Review
Immunology
Sandor Szabo, Oksana Zayachkivska, Alamdar Hussain, Veronika Muller
Summary: Unlike previous acute respiratory diseases, COVID-19 not only rapidly spread around the world, but also caused long-term complications known as "long COVID", including shortness of breath, weakness, muscle pains, and 'brain fog'. It is a complex disorder involving multiple organ systems malfunctioning. Further investigation is needed to understand its pathogenesis and develop effective treatments.
INFLAMMOPHARMACOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Jens Joschinski, Dries Bonte
Summary: The study finds a correlation between mean diapause timing and mean winter onset, particularly in populations at high latitudes. Limited variance among offspring suggests little scope for bet-hedging strategies.
Article
Biology
Lillian C. Lowrey, Leslie A. Kent, Bridgett M. Rios, Angelica B. Ocasio, Peggy A. Cotter, Arturo Casadevall
Summary: The phase variation mechanism of Burkholderia thailandensis can enable population heterogeneity through genomic rearrangements, allowing the bacteria to adapt to environmental fluctuations. The presence of duplicate DNA regions with varied copy numbers provides selective advantages for growth in different conditions, expanding the species' ecological repertoire.
Article
Ecology
Peter J. Lisi, J. Derek Hogan, Galen Holt, Kristine N. Moody, Johanna L. K. Wren, Donald R. Kobayashi, Michael J. Blum, Peter B. McIntyre
Summary: Partial migration strategies are common in populations of migratory animals and can be influenced by individual behaviors, genetic variation, or environmental conditions. Through studying multiple populations of a Hawaiian goby, it was found that stable stream conditions and variations in ocean hydrodynamics affect the prevalence of partial migration. A theoretical model further demonstrated the impact of flow and ocean dynamics on migration strategies.
Review
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Ethan Levien, Jiseon Min, Jane Kondev, Ariel Amir
Summary: Phenotypic variability in isogenic populations has significant effects on population dynamics and the relationship between cell-to-cell variability and population dynamics is closely linked. Models of bet-hedging and phenotypic switching can help populations survive in uncertain environments through switching between phenotypes at the single-cell level. Fine-grained models of phenotypic variability show that even in a constant environment, traits like single-cell growth rates, generation times, and cell sizes can have significant effects on population dynamics.
REPORTS ON PROGRESS IN PHYSICS
(2021)
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Robert J. Porter, Grace M. Gutierrez, Karen B. Barnard-Kubow, Alan O. Bergland
Summary: The timing and duration of dormancy can be influenced by environmental cues. This study found that individuals can terminate dormancy early in the absence of environmental changes. Maternal influence was also found to affect the early termination of dormancy and this termination had effects on life-history traits.
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
R. Kellermann, K. Hauge, R. Tjaland, S. Thalmann, L. R. Bakken, L. Bergaust
Summary: Denitrifying bacteria have developed complex regulatory networks to maintain their respiratory metabolism in environments with changing oxygen concentrations. This study reveals their bet-hedging behavior in response to low oxygen conditions, which reduces their emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O) because all cells express NosZ, which converts N2O to nitrogen (N-2), while only a minority of cells express NirS+Nors, which reduces nitrite to N2O. We hypothesized that cells without NirS would be trapped in anoxia without the energy to synthesize NirS, and that they could be rescued by brief spikes of oxygen or N2O. We confirm this entrapment and the rescue of all cells by an N2O spike but only a fraction by an oxygen spike. The results shed light on the role of oxygen repression in bet-hedging and propose a new hypothesis regarding the autocatalytic expression of nirS via nitric oxide production. Understanding the regulation of denitrification, including bet-hedging, is key to controlling the increasing emissions of N2O that contribute to anthropogenic climate change.
APPLIED AND ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY
(2022)
Review
Ecology
Laure-Anne Poissonnier, Catherine Tait, Mathieu Lihoreau
Summary: This article reviews recent advances in insect cognition research and discusses the existence of specific cognitive capacities in social species. One difficulty in testing the social brain hypothesis in insects is the lack of research on species that live in less integrated social structures or that are solitary. However, as more species are studied, it is becoming clear that insects have a rich cognitive repertoire that is not directly related to their level of social complexity. Therefore, more comparative and neurobiologically grounded research is needed to better understand the evolution of insect brains and cognition.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Piotr K. Rowinski, Will Sowersby, Joacim Naslund, Simon Eckerstrom-Liedholm, Karl Gotthard, Bjorn Rogell
Summary: Comparative evidence suggests that adaptive plasticity may evolve as a response to predictable environmental variation. This study examines bet hedging in egg developmental rates in seven species of annual killifish, finding significant differences in mean and variation of egg development rates among species. The relationship between variation in egg development time and variation in precipitation rate remains unclear, suggesting complexity in the adaptive process.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Review
Plant Sciences
Eshan Sharma, Manoj Majee
Summary: This review discusses recent advances in understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms that generate variability in germination among genetically similar seeds. Plants have evolved a 'bet-hedging' strategy to survive in unpredictable environments, where high individual variation and a range of phenotypes are produced. While variability in seed behavior is beneficial for plant survival, it is not desirable in agriculture, where uniform seedlings are preferred. The review explores the hormonal, molecular, and cellular mechanisms that influence the germination outcome of genetically identical seeds.
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY
(2023)
Review
Oncology
Branislav Brutovsky
Summary: Cancer's evolutionary adaptation in a changing microenvironment leads to therapeutic resistance, primarily due to intratumour heterogeneity and cell plasticity. The paper reviews key concepts in cancer research, proposes potential cooperation among cancer cells, and presents the challenge of utilizing evolutionary strategies to guide cancer towards drug sensitivity.
Article
Biology
Tom M. Allison, Arunas L. Radzvilavicius, Damian K. Dowling
Summary: Most eukaryotes exhibit uniparental inheritance of mitochondria, but paternal inheritance is becoming more common in certain cases. This paternal inheritance may be caused by a failure of female or zygotic autophagy machinery to recognize divergent mitochondrial DNA. Recent theory suggests that under adaptive selection, paternal inheritance may evolve in certain populations.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Physiology
Frank Seebacher, Alexander G. Little
Summary: The study found that individual plasticity plays a crucial role in the adaptability of populations under different temperature regimes, with individuals of lower acclimation capacity performing better in warm conditions, but individuals with higher acclimation capacity showing less performance decrease with temperature reduction. Trade-offs, developmental effects and the advantages of plastic phenotypes together explain observed population variations.
FRONTIERS IN PHYSIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Henry H. Mattingly, Thierry Emonet
Summary: The study found that differential loss of phenotypes caused by collective behaviors varies in different environments, promoting migration through multiple environments. With cell growth, phenotype differences allow migrating populations to dynamically adapt to different environments. The specific phenotypes produced upon cell division are related to the level of nongenetic inheritance.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Qiankun Zhong, Seth Frey, Martin Hilbert
Summary: Institutions and cultures evolve in response to environmental incentives, but sometimes institutional change is driven by stochastic factors beyond current fitness. This study examines the drivers of organizational change in Minecraft communities and finds strong selection pressure on administrative and information rules, while stochastic drivers decrease the frequency of administrative rules. It also shows that institutional diversity contributes to the growth and stability of rules related to information, communication, and economic behaviors.