Identification of complex molecular networks underlying common human phenotypes is a major challenge of modern genetics. In this study, we develop a method for network-based analysis of genetic ...associations (NETBAG). We use NETBAG to identify a large biological network of genes affected by rare de novo CNVs in autism. The genes forming the network are primarily related to synapse development, axon targeting, and neuron motility. The identified network is strongly related to genes previously implicated in autism and intellectual disability phenotypes. Our results are also consistent with the hypothesis that significantly stronger functional perturbations are required to trigger the autistic phenotype in females compared to males. Overall, the presented analysis of de novo variants supports the hypothesis that perturbed synaptogenesis is at the heart of autism. More generally, our study provides proof of the principle that networks underlying complex human phenotypes can be identified by a network-based functional analysis of rare genetic variants.
► Rare de novo CNVs associated with autism contain functionally connected genes ► NETBAG method identifies a significant functional network affected by rare variants ► Identified network is related to synaptogenesis, axon guidance, and neuronal motility ► Genes perturbed in females carry more weight in the network than genes in males
Left-handedness is a costly, sexually dimorphic trait found at low frequencies in all human populations. How the handedness polymorphism is maintained is unclear. The fighting hypothesis argues that ...left-handed men have a negative frequency-dependent advantage in violent intrasexual competition giving them a selective advantage. In support of this, many studies have found that left-handed men are overrepresented among modern professional fighters, but studies typically find no difference in fighting success between left and right-handed fighters. We studied over 13,800 professional boxers and mixed martial artists of varying abilities in three of the largest samples to test this hypothesis to date, finding robust evidence that left-handed fighters have greater fighting success. This held for both male and female fighters, and for both percentage of fights won and an objective measure of fighting ability. We replicated previous results showing that left-handed fighters are strongly overrepresented in professional combat sports, but left-handed fighters did not show greater variance in fighting ability, a hypothesis suggested in previous studies. Overall we find strong evidence consistent with the fighting hypothesis.
There is a growing recognition that animal behavior can affect wildlife conservation, but there have been few direct studies of animal behavior in conservation programs. However, a great deal of ...existing behavioral research can be applied in the context of conservation. Research on avian vocalizations provides an excellent example. The conspicuous nature of the vocal behavior of birds makes it a useful tool for monitoring populations and measuring biodiversity, but the importance of vocalizations in conservation goes beyond monitoring. Geographic song variants with population‐specific signatures, or dialects, can affect territory formation and mate choice. Dialects are influenced by cultural evolution and natural selection and changes can accumulate even during the timescale of conservation interventions, such as translocations, reintroductions, and ex situ breeding. Information from existing research into avian vocalizations can be used to improve conservation planning and increase the success of interventions. Vocalizations can confer a number of benefits for conservation practitioners through monitoring, providing baseline data on populations and individuals. However, the influence of cultural variation on territory formation, mate choice, and gene flow should be taken into account because cultural differences could create obstacles for conservation programs that bring birds from multiple populations together and so reduce the success of interventions.
Implicaciones y Usos de las Vocalizaciones de Aves para la Conservación de la Planeación
Resumen
Hay un creciente reconocimiento de que el comportamiento animal puede afectar a la conservación de la fauna, pero ha habido pocos estudios directos del comportamiento animal en los programas de conservación. Sin embargo, una gran cantidad de la investigación existente sobre el comportamiento puede aplicarse en el contexto de la conservación. Las investigaciones sobre las vocalizaciones de aves son un excelente ejemplo. La naturaleza conspicua del comportamiento vocal de las aves hace que sea una herramienta útil para el monitoreo de las poblaciones y las medidas de la biodiversidad, pero la importancia de las vocalizaciones en la conservación va más allá del monitoreo. Las variantes geográficas de canto con firmas específicas para cada población, también conocidas como dialectos, pueden afectar a la formación del territorio y a la elección de pareja. Los dialectos están influenciados por la evolución cultural y la selección natural y los cambios pueden acumularse incluso durante la escala de tiempo de las intervenciones de conservación, como las reubicaciones, las reintroducciones y la reproducción ex situ. La información disponible a partir de las investigaciones existentes sobre las vocalizaciones de aves puede usarse para mejorar la planeación de la conservación e incrementar el éxito de las intervenciones. Las vocalizaciones pueden otorgar un número de beneficios para quienes practican la conservación a través del monitoreo, proporcionando información de la línea base de las poblaciones y los individuos. Sin embargo, la influencia de la variación cultural sobre la formación del territorio, la elección de pareja y el flujo génico deberían considerarse ya que las diferencias culturales podrían crear obstáculos para los programas de conservación que agrupan a aves de diferentes poblaciones y con ello reducen el éxito de las intervenciones.
摘要
目前, 人们已越来越多地认识到动物行为可以影响野生动物保护, 但在保护项目中对动物行为的直接研究还很少。不过, 大量现有的行为研究都可以应用于到保护之中。鸟类声音的研究就是一个很好的例子。鸟类鸣叫行为十分引人注意, 可以作为监测种群和衡量生物多样性的有用工具, 但鸟鸣在保护中的重要意义不仅仅在于监测。鸟类的叫声具有特定种群特征的地理变异, 或称之为方言, 这可以影响领域形成和配偶选择。鸟类的方言受文化演化和自然选择的影响, 且在物种保护措施 (如异地放归、重引入、迁地繁殖) 的时间尺度内也会不断积累变化。来自现有鸟鸣研究的信息可用于改进保护计划、促进干预措施的成功。鸟鸣研究可以通过监测, 提供种群和个体的基础数据, 为保护实践者带来许多好处。然而, 保护实践者还应该考虑鸟类种群的文化差异对领域形成、配偶选择和基因流的影响, 因为文化差异可能会阻碍将来自多个种群的鸟类聚集在一起的保护计划的实施, 从而降低干预措施的成功率。【翻译: 胡怡思; 审校: 聂永刚】
Article impact statement: Avian vocalizations are well studied but should be considered more both as a tool and potential hindrance in conservation interventions.
In nature, animals often ignore socially available information despite the multiple theoretical benefits of social learning over individual trial-and-error learning. Using information filtered by ...others is quicker, more efficient and less risky than randomly sampling the environment. To explain the mix of social and individual learning used by animals in nature, most models penalize the quality of socially derived information as either out of date, of poor fidelity or costly to acquire. Competition for limited resources, a fundamental evolutionary force, provides a compelling, yet hitherto overlooked, explanation for the evolution of mixed-learning strategies. We present a novel model of social learning that incorporates competition and demonstrates that (i) social learning is favoured when competition is weak, but (ii) if competition is strong social learning is favoured only when resource quality is highly variable and there is low environmental turnover. The frequency of social learning in our model always evolves until it reduces the mean foraging success of the population. The results of our model are consistent with empirical studies showing that individuals rely less on social information where resources vary little in quality and where there is high within-patch competition. Our model provides a framework for understanding the evolution of social learning, a prerequisite for human cumulative culture.
Microbiomes are ecosystems, and their stability can impact the health of their hosts. Theory predicts that predators influence ecosystem stability. Phages are key predators of bacteria in ...microbiomes, but phages are unusual predators because many have lysogenic life cycles. It has been hypothesized that lysogeny can destabilize microbiomes, but lysogeny has no direct analog in classical ecological theory, and no formal theory exists. We studied the stability of computationally simulated microbiomes with different numbers of temperate (lysogenic) and virulent (obligate lytic) phage species. Bacterial populations were more likely to fluctuate over time when there were more temperate phages species. After disturbances, bacterial populations returned to their pre‐disturbance densities more slowly when there were more temperate phage species, but cycles engendered by disturbances dampened more slowly when there were more virulent phage species. Our work offers the first formal theory linking lysogeny to microbiome stability.
Predation by phages shapes bacterial communities in microbiomes, but no theory exists to predict how lysogeny affects bacterial community composition and dynamics. We used computational models to show that lysogenic phages can destabilize bacterial communities, with potential impacts on the health of microbiome hosts.
Abstract Background A unified set of criteria for neurocysticercosis (NCC) has helped to standardize its diagnosis in different settings. Methods Cysticercosis experts were convened to update current ...diagnostic criteria for NCC according to two principles: neuroimaging studies are essential for diagnosis, and all other information provides indirect evidence favoring the diagnosis. Recent diagnostic advances were incorporated to this revised set. Results This revised set is structured in absolute, neuroimaging and clinical/exposure criteria. Absolute criteria include: histological confirmation of parasites, evidence of subretinal cysts, and demonstration of the scolex within a cyst. Neuroimaging criteria are categorized as major (cystic lesions without scolex, enhancing lesions, multilobulated cysts, and calcifications), confirmative (resolution of cysts after cysticidal drug therapy, spontaneous resolution of single enhancing lesions, and migrating ventricular cysts on sequential neuroimaging studies) and minor (hydrocephalus and leptomeningeal enhancement). Clinical/exposure criteria include: detection of anticysticercal antibodies or cysticercal antigens by well-standardized tests, systemic cysticercosis, evidence of a household Taenia carrier, suggestive clinical manifestations, and residency in endemic areas. Besides patients having absolute criteria, definitive diagnosis can be made in those having two major neuroimaging criteria (or one major plus one confirmative criteria) plus exposure. For patients presenting with one major and one minor neuroimaging criteria plus exposure, definitive diagnosis of NCC requires the exclusion of confounding pathologies. Probable diagnosis is reserved for individuals presenting with one neuroimaging criteria plus strong evidence of exposure. Conclusions This revised set of diagnostic criteria provides simpler definitions and may facilitate its more uniform and widespread applicability in different scenarios.
Social learning occurs when animals acquire knowledge or skills by observing or interacting with others and is the fundamental building block of culture. Within populations, some individuals use ...social learning more frequently than others, but why social learning phenotypes differ among individuals is poorly understood. We modelled the evolution of social learning frequency in a system where foragers compete for resources, and there are many different foraging options to learn about. Social learning phenotypes diverged when some options offered much better rewards than others and expected rewards changed moderately quickly over time. When options offered similar rewards or when rewards changed slowly, a single social learning phenotype evolved. This held for fixed and simple conditional social learning rules. Sufficiently complex conditional social learning rules prevented the divergence of social learning phenotypes under all conditions. Our results explain how competition can promote the divergence of social learning phenotypes.
Summary
The gut microbiota of social bees is relatively simple and dominated by a set of core taxa found consistently in individuals around the world. Yet, variation remains and can affect host ...health. We characterized individual‐ and regional‐scale variation in honeybee (Apis mellifera) gut microbiota from 64 colonies in North‐West England by sequencing the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene and asked whether microbiota were influenced by host genotype and landscape composition. We also characterized the genotypes of individual bees and the land cover surrounding each colony. The literature‐defined core taxa dominated across the region despite the varied environments. However, there was variation in the relative abundance of core taxa, and colony membership explained much of this variation. Individuals from more genetically diverse colonies had more diverse microbiotas, but individual genetic diversity did not influence gut microbial diversity. There were weak trends for colonies in more similar landscapes to have more similar microbiota, and for bees from more urban landscapes to have less diverse microbiota. To our knowledge, this is the first report for any species that the gut bacterial communities of individuals are influenced by the genotypes of others in the population.
•We used the Covid-19 lockdown to assess the impact of zoo closure on soundscapes.•We examined multiple measures including sound pressure levels and acoustic indices.•Aviaries were quieter ...particularly for low-frequency noise during the closure period.•The NDSI is a useful measure for assessing human disturbance in zoos.•Using multiple measures provides information beyond sound levels for zoo management.
The zoo soundscape has important implications for animal welfare, management, and conservation. However, despite its importance, the zoo soundscape is yet to be examined in depth. Consistent human presence can influence the zoo soundscape. However, it is difficult to determine the specific impact of human presence, as visitors are usually present during the day when animals are active. The COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 provided a unique opportunity to study zoo soundscapes in the absence of visitors. The main aim of this study was to compare the sound environment across three zoo aviaries during the 2020 closure period to a comparable period in 2019 in which the zoo was open. We examined broad band frequency measures of sound pressure levels, sound pressure levels in defined frequency bands, and ecoacoustic indices (the Acoustic Complexity Index and Normalized Difference Soundscape Index) to describe the zoo soundscape. Ecoacoustic indices have not, to our knowledge, previously been used in the zoo setting, although they may provide a useful metric to assess zoo soundscapes. Therefore, we used this natural experiment to explore how successful these measures may be in assessing sound in zoo environments. We found that, during the zoo closure period, the overall sound pressure levels were lower (by 4.4 – 6.4 dB(Z) depending on aviary), and this effect was particularly pronounced in the lower frequency bands. The proportion of sound energy at low frequencies was also lower during the zoo closure period in two of the three aviaries. We argue that NDSI could be a useful index for determining the impact of human presence in zoos, although further information on how it is influenced by additional factors, such as human speech, would be beneficial. The use of multiple indices to assess the sound environment can provide additional information beyond traditional measures of sound levels in zoos, such as frequencies where sound energy is concentrated and characteristics of the soundscape, which could be used to better target management and mitigation.
We provide a perspective on studies aimed at observing the transition between hadronic and quark-gluonic descriptions of reactions involving light nuclei. We begin by summarizing the results for ...relatively simple reactions such as the pion form factor and the neutral pion transition form factor as well as that for the nucleon and end with exclusive photoreactions in our simplest nuclei. A particular focus will be on reactions involving the deuteron. It is noted that a firm understanding of these issues is essential for unravelling important structure information from processes such as deeply virtual Compton scattering as well as deeply virtual meson production. The connection to exotic phenomena such as color transparency will be discussed. A number of outstanding challenges will require new experiments at modern facilities on the horizon as well as further theoretical developments.
PDF
