Search results for " Systematics."
showing 10 items of 4820 documents
Mitochondrial sequence analysis of Salamandra taxa suggests old splits of major lineages and postglacial recolonizations of Central Europe from disti…
2000
Representatives of the genus Salamandra occur in Europe, Northern Africa and the Near East. Many local variants are known but species and subspecies status of these is still a matter of dispute. We have analysed samples from locations covering the whole expansion range of Salamandra by sequence analysis of mitochondrial D-loop regions. In addition, we have calibrated the rate of divergence of the D-loop on the basis of geologically dated splits of the closely related genus Euproctus. Phylogenetic analysis of the sequences suggests that six major monophyletic groups exist (S. salamandra, S. algira, S. infraimmaculata, S. corsica, S. atra and S. lanzai) which have split between 5 and 13 milli…
The effect of inbreeding rate on fitness, inbreeding depression and heterosis over a range of inbreeding coefficients
2014
Understanding the effects of inbreeding and genetic drift within populations and hybridization between genetically differentiated populations is important for many basic and applied questions in ecology and evolutionary biology. The magnitudes and even the directions of these effects can be influenced by various factors, especially by the current and historical population size (i.e. inbreeding rate). Using Drosophila littoralis as a model species, we studied the effect of inbreeding rate over a range of inbreeding levels on (i) mean fitness of a population (relative to that of an outbred control population), (ii) within‐population inbreeding depression (reduction in fitness of offspring fro…
Molecular and biometric data on Carabus (Macrothorax) morbillosus Fabricius, 1792 (Coleoptera, Carabidae) from Mid Mediterranean areas
2022
The present study was carried out using molecular and biometric data of Carabus (Macrothorax) morbillosus from mid-Mediterranean areas to determine additional information on basal relationships among its representative subspecies. To this aim, two different kinds of approach were employed, including a morphometric analysis of four morphological parameters (i.e., elytra length, elytra width, pronotum length, pronotum width) of 128 specimens, and a Bayesian genetic analysis of 44 cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) partial sequences (i.e., 38 examined for the first time and six retrieved from GenBank database). Representative populations of C. (M.) morbillosus were sampled in four countries, n…
The effect of a temperature-sensitive prophage on the evolution of virulence in an opportunistic bacterial pathogen.
2022
https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.16638 Abstract Viruses are key actors of ecosystems and have major impacts on global biogeochemical cycles. Prophages deserve particular attention as they are ubiquitous in bacterial genomes and can enter a lytic cycle when triggered by environmental conditions. We explored how temperature affects the interactions between prophages and other biological levels by using an opportunistic pathogen, the bacterium Serratia marcescens, that harbours several prophages and that had undergone an evolution experiment under several temperature regimes. We found that the release of one of the prophages was temperature-sensitive and malleable to evolutionary changes. We furthe…
Genome degeneration and adaptation in a nascent stage of symbiosis
2014
Symbiotic associations between animals and microbes are ubiquitous in nature, with an estimated 15% of all insect species harboring intracellular bacterial symbionts. Most bacterial symbionts share many genomic features including small genomes, nucleotide composition bias, high coding density, and a paucity of mobile DNA, consistent with long-term host association. In this study, we focus on the early stages of genome degeneration in a recently derived insect-bacterial mutualistic intracellular association. We present the complete genome sequence and annotation of Sitophilus oryzae primary endosymbiont (SOPE). We also present the finished genome sequence and annotation of strain HS, a close…
Spatial variation in the evolutionary potential and constraints of basal metabolic rate and body mass in a wild bird
2023
An organism's energy budget is strongly related to resource consumption, performance, and fitness. Hence, understanding the evolution of key energetic traits, such as basal metabolic rate (BMR), in natural populations is central for understanding life-history evolution and ecological processes. Here we used quantitative genetic analyses to study evolutionary potential of BMR in two insular populations of the house sparrow (Passer domesticus). We obtained measurements of BMR and body mass (Mb) from 911 house sparrows on the islands of Leka and Vega along the coast of Norway. These two populations were the source populations for translocations to create an additional third, admixed ‘common ga…
Biological and Mechanical Characterization of the Random Positioning Machine (RPM) for Microgravity Simulations
2021
The rapid improvement of space technologies is leading to the continuous increase of space missions that will soon bring humans back to the Moon and, in the coming future, toward longer interplanetary missions such as the one to Mars. The idea of living in space is charming and fascinating; however, the space environment is a harsh place to host human life and exposes the crew to many physical challenges. The absence of gravity experienced in space affects many aspects of human biology and can be reproduced in vitro with the help of microgravity simulators. Simulated microgravity (s-μg) is applied in many fields of research, ranging from cell biology to physics, including cancer biology. In…
Fatty acid composition as biomarkers of freshwater microalgae: analysis of 37 strains of microalgae in 22 genera and in seven classes
2013
The fatty acid (FA) composition of algae is an important determinant of their food quality for consumers, and FAs can also be used as biomarkers for biochemical and energetic pathways in food webs. FA analyses of 7 freshwater algal classes and 37 strains showed clear similarity within classes and strong differences amongst classes. Class was a dominant factor (66.4%) explaining variation in FA signatures of microalgae. The 7 algal classes comprised 4 separate groups according to their FA profiles: (1) Chlorophyceae and Trebouxiophyceae, (2) Bacillariophyceae, (3) Cryptophyceae, Chrysophyceae, and Raphidophyceae, and (4) Euglenophyceae. Each group had a characteristic FA composition, althoug…
Catalogue of the Diptera (Insecta) of Morocco— an annotated checklist, with distributions and a bibliography
2022
The faunistic knowledge of the Diptera of Morocco recorded from 1787 to 2021 is summarized and updated in this first catalogue of Moroccan Diptera species. A total of 3057 species, classified into 948 genera and 93 families (21 Nematocera and 72 Brachycera), are listed. Taxa (superfamily, family, genus and species) have been updated according to current interpretations, based on reviews in the literature, the expertise of authors and contributors, and recently conducted fieldwork. Data to compile this catalogue were primarily gathered from the literature. In total, 1225 references were consulted and some information was also obtained from online databases. Each family was reviewed and the c…
Measuring, comparing and interpreting phenotypic selection on floral scent
2022
Natural selection on floral scent composition is a key element of the hypothesis that pollinators and other floral visitors drive scent evolution. The measure of such selection is complicated by the high-dimensional nature of floral scent data and uncertainty about the cognitive processes involved in scent-mediated communication. We use dimension reduction through reduced-rank regression to jointly estimate a scent composite trait under selection and the strength of selection acting on this trait. To assess and compare variation in selection on scent across species, time and space, we reanalyse 22 datasets on six species from four previous studies. The results agreed qualitatively with prev…