Search results for "Mon"
showing 10 items of 48883 documents
Cnidarian Interaction with Microbial Communities: From Aid to Animal’s Health to Rejection Responses
2018
The phylum Cnidaria is an ancient branch in the tree of metazoans. Several species exert a remarkable longevity, suggesting the existence of a developed and consistent defense mechanism of the innate immunity capable to overcome the potential repeated exposure to microbial pathogenic agents. Increasing evidence indicates that the innate immune system in Cnidarians is not only involved in the disruption of harmful microorganisms, but also is crucial in structuring tissue-associated microbial communities that are essential components of the Cnidarian holobiont and useful to the animal’s health for several functions, including metabolism, immune defense, development, and behavior. Someti…
When Choice Makes Sense: Menthol Influence on Mating, Oviposition and Fecundity in Drosophila melanogaster
2016
International audience; The environment to which insects have been exposed as larvae and adults can affect subsequent behaviors, such as mating, oviposition, food preference or fitness. Experience can change female preference for oviposition, particularly in phytophagous insects. In Drosophila melanogaster, females avoid laying eggs on menthol rich-food when given the choice. Exposure to menthol during larval development reduces this aversion. However, this observation was not reproduced in the following generation. Recently, we have shown that oviposition-site preference (OSP) differs between wild type D. melanogaster lines freely or forcibly exposed to menthol. After 12 generations, menth…
Realistic genetic architecture enables organismal adaptation as predicted under the folk definition of inclusive fitness
2021
A fundamental task of evolutionary biology is to explain the pervasive impression of organismal design in nature, including traits benefiting kin. Inclusive fitness is considered by many to be a crucial piece in this puzzle, despite ongoing discussion about its scope and limitations. Here, we use individual-based simulations to study what quantity (if any) individual organisms become adapted to maximize when genetic architectures are more or less suitable for the presumed main driver of biological adaptation, namely cumulative multi-locus evolution. As an expository device, we focus on a hypothetical situation called Charlesworth's paradox, in which altruism is seemingly predicted to evolve…
Reproductive inequalities in the acanthocephalan Corynosoma cetaceum: looking beyond 'crowding' effects.
2018
Background: At present, much research effort has been devoted to investigate overall (average) responses of parasite populations to specific factors, e.g., density-dependence in fecundity or mortality. However, studies on parasite populations usually pay little attention to individual variation (inequality) in reproductive success. A previous study on the acanthocephalan Corynosoma cetaceum in franciscana dolphins, Pontoporia blainvillei, revealed no overall intensity-dependent, or microhabitat effects, on mass and fecundity of worms. In this study, we investigated whether the same factors could influence mass inequalities for this species of acanthocephalan.Methods: A total of 10,138 speci…
Sex-allocation conflict and sexual selection throughout the lifespan of eusocial colonies.
2018
AbstractModels of sex allocation conflict are central to evolutionary biology but have mostly assumed static decisions, where resource allocation strategies are constant over colony lifespan. Here, we develop a model to study how the evolution of dynamic resource allocation strategies is affected by the queen-worker conflict in annual eusocial insects. We demonstrate that the time of dispersal of sexuals affects the sex allocation ratio through sexual selection on males. Furthermore, our model provides three predictions that depart from established results of classic static allocation models. First, we find that the queen wins the sex allocation conflict, while the workers determine the max…
Northern European Salmo trutta (L.) populations are genetically divergent across geographical regions and environmental gradients
2020
The salmonid fish Brown trout is iconic as a model for the application of conservation genetics to understand and manage local interspecific variation. However, there is still scant information about relationships between local and large-scale population structure, and to what extent geographical and environmental variables are associated with barriers to gene flow. We used information from 3,782 mapped SNPs developed for the present study and conducted outlier tests and gene–environment association (GEA) analyses in order to examine drivers of population structure. Analyses comprised >2,600 fish from 72 riverine populations spanning a central part of the species' distribution in norther…
Quality Factors Influencing Consumer Demand for Small Fruit by Focus Group and Sensory Test
2017
ABSTRACTThe market of berries is a niche of high value in Italy. Small fruit’s healthy properties are well known in the international market, but little is known about the reason for a low commercialization rate of fresh small fruit in Italy. The objective of this study was to assess consumer preferences in Italy for selected berry species. Moreover, the study aims to identify the relevant attributes of berries that affect the demand for this produce according to consumers and to compare these attributes. We assessed relevant attributes affecting the demand for fresh berries for different consumers’ profiles and compared berries’ attributes rankings. The results reveal high concordance betw…
GreenCut proteinCPLD49 ofChlamydomonas reinhardtiiassociates with thylakoid membranes and is required for cytochromeb6fcomplex accumulation
2018
The GreenCut encompasses a suite of nucleus-encoded proteins with orthologs among green lineage organisms (plants, green algae), but that are absent or poorly conserved in non-photosynthetic/heterotrophic organisms. In Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, CPLD49 (Conserved in Plant Lineage and Diatoms49) is an uncharacterized GreenCut protein that is critical for maintaining normal photosynthetic function. We demonstrate that a cpld49 mutant has impaired photoautotrophic growth under high-light conditions. The mutant exhibits a nearly 90% reduction in the level of the cytochrome b6 f complex (Cytb6 f), which impacts linear and cyclic electron transport, but does not compromise the ability of the stra…
Natural Biostimulants Elicit Plant Immune System in an Integrated Management Strategy of the Postharvest Green Mold of Orange Fruits Incited by Penic…
2021
This study was aimed at testing the integrated use of a natural biostimulant based on seaweed (Ascophyllum nodosum) and plant (alfalfa and sugarcane) extracts and reduced dosages of the conventional synthetic fungicide Imazalil (IMZ) to manage postharvest rots of orange fruits. The following aspects were investigated: (i) the effectiveness of postharvest treatment with natural biostimulant alone or in mixture with IMZ at a reduced dose against green mold caused byPenicillium digitatum; (ii) the differential expression of defense genes in orange fruits treated with the natural biostimulant both alone and in combination with a reduced dose of IMZ; (iii) the persistence of the inhibitory activ…
The late Pleistocene origin of the Italian and Maltese populations of Potamon fluviatile (Malacostraca: Decapoda): insights from an expanded sampling…
2017
Evidence available for most inland water and terrestrial organisms highlights the significant role played by southern Italy, Sicily and the Maltese islands as refuges during Pleistocene climatic fluctuations. However, to date, the hypothesis that these areas may have acted as Pleistocene refugia for the freshwater crab Potamon fluviatile has not been explicitly tested, and a recent origin of local P. fluviatile populations was proposed on the basis of a small set of analysed molecular data. We have thus expanded the currently available data set on the population genetic structure of P. fluviatile through dedicated samplings in Sicily (Italy, 18 specimens), the Maltese Islands (Malta, 15 spe…