scholarly journals Canalisation in the wild: effects of developmental conditions on physiological traits are inversely linked to their association with fitness

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 857-864 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelle J. Boonekamp ◽  
Ellis Mulder ◽  
Simon Verhulst
Keyword(s):  
Physiological Traits ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Developmental Conditions

scholarly journals Interplays between pre- and post-natal environments affect early-life mortality, body mass and telomere dynamics in the wild

2020 ◽  
Vol 224 (1) ◽  
pp. jeb231290
Author(s):  
Tiia Kärkkäinen ◽  
Pauliina Teerikorpi ◽  
Wiebke Schuett ◽  
Antoine Stier ◽  
Toni Laaksonen
Keyword(s):  
Telomere Length ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Maternal Investment ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Hatching Order ◽  
Hatching Synchrony ◽  
Asynchronous Hatching ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Developmental Conditions ◽  
Telomere Dynamics

ABSTRACTEarly-life conditions are crucial determinants of phenotype and fitness. The effects of pre- and post-natal conditions on fitness prospects have been widely studied but their interactive effects have received less attention. In birds, asynchronous hatching creates challenging developmental conditions for the last-hatched chicks, but differential allocation in last-laid eggs might help to compensate this initial handicap. The relative importance and potential interaction between pre- and post-hatching developmental conditions for different fitness components remains mostly unknown. We manipulated hatching order in wild pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca), creating three groups: natural asynchrony (last-laid eggs hatching last), reversed asynchrony (last-laid eggs hatching first) and hatching synchrony (all eggs hatching at once). We examined the effects of these manipulations on early-life survival, growth and telomere length, a potential cellular biomarker of fitness prospects. Mortality was mostly affected by hatching order, with last-hatched chicks being more likely to die. Early-life telomere dynamics and growth were influenced by the interplays between laying and hatching order. Last-laid but first-hatched chicks were heavier but had shorter telomeres 5 days after hatching than their siblings, indicating rapid early growth with potential adverse consequences on telomere length. Synchronous chicks did not suffer any apparent cost of hatching synchronously. Impaired phenotypes only occurred when reversing the natural hatching order (i.e. developmental mismatch), suggesting that maternal investment in last-laid eggs might indeed counterbalance the initial handicap of last-hatched chicks. Our experimental study thus highlights that potential interplays between pre- and post-natal environments are likely to shape fitness prospects in the wild.

scholarly journals Genetic approaches in comparative and evolutionary physiology

2015 ◽  
Vol 309 (3) ◽  
pp. R197-R214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay F. Storz ◽  
Jamie T. Bridgham ◽  
Scott A. Kelly ◽  
Theodore Garland
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Genetics ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Adaptive Significance ◽  
Physiological Traits ◽  
Evolutionary Physiology ◽  
Trait Variation ◽  
Polygenic Inheritance ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
In The Wild

Whole animal physiological performance is highly polygenic and highly plastic, and the same is generally true for the many subordinate traits that underlie performance capacities. Quantitative genetics, therefore, provides an appropriate framework for the analysis of physiological phenotypes and can be used to infer the microevolutionary processes that have shaped patterns of trait variation within and among species. In cases where specific genes are known to contribute to variation in physiological traits, analyses of intraspecific polymorphism and interspecific divergence can reveal molecular mechanisms of functional evolution and can provide insights into the possible adaptive significance of observed sequence changes. In this review, we explain how the tools and theory of quantitative genetics, population genetics, and molecular evolution can inform our understanding of mechanism and process in physiological evolution. For example, lab-based studies of polygenic inheritance can be integrated with field-based studies of trait variation and survivorship to measure selection in the wild, thereby providing direct insights into the adaptive significance of physiological variation. Analyses of quantitative genetic variation in selection experiments can be used to probe interrelationships among traits and the genetic basis of physiological trade-offs and constraints. We review approaches for characterizing the genetic architecture of physiological traits, including linkage mapping and association mapping, and systems approaches for dissecting intermediary steps in the chain of causation between genotype and phenotype. We also discuss the promise and limitations of population genomic approaches for inferring adaptation at specific loci. We end by highlighting the role of organismal physiology in the functional synthesis of evolutionary biology.

Freeze-substituted fungal cells of Nectria haematococca: A comparison of the macroconidial walls of the adhesion-competent wild type with an adhesion-reduced mutant

1990 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 688-689
Author(s):  
Thecan Caesar-Ton That ◽  
Lynn Epstein
Keyword(s):  
Freeze Substitution ◽  
Uranyl Acetate ◽  
Wild Type ◽  
Nectria Haematococca ◽  
Fruit Extract ◽  
Dialysis Tubing ◽  
Tube Emergence ◽  
Contrast Microscopy ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Freeze Damage

Nectria haematococca mating population I (anamorph, Fusarium solani) macroconidia attach to its host (squash) and non-host surfaces prior to germ tube emergence. The macroconidia become adhesive after a brief period of protein synthesis. Recently, Hickman et al. (1989) isolated N. haematococca adhesion-reduced mutants. Using freeze substitution, we compared the development of the macroconidial wall in the wild type in comparison to one of the mutants, LEI.Macroconidia were harvested at 1C, washed by centrifugation, resuspended in a dilute zucchini fruit extract and incubated from 0 - 5 h. During the incubation period, wild type macroconidia attached to uncoated dialysis tubing. Mutant macroconidia did not attach and were collected on poly-L-lysine coated dialysis tubing just prior to freezing. Conidia on the tubing were frozen in liquid propane at 191 - 193C, substituted in acetone with 2% OsO4 and 0.05% uranyl acetate, washed with acetone, and flat-embedded in Epon-Araldite. Using phase contrast microscopy at 1000X, cells without freeze damage were selected, remounted, sectioned and post-stained sequentially with 1% Ba(MnO4)2 2% uranyl acetate and Reynold’s lead citrate. At least 30 cells/treatment were examined.

Plasticity and trade-offs in physiological traits of intertidal mussels subjected to freshwater-induced environmental variation

2016 ◽  
Vol 553 ◽  
pp. 93-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
L Ramajo ◽  
L Prado ◽  
AB Rodriguez-Navarro ◽  
MA Lardies ◽  
CM Duarte ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Variation ◽  
Physiological Traits ◽  
Trade Offs

Prey tell: what quillback rockfish early life history traits reveal about their survival in encounters with juvenile coho salmon

2020 ◽  
Vol 650 ◽  
pp. 7-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
HW Fennie ◽  
S Sponaugle ◽  
EA Daly ◽  
RD Brodeur
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Coho Salmon ◽  
Larval Fish ◽  
Early Life History ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Otolith Microstructure Analysis ◽  
Pelagic Juvenile

Predation is a major source of mortality in the early life stages of fishes and a driving force in shaping fish populations. Theoretical, modeling, and laboratory studies have generated hypotheses that larval fish size, age, growth rate, and development rate affect their susceptibility to predation. Empirical data on predator selection in the wild are challenging to obtain, and most selective mortality studies must repeatedly sample populations of survivors to indirectly examine survivorship. While valuable on a population scale, these approaches can obscure selection by particular predators. In May 2018, along the coast of Washington, USA, we simultaneously collected juvenile quillback rockfish Sebastes maliger from both the environment and the stomachs of juvenile coho salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch. We used otolith microstructure analysis to examine whether juvenile coho salmon were age-, size-, and/or growth-selective predators of juvenile quillback rockfish. Our results indicate that juvenile rockfish consumed by salmon were significantly smaller, slower growing at capture, and younger than surviving (unconsumed) juvenile rockfish, providing direct evidence that juvenile coho salmon are selective predators on juvenile quillback rockfish. These differences in early life history traits between consumed and surviving rockfish are related to timing of parturition and the environmental conditions larval rockfish experienced, suggesting that maternal effects may substantially influence survival at this stage. Our results demonstrate that variability in timing of parturition and sea surface temperature leads to tradeoffs in early life history traits between growth in the larval stage and survival when encountering predators in the pelagic juvenile stage.

CNN-based Rain Reduction in Street View Images

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-81
Author(s):  
Simone Zini ◽  
Simone Bianco ◽  
Raimondo Schettini
Keyword(s):  
Character Recognition ◽  
Optical Character Recognition ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Specific Interest ◽  
Optical Character ◽  
Street View ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Bad Weather ◽  
Detection And Recognition

Rain removal from pictures taken under bad weather conditions is a challenging task that aims to improve the overall quality and visibility of a scene. The enhanced images usually constitute the input for subsequent Computer Vision tasks such as detection and classification. In this paper, we present a Convolutional Neural Network, based on the Pix2Pix model, for rain streaks removal from images, with specific interest in evaluating the results of the processing operation with respect to the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) task. In particular, we present a way to generate a rainy version of the Street View Text Dataset (R-SVTD) for "text detection and recognition" evaluation in bad weather conditions. Experimental results on this dataset show that our model is able to outperform the state of the art in terms of two commonly used image quality metrics, and that it is capable to improve the performances of an OCR model to detect and recognise text in the wild.

On behalf of Pascal: A Reply to Le Poidevin

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 189
Author(s):  
Sebastian Gäb
Keyword(s):  
Christian Spirituality ◽  
Potential Candidate ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Real Possibility ◽  
Doctrine Of God ◽  
The Future ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
As If

When we were on the subway back from his lecture, I said to Robin: “I’m not sure there actually are any religious fictionalists.” We keep talking about them in papers and lectures, acting as if fictionalism in religion is a real possibility, but to be honest, I haven’t been able to spot one in the wild so far. The only potential candidate who comes to mind is Don Cupitt, who wrote things like: “I still pray and love God, even though I fully acknowledge that no God actually exists.”[1] Perhaps this is as fictionalist as it gets. But then again, Cupitt never explicitly declared himself a fictionalist (at least to my knowledge). Moreover, on other occasions he sounds more like an expressivist than a fictionalist, e.g. when he says: “The Christian doctrine of God just is Christian spirituality in coded form.”[2] So, if there are any actual fictionalists out there, please step forward.[1] Don Cupitt, After God: The Future of Religion (Basic Books, 1997), 85.[2] Don Cupitt, Taking leave of God (SCM Press, 1980), 14.

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