Search results for "evolutionary"
showing 10 items of 4392 documents
Morphologically similar but not closely related: the long-spored species of Subulicystidium (Trechisporales, Basidiomycota)
2020
AbstractSpecies boundaries and geographic distribution of corticioid fungi (resupinate Basidiomycota) are often poorly known. Our recent study on Subulicystidium showed that species diversity in this genus is at least twice as high as previously recognized. This re-estimation of the species diversity was based on a study of only a part of the genus. The present study sheds light on molecular and morphological diversity of three more species. We generated 27 ITS and 24 28S nuclear ribosomal DNA sequences from 49 specimens labelled as Subulicystidium cochleum, S. longisporum and S. perlongisporum and collected in distant geographic localities. We assessed pairwise dissimilarities and phylogen…
Gisekia(Gisekiaceae): Phylogenetic relationships, biogeography, and ecophysiology of a poorly known C4lineage in the Caryophyllales
2014
• Premise of the study: Gisekiaceae are a monogeneric family of the core Caryophyllales distributed in arid regions of Africa and Asia. The only widespread species of the genus, Gisekia pharnaceoides, performs C4 photosynthesis based on CO2 compensation point measurements. This study investigates the C4 syndrome and its evolution in Gisekia. The infrageneric relationships, distribution and bioclimatic preferences of Gisekia are also investigated.• Methods: Leaf gas exchange characteristics, activity of Rubisco and major C4 cycle enzymes, and ultrastructural characteristics of mesophyll and bundle sheath cells are studied for Gisekia pharnaceoides. δ13C values and leaf anatomy are analyzed f…
The age and evolution of sociality in Stegodyphus spiders: a molecular phylogenetic perspective
2006
Social, cooperative breeding behaviour is rare in spiders and generally characterized by inbreeding, skewed sex ratios and high rates of colony turnover, processes that when combined may reduce genetic variation and lower individual fitness quickly. On these grounds, social spider species have been suggested to be unstable in evolutionary time, and hence sociality a rare phenomenon in spiders. Based on a partial molecular phylogeny of the genus Stegodyphus , we address the hypothesis that social spiders in this genus are evolutionary transient. We estimate the age of the three social species, test whether they represent an ancestral or derived state and assess diversification relative to s…
Subunit sequences of the 4 x 6-mer hemocyanin from the golden orb-web spider, Nephila inaurata. Intramolecular evolution of the chelicerate hemocyani…
2003
The transport of oxygen in the hemolymph of many arthropod and mollusc species is mediated by large copper-proteins that are referred to as hemocyanins. Arthropod hemocyanins are composed of hexamers and oligomers of hexamers. Arachnid hemocyanins usually form 4 x 6-mers consisting of seven distinct subunit types (termed a-g), although in some spider taxa deviations from this standard scheme have been observed. Applying immunological and electrophoretic methods, six distinct hemocyanin subunits were identified in the red-legged golden orb-web spider Nephila inaurata madagascariensis (Araneae: Tetragnathidae). The complete cDNA sequences of six subunits were obtained that corresponded to a-,…
FPGA implementation of Spiking Neural Networks
2012
Abstract Spiking Neural Networks (SNN) have optimal characteristics for hardware implementation. They can communicate among neurons using spikes, which in terms of logic resources, means a single bit, reducing the logic occupation in a device. Additionally, SNN are similar in performance compared to other neural Artificial Neural Network (ANN) architectures such as Multilayer Perceptron, and others. SNN are very similar to those found in the biological neural system, having weights and delays as adjustable parameters. This work describes the chosen models for the implemented SNN: Spike Response Model (SRM) and temporal coding is used. FPGA implementation using VHDL language is also describe…
Determining the potential impacts of fire and different land uses on splash erosion in the margins of drylands
2021
Abstract This research aimed to estimate the splash erosion and its evolution during the first months in specific land uses after a forest fire. The study area was located in Congosto (North-West Spain), in the margins of Spanish drylands, after a wildfire occurred in May 2012, which burned 15.56 ha of scrubland and Pinus reforestation. Two different burned land uses were selected and compared to control areas: i) burned pine forest; and, scrublands. Rainfall intensity and the number, sizes and speed of raindrops were measured by an optical disdrometer and soil loss by funnels. Moreover, infiltration, soil moisture content, aggregate stability, water repellence, pH and organic matter were a…
Molecular Evolution of Defense Pathways in Sponges: Self–Self-recognition and Fight against the Nonself
2016
This article provides an overview of the immune system in poriferans at a tissue, cellular, and molecular level. Despite their simple organization, sponges have developed molecular mechanisms to recognize and resist foreign organisms. They are able to distinguish among food organisms, pathogens, and sponge-associated organisms. Although they lack specialized immune cells, sponges display molecular precursors, which are similar to molecular mediators involved in innate and adaptive immune systems, present in more evolutionarily advanced taxa, as outlined in succeeding articles in the Phylogeny section.
High-frequency trading and networked markets
2021
Financial markets have undergone a deep reorganization during the last 20 y. A mixture of technological innovation and regulatory constraints has promoted the diffusion of market fragmentation and high-frequency trading. The new stock market has changed the traditional ecology of market participants and market professionals, and financial markets have evolved into complex sociotechnical institutions characterized by a great heterogeneity in the time scales of market members’ interactions that cover more than eight orders of magnitude. We analyze three different datasets for two highly studied market venues recorded in 2004 to 2006, 2010 to 2011, and 2018. Using methods of complex network th…
Metagenomics reveals our incomplete knowledge of global diversity
2008
Metagenomic sequencing obtains huge amounts of sequences from environmental and clinical samples, thus providing a glimpse of the global prokaryotic diversity of both species and genes in these sources. The current trend in metagenomic analysis follows the so-called gene-centric approach, focused on describing the environments by the study of the functional roles of the proteins encoded in the sequenced genes. In this way, it is clear that metagenomic analysis relies heavily on the accurate knowledge of the universe of proteins stored in the databases. Nevertheless, it is known that some biases exist in the composition of databases (which are rich in sequences from common, cultivable and ea…
RNA viruses as complex adaptive systems
2004
RNA viruses have high mutation rates and so their populations exist as dynamic and complex mutant distributions. It has been consistently observed that when challenged with a new environment, viral populations adapt following hyperbolic-like kinetics: adaptation is initially very rapid, but then slows down as fitness reaches an asymptotic value. These adaptive dynamics have been explained in terms of populations moving towards the top of peaks on rugged fitness landscapes. Fitness fluctuations of varying magnitude are observed during adaptation. Often the presence of fluctuations in the evolution of physical systems indicates some form of self-organization, or where many components of the s…