Search results for "aRR"
showing 10 items of 10185 documents
Urbanization, trace metal pollution, and malaria prevalence in the house sparrow.
2013
10 pages; International audience; Anthropogenic pollution poses a threat for the environment and wildlife. Trace metals (TMs) are known to have negative effects on haematological status, oxidative balance, and reproductive success in birds. These pollutants particularly increase in concentration in industrialized, urbanized and intensive agricultural areas. Pollutants can also interfere with the normal functioning of the immune system and, as such, alter the dynamics of host-parasite interactions. Nevertheless, the impact of pollution on infectious diseases has been largely neglected in natural populations of vertebrates. Here, we used a large spatial scale monitoring of 16 house sparrow (P…
Phenotypic Divergence among West European Populations of Reed Bunting Emberiza schoeniclus: The Effects of Migratory and Foraging Behaviours
2013
[EN] Divergent selection and local adaptation are responsible for many phenotypic differences between populations, potentially leading to speciation through the evolution of reproductive barriers. Here we evaluated the morphometric divergence among west European populations of Reed Bunting in order to determine the extent of local adaptation relative to two important selection pressures often associated with speciation in birds: migration and diet. We show that, as expected by theory, migratory E. s. schoeniclus had longer and more pointed wings and a slightly smaller body mass than the resident subspecies, with the exception of E. s. lusitanica, which despite having rounder wings was the s…
Carbon storage of Mediterranean grasslands
2016
Secondary grasslands are one of the most common vegetation types worldwide. In Europe, and in the Mediterranean basin, human activities have transformed many woodlands into secondary grasslands. Despite their recognized role in the global carbon cycle, very few data are available for estimating the biomass of Mediterranean grasslands. We developed linear regression models in order to predict the biomass of two native Mediterranean grasses (Ampelodesmos mauritanicus and Hyparrhenia hirta) and an invasive alien grass (Pennisetum setaceum). Ampelodesmos mauritanicus is very common throughout the Mediterranean basin, mostly on north-facing slopes, H. hirta characterizes thermo-xeric grasslands,…
Grapes and vines of the Phoenicians: morphometric analyses of pips from modern varieties and Iron Age archaeological sites in the Western Mediterrane…
2021
The present study aims to contribute to the investigation of the role of Phoenicians in the spreading and trade of the grapevine through the morphometric analysis of grape pips. Waterlogged and charred samples were selected from three Iron Age sites in the Western Mediterranean: Motya (Sicily, Italy), Nuraghe S’Urachi (Sardinia, Italy) and Huelva (Andalusia, Spain). While only Motya is a Phoenician foundation, all three were nevertheless associated with Phoenician expansion and cultural interaction. Ten cultivars from the “Vivaio Federico Paulsen” in Marsala (western Sicily) were chosen as modern reference material. The key challenge was the comparison of archaeological pips preserved throu…
Classification of steppe vegetation in the eastern Pamir Alai and southwestern Tian-Shan Mountains (Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan)
2018
Aims: To complete the syntaxonomical scheme for the steppe vegetation of the montane and alpine zones in the Pamir Alai and southwestern Tian-Shan Mountains in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan with some remarks on its environmental predictors. Location: Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Methods: A total of 274 relevés were sampled in 2016–2017 using the seven-degree cover-abundance scale of Braun-Blanquet. They were classified with modified TWINSPAN with cut-off levels of 0%, 5%, 10% and 25% and total inertia as a measure of cluster heterogeneity. Diagnostic species were identified using the phi coefficient as a fidelity measure. Detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) and canonical correspondence analys…
Seabird migration strategies: Flight budgets, diel activity patterns and lunar influence
2021
Every year, billions of birds undertake extensive migrations between breeding and nonbreeding areas, facing challenges that require behavioural adjustments, particularly to flight timing and duration. Such adjustments in daily activity patterns and the influence of extrinsic factors (e.g., environmental conditions, moonlight) have received much more research attention in terrestrial than marine migrants. Taking advantage of the widespread deployment in recent decades of combined light-level geolocator-immersion loggers, we investigated diel organisation and influence of the moon on flight activities during the non-breeding season of 21 migrant seabird species from a wide taxonomic range (6 …
Non-conventional osmotic solutes (honey and glycerol) improve mass transfer and extend shelf life of hot-air dried red carrots: Kinetics, quality, bi…
2020
The effect of solutes (sucrose, honey and glycerol) on mass transfer kinetics, physico-chemical and biological quality, and shelf life of red carrot slices (RCSs) obtained by hot-air drying at 60 degrees C/6-8 h was studied. RCSs were osmosed for 24 h in sucrose (S), sucrose + honey (SH), honey (H) and sucrose + glycerol (SGL) before drying. Honey and glycerol enhanced the water loss (WL) and solute gain (SG), giving higher values for Peleg's model constants (k(1), WL = 6.9 and 6.5, for H and SGL, respectively; k(1), SG = 92.8 and 73.5, for H and SGL, respectively). Decreased viscosity of osmotic solutions corresponded with the solute effect on WL and SG, reaching equilibrium after 16 h. Di…
Synthesis and properties of a photoaffinity labeling reagent for protoporphyrinogen oxidases, the target enzymes of diphenyl ether herbicides
1994
A diazoketone 3 has been synthesized in two steps from acifluorfen 1, a diphenyl ether herbicide. Like the parent compound 1, the diazoketone 3 is toxic to plant cells and inhibits protoporphyrinogen oxidase, the molecular target of diphenyl ether herbicides. On photolysis of 3 in methanol, the generated carbene mainly undergoes the Wolff rearrangement to a ketene which further adds methanol, but many other products are observed. A tritiated derivative of 3 has been prepared which is suitable for photoaffinity labeling experiments.
New polymorphic microsatellite loci in the house sparrow, Passer domesticus.
2009
3 pages; International audience; We developed 13 new polymorphic microsatellite loci in the house sparrow (Passer domesticus), which exhibited from 2 to 15 alleles. Observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.17 to 0.77 and from 0.35 to 0.85, respectively. We detected no linkage disequilibrium between loci. Allele frequencies supported Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium for 8 loci out of 13 after Bonferroni correction. Combined with loci previously isolated in the house sparrow, these new microsatellite markers provide valuable tools to study population genetics of this species.
Collisional mechanism of ligand release by Bombyx mori JHBP, a member of the TULIP / Takeout family of lipid transporters.
2020
International audience; Juvenile hormones (JHs) regulate important processes in insects, such as postembryonic development and reproduction. In the hemolymph of Lepidoptera, these lipophilic sesquiterpenic hormones are transported from their site of synthesis to target tissues by high affinity carriers, the juvenile hormone binding proteins (JHBPs). Lepidopteran JHBPs belong to a recently uncovered, yet very ancient family of proteins sharing a common lipid fold (TULIP domain) and involved in shuttling various lipid ligands. One important, but poorly understood aspect of JHs action, is the mechanism of hormone transfer to or through the plasma membranes of target cells. Since many membrane-…