Search results for "Sense"
showing 10 items of 3076 documents
Adaptive Evolution and Epigenetics
2023
Epigenetic changes, such as DNA methylation and certain histone modifications, can be inherited but in many cases they do not follow Mendelian inheritance patterns and their stability appears to be lower than for changes in DNA sequence. Adaptive evolution by natural selection requires that differences among individuals are heritable to some degree. Epigenetic changes can be incorporated into evolutionary theory, and given that properties of epigenetic variation are distinct from genetic variation, spontaneous epigenetic changes can affect evolutionary dynamics in interesting ways. In this chapter, I review the properties of epigenetic variation and how they relate to the main parameters of…
How does climate change affect social insects?
2020
Climate change poses a major threat to global biodiversity, already causing sharp declines of populations and species. In some social insect species we already see advanced phenologies, changes in distribution ranges, and changes in abundance Rafferty (2017) and Diamond et al. (2017). Physiologically, social insects are no different from solitary insects, but they possess a number of characteristics that distinguish their response to climate change. Here, we examine these traits, which might enable them to cope better with climate change than solitary insects, but only in the short term. In addition, we discuss how climate change will alter biotic interactions and ecosystem functions, and h…
NMD-Based Gene Regulation—A Strategy for Fitness Enhancement in Plants?
2019
Abstract Post-transcriptional RNA quality control is a vital issue for all eukaryotes to secure accurate gene expression, both on a qualitative and quantitative level. Among the different mechanisms, nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) is an essential surveillance system that triggers degradation of both aberrant and physiological transcripts. By targeting a substantial fraction of all transcripts for degradation, including many alternative splicing variants, NMD has a major impact on shaping transcriptomes. Recent progress on the transcriptome-wide profiling and physiological analyses of NMD-deficient plant mutants revealed crucial roles for NMD in gene regulation and environmental response…
Multifactorial and Species-Specific Feedback Regulation of the RNA Surveillance Pathway Nonsense-Mediated Decay in Plants
2018
Abstract Nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) is an RNA surveillance mechanism that detects aberrant transcript features and triggers degradation of erroneous as well as physiological RNAs. Originally considered to be constitutive, NMD is now recognized to be tightly controlled in response to inherent signals and diverse stresses. To gain a better understanding of NMD regulation and its functional implications, we systematically examined feedback control of the central NMD components in two dicot and one monocot species. On the basis of the analysis of transcript features, turnover rates and steady-state levels, up-frameshift (UPF) 1, UPF3 and suppressor of morphological defects on genitalia (SMG)…
Photoprotection dynamics observed at leaf level from fast temporal reflectance changes
2018
Vegetation dynamically reacts to the available photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) by adjusting the photosynthetic apparatus to either a light harvesting or a photoprotective modus. When activating the photoprotection mechanism, either minor or major pigment-protein interactions may occur at the leaf level, resulting in different light absorption and consequently reflectance intensities. The reflectance changes were measured during sudden illumination transients designed to provoke fast adaptation to high irradiance. Different spectral reflectance change features were observed during different stages of photoprotection activation, extending over part of the visible spectral range (i.e…
Observations on midgut of Apis mellifera workers (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) under controlled acute exposures to a Bacillus thuringiensis-based biopestici…
2016
International audience; AbstractMorphostructural investigations have been carried out on Apis mellifera workers treated with single controlled acute exposures to a biopesticide containing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), to detect midgut changes until 96 h. Our findings show concentration-dependence of these changes, reflecting in different degrees on both mortality and behaviour. In particular, some midgut changes are also found 96 h after treatment. Our results show that the tested product does not affect survival at presumable environmental concentrations, so confirming the lesser toxicity of Bt-based biopesticides compared to other pesticides. However, in the light of the discovered long-te…
Genomic stability through time despite decades of exploitation in cod on both sides of the Atlantic
2021
Significance Both theory and experiments suggest that fishing can drive the evolution of an earlier maturation age. However, determining whether changes in the wild are the result of fisheries-induced evolution has been difficult. Temporal, genome-wide datasets can directly reveal responses to selection. Here, we investigate the genomes of two wild Atlantic cod populations from samples that pre- and postdate periods of intensive fishing. Although phenotypic changes suggest fisheries-induced evolution, we do not find evidence for any strong genomic change or loss of genetic diversity. While evolution could have occurred through undetectable frequency changes at many loci, the irreversible lo…
How do organisms adapt to climate change? : chromosomal inversions in 'Drosophila subobscura': The case of Serbian populations
2015
It is well known that chromosomal inversions in natural populations of the species Drosophila subobscura are adaptations to changes in the environment. It has been observed that inversions change in frequency over time and that they are so far following the pattern expected given the global warming of our planet. These results have been brought to light by our research on Serbian populations of D. subobscura. We found that inversion-related changes in chromosomal polymorphisms depended on the season of the year and in the long term (10-15 year periods) they followed what we would expect given global warming. Therefore, chromosomal inversions in this species are good indicators of climate ch…
Effects of global warming on reproduction and potential dispersal of Mediterranean Cnidarians
2019
Water temperature directly affects life cycles, reproductive periods, and metabolism of organisms living the oceans, especially in the surface zones. Due to the ocean warming, changes in water stratification and primary productivity are affecting trophic chains in sensitive world areas, such as the Mediterranean Sea. Benthic and pelagic cnidarians exhibit complex responses to climatic conditions. For example, the structure and phenology of the Mediterranean hydrozoan community displayed marked changes in species composition, bathymetric distribution, and reproductive timing over the last decades. The regional species pool remained stable in terms of species numbers but not in terms of speci…
Effects of changing climate on European stream invertebrate communities : A long-term data analysis
2018
Long-term observations on riverine benthic invertebrate communities enable assessments of the potential impacts of global change on stream ecosystems. Besides increasing average temperatures, many studies predict greater temperature extremes and intense precipitation events as a consequence of climate change. In this study we examined long-term observation data (10-32years) of 26 streams and rivers from four ecoregions in the European Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) network, to investigate invertebrate community responses to changing climatic conditions. We used functional trait and multi-taxonomic analyses and combined examinations of general long-term changes in communities with deta…