Article
Biology
Ze-Yi Han, Daniel J. Wieczynski, Andrea Yammine, Jean P. P. Gibert
Summary: Anthropogenic increases in temperature and nutrient loads can affect food web structure and stability. However, their joint effects on ecological and phenotypic dynamics are not well understood. In this study, temperature and nutrient levels were manipulated in microbial food webs to investigate the reciprocal effects between ecological and phenotypic dynamics across trophic levels. The results showed that joint effects of temperature and nutrients are more common at higher trophic levels, and rapid phenotypic change plays a role in the observed ecological responses. These findings highlight previously unknown ways in which temperature and nutrients jointly control food web dynamics in a changing world.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
David K. Ngugi, Silvia G. Acinas, Pablo Sanchez, Josep M. Gasol, Susana Agusti, David M. Karl, Carlos M. Duarte
Summary: This study investigates the average genome size of planktonic prokaryotes across tropical and polar oceans and down to the hadal realm. Using hundreds of metagenomes of marine microorganisms, genome size was found to be highest in the perennially cold polar ocean, suggesting that environmental factors influence genome size selection and the ecological strategies of marine microbes.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Editorial Material
Microbiology
Jimmy H. W. Saw
Summary: Microbial communities are often dominated by a few species, with a long tail of rare biosphere microorganisms that are highly diverse but found in low abundance. They play important roles in maintaining community integrity and resilience, and their phylogenetic diversity is crucial for understanding microbial diversity and evolution. Further efforts should be made to study these poorly understood microbial lineages that hold vast potential for advancing our understanding of microbial diversity, ecology, and evolution on Earth.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Mar Sobral, Luis Sampedro, Isabelle Neylan, David Siemens, Rodolfo Dirzo
Summary: As plants develop, they may reallocate their antiherbivore defense traits due to changing costs and benefits. Herbivory triggers genome methylation in targeted plants and their offspring, leading to direct induction of physical defenses in progeny by mother plants with effects lasting from seedling to reproductive stages. Transgenerational priming was observed in physical and chemical defenses, particularly in adult plants, indicating differences in transgenerational plasticity in response to herbivore offense across plant life stages.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Microbiology
Maria Lehmann, Christoph Prohaska, Benjamin Zeldes, Anja Poehlein, Rolf Daniel, Mirko Basen
Summary: Thermophily is an ancient trait among microorganisms. This study explores the evolution of a mesophile from a thermophile and observes a change in phenotype.
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biology
Nathan G. Walworth, Jana Hinners, Phoebe A. Argyle, Suzana G. Leles, Martina A. Doblin, Sinead Collins, Naomi M. Levine
Summary: This study examined the effects of microbial evolution on global elemental cycles by investigating adaptive walks and trait evolution in Chlamydomonas exposed to high CO2. The direction of historical bias influenced both adaptation rate and evolved phenotypes. It is crucial for ecological models to consider changes in traits and correlations between traits to accurately predict phytoplankton evolution and future shifts in elemental cycling.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Marvin Moosmann, Cameron M. Hudson, Ole Seehausen, Blake Matthews
Summary: Lineages with independent evolutionary histories often differ in both their morphology and diet, but the reasons for dietary divergence are not well understood. This study explores the phenotypic causes of dietary divergence between two divergent lineages of threespine stickleback using common-garden experiments and analyses of foraging traits. The results suggest that dietary divergence arises from differences in both morphology and behaviors related to prey capture success.
Article
Ecology
Giacomo Puglielli, Carlos P. Carmona, Laura Varone, Lauri Laanisto, Carlo Ricotta
Summary: In trait-based ecology, it is common to use measures to quantify phenotypic variation between populations. However, these measures overlook the within-population trait variability and some of them cannot be partitioned between populations. This study proposes a new measure called the phenotypic dissimilarity (PhD) index to address these issues and provide a tool for quantifying phenotypic variation within and between species.
Review
Ecology
Ruben Milla
Summary: Food crops are essential for nutrition and produce billions of tons of food annually. The traits of crops play a significant role in regulating ecosystem processes, but domestication has led to changes in these traits. This paper reviews the evidence of how ecological traits of herbaceous crops have evolved during and after domestication, highlighting the loss of seed dispersal mechanisms and changes in plant size and decomposition rates. The paper also discusses traits that have not shown common responses to domestication and research gaps in the field. Understanding crop interactions with organisms and the environment is crucial for breeding crops that meet the needs of agriculture.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Naoki Konno, Wataru Iwasaki
Summary: By reconstructing ancestral gene content and using machine learning techniques, we were able to predict the evolution of gene gain and loss in metabolic systems of bacterial genomes. Our findings suggest that evolutionary pressures and constraints on metabolic systems are shared among bacteria, and these patterns are influenced by functional dependencies and changes in bacterial habitats.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
William R. Shoemaker, Stuart E. Jones, Mario E. Muscarella, Megan G. Behringer, Brent K. Lehmkuhl, Jay T. Lennon
Summary: Research shows that under limited resources, most bacterial taxa can survive, with a wide range of extinction times. Despite the lack of exogenous resources, bacterial populations continue to evolve and acquire numerous mutations. While adapting to environmental pressures, bacterial lifespan is extended through scavenging dead cells.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Juan-Jose Escuder-Rodriguez, Maria-Eugenia Decastro, Almudena Saavedra-Bouza, Manuel Becerra, Maria-Isabel Gonzalez-Siso
Summary: The northwest of Spain has abundant non-volcanic hot springs, which have been used for thermalism activities. A diverse microbial community dominated by bacteria has been discovered in one of these hot springs using metagenomics. The study also found enzymes and microorganisms with potential biotechnological applications in this hot spring.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2022)
Review
Ecology
Adam M. Fudickar, Alex E. Jahn, Ellen D. Ketterson
Summary: Research on animal migration in the 21st century has advanced significantly, thanks to technological revolution and scientific progress that have provided unprecedented amounts of data on migration behavior. Recent studies have revealed surprising variation in migratory trajectories at the species and population levels, with implications for speciation and the conservation of migratory populations.
ANNUAL REVIEW OF ECOLOGY, EVOLUTION, AND SYSTEMATICS, VOL 52, 2021
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Pablo Castro Sanchez-Bermejo, Andrea Davrinche, Silvia Matesanz, W. Stanley Harpole, Sylvia Haider
Summary: The covariation of plant functional traits constrains their variability. Our study shows that strong phenotypic integration within a tree leads to greater variation across leaves, which is important for understanding the extent of within-individual trait variation in plant-plant interactions.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Benjamin A. Taylor, Alessandro Cini, Christopher D. R. Wyatt, Max Reuter, Seirian Sumner
Summary: The study uses machine learning to analyze gene expression profiles of Polistes dominula paper wasps following the loss of a queen, revealing a strong response of individual gene expression to queen loss, even in individuals that appear phenotypically unaffected.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
