Search results for " life science"
showing 10 items of 12151 documents
Do invasive alien plants really threaten river bank vegetation? : a case study based on plant communities typical for Chenopodium ficifolium : an ind…
2018
Riparian zones are very rich in species but subjected to strong anthropogenic changes and extremely prone to alien plant invasions, which are considered to be a serious threat to biodiversity. Our aim was to determine the spatial distribution of Chenopodium ficifolium, a species demonstrating strong confinement to large river valleys in Central Europe and an indicator of annual pioneer nitrophilous vegetation developing on river banks, which are considered to be of importance to the European Community. Additionally, the habitat preferences of the species were analysed. Differences in the richness and abundance of species diagnostic for riverside habitats, as well as the contribution of resi…
Assessing the nucleotide diversity of three aphid species by RAPD
1997
A method is presented for the estimation of nucleotide diversity and genetic structure of populations from RAPD (random amplified polymorphic DNA) data. It involves a modification of the technique developed by Lynch and Crease (1990) for the case of restriction sites as survey data. As new elements the method incorporates (i) dominance correction, (ii) values of asexual reproduction of the populations sampled, and (iii) an analytical variance of the number of nucleotide substitutions per site. Sampling was carried out at two geographic scales for three aphid species. At a macrogeographic scale, populations of Rhopalosiphum padi did not show statistical genetic differentiation. Aphis gossypi…
Rapid response of a long-lived species to improved water and grazing management: the case of the European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis) in the Camar…
2014
7 pages; International audience; Among human activities, the effect of habitat management by grazing on population viability is ambiguous. Indeed, beneficial effects of grazing are expected by maintaining open meadows, but overgrazing is supposed to increase mortality by trampling. Grazing has been shown to negatively impact the survival of European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis) in the Camargue. Consequently, a new management plan was defined. We investigated the consequences of this management using capture-recapture methods to estimate variations of population sizes in this managed site and a control site over a 17 years period. Results show an increase of the number of adults and juveni…
Genetic analysis of organoleptic quality in fresh market tomato. 1. Mapping QTLs for physical and chemical traits
2001
Improving organoleptic quality is an important but complex goal for fresh market tomato breeders. A total of 26 traits involved in organoleptic quality variation were evaluated, in order to understand the genetic control of this characteristic. A recombinant inbred line (RIL) population was developed from an intraspecific cross between a cherry tomato line with a good overall aroma intensity and an inbred line with a common taste but with bigger fruits. Physical traits included fruit weight, diameter, color (L,a,b), firmness and elasticity. Chemical traits were dry matter weight, titratable acidity, pH, and the contents of soluble solids, sugars, lycopene, carotene and 12 aroma volatiles. R…
Do peahens not prefer peacocks with more elaborate trains?
2008
Ever since Darwin (1871), the peacock’s train has been cited as the icon of an extravagant conspicuous secondary sexual trait that has evolved through female mate choice. However, Takahashi et al. (2008) recently challenged this idea. They monitored female mate choice during 7 years in a feral peafowl, Pavo cristatus, population in Japan and found no correlation between male mating success and three morphological train traits. They concluded that ‘combined with previous results, our findings indicate that the peacock’s train is not currently the universal target of female choice’ and proposed ‘that the peacock’s train is an obsolete signal for which female preference has already been lost o…
Characterization of eight microsatellite loci for the sea urchin Meoma ventricosa (Spatangoida, Brissidae) through Next Generation Sequencing.
2015
Eight microsatellite loci were characterized for Meoma ventricosa (Lamarck, 1816), a burrowing sea urchin that can be afflicted by a bacterial disease causing localized mass mortality. For the analyzed population (29 individuals from St. Croix, US Virgin Islands), we observed 8.125 mean number of alleles, 0.640 mean observed heterozygosity (Ho) and 0.747 mean expected heterozygosity (He). Two loci showed significant deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Overall, the described loci were characterized by a moderately highlevel of polymorphism suggesting that these markers are useful for a population genetic studyin the Caribbean Sea.
Ilkka Hanski and Small Mammals: from Shrew Metapopulations to Vole and Lemming Cycles
2017
10 pages; International audience; Ilkka Hanski may be best known for his work on insect and metapopulation dynamics, but he also contributed significantly to small mammal research. In the early 1980s he became interested in shrew dynamics, energetics, and of course, shrew metapopulations. He aimed at understanding the population biological consequences of body size in different shrew species. Feeding habits and environmental stochasticity affect shrew species in profoundly different ways: due to their short survival time small species have high extinction rates but their dispersal and colonization capacity is high which enables them to survive as metapopulations. After Hansson and Henttonen…
Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic Asteroidea database
2018
The present dataset is a compilation of georeferenced occurrences of asteroids (Echinodermata: Asteroidea) in the Southern Ocean. Occurrence data south of 45°S latitude were mined from various sources together with information regarding the taxonomy, the sampling source and sampling sites when available. Records from 1872 to 2016 were thoroughly checked to ensure the quality of a dataset that reaches a total of 13,840 occurrences from 4,580 unique sampling events. Information regarding the reproductive strategy (brooders vs. broadcasters) of 63 species is also made available. This dataset represents the most exhaustive occurrence database on Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic asteroids.
Active packaging with antifungal activities.
2016
International audience; There have been many reviews concerned with antimicrobial food packaging, and with the use of antifungal compounds, but none provided an exhaustive picture of the applications of active packaging to control fungal spoilage. Very recently, many studies have been done in these fields, therefore it is timely to review this topic. This article examines the effects of essential oils, preservatives, natural products, chemical fungicides, nanopartides coated to different films, and chitosan in vitro on the growth of moulds, but also in vivo on the mould free shelf-life of bread, cheese, and fresh fruits and vegetables. A short section is also dedicated to yeasts. All the ap…
A technical trick for studying proteomics in parallel to transcriptomics in symbiotic root-fungus interactions
2004
We have developed a protocol in which proteins and mRNA can be analyzed from single root samples. This experimental design was validated in arbuscular mycorrhiza by comparing the proteins profiles obtained with those from a classical protein extraction process. It is a step forward to make simultaneous proteome and transcriptiome profiling possible.