Search results for "OTI"
showing 10 items of 20628 documents
Genome of an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus provides insight into the oldest plant symbiosis
2013
International audience; The mutualistic symbiosis involving Glomeromycota, a distinctive phylum of early diverging Fungi, is widely hypothesized to have promoted the evolution of land plants during the middle Paleozoic. These arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) perform vital functions in the phosphorus cycle that are fundamental to sustainable crop plant productivity. The unusual biological features of AMF have long fascinated evolutionary biologists. The coenocytic hyphae host a community of hundreds of nuclei and reproduce clonally through large multinucleated spores. It has been suggested that the AMF maintain a stable assemblage of several different genomes during the life cycle, but thi…
Ecological dependencies make remote reef fish communities most vulnerable to coral loss
2021
Ecosystems face both local hazards, such as over-exploitation, and global hazards, such as climate change. Since the impact of local hazards attenuates with distance from humans, local extinction risk should decrease with remoteness, making faraway areas safe havens for biodiversity. However, isolation and reduced anthropogenic disturbance may increase ecological specialization in remote communities, and hence their vulnerability to secondary effects of diversity loss propagating through networks of interacting species. We show this to be true for reef fish communities across the globe. An increase in fish-coral dependency with the distance of coral reefs from human settlements, paired with…
Construction and validation of cDNA-based Mt6k-RIT macro- and microarrays to explore root endosymbioses in the model legume Medicago truncatula
2004
To construct macro- and microarray tools suitable for expression profiling in root endosymbioses of the model legume Medicago truncatula, we PCR-amplified a total of 6048 cDNA probes representing genes expressed in uninfected roots, mycorrhizal roots and young root nodules [Nucleic Acids Res. 30 (2002) 5579]. Including additional probes for either tissue-specific or constitutively expressed control genes, 5651 successfully amplified gene-specific probes were used to grid macro- and to spot microarrays designated Mt6k-RIT (M. truncatula 6k root interaction transcriptome). Subsequent to a technical validation of microarray printing, we performed two pilot expression profiling experiments usin…
Adaptation in response to environmental unpredictability
2017
Understanding how organisms adaptively respond to environmental fluctuations is a fundamental question in evolutionary biology. The Mediterranean region typically exhibits levels of environmental unpredictability that vary greatly in habitats over small geographical scales. In cyclically parthenogenetic rotifers, clonal proliferation occurs along with occasional bouts of sex. These bouts contribute to the production of diapausing eggs, which allows survival between growing seasons. Here, we studied two diapause-related traits in rotifers using clones from nine Brachionus plicatilis natural populations that vary in the degree of environmental unpredictability. We tested the hypothesis that …
European Formalism and Empiriocriticism : Formalism within the International Empiriocritical Movement
2020
Abstract This paper argues that Russian Formalism is to be considered a constitutive part of the international empiriocritical movement—Ernst Mach (1838—1916) and Richard Avenarius’s (1843—1896). The conceptual parallelism between Empiriocriticism and Formalism is striking indeed. Thus, the cornerstones of the empiriocritical approach—the concept of series [Reihe] and the concept of elements [Elemente], understood as sensations [Empfindungen]—are plainly recognizable within formalist theories: the notion of ‘series’ (for example, the notion of ‘literary series’ or ‘poetic series’, leading to the famous concept of ‘literariness’, literaturnost’) and the very formalist idea of a necessarily p…
Soil health through soil disease suppression: Which strategy from descriptors to indicators?
2007
International audience; Soil is a component of primary importance in crop production, even if it is often neglected, or only regarded as a physical support for the growth of plants. However, with the increasing societal concerns for the sustainability of agriculture, soil must be considered as a living system. Its quality results from the multiple interactions among physicochemical and biological components, notably the microbial communities, primordial for soil function. Crops are threatened by soil-borne diseases. These are often difficult to control, because of the “hidden” status of the pathogens and also because of the absence, noxiousness or lack of efficacy of chemical treatments. In…
Tackling invasive alien species in Europe II: threats and opportunities until 2020
2017
2nd Freshwater Invasives - Networking for Strategy II (FINS-II) Conference -- JUL 11-14, 2016 -- Zagreb, CROATIA Skora, Michal Edward/0000-0002-9121-1318; Groom, Quentin/0000-0002-0596-5376; Lukas, Juliane/0000-0003-3336-847X; Skora, Michal/0000-0002-9121-1318; Piria, Marina/0000-0001-6324-9282; Smith, Emily/0000-0003-2767-9933; Simonovic, Predrag/0000-0002-4819-4962; Pastorino, Paolo/0000-0002-0585-1168; Koutsikos, Nicholas/0000-0003-0680-4504; Vilizzi, Lorenzo/0000-0001-8103-885X; Dobrzycka-Krahel, Aldona/0000-0002-4252-895X; Tarkan, Ali Serhan/0000-0001-8628-0514 WOS: 000412582000002 Invasive alien species (IAS) are a significant and growing problem worldwide. In Europe, some aspects of …
Does an ant-dispersed plant, Viola reichenbachiana, suffer from reduced seed dispersal under inundation disturbances?
2008
Many plant species use ants as seed dispersers. This dispersal mode is considered to be susceptible to disturbances, but the effect of natural, small-scale disturbances is still unknown. We investigated how small-scale disturbances due to inundation affect seed dispersal in Viola reichenbachiana, a dominant myrmecochorous herb in riparian forests. Inundation disturbances were high in depressions and low on hillocks of the forest floor. We found that V reichenbachiana was similarly abundant at highly and less disturbed sites, contrary to other, non ant-dispersed species. We also found that the motivation of ants to disperse seeds was higher at highly disturbed sites. Nevertheless, the number…
Sexually extravagant males age more rapidly
2011
Evolutionary theories of ageing posit that increased reproductive investment occurs at the expense of physiological declines in later life. Males typically invest heavily in costly sexual ornaments and behaviour, but evidence that the expression of these traits can cause senescence is lacking. Long-lived houbara bustards (Chlamydotis undulata) engage in extravagant sexual displays to attract mates and here we show that males investing most in these displays experience a rapid senescent deterioration of spermatogenic function at a younger age. This effect is sufficiently large that the expected links between male showiness and fertility reverse in later life, despite showy males continuing t…
Quantitative Genetics of the Aging of Reproductive Traits in the Houbara Bustard
2015
International audience; Do all traits within an organism age for the same reason? Evolutionary theories of aging share a common assumption: the strength of natural selection declines with age. A corollary is that additive genetic variance should increase with age. However, not all senescent traits display such increases suggesting that other mechanisms may be at play. Using longitudinal data collected from more than 5400 houbara bustards (Chlamydotis undulata) with an exhaustive recorded pedigree, we investigated the genetics of aging in one female reproductive trait (egg production) and three male reproductive traits (courtship display rate, ejaculate size and sperm viability), that displa…