Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Wen Bo Liao, Ying Jiang, Da Yong Li, Long Jin, Mao Jun Zhong, Yin Qi, Stefan Lupold, Alexander Kotrschal
Summary: While crypsis is a prominent antipredator adaptation, the role of the brain in predator-driven evolution remains controversial. This study provides comparative evidence across 102 Chinese frog species, suggesting that reduced predation risk through crypsis can relax predation-driven selection on the brain, allowing frogs to use their large brain for cognitive predator evasion.
Article
Zoology
M. H. Cassini
Summary: In mammals, the dominant theory proposes that sexual size dimorphism evolved by sexual selection in a polygynous reproductive scenario. Natural selection is an alternative hypothesis where dimorphism represents an adaptation to ecological pressures. Phylogenetic path analysis suggests that natural selection has played an important role in the evolution of sexual size dimorphism in primates.
JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Gabor Herczeg, Gergely Balazs, Anna Biro, Ziga Fiser, Simona Kralj-Fiser, Cene Fiser
Summary: Body size is a significant trait in ecology and evolution, with differences often observed between males and females. The island rule and Rensch's rule predict larger body size in small-bodied species and increasing male-female size ratio with increasing body size, respectively. However, these rules were not supported in cave and surface populations of Asellus aquaticus isopods, suggesting that local selective forces other than island or surface characteristics drive population variation in body size and sexual size dimorphism. Hence, habitat type alone does not explain variation in body size and SSD in this species.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
Chengzhi Yan, Hui Ma, Yuejun Yang, Zhiping Mi
Summary: The limb bones of the Bufo gargarizans in southwest China were found to exhibit sexual dimorphism. Males had longer forelimb skeletons, but shorter hand length compared to females. Additionally, males had larger deltoid and medial crest areas, as well as heavier humerus and radioulna weights. In terms of hindlimbs, males had greater lengths in various bone measurements, but no significant weight differences. These findings suggest that sexual selection plays a role in the evolution of sexual size and shape dimorphism in the limb bones of B. gargarizans.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Stano Pekar, Martina Martisova, Andrea Spalek Tothova, Charles R. Haddad
Summary: This study objectively measured the resemblance between arthropod mimics and ants, based on traits such as color, shape, size, and behavior. The results showed that mimics were more similar to ants in color and behavior, rather than size and body shape.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Bianca J. L. Marcellino, Peri Yee, Shannon J. Mccauley, Rosalind L. Murray
Summary: This study examines the trade-off between mating effort and thermoregulatory behavior in dragonflies in response to temperature changes, and investigates the effect of wing melanin on these behaviors. The results indicate that as temperature increases, dragonflies reduce their mating effort and increase their thermoregulatory behavior.
Article
Zoology
Tao Liang, Shai Meiri, Lei Shi
Summary: Rensch's rule shows a weak pattern in lizards with more applicability to oviparous species than viviparous ones. In viviparous lineages, female-biased sexual dimorphism is more prominent due to infrequent reproduction and evolution of large sizes to maximize fecundity.
INTEGRATIVE ZOOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Xin Zhao, Jing-Xin Liu, Zhanqi Chen
Summary: Masquerade exists universally throughout the animal kingdom, but it has been given little attention and often misinterpreted. This study focused on the orchid mantis and provided information on its population abundance, coexistence with specific plants, color morph changes, and the impact of environmental factors on its life cycle. The study also identified differences in life history between the two sexes. This systematic investigation of the orchid mantis contributes to understanding the adaptive strategies of masqueraders.
EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biology
Tim Janicke, Salome Fromonteil
Summary: The study found that sexual size dimorphism (SSD) based on length measurements was correlated with the sex difference in the opportunity for sexual selection but showed a weak and statistically non-significant relationship with the sex difference in the Bateman gradient. This suggests that pre-copulatory sexual selection plays a limited role in the evolution of SSD across a broad phylogenetic context.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Yuting Dong, Jeffrey A. Harvey, Robin Steegh, Rieta Gols, Melissah Rowe
Summary: In many animals, body size is correlated with reproductive success. Sexual size dimorphism (SSD) is common in spiders, with larger, more fecund females and smaller, rapidly maturing males. In the false widow spider, male body size did not influence mating success under noncompetitive conditions, but larger males were more successful in obtaining access to females under competitive conditions. Additionally, copulation duration was shorter when a rival male was present, potentially impacting reproductive success. These findings highlight the importance of male body size in male-male competition and its implications on reproductive success.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Jeremy J. Midgley, Michael D. Cramer
Summary: This study found significant differences between female and male plants in terms of sexual reproduction and vegetative growth. Female plants tend to allocate more resources to sexual reproduction, while male plants prioritize vegetative growth. However, the sex ratios and basal stem areas are equal between the sexes. This suggests that plant traits are not only related to nutrition, but also to reproduction.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Biology
Angie S. Reyes, Amaury Bittar, Laura C. C. Avila, Catalina Botia, Natalia P. Esmeral, Natasha I. Bloch
Summary: This study investigates brain neuroanatomy in 18 wild guppy populations and finds extensive variation in brain size and brain region volumes across populations in different environments and with varying degrees of predation risk. Unlike laboratory studies, differences in allometric scaling of brain regions lead to variation in brain region proportions across populations. The study also reveals an association between sexual traits and brain size.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Michal Szpak, Stephan C. Collins, Yan Li, Xiao Liu, Qasim Ayub, Marie-Christine Fischer, Valerie E. Vancollie, Christopher J. Lelliott, Yali Xue, Binnaz Yalcin, Huanming Yang, Chris Tyler-Smith
Summary: The nonsense allele at rs1343879 in human MAGEE2 gene has shown to undergo strong positive selection in East Asia. Knockout of Magee2 in mice resulted in minor brain abnormalities and significantly associated with brain gray and white matter volume in a sex-specific manner.
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Sergio Nolazco, Kaspar Delhey, Shinichi Nakagawa, Anne Peters
Summary: This article examines the ornament traits and adaptive signals in birds. The study finds that although female ornaments are often less elaborate than male ornaments, both sexes show similar associations between ornaments and indicators of health and reproductive success.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Leandro G. Cosmo, Ana Paula A. Assis, Marcus A. M. de Aguiar, Mathias M. Pires, Alfredo Valido, Pedro Jordano, John N. Thompson, Jordi Bascompte, Paulo R. Guimaraes Jr
Summary: Ecological interactions are vital for maintaining biodiversity on Earth. This study investigates the impact of direct and indirect effects in mutualistic networks, showing that indirect effects play a major role in determining species fitness. Indirect effects prevent coevolving species from adapting to their mutualistic partners and other environmental pressures, resulting in decreased fitness. The topological effect of peripheral species experiencing more indirect effects and greater reduction in fitness compared to central species is evident. The study also highlights how honeybees as a central species in pollination networks increase indirect effects, thus reducing the fitness of other species.
Article
Plant Sciences
Manuela D'Amen, Ruben G. Mateo, Julien Pottier, Wilfried Thuiller, Luigi Maiorano, Loic Pellissier, Charlotte Ndiribe, Nicolas Salamin, Antoine Guisan
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2018)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Anna Marcionetti, Victor Rossier, Joris A. M. Bertrand, Glenn Litsios, Nicolas Salamin
MOLECULAR ECOLOGY RESOURCES
(2018)
Article
Biology
Jonathan Rolland, Daniele Silvestro, Glenn Litsios, Laurelene Faye, Nicolas Salamin
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2018)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Daniele Silvestro, Marcelo F. Tejedor, Martha L. Serrano-Serrano, Oriane Loiseau, Victor Rossier, Jonathan Rolland, Alexander Zizka, Sebastian Hoehna, Alexandre Antonelli, Nicolas Salamin
SYSTEMATIC BIOLOGY
(2019)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Bianca Saladin, Wilfried Thuiller, Catherine H. Graham, Sebastien Lavergne, Luigi Maiorano, Nicolas Salamin, Niklaus E. Zimmermann
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2019)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Xavier Meyer, Linda Dib, Daniele Silvestro, Nicolas Salamin
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2019)
Article
Plant Sciences
Oriane Loiseau, Anna Weigand, Sarah Noben, Jonathan Rolland, Daniele Silvestro, Michael Kessler, Marcus Lehnert, Nicolas Salamin
Article
Plant Sciences
Kana Yamada, Iakov I. Davydov, Guillaume Besnard, Nicolas Salamin
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY
(2019)
Article
Plant Sciences
Talita Mota Machado, Oriane Loiseau, Margot Paris, Anna Weigand, Leonardo M. Versieux, Joao Renato Stehmann, Christian Lexer, Nicolas Salamin
BOTANICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY
(2020)
Article
Ecology
Zheng Yan, Simon H. Martin, Dietrich Gotzek, Samuel V. Arsenault, Pablo Duchen, Quentin Helleu, Oksana Riba-Grognuz, Brendan G. Hunt, Nicolas Salamin, DeWayne Shoemaker, Kenneth G. Ross, Laurent Keller
NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2020)
Article
Plant Sciences
Marylaure De La Harpe, Margot Paris, Jaqueline Hess, Michael Harald Johannes Barfuss, Martha Liliana Serrano-Serrano, Arindam Ghatak, Palak Chaturvedi, Wolfram Weckwerth, Walter Till, Nicolas Salamin, Ching Man Wai, Ray Ming, Christian Lexer
PLANT CELL AND ENVIRONMENT
(2020)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Bianca Saladin, Loic Pellissier, Catherine H. Graham, Michael P. Nobis, Nicolas Salamin, Niklaus E. Zimmermann
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2020)
Article
Ecology
Svenja Heesch, Martha Serrano-Serrano, Josue Barrera-Redondo, Remy Luthringer, Akira F. Peters, Christophe Destombe, J. Mark Cock, Myriam Valero, Denis Roze, Nicolas Salamin, Susana M. Coelho
Summary: A study on the evolution of life cycles in brown algae revealed that diploid growth evolves when sexual reproduction is preferred over asexual reproduction. The research also found that haploid sex determination is ancestral to diploid sex determination, and isogamous species in brown algae evolved from anisogamous ancestors, contrary to the commonly reported pattern of evolution from isogamy to anisogamy.
JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Pauline Salis, Natacha Roux, Delai Huang, Anna Marcionetti, Pierick Mouginot, Mathieu Reynaud, Oceane Salles, Nicolas Salamin, Benoit Pujol, David M. Parichy, Serge Planes, Vincent Laudet
Summary: It was found that the developmental timing of white bar formation in juvenile clownfish during metamorphosis is influenced by the sea anemone species they are recruited in, possibly dependent on thyroid hormone. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that higher TH levels in fish recruited in certain sea anemone species were associated with faster white bar formation, with the duox gene playing a crucial role in regulating iridophore pattern timing.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Anna Marcionetti, Nicolas Salamin
Summary: Clownfishes, through their mutualistic interaction with sea anemones, rapidly diversified into different ecological niches and developed convergent phenotypes. However, the genomic architecture underlying this diversification and the extent of shared genetic mechanisms for phenotypic convergence are still unknown.
GENOME BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)