Article
Ecology
Roberto Garcia-Roa, Rebeca Dominguez-Santos, Vicente Perez-Brocal, Andres Moya Amparo Latorre, Pau Carazo, Andres Moya, Amparo Latorre
Summary: Social behaviors often rely on kin recognition, and recent research suggests that altering host-associated microorganisms may provide insights into the mechanisms of kin recognition. This study investigates the effects of larval rearing environment and relatedness on gut microbiota and cuticular hydrocarbons in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. The results show that rearing environment strongly influences microbiota composition and hydrocarbon profiles, while relatedness mainly affects microbiota diversity, which in turn covaries with hydrocarbon profiles.
Article
Biology
Marie J. E. Charpentier, Clemence Poirotte, Berta Roura-Torres, Paul Amblard-Rambert, Eric Willaume, Peter M. Kappeler, Francois Rousset, Julien P. Renoult
Summary: Behavioral discrimination of kin is an important process in structuring social relationships in animals. This study provides evidence of discrimination towards non-kin through phenotype matching. In mandrills, mothers guide their offspring's social opportunities towards infants who resemble their own offspring. Results show that mothers are spatially closer to similar-looking infants, indicating adaptive maternal behavior.
Article
Biology
Nicholas M. Grebe, Jean Paul Hirwa, Tara S. Stoinski, Linda Vigilant, Stacy Rosenbaum
Summary: Using behavioral data collected from wild mountain gorillas, this study shows that gorillas have a strong preference for kin, but exhibit higher aggression rates towards non-kin. These findings provide important insights into understanding social behavior and adaptive evolution in mountain gorillas.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Hella Peter, Marion Laporte, Nicholas E. Newton-Fisher, Vernon Reynolds, Liran Samuni, Adrian Soldati, Linda Vigilant, Jakob Villioth, Kirsty E. Graham, Klaus Zuberbuehler, Catherine Hobaiter
Summary: Associating with kin has benefits but needs detectability. Facial phenotype matching might help assess paternity in humans, but evidence is mixed. Concealing paternity cues benefits chimpanzees due to infanticide risk, but detecting kin helps inbreeding avoidance and kin-based alliances. This study found that humans can detect kinship in chimpanzees through facial similarity, supporting paternity confusion in infants and incest avoidance in older individuals.
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY
(2022)
Review
Plant Sciences
Remi Pelissier, Cyrille Violle, Jean-Benoit Morel
Summary: Plant immunity is influenced by various abiotic factors, with the microbiome playing a crucial role as a biotic driver of plant resistance. Plants have been shown to adjust their resistance to pests and pathogens in response to neighboring plants. The exchange of molecules between plants can modulate plant immunity, and the allelopathy relationship with immunity warrants further investigation. Most cases of immunity modulation by neighbors have been positive, offering new perspectives for natural plant communities and diverse cultivated systems.
CURRENT OPINION IN PLANT BIOLOGY
(2021)
Review
Ecology
Meredith L. Biedrzycki, Harsh P. Bais
Summary: This article explores kin recognition in plants, including its impact on nutrient and resource allocation and its role in multispecies interactions, with a focus on the involvement of plant roots in these processes. Future research directions are also discussed.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Ana Marquez-Rosado, Clara Garcia-Co, Claudia Londono-Nieto, Pau Carazo
Summary: This study examines the effects of rearing environment and relatedness on male aggression, harassment, and harm towards females in Drosophila melanogaster. Contrary to previous findings, the study reveals that unrelated-unfamiliar males are just as likely to fight and harass females as related-familiar males, and overall levels of male harm to females are similar across treatments.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Biology
Samuel D. Robinson, Vanessa Schendel, Christina I. Schroeder, Sarah Moen, Alexander Mueller, Andrew A. Walker, Naomi McKinnon, G. Gregory Neely, Irina Vetter, Glenn F. King, Eivind A. B. Undheim
Summary: This study reveals that the venom of R. metallica consists of a high diversity of functionally distinct toxins, and despite low genetic relatedness among individuals, there is significant genetic variation within the colony. This suggests that the increased genetic variance can provide a selective advantage in maintaining the eusociality of R. metallica by expanding the pharmacological venom repertoire.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Trey J. Scott
Summary: By comparing cooperative and private loci in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, it was found that cooperative loci tend to be more pleiotropic than private loci in terms of protein-protein interactions, gene ontology terms, and gene expression specificity. These findings suggest that pleiotropy may be a general mechanism to limit cheating and that cooperation may shape pleiotropy in the genome.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Biology
Andras Szilagyi, Tamas Czaran, Mauro Santos, Eoers Szathmary
Summary: Conventional wisdom in evolutionary theory suggests that aging is a byproduct of natural selection, but research has shown that aging is not inevitable. Based on a spatially explicit simulation model, this study found that aging can be positively selected for in the presence of strong directional and kin selection, even in sexual reproduction. These results support the conceptual link between giving up clonal reproduction and evolving an aging genotype.
Article
Biology
Mauricio Gonzalez-Forero, Jorge Pena
Summary: Mothers in eusocial species can induce offspring to help through hormones, pheromones, or behavioral displays, with offspring often helping voluntarily. The converted helping hypothesis suggests that maternal manipulation of assistance can eventually lead to voluntary help, resolving parent-offspring conflict. This mechanism results in reproductive division of labor, increased queen fertility, and honest queen signaling to suppress worker reproduction, recovering diverse features of eusociality.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Huan Li, Yongjun Tan, Dapeng Zhang
Summary: Bacteria have developed various molecular conflict systems, including polymorphic toxin systems (PTSs), to facilitate kin recognition and non-kin competition for growth niches and limited resources. However, the highly divergent nature of these systems makes it challenging to identify and characterize them using traditional experimental and bioinformatic approaches. In this study, the researchers used unique genome-mining strategies and pipelines based on the organizational principles of domain architectures and genomic loci to systematically discover a new type of PTS (S8-PTS) in gram-positive bacteria. They revealed the components and organization of the S8-PTS, classified the toxin domains into different superfamily groups, and identified the associated immunity proteins. Furthermore, they found that the peptidases associated with S8-PTS are similar to processing peptidases found in other secretion systems and proprotein-processing peptidases. The S8-PTSs are mostly found in animal and plant-associated bacteria, including many pathogens, suggesting their role in microbial competition and pathogen-host interactions.
COMPUTATIONAL AND STRUCTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY JOURNAL
(2022)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Nuria Ros-Rocher, Alberto Perez-Posada, Michelle M. Leger, Inaki Ruiz-Trillo
Summary: This article summarizes key events and features in the transition of animals from a single-celled ancestor to a multicellular entity, inferring the characteristics of the last common multicellular ancestor and the last unicellular ancestor through comparative genomic analyses. Understanding the transition to animal multicellularity is gradual and involves the use of gene regulatory mechanisms in early development and morphogenesis planning. New avenues of research are discussed to complement these studies in the future.
Article
Ecology
Peter Schausberger, Shuichi Yano, Yukie Sato
Summary: Cooperative behaviors in spider mites are evolutionarily stable when the benefits outweigh the costs, such as when ovipositing foundresses cluster together in response to cues. Patches of spider mites can consist of closely related individuals or a mix of kin and non-kin, showing different levels of cooperation within groups.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Humanities, Multidisciplinary
Tamami Nakano, Takuto Yamamoto
Summary: Research reveals that self-resemblance affects trustworthiness ratings for same-sex people, but not for opposite-sex people.
HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Microbiology
Debra A. Brock, Kai Jones, David C. Queller, Joan E. Strassmann
Article
History & Philosophy Of Science
David C. Queller, Joan E. Strassmann
BIOLOGY & PHILOSOPHY
(2016)
Article
Ecology
Jeff Smith, Joan E. Strassmann, David C. Queller
Article
Microbiology
Joan E. Strassmann
JOURNAL OF EUKARYOTIC MICROBIOLOGY
(2016)
Article
Ecology
T. E. Douglas, J. E. Strassmann, D. C. Queller
JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY
(2016)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
David A. Galbraith, Sarah D. Kocher, Tom Glenn, Istvan Albert, Greg J. Hunt, Joan E. Strassmann, David C. Queller, Christina M. Grozinger
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2016)
Article
Biology
Debra A. Brock, W. Eamon Callison, Joan E. Strassmann, David C. Queller
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2016)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Joan E. Strassmann, Longfei Shu
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Johannes Arp, Sebastian Goetze, Ruchira Mukherji, Derek J. Mattern, Maria Garcia-Altares, Martin Klapper, Debra A. Brock, Axel A. Brakhage, Joan E. Strassmann, David C. Queller, Bettina Bardl, Karsten Willing, Gundela Peschel, Pierre Stallforth
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2018)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Suegene Noh, Katherine S. Geist, Xiangjun Tian, Joan E. Strassmann, David C. Queller
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2018)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Katherine S. Geist, Joan E. Strassmann, David C. Queller
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2019)
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Sibel Kucukyildirim, Megan Behringer, Way Sung, Debra A. Brock, Thomas G. Doak, Hatice Mergen, David C. Queller, Joan E. Strassmann, Michael Lynch
G3-GENES GENOMES GENETICS
(2020)
Article
Biology
Rory Vu Mather, Tyler J. J. Larsen, Debra A. A. Brock, David C. C. Queller, Joan E. E. Strassmann
Summary: This study explores the ability of three Paraburkholderia species to infect and induce bacterial carriage in other dictyostelid hosts. The results show that all three Paraburkholderia species can successfully infect and induce carriage in seven species of Dictyostelium hosts. However, they are unable to maintain a stable association with the more distantly related host Polysphondylium violaceum. These findings suggest that the mechanisms and evolutionary history of Paraburkholderia's symbiotic relationships may be general within Dictyostelium hosts, but not so general that it can associate with hosts of other genera. This work further develops an emerging model system for the study of symbiosis in microbes.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Laura M. Walker, Rintsen N. Sherpa, Sindhuri Ivaturi, Debra A. Brock, Tyler J. Larsen, Jason R. Walker, Joan E. Strassmann, David C. Queller
Summary: The loss of the grlG gene in aggregative multicellularity is adaptive under low relatedness and is important for cooperation and multicellular development. Non-fruiting mutants are not generally selected for predation advantage but rather for cheating during the multicellular stage.
G3-GENES GENOMES GENETICS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Trey J. Scott, Tyler J. Larsen, Debra A. Brock, So Yeon Stacey Uhm, David C. Queller, Joan E. Strassmann
Summary: A study investigated the impact of a bacterial endosymbiont on a multicellular social amoeba host. The results showed that the endosymbiont reduced and impaired the number and functionality of sentinel cells in the host, but also had a protective effect. This research expands our understanding of the complex relationship between the amoeba and the bacteria.
ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE
(2023)