Search results for "INSECT"
showing 10 items of 2033 documents
Diminishing Returns of Population Size in the Rate of RNA Virus Adaptation
2000
ABSTRACT Whenever an asexual viral population evolves by adapting to new environmental conditions, beneficial mutations, the ultimate cause of adaptation, are randomly produced and then fixed in the population. The larger the population size and the higher the mutation rate, the more beneficial mutations can be produced per unit time. With the usually high mutation rate of RNA viruses and in a large enough population, several beneficial mutations could arise at the same time but in different genetic backgrounds, and if the virus is asexual, they will never be brought together through recombination. Thus, the best of these genotypes must outcompete each other on their way to fixation. This c…
Nucleoside Analogue Mutagenesis of a Single-Stranded DNA Virus: Evolution and Resistance
2012
ABSTRACT It has been well established that chemical mutagenesis has adverse fitness effects in RNA viruses, often leading to population extinction. This is mainly a consequence of the high RNA virus spontaneous mutation rates, which situate them close to the extinction threshold. Single-stranded DNA viruses are the fastest-mutating DNA-based systems, with per-nucleotide mutation rates close to those of some RNA viruses, but chemical mutagenesis has been much less studied in this type of viruses. Here, we serially passaged bacteriophage ϕX174 in the presence of the nucleoside analogue 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). We found that 5-FU was unable to trigger population extinction for the range of conce…
Delayed lysis confers resistance to the nucleoside analogue 5-fluorouracil and alleviates mutation accumulation in the single-stranded DNA bacterioph…
2014
ABSTRACT Rates of spontaneous mutation determine viral fitness and adaptability. In RNA viruses, treatment with mutagenic nucleoside analogues selects for polymerase variants with increased fidelity, showing that viral mutation rates can be adjusted in response to imposed selective pressures. However, this type of resistance is not possible in viruses that do not encode their own polymerases, such as single-stranded DNA viruses. We previously showed that serial passaging of bacteriophage ϕX174 in the presence of the nucleoside analogue 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) favored substitutions in the lysis protein E (P. Domingo-Calap, M. Pereira-Gomez, and R. Sanjuán, J. Virol. 86: 9640–9646, 2012, doi:10…
Changes in protein domains outside the catalytic site of the bacteriophage Qβ replicase reduce the mutagenic effect of 5-azacytidine.
2014
ABSTRACT The high genetic heterogeneity and great adaptability of RNA viruses are ultimately caused by the low replication fidelity of their polymerases. However, single amino acid substitutions that modify replication fidelity can evolve in response to mutagenic treatments with nucleoside analogues. Here, we investigated how two independent mutants of the bacteriophage Qβ replicase (Thr210Ala and Tyr410His) reduce sensitivity to the nucleoside analogue 5-azacytidine (AZC). Despite being located outside the catalytic site, both mutants reduced the mutation frequency in the presence of the drug. However, they did not modify the type of AZC-induced substitutions, which was mediated mainly by …
Viral Mutation Rates
2010
Accurate estimates of virus mutation rates are important to understand the evolution of the viruses and to combat them. However, methods of estimation are varied and often complex. Here, we critically review over 40 original studies and establish criteria to facilitate comparative analyses. The mutation rates of 23 viruses are presented as substitutions per nucleotide per cell infection (s/n/c) and corrected for selection bias where necessary, using a new statistical method. The resulting rates range from 108 to106 s/n/c for DNA viruses and from 106 to 104 s/n/c for RNA viruses. Similar to what has been shown previously for DNA viruses, there appears to be a negative correlation between mut…
Effect of Ribavirin on the Mutation Rate and Spectrum of Hepatitis C Virus In Vivo
2009
ABSTRACTTheir extremely error-prone replication makes RNA viruses targets for lethal mutagenesis. In the case of hepatitis C virus (HCV), the standard treatment includes ribavirin, a base analog with an in vitro mutagenic effect, but the in vivo mode of action of ribavirin remains poorly understood. Here, we test the mutagenic effects of ribavirin plus interferon treatment in vivo using a new method to estimate mutation rates based on the analysis of nonsense mutations. We apply this methodology to a large HCV sequence database containing over 15,000 reverse transcription-PCR molecular clone sequences from 74 patients infected with HCV. We obtained an estimate of the spontaneous mutation ra…
Parabiotic ants: the costs and benefits of symbiosis
2014
1. Mutualisms are important drivers of co-evolution and speciation. However, they typically imply costs for one or both partners. Each partner consequently tries to maximise benefits and minimise costs. Mutualisms can therefore develop towards commensalism or parasitism if one partner fails to provide sufficient benefits. This is particularly likely in diffuse interactions, where multiple species can associate with each other. If costs and benefits of a species vary with the identity of the partner species, this may result in a geographical mosaic of co-evolution. 2. In the present study, inter-specific interactions in two parabiotic associations of ants were studied (Hymenoptera: Formicida…
First record of the vulnerable social parasite ant Plagiolepis grassei in Italy (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
2017
The first Italian records of the rare parasitic ant species Plagiolepis grassei Le Masne, 1956 are here reported. This species is considered as “Vulnerable” by the IUCN’s Red List, and was previously recorded from France and Spain only.
Effect of an Insect Growth Regulator (Halofenozide) on the Cuticular Hydrocarbons ofCulex pipiensLarvae
2013
The cuticular hydrocarbons of the fourth-instar larvae of Culex pipiens aged one and six days were analysed by gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The effect of an insect growth regulator (halofenozide = RH-0345) on the cuticular hydrocarbons was evaluated using newly moulted fourth-instar larvae of C. pipiens, at the lethal concentrations (LC50 = 12.58 and LC90 = 28.58 µ/l). A previous study revealed that RH-0345 is toxic to larvae of C. pipiens by induction of precocious larval moulting. Several cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) were identified and many of the other compounds remained unknown. Our data show that the CHC classes consisted of n-alkanes (C23-C29) and dif…
Replacement queens in the neotropical termiteNasutitermes coxipoensis
1987
The production of replacement queens in experimentally orphaned colonies was investigated in the neotropical termiteNasutitermes coxipoensis holmgren. A single adultoid replacement queen was produced with six weeks in more than 50% of the nests. The new queen begins oviposition extremely quickly. Replacement kings are seldom seen but must be present since brood in the nest in atribuable to the replacement queen. InN. coxipoensis, replacement adultoid queens and kings seem to develop preferentially from the few aged nymphs which are present in the nest throughout the year.