ALBERT

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Mayr, Gerald -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2014 Dec 19;346(6216):1466. doi: 10.1126/science.346.6216.1466-b.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, Ornithological Section, D-60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. gerald.mayr@senckenberg.de.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25525236" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Koschowitz, Marie-Claire -- Lambertz, Markus -- Fischer, Christian -- Sander, P Martin -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2014 Dec 19;346(6216):1466-7. doi: 10.1126/science.346.6216.1466-c.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Division of Paleontology, Steinmann Institute for Geology, Mineralogy and Paleontology, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat Bonn, 53115 Bonn, Germany. Institute for Zoology and Anthropology, Department of Morphology, Systematics and Evolutionary Biology with Zoological Museum, Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen, 37073 Gottingen, Germany. m.koschowitz@uni-bonn.de. ; Institut fur Zoologie, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat Bonn, 53115 Bonn, Germany. ; Institute for Zoology and Anthropology, Department of Morphology, Systematics and Evolutionary Biology with Zoological Museum, Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen, 37073 Gottingen, Germany. ; Division of Paleontology, Steinmann Institute for Geology, Mineralogy and Paleontology, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat Bonn, 53115 Bonn, Germany. Dinosaur Institute, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA 90007, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25525237" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Birds are the most species-rich class of tetrapod vertebrates and have wide relevance across many research fields. We explored bird macroevolution using full genomes from 48 avian species representing all major extant clades. The avian genome is principally characterized by its constrained size, which predominantly arose because of lineage-specific erosion of repetitive elements, large segmental deletions, and gene loss. Avian genomes furthermore show a remarkably high degree of evolutionary stasis at the levels of nucleotide sequence, gene synteny, and chromosomal structure. Despite this pattern of conservation, we detected many non-neutral evolutionary changes in protein-coding genes and noncoding regions. These analyses reveal that pan-avian genomic diversity covaries with adaptations to different lifestyles and convergent evolution of traits.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4390078/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4390078/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Zhang, Guojie -- Li, Cai -- Li, Qiye -- Li, Bo -- Larkin, Denis M -- Lee, Chul -- Storz, Jay F -- Antunes, Agostinho -- Greenwold, Matthew J -- Meredith, Robert W -- Odeen, Anders -- Cui, Jie -- Zhou, Qi -- Xu, Luohao -- Pan, Hailin -- Wang, Zongji -- Jin, Lijun -- Zhang, Pei -- Hu, Haofu -- Yang, Wei -- Hu, Jiang -- Xiao, Jin -- Yang, Zhikai -- Liu, Yang -- Xie, Qiaolin -- Yu, Hao -- Lian, Jinmin -- Wen, Ping -- Zhang, Fang -- Li, Hui -- Zeng, Yongli -- Xiong, Zijun -- Liu, Shiping -- Zhou, Long -- Huang, Zhiyong -- An, Na -- Wang, Jie -- Zheng, Qiumei -- Xiong, Yingqi -- Wang, Guangbiao -- Wang, Bo -- Wang, Jingjing -- Fan, Yu -- da Fonseca, Rute R -- Alfaro-Nunez, Alonzo -- Schubert, Mikkel -- Orlando, Ludovic -- Mourier, Tobias -- Howard, Jason T -- Ganapathy, Ganeshkumar -- Pfenning, Andreas -- Whitney, Osceola -- Rivas, Miriam V -- Hara, Erina -- Smith, Julia -- Farre, Marta -- Narayan, Jitendra -- Slavov, Gancho -- Romanov, Michael N -- Borges, Rui -- Machado, Joao Paulo -- Khan, Imran -- Springer, Mark S -- Gatesy, John -- Hoffmann, Federico G -- Opazo, Juan C -- Hastad, Olle -- Sawyer, Roger H -- Kim, Heebal -- Kim, Kyu-Won -- Kim, Hyeon Jeong -- Cho, Seoae -- Li, Ning -- Huang, Yinhua -- Bruford, Michael W -- Zhan, Xiangjiang -- Dixon, Andrew -- Bertelsen, Mads F -- Derryberry, Elizabeth -- Warren, Wesley -- Wilson, Richard K -- Li, Shengbin -- Ray, David A -- Green, Richard E -- O'Brien, Stephen J -- Griffin, Darren -- Johnson, Warren E -- Haussler, David -- Ryder, Oliver A -- Willerslev, Eske -- Graves, Gary R -- Alstrom, Per -- Fjeldsa, Jon -- Mindell, David P -- Edwards, Scott V -- Braun, Edward L -- Rahbek, Carsten -- Burt, David W -- Houde, Peter -- Zhang, Yong -- Yang, Huanming -- Wang, Jian -- Avian Genome Consortium -- Jarvis, Erich D -- Gilbert, M Thomas P -- Wang, Jun -- DP1 OD000448/OD/NIH HHS/ -- DP1OD000448/OD/NIH HHS/ -- R01 HL087216/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2014 Dec 12;346(6215):1311-20. doi: 10.1126/science.1251385. Epub 2014 Dec 11.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉China National GeneBank, Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI)-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518083, China. Centre for Social Evolution, Department of Biology, Universitetsparken 15, University of Copenhagen, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark. zhanggj@genomics.cn jarvis@neuro.duke.edu mtpgilbert@gmail.com wangj@genomics.cn. ; China National GeneBank, Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI)-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518083, China. Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Oster Voldgade 5-7, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark. ; China National GeneBank, Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI)-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518083, China. ; Royal Veterinary College, University of London, London, UK. ; Interdisciplinary Program in Bioinformatics, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea. Cho and Kim Genomics, Seoul National University Research Park, Seoul 151-919, Republic of Korea. ; School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA. ; Centro de Investigacion en Ciencias del Mar y Limnologia (CIMAR)/Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigacao Marinha e Ambiental (CIIMAR), Universidade do Porto, Rua dos Bragas, 177, 4050-123 Porto, Portugal. Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciencias, Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal. ; Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA. ; Department of Biology and Molecular Biology, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ 07043, USA. ; Department of Animal Ecology, Uppsala University, Norbyvagen 18D, S-752 36 Uppsala, Sweden. ; Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, Charles Perkins Centre, School of Biological Sciences and Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore 169857, Singapore. ; Department of Integrative Biology University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. ; China National GeneBank, Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI)-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518083, China. College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China. ; China National GeneBank, Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI)-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518083, China. School of Bioscience and Bioengineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China. ; China National GeneBank, Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI)-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518083, China. BGI Education Center,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,Shenzhen, 518083, China. ; Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Yunnan Province, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Kunming, Yunnan 650223, China. ; Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Oster Voldgade 5-7, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark. ; Department of Neurobiology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA. ; Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK. ; School of Biosciences, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NJ, UK. ; Centro de Investigacion en Ciencias del Mar y Limnologia (CIMAR)/Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigacao Marinha e Ambiental (CIIMAR), Universidade do Porto, Rua dos Bragas, 177, 4050-123 Porto, Portugal. Instituto de Ciencias Biomedicas Abel Salazar (ICBAS), Universidade do Porto, Portugal. ; Department of Biology, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA. ; Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology and Plant Pathology, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA. Institute for Genomics, Biocomputing and Biotechnology, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA. ; Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales y Evolutivas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile. ; Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Post Office Box 7011, S-750 07, Uppsala, Sweden. ; Interdisciplinary Program in Bioinformatics, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea. Cho and Kim Genomics, Seoul National University Research Park, Seoul 151-919, Republic of Korea. Department of Agricultural Biotechnology and Research Institute for Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea. ; Interdisciplinary Program in Bioinformatics, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea. ; Cho and Kim Genomics, Seoul National University Research Park, Seoul 151-919, Republic of Korea. ; State Key Laboratory for Agrobiotechnology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100094, China. ; State Key Laboratory for Agrobiotechnology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100094, China. College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100094, China. ; Organisms and Environment Division, Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3AX, Wales, UK. ; Organisms and Environment Division, Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3AX, Wales, UK. Key Lab of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101 China. ; International Wildlife Consultants, Carmarthen SA33 5YL, Wales, UK. ; Centre for Zoo and Wild Animal Health, Copenhagen Zoo, Roskildevej 38, DK-2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark. ; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA. Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA. ; The Genome Institute at Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63108, USA. ; College of Medicine and Forensics, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710061, China. ; Institute for Genomics, Biocomputing and Biotechnology, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA. ; Department of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA. ; Theodosius Dobzhansky Center for Genome Bioinformatics, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia. Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center 8000 N Ocean Drive, Dania, FL 33004, USA. ; Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, National Zoological Park, 1500 Remount Road, Front Royal, VA 22630, USA. ; Genetics Division, San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, 15600 San Pasqual Valley Road, Escondido, CA 92027, USA. ; Department of Vertebrate Zoology, MRC-116, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Post Office Box 37012, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA. Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, the Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen O, Denmark. ; Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 Beichen West Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China. Swedish Species Information Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7007, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden. ; Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, the Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen O, Denmark. ; Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA. ; Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. ; Department of Biology and Genetics Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA. ; Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, the Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen O, Denmark. Imperial College London, Grand Challenges in Ecosystems and the Environment Initiative, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY, UK. ; Division of Genetics and Genomics, The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, The Roslin Institute Building, University of Edinburgh, Easter Bush Campus, Midlothian EH25 9RG, UK. ; Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Box 30001 MSC 3AF, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA. ; China National GeneBank, Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI)-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518083, China. Macau University of Science and Technology, Avenida Wai long, Taipa, Macau 999078, China. ; Department of Neurobiology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA. zhanggj@genomics.cn jarvis@neuro.duke.edu mtpgilbert@gmail.com wangj@genomics.cn. ; Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Oster Voldgade 5-7, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark. Trace and Environmental DNA Laboratory, Department of Environment and Agriculture, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, 6102, Australia. zhanggj@genomics.cn jarvis@neuro.duke.edu mtpgilbert@gmail.com wangj@genomics.cn. ; China National GeneBank, Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI)-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518083, China. Macau University of Science and Technology, Avenida Wai long, Taipa, Macau 999078, China. Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Ole Maaloes Vej 5, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark. Princess Al Jawhara Center of Excellence in the Research of Hereditary Disorders, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia. Department of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. zhanggj@genomics.cn jarvis@neuro.duke.edu mtpgilbert@gmail.com wangj@genomics.cn.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25504712" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Sex-specific chromosomes, like the W of most female birds and the Y of male mammals, usually have lost most genes owing to a lack of recombination. We analyze newly available genomes of 17 bird species representing the avian phylogenetic range, and find that more than half of them do not have as fully degenerated W chromosomes as that of chicken. We show that avian sex chromosomes harbor tremendous diversity among species in their composition of pseudoautosomal regions and degree of Z/W differentiation. Punctuated events of shared or lineage-specific recombination suppression have produced a gradient of "evolutionary strata" along the Z chromosome, which initiates from the putative avian sex-determining gene DMRT1 and ends at the pseudoautosomal region. W-linked genes are subject to ongoing functional decay after recombination was suppressed, and the tempo of degeneration slows down in older strata. Overall, we unveil a complex history of avian sex chromosome evolution.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Zhou, Qi -- Zhang, Jilin -- Bachtrog, Doris -- An, Na -- Huang, Quanfei -- Jarvis, Erich D -- Gilbert, M Thomas P -- Zhang, Guojie -- GM076007/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- GM093182/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM076007/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM093182/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2014 Dec 12;346(6215):1246338. doi: 10.1126/science.1246338. Epub 2014 Dec 11.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA94720, USA. zhouqi@berkeley.edu zhanggj@genomics.org.cn. ; China National Genebank, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518083. China. ; Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA94720, USA. ; Department of Neurobiology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA. ; Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Oster Voldgade 5-7, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark. Trace and Environmental DNA laboratory, Department of Environment and Agriculture, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia 6102, Australia. ; China National Genebank, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518083. China. Centre for Social Evolution, Department of Biology, Universitetsparken 15, University of Copenhagen, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark. zhouqi@berkeley.edu zhanggj@genomics.org.cn.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25504727" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Edentulism, the absence of teeth, has evolved convergently among vertebrates, including birds, turtles, and several lineages of mammals. Instead of teeth, modern birds (Neornithes) use a horny beak (rhamphotheca) and a muscular gizzard to acquire and process food. We performed comparative genomic analyses representing lineages of nearly all extant bird orders and recovered shared, inactivating mutations within genes expressed in both the enamel and dentin of teeth of other vertebrate species, indicating that the common ancestor of modern birds lacked mineralized teeth. We estimate that tooth loss, or at least the loss of enamel caps that provide the outer layer of mineralized teeth, occurred about 116 million years ago.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Meredith, Robert W -- Zhang, Guojie -- Gilbert, M Thomas P -- Jarvis, Erich D -- Springer, Mark S -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2014 Dec 12;346(6215):1254390. doi: 10.1126/science.1254390. Epub 2014 Dec 11.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Biology and Molecular Biology, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ 07043, USA. meredithr@mail.montclair.edu mark.springer@ucr.edu. ; China National GeneBank, Beijing Genomics Institute-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518083, China. Centre for Social Evolution, Department of Biology, Universitetsparken 15, University of Copenhagen, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark. ; Center for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen Oster Voldgade 5-7, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark. Trace and Environmental DNA Laboratory, Department of Environment and Agriculture, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia 6102, Australia. ; Department of Neurobiology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA. ; Department of Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA. meredithr@mail.montclair.edu mark.springer@ucr.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25504730" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Recent discoveries of spectacular dinosaur fossils overwhelmingly support the hypothesis that birds are descended from maniraptoran theropod dinosaurs, and furthermore, demonstrate that distinctive bird characteristics such as feathers, flight, endothermic physiology, unique strategies for reproduction and growth, and a novel pulmonary system originated among Mesozoic terrestrial dinosaurs. The transition from ground-living to flight-capable theropod dinosaurs now probably represents one of the best-documented major evolutionary transitions in life history. Recent studies in developmental biology and other disciplines provide additional insights into how bird characteristics originated and evolved. The iconic features of extant birds for the most part evolved in a gradual and stepwise fashion throughout archosaur evolution. However, new data also highlight occasional bursts of morphological novelty at certain stages particularly close to the origin of birds and an unavoidable complex, mosaic evolutionary distribution of major bird characteristics on the theropod tree. Research into bird origins provides a premier example of how paleontological and neontological data can interact to reveal the complexity of major innovations, to answer key evolutionary questions, and to lead to new research directions. A better understanding of bird origins requires multifaceted and integrative approaches, yet fossils necessarily provide the final test of any evolutionary model.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Xu, Xing -- Zhou, Zhonghe -- Dudley, Robert -- Mackem, Susan -- Chuong, Cheng-Ming -- Erickson, Gregory M -- Varricchio, David J -- AR 47364/AR/NIAMS NIH HHS/ -- AR 60306/AR/NIAMS NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2014 Dec 12;346(6215):1253293. doi: 10.1126/science.1253293.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100044, PR China. xu.xing@ivpp.ac.cn. ; Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100044, PR China. ; Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. ; Cancer and Developmental Biology Laboratory, Center for Cancer Research, NCI-Frederick NIH, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. ; Department of Pathology, University of Southern California, CA 90033, USA. Cheng Kung University, Laboratory for Wound Repair and Regeneration, Graduated Institute of Clinical Medicine, Tainan, 70101, Taiwan. ; Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4295, USA. ; Earth Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25504729" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Can a single conversation change minds on divisive social issues, such as same-sex marriage? A randomized placebo-controlled trial assessed whether gay (n = 22) or straight (n = 19) messengers were effective at encouraging voters (n = 972) to support same-sex marriage and whether attitude change persisted and spread to others in voters' social networks. The results, measured by an unrelated panel survey, show that both gay and straight canvassers produced large effects initially, but only gay canvassers' effects persisted in 3-week, 6-week, and 9-month follow-ups. We also find strong evidence of within-household transmission of opinion change, but only in the wake of conversations with gay canvassers. Contact with gay canvassers further caused substantial change in the ratings of gay men and lesbians more generally. These large, persistent, and contagious effects were confirmed by a follow-up experiment. Contact with minorities coupled with discussion of issues pertinent to them is capable of producing a cascade of opinion change.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉LaCour, Michael J -- Green, Donald P -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2014 Dec 12;346(6215):1366-9. doi: 10.1126/science.1256151.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA. ; Department of Political Science, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25504721" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The prevention of fertilization through self-pollination (or pollination by a close relative) in the Brassicaceae plant family is determined by the genotype of the plant at the self-incompatibility locus (S locus). The many alleles at this locus exhibit a dominance hierarchy that determines which of the two allelic specificities of a heterozygous genotype is expressed at the phenotypic level. Here, we uncover the evolution of how at least 17 small RNA (sRNA)-producing loci and their multiple target sites collectively control the dominance hierarchy among alleles within the gene controlling the pollen S-locus phenotype in a self-incompatible Arabidopsis species. Selection has created a dynamic repertoire of sRNA-target interactions by jointly acting on sRNA genes and their target sites, which has resulted in a complex system of regulation among alleles.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Durand, Eleonore -- Meheust, Raphael -- Soucaze, Marion -- Goubet, Pauline M -- Gallina, Sophie -- Poux, Celine -- Fobis-Loisy, Isabelle -- Guillon, Eline -- Gaude, Thierry -- Sarazin, Alexis -- Figeac, Martin -- Prat, Elisa -- Marande, William -- Berges, Helene -- Vekemans, Xavier -- Billiard, Sylvain -- Castric, Vincent -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2014 Dec 5;346(6214):1200-5. doi: 10.1126/science.1259442.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Laboratoire Genetique et Evolution des Populations Vegetales, CNRS UMR 8198, Universite Lille 1, F-59655 Villeneuve d'Ascq cedex, France. ; Reproduction et Developpement des Plantes, Institut Federatif de Recherche 128, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Universite Claude Bernard Lyon I, Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, F-69364 Lyon, Cedex 07, France. ; Department of Biology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland. ; UDSL Universite Lille 2 Droit et Sante, and Plate-forme de genomique fonctionnelle et structurale IFR-114, F-59000 Lille, France. ; Centre National des Ressources Genomiques Vegetales, INRA UPR 1258, Castanet-Tolosan, France. ; Laboratoire Genetique et Evolution des Populations Vegetales, CNRS UMR 8198, Universite Lille 1, F-59655 Villeneuve d'Ascq cedex, France. vincent.castric@univ-lille1.fr.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25477454" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Couzin-Frankel, Jennifer -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2014 Dec 5;346(6214):1167-70. doi: 10.1126/science.346.6214.1167.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25477439" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Kupferschmidt, Kai -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2014 Dec 5;346(6214):1164-5. doi: 10.1126/science.346.6214.1164.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25477437" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉