Article
Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
T. Yin, K. Halli, S. Koenig
Summary: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of heat stress during late gestation on genetic parameters for diseases in Holstein calves. The study found that heat stress had detrimental effects on the calves' health and identified potential candidate genes related to immune physiology and disease resistance mechanisms.
JOURNAL OF DAIRY SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
N. Deshpandea Jhelam, Emanuel A. Fronhofer
Summary: This study investigates the impact of genetic architecture on the dynamics and predictability of invasion into an environmental gradient. The results show that in a gene regulatory network model, range expansions are accelerating and less predictable, primarily driven by an increase in the rate of local adaptation to novel habitats.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Benjamin Brachi, Daniele Filiault, Hannah Whitehurst, Paul Darme, Pierre Le Gars, Marine Le Mentec, Timothy C. Morton, Envel Kerdaffrec, Fernando Rabanal, Alison Anastasio, Mathew S. Box, Susan Duncan, Feng Huang, Riley Leff, Polina Novikova, Matthew Perisin, Takashi Tsuchimatsu, Roderick Woolley, Caroline Dean, Magnus Nordborg, Svante Holm, Joy Bergelson
Summary: Host genetic variation has consistent effects on microbial communities, impacting plant fitness. Specific microbial species are preferentially associated with certain genotypes, and the interactions between host genes and microbes significantly affect seed production in plants.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Dina Navon, Paul Hatini, Lily Zogbaum, R. Craig Albertson
Summary: The research found that plasticity is generally integrated across a range of ecologically relevant traits, with traits that have overlapping functions responding in a coordinated manner. Genetic data suggest a compromise between global genetic regulators and integration across traits for plasticity.
Article
Agronomy
Jun-Yu Cao, Kun Xing, Fei Zhao
Summary: The study found that early thermal experience not only changed the tolerance of the cereal aphid, Sitobion avenae, to the insecticide, imidacloprid, but also caused adults to incur fitness costs. Negative transgenerational impacts were limited to the developmental stage, while positive stimulation was observed during the adult stage.
PEST MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Charlotte M. Miton, Karol Buda, Nobuhiko Tokuriki
Summary: Proteins are molecular machines made up of complex, highly connected amino acid networks, and their functional optimization requires the reorganization of these networks. Epistasis rewires intramolecular interactions to alter protein function, playing a crucial role in understanding evolutionary dynamics and sequence-structure-function relationships. Recent studies have provided insights into the molecular mechanisms of epistasis at the structural level, showcasing the intricate and fascinating nature of intramolecular networks co-opted during the evolution of protein function.
CURRENT OPINION IN STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Luke J. Kosinski, Nathan R. Aviles, Kevin Gomez, Joanna Masel
Summary: Proteins, as the workhorses of the cell, can cause harm through misfolding and aggregation. However, sometimes proteins can be born from noncoding DNA without harm. By studying the fitness of different Escherichia coli lineages expressing unique random peptides, researchers found that simple amino acid frequencies, rather than the ordering of amino acids, predicted lineage fitness. Smaller amino acids that promote intrinsic structural disorder had less harmful effects on fitness. These amino acids were also enriched in young animal proteins.
GENOME BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Perret Martine, Anzeraey Aude
Summary: Parental age at conception has a significant impact on the longevity of offspring, particularly the age of the mother. However, the age of the father has a minimal effect on offspring longevity. The longevity of female offspring is positively correlated with the longevity of both parents.
Article
Biology
Liang-Dar Hwang, Gunn-Helen Moen, David M. Evans
Summary: This paper introduces a method that uses structural equation modeling to partition maternal genetic effects into prenatal and postnatal effects. The method is applied to the data from the UK Biobank, showing the expected pattern of maternal genetic effects on offspring birth weight and unexpected effects on offspring educational attainment. Sensitivity and simulation analyses demonstrate the importance of accurate modeling of cryptic relationships.
Article
Ecology
Irene Godoy, Peter Korsten, Susan E. Perry
Summary: This study examines the influence of social, genetic, and environmental factors on sociality in a long-lived wild primate using the animal model approach. The results show that measures of social activity and number of partners have low to moderate long-term repeatability, with a significant portion of this repeatability being explained by genetic factors and a small contribution from maternal effects.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Stephanie C. Schai-Braun, Peter Steiger, Thomas Ruf, Walter Arnold, Klaus Hacklaender
Summary: Females with higher body weight in European hares tend to have heavier offspring at birth. Total litter mass is larger in summer and spring compared to winter. Multi-parous females have heavier offspring at the end of lactation compared to primiparous females. In precocial hares, female body condition is no longer predictive of reproductive parameters at the end of lactation, possibly due to offspring starting solid food shortly after birth and being less dependent on maternal body condition.
Editorial Material
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Julia M. Kreiner, Tom R. Booker
Summary: Quantifying the impact of human activity on the capacity of populations to persist is crucial for conservation biology. Studying the population collapse of sea otters due to fur trade can provide insights into the consequences of population collapse on species persistence.
Article
Business
Lan Xia, Anne L. Roggeveen
Summary: This research examines how consumers evaluate the fairness of price increases during collective stress situations. The findings suggest that collective stress situations can evoke feelings of nostalgia, which in turn enhance consumer empathy and lead to the perception of price increases as more fair. The study also reveals that a consumer's political identity can moderate the impact of the severity of the collective stress situation on nostalgia and price fairness.
JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Biology
Patrick J. Tkaczynski, Fabrizio Mafessoni, Cedric Girard-Buttoz, Liran Samuni, Corinne Y. Ackermann, Pawel Fedurek, Cristina Gomes, Catherine Hobaiter, Therese Loehrich, Virgile Manin, Anna Preis, Prince D. Vale, Erin G. Wessling, Livia Wittiger, Zinta Zommers, Klaus Zuberbuehler, Linda Vigilant, Tobias Deschner, Roman M. Wittig, Catherine Crockford
Summary: English summary: Using urinary samples from 170 wild chimpanzees, the study found that shared community and non-genetic maternal effects have a greater influence on urinary cortisol levels than genetic inheritance. Consistent individual variation in cortisol levels was observed, but between-group effects were more influential in determining the variation in this trait. Non-genetic maternal effects accounted for a significant proportion of the individual differences in cortisol levels, suggesting a primary role of shared environment in shaping physiology.
COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ethnic Studies
Zoey Eddy, Payton A. Small, Diego Padilla-Garcia, Brenda Major
Summary: Black participants evaluated individuals claiming mismatched racial identities more favorably when a majority amount of corroborating genetic information was provided, especially when the target identified as Black and had a majority amount of genetic evidence.
CULTURAL DIVERSITY & ETHNIC MINORITY PSYCHOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Marcus Becker, David J. Huggard, Melanie Dickie, Camille Warbington, Jim Schieck, Emily Herdman, Robert Serrouya, Stan Boutin
Summary: Estimating animal abundance and density using camera trapping has become popular, but estimating density of unmarked populations is still problematic and requires further investigation.
Article
Ecology
Jenilee Gobin, Thomas J. Hossie, Rachael E. Derbyshire, Samuel Sonnega, Tucker W. Cambridge, Lee Scholl, Nicolas Diaz Kloch, Arthur Scully, Kiefer Thalen, Graeme Smith, Carly Scott, Francis Quinby, Jordan Reynolds, Hannah A. Miller, Holly Faithfull, Owen Lucas, Christopher Dennison, Jordan McDonald, Stan Boutin, Mark O'Donoghue, Charles J. Krebs, Rudy Boonstra, Dennis L. Murray
Summary: Ecological communities are connected through complex trophic interactions that vary across predators and prey. However, obtaining empirical data to characterize these relationships in natural systems is challenging. This study shows that relying solely on hyperbolic functional responses fails to capture important ecological interactions and affects estimates of food web properties and dynamics. More comprehensive research is needed to understand the mechanistic link between food web structure and community dynamics.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Joanie L. Kennah, Michael J. L. Peers, Eric Vander Wal, Yasmine N. Majchrzak, Allyson K. Menzies, Emily K. Studd, Rudy Boonstra, Murray M. Humphries, Thomas S. Jung, Alice J. Kenney, Charles J. Krebs, Stan Boutin
Summary: Climate warming causes asynchronies between animal phenology and environments, and mismatched traits may decrease survival. However, coat color change can provide advantages other than camouflage. In this study, we found that mismatched snowshoe hares in Yukon had a significantly reduced autumn mortality risk, possibly due to the increased coat insulation and lower metabolic rates of winter-acclimatized hares. Mismatched hares also foraged less and had lower predation risk, leading to higher survival rates. However, mismatch did not affect spring mortality risk, suggesting a potential temperature limit where the costs of conspicuousness outweigh energetic benefits.
Article
Ecology
Quinn M. R. Webber, Ben Dantzer, Jeffrey E. E. Lane, Stan Boutin, Andrew G. G. McAdam
Summary: Through studying North American red squirrels, we found that territory size and intrusion rates display negative density dependence. When food availability increases, territories shrink while population density increases. However, when resources decrease, territories expand and population density decreases.
JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biology
Sam F. Walmsley, Stan Boutin, Ben Dantzer, Jeffrey E. Lane, David W. Coltman, Andrew G. McAdam
Summary: The study on North American red squirrels revealed that kinship has an influence on their survival and reproductive success. Female red squirrels have higher annual survival when they live closer to their daughters, while males have higher annual reproductive success when they live closer to their fathers.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Melanie Dickie, Caroline Bampfylde, Thomas J. Habib, Michael Cody, Kendal Benesh, Mandy Kellner, Michelle McLellan, Stan Boutin, Robert Serrouya
Summary: Habitat loss is a major threat to species at risk, and habitat restoration is essential for the recovery of woodland caribou populations in Western Canada. An algorithm was developed to prioritize restoration efforts and monitor progress. The algorithm ranked landscape units into five zones of restoration priority based on maximizing gain in unaltered caribou habitat per unit cost. Ambitious and coordinated restoration efforts are needed to meet habitat management targets and minimize alteration within caribou range.
RESTORATION ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Lauren Petrullo, Stan Boutin, Jeffrey E. Lane, Andrew G. McAdam, Ben Dantzer
Summary: This study shows that phenotype-environment mismatch errors in wild red squirrels can be explained by asymmetrical costs of different types of errors. Mothers that mistakenly increased reproductive effort when signals of an upcoming food pulse were absent were more likely to correctly increase effort when a food pulse did occur. However, mothers that failed to increase effort when cues of an upcoming food pulse were present suffered lifetime fitness costs that could only be offset through food supplementation. Therefore, these phenotype-environment mismatches may reflect a bias to overestimate environmental cues and avoid making the costliest error, ultimately enhancing lifetime fitness.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Michelle L. McLellan, Melanie Dickie, Stan Boutin, Marcus Becker, Bevan Ernst, Darcy Peel, Kathryn L. Zimmerman, Robert Serrouya
Summary: For wide-ranging species, it is often difficult to implement effective conservation action due to cost or political challenges. To address this, a prioritization approach is needed to focus on areas where conservation efforts are more likely to succeed. Using Southern Mountain Caribou as an example, a simple algorithm is developed to rank subpopulations based on habitat quality and population characteristics, weighted according to expert opinion. Sensitivity analyses are used to measure the impact of criteria variance and expert weighting. This transparent framework allows for discussions on conservation, subpopulation comparisons, and adaptive management. The algorithm can be adapted for other species and used by conservation scientists and managers to prioritize populations for recovery actions.
CONSERVATION SCIENCE AND PRACTICE
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Alicia Halhed, Lauren Petrullo, Stan Boutin, Ben Dantzer, Andrew McAdam, Martin Wu, Karl Cottenie
Summary: In this study, the gut microbiome samples of red squirrels were analyzed to identify the drivers of microbiome composition. The spatial location of the squirrels was found to be a key contributor to the composition of the gut microbial community. The non-core microbiome showed highly localized spatial patterns, while the core microbiome showed some spatial patterns. The results suggest that environmental transmission plays a role in the spatiotemporal distribution of the red squirrel gut microbiome.
ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY REPORTS
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Mark O'Donoghue, Brian G. Slough, Kim Poole, Stan Boutin, Elizabeth J. Hofer, Garth Mowat, Dennis Murray, Charles J. Krebs
Summary: Counting tracks in the snow can provide a relatively simple and inexpensive method for estimating the abundance of meso-carnivores. However, seasonality and snow depth should be taken into account when using this method.