evolutionary model. The research reveals that both low connectivity and heterogeneity promote neutral differentiation, while habitat assortativity drives differentiation under habitat-dependent selection. The study establishes fundamental links between landscape features and phenotypic differentiation, providing insights into how habitat connectivity and heterogeneity affect differentiation.
COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Peter Czuppon, Francois Blanquart, Hildegard Uecker, Florence Debarre
Summary: Research shows that migration rate has a complex effect on the probability of evolutionary rescue: low migration rates increase rescue probability, intermediate migration rates decrease it, and high migration rates may increase rescue probability again. Additionally, preferential migration of mutant and wild-type individuals into patches that have already undergone environmental change can maximize the probability of rescue.
AMERICAN NATURALIST
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Jakob T. Goldner, Jeffrey D. Holland
Summary: Environmental differences can lead to morphologically different subpopulations, as seen in jewelwing damselflies with different wing sizes in different types of habitat. This study aimed to describe the relationship between damselfly wing lengths and forest fragmentation, and determine the spatial scale at which these morphological differences occur. The findings showed positive relationships between wing length and edge density, with spatial autocorrelation at short distances.
Article
Biology
Alicja Laska, Sara Magalhaes, Mariusz Lewandowski, Ewa Puchalska, Kamila Karpicka-Ignatowska, Anna Radwanska, Shawn Meagher, Lechoslaw Kuczynski, Anna Skoracka
Summary: In seasonal environments, sinks that are more persistent than sources can act as temporal stepping stones for specialist populations, allowing them to survive on suboptimal hosts for several generations. However, these specialists do not adapt to the suboptimal hosts, but rather use them as temporary stepping stones for survival.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Monia Nakamura, Helena Rio-Maior, Raquel Godinho, Francisco Petrucci-Fonseca, Francisco Alvares
Summary: Long-term monitoring of wolf population in northwest Portugal showed an average annual population size of 27 individuals, with a growth rate following a decline and recovery pattern. Dispersers accounted for 11% of the population with an average dispersal distance of 24.8 km, while core packs demonstrated higher group persistence, breeding success, and average group size compared to sink packs.
BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION
(2021)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Jing Meng, Tieyu Wang, Bin Shi, Qianqian Li, Chenxi Wang, Lingwen Dai, Guijin Su
Summary: The ubiquitous distributions of chromium in environments pose threats to human and ecosystem health. China, as the largest producer and consumer of chromium products, has complete chromium-related industries. This study illustrated the flow of chromium from Chinese industrial sectors to the environment, with emissions through waste gas, wastewater, and solid waste being the main pathways. Ferrochromium manufacturing contributed the most to total wastes, while general solid waste treatment was the primary pathway of chromium entering the soil.
JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Luxin Zhang, Pascal Germain, Yacine Kessaci, Christophe Biernacki
Summary: We study a realistic domain adaptation setting where an existing black-box machine learning model is accessible. We propose a solution that provides an interpretable target to source transformation by adapting the feature space in a sparse and ordered manner. The selection of features to be adapted is done using a weakly-supervised process and a new pseudo-label estimator based on rank-stability. Experimental results show promising performance on real datasets.
Article
Ecology
Pim Edelaar
Summary: This article reviews the empirical tests of a hypothesis on sexual selection and population divergence. It concludes that very few papers have explicitly tested the hypothesis, with only one study finding support for it. Though sexual selection may not often reduce gene flow between populations, the article suggests improvements in experimental design and choice of study system.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Yang Zou, Zijie Wei, Keyan Xiao, Zhigang Wu, Xinwei Xu
Summary: Clonal propagation and extensive seed and asexual propagule dispersal are important traits for aquatic plants. This study provides insights into the evolution of the emergent aquatic plant Sparganium stoloniferum by analyzing its population genomics. A high-quality chromosome-level genome was assembled, and population genomics revealed three genetic lineages reflecting the geographic distribution. Clonal relationships and dispersal patterns were analyzed, and lineage-specific positively selected genes were identified, providing new perspectives on the evolution of aquatic plants.
MOLECULAR ECOLOGY RESOURCES
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Christophe Dufresnes, Alan Brelsford, Felix Baier, Nicolas Perrin
Summary: Sex chromosomes do not necessarily stop recombining, heterochiasmy does not necessarily constrain heterogamety, and the role of sex-antagonistic genes in the evolution of sex chromosomes may have been overemphasized.
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Review
Biology
Nicolas Perrin
Summary: Studies on two families of amphibians, Ranidae and Hylidae, show that sex-antagonistic (SA) genes do not play a significant role in the evolutionary dynamics of their sex chromosomes. Instead, neutral processes and deleterious mutations are found to be more central in driving the evolution of sex chromosomes in these groups.
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Emergency Medicine
Severine Vuilleumier, Assunta Fiorentino, Sandrine Denereaz, Thierry Spichiger
Summary: The study conducted in Switzerland in 2018 revealed that 87% of prehospital missions were for non-urgent situations. The majority of cases involved patients aged 65 or older, with medical issues being the most common (49%), followed by trauma situations at only 23%. Mental health-related missions accounted for 7%, while intoxication-related missions accounted for 6%. Most missions occurred between 7:00 am and 6:00 pm (67%), with around 12% of missions resulting in patients not needing transportation to the hospital.
BMC EMERGENCY MEDICINE
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Qian S. Zhang, Jerome Goudet, Bruce S. Weir
Summary: Inbreeding estimators that rely on sample allele frequencies as estimates are influenced by pedigrees and the reference population, while allele-sharing estimators provide consistent rankings across all studies and individuals, particularly with a large number of SNPs.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Tristan Cumer, Ana Paula Machado, Guillaume Dumont, Vasileios Bontzorlos, Renato Ceccherelli, Motti Charter, Klaus Dichmann, Nicolaos Kassinis, Rui Lourenco, Francesca Manzia, Hans-Dieter Martens, Laure Prevost, Marko Rakovic, Ines Roque, Felipe Siverio, Alexandre Roulin, Jerome Goudet
Summary: The complex history of barn owl populations across the Western Palearctic region reveals the impact of climatic variations and landscape barriers on the splitting and evolution of populations. The study identifies two distinct lineages colonizing Europe and the Levant before the last glaciation, with a secondary contact zone in Anatolia. Additionally, it shows that barn owls recolonized Europe from two glacial refugia in Iberia and Italy, with communication between the glacial lineages now occurring via eastern Europe.
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Ana Paula Machado, Alexandros Topaloudis, Tristan Cumer, Eleonore Lavanchy, Vasileios Bontzorlos, Renato Ceccherelli, Motti Charter, Nicolaos Kassinis, Petros Lymberakis, Francesca Manzia, Anne-Lyse Ducrest, Melanie Dupasquier, Nicolas Guex, Alexandre Roulin, Jerome Goudet
Summary: The study of insular populations is crucial for the development of evolutionary theory, as successful colonization of an island is influenced by various factors. This study on barn owls from Crete and Cyprus revealed that these populations have distinct genetic characteristics and demographic histories. The research provides empirical evidence for the impact of stochastic processes on isolated populations in island-mainland systems.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Ana Paula Machado, Tristan Cumer, Christian Iseli, Emmanuel Beaudoing, Anne-Lyse Ducrest, Melanie Dupasquier, Nicolas Guex, Klaus Dichmann, Rui Lourenco, John Lusby, Hans-Dieter Martens, Laure Prevost, David Ramsden, Alexandre Roulin, Jerome Goudet
Summary: Research suggests that barn owls colonized the British Isles directly from a white-colored refugium in the Iberian Peninsula after the last glaciation, rather than crossing over Doggerland as previously believed. They maintained their white color in the British Isles through low gene flow with the mainland, suggesting neutral processes rather than selection for the contrasting color. This unexpected colonization route may have implications for other species from the paleo community as well.
Article
Biology
Andre Silva Marostica, Kelly Nunes, Erick C. Castelli, Nayane S. B. Silva, Bruce S. Weir, Jerome Goudet, Diogo Meyer
Summary: In his 1972 paper 'The apportionment of human diversity', Lewontin demonstrated that genetic diversity is mainly attributed to differences within populations. However, selection can affect diversity of specific genes or genomic regions. This study focuses on genetic diversity at the human leucocyte antigen (HLA) loci, which play a critical role in adaptive immunity. The findings show balancing selection on HLA genes over large timescales, as indicated by low F-ST values. However, when analyzing HLA alleles defined by single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), significant frequency differences between geographic regions are observed. These differences have implications for bone marrow transplantation, particularly in regions with a deficit of donors matching MHC region of African ancestry, as seen in Brazil's bone marrow registry.
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Tristan Cumer, Ana Paula Machado, Felipe Siverio, Sidi Imad Cherkaoui, Ines Roque, Rui Lourenco, Motti Charter, Alexandre Roulin, Jerome Goudet
Summary: Islands and the organisms that inhabit them have long been of interest to biologists. The Canary Islands, with its endemic species, is a unique location to study the effect of neutral and adaptive mechanisms on genomic and phenotypical divergence. By analyzing the genomes of barn owls in the Canaries, researchers have identified genetic markers associated with adaptation to insular environments, such as body proportions and blood pressure in the eastern islands, and hypoxia in the western islands. These findings highlight the interplay between neutral and adaptive forces in shaping divergence and early speciation.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Eleonore Lavanchy, Jerome Goudet
Summary: Genomic measures of inbreeding based on IBD segments are widely used but often rely on assumptions that can affect the accuracy of estimation. In this study, we simulated data from different genomic representations and compared the performance of two software programs for estimating IBD segments. We found that the density of SNPs required for accurate estimation varied between the two programs and was influenced by the demographic history of the population. We recommend researchers consider the specific characteristics of their data and choose the appropriate method for inbreeding estimation.
MOLECULAR ECOLOGY RESOURCES
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Christophe Dufresnes, Ludovic Dutoit, Alan Brelsford, Fardo Goldstein-Witsenburg, Laura Clement, Adria Lopez-Baucells, Jorge Palmeirim, Igor Pavlinic, Dino Scaravelli, Martin Sevcik, Philippe Christe, Jerome Goudet
Summary: Traditional genotyping methods are limited in quantifying genetic diversity and structure, while next-generation sequencing has not been properly tested in highly mobile species. This study compared microsatellite and RAD-sequencing analyses in investigating population structure in the declining bent-winged bat across Europe. The results show that microsatellites were not informative in individual-based analyses, but genomic SNPs provided resolution on regional substructures and confirmed suspicions of philopatry and spatial partitioning in the species.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Yangji Choi, Anais Ladoy, David De Ridder, Damien Jacot, Severine Vuilleumier, Claire Bertelli, Idris Guessous, Trestan Pillonel, Stephane Joost, Gilbert Greub
Summary: The combination of spatiotemporal clustering and genomic analyses in public health surveillance systems can enhance the identification of high-risk areas, improve surveillance efficiency, and save resources through synergistic benefits.
FRONTIERS IN PUBLIC HEALTH
(2022)
Article
Emergency Medicine
Severine Vuilleumier, Thierry Spichiger, Sandrine Denereaz, Assunta Fiorentino
Summary: This study investigates the changes in ambulance emergency demands during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Vaud State of Switzerland. The findings show that the pandemic has led to an increase in respiratory distress cases and a decrease in trauma and intoxication cases. There has also been an increase in emergency demands from the older population.
BMC EMERGENCY MEDICINE
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Anais Ladoy, Onya Opota, Pierre-Nicolas Carron, Idris Guessous, Severine Vuilleumier, Stephane Joost, Gilbert Greub
Summary: The study in the first wave of COVID-19 in Vaud, Switzerland, found that significant clusters occurred in younger individuals with higher viral loads, with urban areas more prone to persistent and expanding virus transmission. Early localization of clusters could help implement targeted protective measures to limit virus spread.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Zoology
Paul Doniol-Valcroze, Glib Mazepa, Francois Grimal, Patricia Sourrouille, Nicolas Perrin, Spartak N. Litvinchuk, Pierre-Andre Crochet
Summary: A population of the exotic North African Water Frog Pelophylax saharicus has been discovered in the Etang de Berre area of France, present since at least 2011. Further field work is needed to map its distribution, assess its impact on the native species, and determine if it has spread to neighboring areas. Based on these findings, local conservationists will need to evaluate the feasibility and relevance of taking action to control or eradicate this invasive species.
