The echinoderm larval skeleton as a possible model system for experimental evolutionary biology

genesis ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 186-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroyuki Koga ◽  
Yoshiaki Morino ◽  
Hiroshi Wada
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Model System ◽  
Larval Skeleton

scholarly journals Indirect parental effects on offspring viability by egg-derived fluids in an external fertilizer

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1940) ◽  
pp. 20202538
Author(s):  
Rowan A. Lymbery ◽  
Jacob D. Berson ◽  
Jonathan P. Evans
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Mytilus Galloprovincialis ◽  
Fertilization Rate ◽  
Model System ◽  
Parental Effects ◽  
Major Area ◽  
Offspring Fitness ◽  
Gamete Interactions ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Nongenetic Inheritance

The capacity for parents to influence offspring phenotypes via nongenetic inheritance is currently a major area of focus in evolutionary biology. Intriguing recent evidence suggests that sexual interactions among males and females, both before and during mating, are important mediators of such effects. Sexual interactions typically extend beyond gamete release, involving both sperm and eggs, and their associated fluids. However, the potential for gamete-level interactions to induce nongenetic parental effects remains under-investigated. Here, we test for such effects using an emerging model system for studying gamete interactions, the external fertilizer Mytilus galloprovincialis . We employed a split-ejaculate design to test whether exposing sperm to egg-derived chemicals (ECs) from a female would affect fertilization rate and offspring viability when those sperm were used to fertilize a different female's eggs. We found separate, significant effects of ECs from non-fertilizing females on both fertilization rate and offspring viability. The offspring viability effect indicates that EC-driven interactions can have nongenetic implications for offspring fitness independent of the genotypes inherited by those offspring. These findings provide a rare test of indirect parental effects driven exclusively by gamete-level interactions, and to our knowledge the first evidence that such effects occur via the gametic fluids of females.

scholarly journals Domestication as a model system for the extended evolutionary synthesis

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 20160133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melinda A. Zeder
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Model System ◽  
Evolutionary Change ◽  
Evolutionary Synthesis ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Extended Evolutionary Synthesis ◽  
Model Case ◽  
The Core ◽  
Multiple Regions

One of the challenges in evaluating arguments for extending the conceptual framework of evolutionary biology involves the identification of a tractable model system that allows for an assessment of the core assumptions of the extended evolutionary synthesis (EES). The domestication of plants and animals by humans provides one such case study opportunity. Here, I consider domestication as a model system for exploring major tenets of the EES. First I discuss the novel insights that niche construction theory (NCT, one of the pillars of the EES) provides into the domestication processes, particularly as they relate to five key areas: coevolution, evolvability, ecological inheritance, cooperation and the pace of evolutionary change. This discussion is next used to frame testable predictions about initial domestication of plants and animals that contrast with those grounded in standard evolutionary theory, demonstrating how these predictions might be tested in multiple regions where initial domestication took place. I then turn to a broader consideration of how domestication provides a model case study consideration of the different ways in which the core assumptions of the EES strengthen and expand our understanding of evolution, including reciprocal causation, developmental processes as drivers of evolutionary change, inclusive inheritance, and the tempo and rate of evolutionary change.

scholarly journals REMI-seq: Development of methods and resources for functional genomics inDictyostelium

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Gruenheit ◽  
Amy Baldwin ◽  
Balint Stewart ◽  
Sarah Jaques ◽  
Thomas Keller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Model System ◽  
Step Change ◽  
Model Systems ◽  
Social Amoeba ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
The Social ◽  
Higher Eukaryotes ◽  
Eukaryotic Microbe

AbstractGenomes can be sequenced with relative ease, but ascribing gene function remains a major challenge. Genetically tractable model systems are crucial to meet this challenge. One powerful model is the social amoebaDictyostelium discoideum, a eukaryotic microbe widely used to study diverse questions in cell, developmental and evolutionary biology. However, its utility is hampered by the inefficiency with which sequence, transcriptome or proteome variation can be linked to phenotype. To address this, we have developed methods (REMI-seq) to (1) generate a near genome-wide resource of individual mutants (2) allow large-scale parallel phenotyping. We demonstrate that integrating these resources allows novel regulators of cell migration, phagocytosis and macropinocytosis to be rapidly identified. Therefore, these methods and resources provide a step change for high throughput gene discovery in a key model system, and the study of genes affecting traits associated with higher eukaryotes.

scholarly journals How Molecules Became Signs

Biosemiotics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terrence W. Deacon
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Molecular Model ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Model System ◽  
Biological Information ◽  
Functional Constraints ◽  
Dna And Rna ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient

AbstractTo explore how molecules became signs I will ask: “What sort of process is necessary and sufficient to treat a molecule as a sign?” This requires focusing on the interpreting system and its interpretive competence. To avoid assuming any properties that need to be explained I develop what I consider to be a simplest possible molecular model system which only assumes known physics and chemistry but nevertheless exemplifies the interpretive properties of interest. Three progressively more complex variants of this model of interpretive competence are developed that roughly parallel an icon-index-symbol hierarchic scaffolding logic. The implication of this analysis is a reversal of the current dogma of molecular and evolutionary biology which treats molecules like DNA and RNA as the original sources of biological information. Instead I argue that the structural characteristics of these molecules have provided semiotic affordances that the interpretive dynamics of viruses and cells have taken advantage of. These molecules are not the source of biological information but are instead semiotic artifacts onto which dynamical functional constraints have been progressively offloaded during the course of evolution.

scholarly journals Symbiont-mediated protection varies with wasp genotype in the Drosophila melanogaster-Spiroplasma interaction

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan E Jones ◽  
Gregory D D Hurst
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Natural Enemies ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Model System ◽  
Common Source ◽  
Parasitoid Wasps ◽  
Composite Measure ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Microbial Symbionts ◽  
Positive Effect

AbstractThe ability of an insect to survive attack by natural enemies can be modulated by the presence of defensive symbionts. Study of aphid-symbiont-enemy interactions has indicated that protection may depend on the interplay of symbiont, host and attacking parasite genotypes. However, the importance of these interactions are poorly understood outside of this model system. Here, we study interactions within a Drosophila model system, in which Spiroplasma protect their host against parasitoid wasps and nematode attack. We examine whether the strength of protection conferred by Spiroplasma to its host, Drosophila melanogaster varies with strain of attacking Leptopilina heterotoma wasp. We perform this analysis in the presence and absence of ethanol, an environmental factor that also impacts the outcome of parasitism. We observed that Spiroplasma killed all strains of wasp. However, the protection produced by Spiroplasma following wasp attack depended on attacking wasp strain. A composite measure of protection, including both the chance of the fly surviving attack and the relative fecundity/fertility of the survivors, varied from a <4% positive effect of the symbiont following attack of the fly host by the Lh14 strain of wasp to 21% for the Lh-Fr strain in the absence of ethanol. Variation in protection provided was not associated with differences in the oviposition behaviour of the different wasp strains. We observed that environmental ethanol altered the pattern of protection against wasp strains, with Spiroplasma being most protective against the Lh-Mad wasp strain in the presence of ethanol. These data indicate that the dynamics of the Spiroplasma-Drosophila-wasp tripartite interaction depend upon the genetic diversity within the attacking wasp population, and that prediction of symbiont dynamics in natural systems will thus require analysis across natural enemy genotypes and levels of environmental ethanol.Impact SummaryNatural enemies – predators, parasites and pathogens – are a common source of mortality in animals, and this has driven the evolution of an array of mechanisms for preventing and surviving attack. Recently it has been observed that microbial symbionts form a component of insect defence against attack by pathogens and parasites. Whether an individual fly dies or lives following wasp attack, for instance, is partly determined by the presence or absence of Spiroplasma bacteria in the fly blood. The evolutionary biology of these ‘protective symbioses’ will in part depend on the specificity of defence – does Spiroplasma defend against all wasp strains equally, or does defence vary between wasp strains? We investigated this in the model insect, Drosophila melanogaster. We observed that the defensive symbiont killed all strains of wasps tested. However, the capacity of the symbiont to rescue the fly varied – Spiroplasma rescued the flies for some attacking wasp strains, but not for others. These data mean that the degree to which symbionts protect their host will depend on the wasp strains circulating in nature. Our results are important in terms of understanding the forces that promote symbiont mediated protection and understanding the origins of diversity of circulating wasp strains. Further, these data indicate enemy diversity and their interaction with protective symbionts should be included in evaluation of the efficiency of biocontrol programmes involving natural enemies.

Ecological evolutionary developmental biology in dialogue with agroecology: The Milpa as model system

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (14) ◽  
pp. 69
Author(s):  
Mariana Benitez
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Biology ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Evolutionary Developmental Biology ◽  
Model System ◽  
The Other ◽  
Agricultural Knowledge ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
Large Effort ◽  
The One ◽  
Evo Devo

The fields of agroecology and ecological evolutionary developmental biology  (eco-evo-devo) have been performing somewhat parallel efforts of synthesis. On the one hand, agroecology has incorporated knowledge from different disciplinary sources, among which are of course ecology, agronomy and, in a  less extent, other scientific disciplines. It has also embraced local and traditional agricultural knowledge. On the other hand, during the last decades a large effort has aimed to integrate diverse theories, evidence and tools from ecology, developmental and evolutionary biology in what has been called eco-evo-devo.

scholarly journals Explosive Speciation of Takifugu: Another Use of Fugu as a Model System for Evolutionary Biology

2008 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 623-629 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Yamanoue ◽  
M. Miya ◽  
K. Matsuura ◽  
S. Miyazawa ◽  
N. Tsukamoto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Model System ◽  
Explosive Speciation

scholarly journals Evolutionary biology studies on the Iris pumila clonal plant: Advantages of a good model system, main findings and directions for further research

2012 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Tarasjev ◽  
S. Avramov ◽  
Danijela Miljkovic
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Clonal Plant ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Model System ◽  
Biological Organization ◽  
Evolutionary Studies ◽  
Iris Pumila ◽  
Published Research ◽  
Different Levels

Evolutionary studies on the dwarf bearded iris, Iris pumila L., a perennial clonal monocot with hermaphroditic enthomophylous flowers, have been conducted during the last three decades on plants and populations from the Deliblato Sands in Serbia. In this review we discuss the main advantages of this model system that have enabled various studies of several important genetic, ecological, and evolutionary issues at different levels of biological organization (molecular, physiological, anatomical, morphological and population). Based on published research and its resonance in international scientific literature, we present the main findings obtained from these studies, and discuss possible directions for further research.

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