ALBERT

All Library Books, journals and Electronic Records Telegrafenberg

Your email was sent successfully. Check your inbox.

An error occurred while sending the email. Please try again.

Proceed reservation?

Export
Filter
  • evolution  (716)
  • Evolution  (686)
  • Inversion
  • Springer  (1,413)
  • Royal Society  (22)
  • 3
  • Wiley
  • 1
    Publication Date: 2024-04-16
    Description: Color polymorphism is a classic study system for evolutionary genetics. One of the most color-polymorphic animal taxa is mollusks, but the investigation of the genetic basis of color determination is often hindered by their life history and the limited avail-ability of genetic resources. Here, we report on the discovery of shell color polymor-phism in a much-used model species, the great pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis. While their shell is usually beige, some individuals from a Greek population show a distinct red shell color, which we nicknamed Ginger. Moreover, we found that the inheritance fits simple, single-locus Mendelian inheritance with dominance of the Ginger allele. We also compared crucial life-history traits between Ginger and wild-type individuals, and found no differences between morphs. We conclude that the relative simplicity of this polymorphism will provide new opportunities for a deeper understanding of the genetic basis of shell color polymorphism and its evolutionary origin.
    Keywords: evolution ; genetics ; life history ; Mendelian inheritance ; simultaneous hermaphrodites
    Repository Name: National Museum of Natural History, Netherlands
    Type: info:eu-repo/semantics/article
    Format: application/pdf
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 2
    facet.materialart.
    Unknown
    Springer Nature | Springer
    Publication Date: 2024-04-05
    Description: This open access book offers the first comprehensive account of the pan-genome concept and its manifold implications. The realization that the genetic repertoire of a biological species always encompasses more than the genome of each individual is one of the earliest examples of big data in biology that opened biology to the unbounded. The study of genetic variation observed within a species challenges existing views and has profound consequences for our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms underpinning bacterial biology and evolution. The underlying rationale extends well beyond the initial prokaryotic focus to all kingdoms of life and evolves into similar concepts for metagenomes, phenomes and epigenomes. The book’s respective chapters address a range of topics, from the serendipitous emergence of the pan-genome concept and its impacts on the fields of microbiology, vaccinology and antimicrobial resistance, to the study of microbial communities, bioinformatic applications and mathematical models that tie in with complex systems and economic theory. Given its scope, the book will appeal to a broad readership interested in population dynamics, evolutionary biology and genomics.
    Keywords: Microbial Genetics and Genomics ; Evolutionary Biology ; Genetics and Population Dynamics ; Microbial Ecology ; Human Genetics ; Genetics and Genomics ; Comparative genomics ; Metagenomics ; Microbial Population Analysis ; Pangenome Profile ; Supra-Genome Analysis ; Adaptive Evolution ; Computational Tools ; Bioinformatic Genomics ; Core Dispensable Genome ; Selection, Recombination, Composition ; Acquired Resistance ; Bacterial Species Concept ; Genomic Diversity ; Bacterial Ecology, Microevolution ; Open Access ; Pan-metagenomics ; Pan-microbiomics ; Pan-epigenome ; Gene Transfer ; Pan-phenomes ; Microbiology (non-medical) ; Genetics (non-medical) ; Evolution ; Applied mathematics ; Ecological science, the Biosphere ; Medical genetics ; thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PS Biology, life sciences::PSG Microbiology (non-medical) ; thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PS Biology, life sciences::PSA Life sciences: general issues::PSAJ Evolution ; thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PB Mathematics::PBW Applied mathematics ; thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PS Biology, life sciences::PSA Life sciences: general issues::PSAF Ecological science, the Biosphere ; thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MF Pre-clinical medicine: basic sciences::MFN Medical genetics ; thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PS Biology, life sciences::PSA Life sciences: general issues::PSAK Genetics (non-medical)
    Language: English
    Format: image/jpeg
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 3
    Publication Date: 2018-08-30
    Description: A growing number of studies seek to identify predictors of broad-scale patterns in human cultural diversity, but three sources of non-independence in human cultural variables can bias the results of cross-cultural studies. First, related cultures tend to have many traits in common, regardless of whether those traits are functionally linked. Second, societies in geographical proximity will share many aspects of culture, environment and demography. Third, many cultural traits covary, leading to spurious relationships between traits. Here, we demonstrate tractable methods for dealing with all three sources of bias. We use cross-cultural analyses of proposed associations between human cultural traits and parasite load to illustrate the potential problems of failing to correct for these three forms of statistical non-independence. Associations between parasite stress and sociosexuality, authoritarianism, democracy and language diversity are weak or absent once relatedness and proximity are taken into account, and parasite load has no more power to explain variation in traditionalism, religiosity and collectivism than other measures of biodiversity, climate or population size do. Without correction for statistical non-independence and covariation in cross-cultural analyses, we risk misinterpreting associations between culture and environment.
    Keywords: evolution
    Electronic ISSN: 2054-5703
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
    Published by Royal Society
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 4
    Publication Date: 2018-08-30
    Description: The evolution of multicellularity was a major transition in evolution and set the stage for unprecedented increases in complexity, especially in land plants and animals. Here, we explore the genetics underlying a de novo origin of multicellularity in a microbial evolution experiment carried out on the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii . We show that large-scale changes in gene expression underlie the transition to a multicellular life cycle. Among these, changes to genes involved in cell cycle and reproductive processes were overrepresented, as were changes to C. reinhardtii -specific and volvocine-specific genes. These results suggest that the genetic basis for the experimental evolution of multicellularity in C. reinhardtii has both lineage-specific and shared features, and that the shared features have more in common with C. reinhardtii 's relatives among the volvocine algae than with other multicellular green algae or land plants.
    Keywords: evolution
    Electronic ISSN: 2054-5703
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
    Published by Royal Society
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 5
    Publication Date: 2018-06-21
    Description: The multi-stress environment of high altitude has been associated with growth deficits in humans, particularly in zeugopod elements (forearm and lower leg). This is consistent with the thrifty phenotype hypothesis, which has been observed in Andeans, but has yet to be tested in other high-altitude populations. In Himalayan populations, other factors, such as cold stress, may shape limb proportions. The current study investigated whether relative upper limb proportions of Himalayan adults ( n = 254) differ between highland and lowland populations, and whether cold adaptation or a thrifty phenotype mechanism may be acting here. Height, weight, humerus length, ulna length, hand length and hand width were measured using standard methods. Relative to height, total upper limb and ulna lengths were significantly shorter in highlanders compared with lowlanders in both sexes, while hand and humerus length were not. Hand width did not significantly differ between populations. These results support the thrifty phenotype hypothesis, as hand and humerus proportions are conserved at the expense of the ulna. The reduction in relative ulna length could be attributed to cold adaptation, but the lack of difference between populations in both hand length and width indicates that cold adaptation is not shaping hand proportions in this case.
    Keywords: evolution
    Electronic ISSN: 2054-5703
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
    Published by Royal Society
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 6
    Publication Date: 2018-03-29
    Description: Viviparous sea snakes are the most rapidly speciating reptiles known, yet the ecological factors underlying this radiation are poorly understood. Here, we reconstructed dated trees for 75% of sea snake species and quantified body shape (forebody relative to hindbody girth), maximum body length and trophic diversity to examine how dietary specialization has influenced morphological diversification in this rapid radiation. We show that sea snake body shape and size are strongly correlated with the proportion of burrowing prey in the diet. Specialist predators of burrowing eels have convergently evolved a ‘microcephalic’ morphotype with dramatically reduced forebody relative to hindbody girth and intermediate body length. By comparison, snakes that predominantly feed on burrowing gobies are generally short-bodied and small-headed, but there is no evidence of convergent evolution. The eel specialists also exhibit faster rates of size and shape evolution compared to all other sea snakes, including those that feed on gobies. Our results suggest that trophic specialization to particular burrowing prey (eels) has invoked strong selective pressures that manifest as predictable and rapid morphological changes. Further studies are needed to examine the genetic and developmental mechanisms underlying these dramatic morphological changes and assess their role in sea snake speciation.
    Keywords: evolution
    Electronic ISSN: 2054-5703
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
    Published by Royal Society
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 7
    Publication Date: 2018-01-18
    Description: Environmental conditions are strong selective forces, which may influence adaptation and speciation. The wild tomato species Solanum chilense , native to South America, is exposed to a range of abiotic stress factors. To identify signatures of natural selection and local adaptation, we analysed 16 genes involved in the abiotic stress response and compared the results to a set of reference genes in 23 populations across the entire species range. The abiotic stress-responsive genes are characterized by elevated nonsynonymous nucleotide diversity and divergence. We detected signatures of positive selection in several abiotic stress-responsive genes on both the population and species levels. Local adaptation to abiotic stresses is particularly apparent at the boundary of the species distribution in populations from coastal low-altitude and mountainous high-altitude regions.
    Keywords: evolution
    Electronic ISSN: 2054-5703
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
    Published by Royal Society
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 8
    Publication Date: 2018-03-07
    Description: The storage of sperm by females across successive reproductive cycles is well documented in internal fertilizers, yet the fate of stored sperm when they compete with ‘new’ sperm to fertilize a female's eggs has rarely been considered. This gap in our understanding is likely due to the logistical difficulties of controlling behavioural interactions during or after mating, which in turn may influence how many sperm are inseminated and how stored sperm are ultimately used during successive bouts of sperm competition with freshly inseminated sperm. Here, we use artificial insemination (AI) in guppies ( Poecilia reticulata ), a polyandrous live-bearing poeciliid fish exhibiting prolonged sperm storage by females, to overcome these challenges. The use of AI enables us to control potential differential maternal effects (e.g. behaviourally mediated cryptic female choice) and specifically test for post-copulatory paternity biases that favour either stored or fresh sperm when they compete to fertilize eggs. Our paternity analyses revealed the almost complete dominance of freshly inseminated sperm over stored sperm, supporting previous studies reporting similar patterns following natural matings across successive brood cycles. However, our use of AI, which excluded behavioural interactions between males and females, most likely generated a far stronger pattern of fresh sperm precedence compared with those reported in previous studies, possibly implicating ‘cryptic' forms of selection by females that may sometimes bolster the success of stored sperm.
    Keywords: evolution
    Electronic ISSN: 2054-5703
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
    Published by Royal Society
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 9
    Publication Date: 2018-03-07
    Description: Similar phenotypic changes occur across many species as a result of domestication, e.g. in pigmentation and snout size. Experimental studies of domestication have concentrated on intense and directed selection regimes, while conditions that approximate the commensal and indirect interactions with humans have not been explored. We examine long-term data on a free-living population of wild house mice that have been indirectly selected for tameness by regular exposure to humans. In the course of a decade, this mouse population exhibited significantly increased occurrence of white patches of fur and decreased head length. These phenotypic changes fit to the predictions of the ‘domestication syndrome'.
    Keywords: evolution
    Electronic ISSN: 2054-5703
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
    Published by Royal Society
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 10
    Publication Date: 2017-03-03
    Description: The evolution of wing pattern in Lepidoptera is a popular area of inquiry but few studies have examined microlepidoptera, with fewer still focusing on intraspecific variation. The tineid genus Moerarchis Durrant, 1914 includes two species with high intraspecific variation of wing pattern. A subset of the specimens examined here provide, to my knowledge, the first examples of wing patterns that follow both the ‘alternating wing-margin’ and ‘uniform wing-margin’ models in different regions along the costa. These models can also be evaluated along the dorsum of Moerarchis , where a similar transition between the two models can be seen. Fusion of veins is shown not to effect wing pattern, in agreement with previous inferences that the plesiomorphic location of wing veins constrains the development of colour pattern. The significant correlation between wing length and number of wing pattern elements in Moerarchis australasiella shows that wing size can act as a major determinant of wing pattern complexity. Lastly, some M. australasiella specimens have wing patterns that conform entirely to the ‘uniform wing-margin’ model and contain more than six bands, providing new empirical insight into the century-old question of how wing venation constrains wing patterns with seven or more bands.
    Keywords: evolution
    Electronic ISSN: 2054-5703
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
    Published by Royal Society
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 11
    Publication Date: 2017-06-01
    Description: We investigate pattern and process in the transmission of traditional weaving cultures in East and Southeast Asia. Our investigation covers a range of scales, from the experiences of individual weavers (‘micro’) to the broad-scale patterns of loom technologies across the region (‘macro’). Using published sources, we build an empirical model of cultural transmission (encompassing individual weavers, the household and the community), focussing on where cultural information resides and how it is replicated and how transmission errors are detected and eliminated. We compare this model with macro-level outcomes in the form of a new dataset of weaving loom technologies across a broad area of East and Southeast Asia. The lineages of technologies that we have uncovered display evidence for branching, hybridization (reticulation), stasis in some lineages, rapid change in others and the coexistence of both simple and complex forms. There are some striking parallels with biological evolution and information theory. There is sufficient detail and resolution in our findings to enable us to begin to critique theoretical models and assumptions that have been produced during the last few decades to describe the evolution of culture.
    Keywords: evolution
    Electronic ISSN: 2054-5703
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
    Published by Royal Society
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 12
    Publication Date: 2017-07-20
    Description: This paper attempts to reconcile critics and defenders of inclusive fitness by constructing a synthesis that does justice to the insights of both. I argue that criticisms of the regression-based version of Hamilton's rule, although they undermine its use for predictive purposes, do not undermine its use as an organizing framework for social evolution research. I argue that the assumptions underlying the concept of inclusive fitness, conceived as a causal property of an individual organism, are unlikely to be exactly true in real populations, but they are approximately true given a specific type of weak selection that Hamilton took, on independent grounds, to be responsible for the cumulative assembly of complex adaptation. Finally, I reflect on the uses and limitations of ‘design thinking’ in social evolution research.
    Keywords: evolution
    Electronic ISSN: 2054-5703
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
    Published by Royal Society
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 13
    Publication Date: 2017-10-05
    Description: The major transitions approach in evolutionary biology has shown that the intercellular cooperation that characterizes multicellular organisms would never have emerged without some kind of multilevel selection. Relying on this view, the Evolutionary Somatic view of cancer considers cancer as a breakdown of intercellular cooperation and as a loss of the balance between selection processes that take place at different levels of organization (particularly single cell and individual organism). This seems an elegant unifying framework for healthy organism, carcinogenesis, tumour proliferation, metastasis and other phenomena such as ageing. However, the gene-centric version of Darwinian evolution, which is often adopted in cancer research, runs into empirical problems: proto-tumoural and tumoural features in precancerous cells that would undergo ‘natural selection’ have proved hard to demonstrate; cells are radically context-dependent, and some stages of cancer are poorly related to genetic change. Recent perspectives propose that breakdown of intercellular cooperation could depend on ‘fields’ and other higher-level phenomena, and could be even mutations independent. Indeed, the field would be the context, allowing (or preventing) genetic mutations to undergo an intra-organism process analogous to natural selection. The complexities surrounding somatic evolution call for integration between multiple incomplete frameworks for interpreting intercellular cooperation and its pathologies.
    Keywords: evolution
    Electronic ISSN: 2054-5703
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
    Published by Royal Society
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 14
    Publication Date: 2017-11-23
    Keywords: evolution
    Electronic ISSN: 2054-5703
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
    Published by Royal Society
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 15
    Publication Date: 2017-12-21
    Description: In mammals, gamete production is essential for reproductive success. This is particularly true for males where large quantities of sperm are produced to fertilize a limited number of eggs released by the female. Because of this, new genes associated with increased spermatogenic efficiency have been accumulating throughout the evolution of therian mammals. Many of these new genes are testis-specific retrotransposed copies of housekeeping genes located on the X chromosome. Of particular interest are retrotransposed copies of UTP14 that are present in many distantly related eutherian mammals. Analysis of genomic data available in ENSEMBL indicates that these UTP14 retrogenes have arisen independently in the various eutherian clades. They represent an interesting aspect of evolution whereby new homologues of UTP14 have become independently fixed in multiple mammalian lineages due to the reproductive advantage that may be conferred to males. Surprisingly, these genes may also be lost, even after being present within a lineage for millions of years. This phenomenon may potentially be used to delineate evolutionary trees in closely related groups of mammals, particularly in the case of South American primates. Studying these retrogenes will yield new insights into the evolutionary history of male gamete production and the phylogeny of eutherian mammals.
    Keywords: evolution
    Electronic ISSN: 2054-5703
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
    Published by Royal Society
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 16
    Publication Date: 2017-02-17
    Description: The distribution and demographic patterns of marine organisms in the north Atlantic were largely shaped by climatic changes during the Pleistocene, when recurrent glacial maxima forced them to move south or to survive in northern peri-glacial refugia. These patterns were also influenced by biological and ecological factors intrinsic to each species, namely their dispersion ability. The ballan wrasse ( Labrus bergylta ), the largest labrid fish along Europe's continental margins, is a target for fisheries and aquaculture industry. The phylogeographic pattern, population structure, potential glacial refugia and recolonization routes for this species were assessed across its full distribution range, using mitochondrial and nuclear markers. The existence of a marked population structure can reflect both recolonization from three distinct glacial refugia and current and past oceanographic circulation patterns. Although isolated in present times, shared haplotypes between continental and Azores populations and historical exchange of migrants in both directions point to a common origin of L. bergylta . This situation is likely to be maintained and/or accentuated by current circulation patterns in the north Atlantic, and may lead to incipient speciation in the already distinct Azorean population. Future monitoring of this species is crucial to evaluate how this species is coping with current environmental changes.
    Keywords: evolution
    Electronic ISSN: 2054-5703
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
    Published by Royal Society
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 17
    Publication Date: 2016-03-18
    Description: Hamilton’s original derivation of his rule for the spread of an altruistic gene ( rb 〉 c ) assumed additivity of costs and benefits. Recently, it has been argued that an exact version of the rule holds under non-additive pay-offs, so long as the cost and benefit terms are suitably defined, as partial regression coefficients. However, critics have questioned both the biological significance and the causal meaning of the resulting rule. This paper examines the causal meaning of the generalized Hamilton’s rule in a simple model, by computing the effect of a hypothetical experiment to assess the cost of a social action and comparing it to the partial regression definition. The two do not agree. A possible way of salvaging the causal meaning of Hamilton’s rule is explored, by appeal to R. A. Fisher’s ‘average effect of a gene substitution’.
    Keywords: evolution
    Electronic ISSN: 2054-5703
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
    Published by Royal Society
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 18
    facet.materialart.
    Unknown
    Royal Society
    Publication Date: 2016-04-28
    Description: Previous research has found that the presence of grandparents, particularly grandmothers, is often positively associated with child survival. Little research has explored the potential mechanisms driving these associations. We use data from rural Guatemala to test whether contact with and direct investment (advice and financial) from grandparents is associated with child health, proxied by height. Our results demonstrate the complexity of family relationships and their influence on child health, suggesting that both cooperative and competitive relationships exist within the family. The clearest evidence we find for grandparental influence is that having a living paternal grandmother tends to be negatively associated with child height. By contrast, contact with maternal kin appears broadly to be beneficial for child height, although these relationships are weaker. These patterns are mirrored in maternal body mass index, suggesting grandparental influence acts partly through maternal health. These findings support the hypotheses that, under conditions of limited resources, family relationships may be competitive within the family lineage which shares the same resource base, but cooperative when there are few costs to cooperation. Finally, financial assistance from maternal grandfathers is positively correlated with infant length but negatively with the height of older children, perhaps because the receipt of financial support is an indication of need. The provision of advice shows no associations with child height.
    Keywords: evolution
    Electronic ISSN: 2054-5703
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
    Published by Royal Society
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 19
    Publication Date: 2016-10-14
    Description: Spinning is a phenomenon not only present in spiders, but also in many other arthropods. The functional morphology and complexity of spinning organs is often poorly understood. Their elements are minute and studying them poses substantial methodological difficulties. This study presents a three-dimensional reconstruction of a silk gland of Embia sp. on cellular level, based on serial sections acquired with serial block-face scanning electron microscopy (SBFSEM) to showcase the power of this method. Previous studies achieved either high resolution to elucidate the ultrastructure or satisfying three-dimensional representations. The high-resolution achieved by SBFSEM can be easily used to reconstruct the three-dimensional ultrastructural organization of cellular structures. The herein investigated spinning apparatus of Embioptera can be taken as an example demonstrating the potential of this method. It was possible to reconstruct a multinucleated silk gland containing 63 nuclei. We focused on the applicability of this method in the field of morphological research and provide a step-by-step guide to the methodology. This will help in applying the method to other arthropod taxa and will help significantly in adapting the method to other animals, animal parts and tissues.
    Keywords: evolution
    Electronic ISSN: 2054-5703
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
    Published by Royal Society
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 20
    Publication Date: 2016-12-23
    Description: Invasive species often exhibit rapid evolutionary changes, and can provide powerful insights into the selective forces shaping phenotypic traits that influence dispersal rates and/or sexual interactions. Invasions also may modify sexual dimorphism. We measured relative lengths of forelimbs and hindlimbs of more than 3000 field-caught adult cane toads ( Rhinella marina ) from 67 sites in Hawai'i and Australia (1–80 years post-colonization), along with 489 captive-bred individuals from multiple Australian sites raised in a ‘common garden’ (to examine heritability and reduce environmental influences on morphology). As cane toads spread from east to west across Australia, the ancestral condition (long limbs, especially in males) was modified. Limb length relative to body size was first reduced (perhaps owing to natural selection on locomotor ability), but then increased again (perhaps owing to spatial sorting) in the invasion vanguard. In contrast, the sex disparity in relative limb length has progressively decreased during the toads' Australian invasion. Offspring reared in a common environment exhibited similar geographical divergences in morphology as did wild-caught animals, suggesting a genetic basis to the changes. Limb dimensions showed significant heritability (2–17%), consistent with the possibility of an evolved response. Cane toad populations thus have undergone a major shift in sexual dimorphism in relative limb lengths during their brief (81 years) spread through tropical Australia.
    Keywords: evolution
    Electronic ISSN: 2054-5703
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
    Published by Royal Society
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 21
    Publication Date: 2016-11-11
    Description: Extant dog and wolf DNA indicates that dog domestication was accompanied by the selection of a series of duplications on the Amy2B gene coding for pancreatic amylase. In this study, we used a palaeogenetic approach to investigate the timing and expansion of the Amy2B gene in the ancient dog populations of Western and Eastern Europe and Southwest Asia. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction was used to estimate the copy numbers of this gene for 13 ancient dog samples, dated to between 15 000 and 4000 years before present (cal. BP). This evidenced an increase of Amy2B copies in ancient dogs from as early as the 7th millennium cal. BP in Southeastern Europe. We found that the gene expansion was not fixed across all dogs within this early farming context, with ancient dogs bearing between 2 and 20 diploid copies of the gene. The results also suggested that selection for the increased Amy2B copy number started 7000 years cal. BP, at the latest. This expansion reflects a local adaptation that allowed dogs to thrive on a starch rich diet, especially within early farming societies, and suggests a biocultural coevolution of dog genes and human culture.
    Keywords: evolution
    Electronic ISSN: 2054-5703
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
    Published by Royal Society
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 22
    Publication Date: 2016-11-11
    Description: Macrostomy is the anatomical feature present in macrostomatan snakes that permits the ingestion of entire prey with high cross-sectional area. It depends on several anatomical traits in the skeleton and soft tissues, of which the elongation of gnathic complex and backward rotation of the quadrate represent crucial skeletal requirements. Here, the relevance of postnatal development of these skull structures and their relationship with macrohabitat and diet are explored. Contrary to the condition present in lizards and basal snakes that occupy underground macrohabitats, elements of the gnathic complex of most macrostomatan snakes that exploit surface macrohabitats display conspicuous elongation during postnatal growth, relative to the rest of the skull, as well as further backward rotation of the quadrate bone. Remarkably, several clades of small cryptozoic macrostomatans reverse these postnatal transformations and return to a diet based on prey with low cross-sectional area such as annelids, insects or elongated vertebrates, thus resembling the condition present in underground basal snakes. Dietary ontogenetic shift observed in most macrostomatan snakes is directly linked with this ontogenetic trajectory, indicating that this shift is acquired progressively as the gnathic complex elongates and the quadrate rotates backward during postnatal ontogeny. The numerous independent events of reversion in the gnathic complex and prey type choice observed in underground macrostomatans and the presence of skeletal requirements for macrostomy in extinct non-macrostomatan species reinforce the possibility that basal snakes represent underground survivors of clades that had the skeletal requirements for macrostomy. Taken together, the data presented here suggest that macrostomy has been shaped during multiple episodes of occupation of underground and surface macrohabitats throughout the evolution of snakes.
    Keywords: evolution
    Electronic ISSN: 2054-5703
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
    Published by Royal Society
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 23
    Publication Date: 2024-01-12
    Description: We present a phylogenetic analysis of spiders using a dataset of 932 spider species, representing 115 families (only the family Synaphridae is unrepresented), 700 known genera, and additional representatives of 26 unidentified or undescribed genera. Eleven genera of the orders Amblypygi, Palpigradi, Schizomida and Uropygi are included as outgroups. The dataset includes six markers from the mitochondrial (12S, 16S, COI) and nuclear (histone H3, 18S, 28S) genomes, and was analysed by multiple methods, including constrained analyses using a highly supported backbone tree from transcriptomic data. We recover most of the higher-level structure of the spider tree with good support, including Mesothelae, Opisthothelae, Mygalomorphae and Araneomorphae. Several of our analyses recover Hypochilidae and Filistatidae as sister groups, as suggested by previous transcriptomic analyses. The Synspermiata are robustly supported, and the families Trogloraptoridae and Caponiidae are found as sister to the Dysderoidea. Our results support the Lost Tracheae clade, including Pholcidae, Tetrablemmidae, Diguetidae, Plectreuridae and the family Pacullidae (restored status) separate from Tetrablemmidae. The Scytodoidea include Ochyroceratidae along with Sicariidae, Scytodidae, Drymusidae and Periegopidae; our results are inconclusive about the separation of these last two families. We did not recover monophyletic Austrochiloidea and Leptonetidae, but our data suggest that both groups are more closely related to the Cylindrical Gland Spigot clade rather than to Synspermiata. Palpimanoidea is not recovered by our analyses, but also not strongly contradicted. We find support for Entelegynae and Oecobioidea (Oecobiidae plus Hersiliidae), and ambiguous placement of cribellate orb-weavers, compatible with their non-monophyly. Nicodamoidea (Nicodamidae plus Megadictynidae) and Araneoidea composition and relationships are consistent with recent analyses. We did not obtain resolution for the titanoecoids (Titanoecidae and Phyxelididae), but the Retrolateral Tibial Apophysis clade is well supported. Penestomidae, and probably Homalonychidae, are part of Zodarioidea, although the latter family was set apart by recent transcriptomic analyses. Our data support a large group that we call the marronoid clade (including the families Amaurobiidae, Desidae, Dictynidae, Hahniidae, Stiphidiidae, Agelenidae and Toxopidae). The circumscription of most marronoid families is redefined here. Amaurobiidae include the Amaurobiinae and provisionally Macrobuninae. We transfer Malenellinae (Malenella, from Anyphaenidae), Chummidae (Chumma) (new syn.) and Tasmarubriinae (Tasmarubrius, Tasmabrochus and Teeatta, from Amphinectidae) to Macrobuninae. Cybaeidae are redefined to include Calymmaria, Cryphoeca, Ethobuella and Willisius (transferred from Hahniidae), and Blabomma and Yorima (transferred from Dictynidae). Cycloctenidae are redefined to include Orepukia (transferred from Agelenidae) and Pakeha and Paravoca (transferred from Amaurobiidae). Desidae are redefined to include five subfamilies: Amphinectinae, with Amphinecta, Mamoea, Maniho, Paramamoea and Rangitata (transferred from Amphinectidae); Ischaleinae, with Bakala and Manjala (transferred from Amaurobiidae) and Ischalea (transferred from Stiphidiidae); Metaltellinae, with Austmusia, Buyina, Calacadia, Cunnawarra, Jalkaraburra, Keera, Magua, Metaltella, Penaoola and Quemusia; Porteriinae (new rank), with Baiami, Cambridgea, Corasoides and Nanocambridgea (transferred from Stiphidiidae); and Desinae, with Desis, and provisionally Poaka (transferred from Amaurobiidae) and Barahna (transferred from Stiphidiidae). Argyroneta is transferred from Cybaeidae to Dictynidae. Cicurina is transferred from Dictynidae to Hahniidae. The genera Neoramia (from Agelenidae) and Aorangia, Marplesia and Neolana (from Amphinectidae) are transferred to Stiphidiidae. The family Toxopidae (restored status) includes two subfamilies: Myroinae, with Gasparia, Gohia, Hulua, Neomyro, Myro, Ommatauxesis and Otagoa (transferred from Desidae); and Toxopinae, with Midgee and Jamara, formerly Midgeeinae, new syn. (transferred from Amaurobiidae) and Hapona, Laestrygones, Lamina, Toxops and Toxopsoides (transferred from Desidae). We obtain a monophyletic Oval Calamistrum clade and Dionycha; Sparassidae, however, are not dionychans, but probably the sister group of those two clades. The composition of the Oval Calamistrum clade is confirmed (including Zoropsidae, Udubidae, Ctenidae, Oxyopidae, Senoculidae, Pisauridae, Trechaleidae, Lycosidae, Psechridae and Thomisidae), affirming previous findings on the uncertain relationships of the \xe2\x80\x9cctenids\xe2\x80\x9d Ancylometes and Cupiennius, although a core group of Ctenidae are well supported. Our data were ambiguous as to the monophyly of Oxyopidae. In Dionycha, we found a first split of core Prodidomidae, excluding the Australian Molycriinae, which fall distantly from core prodidomids, among gnaphosoids. The rest of the dionychans form two main groups, Dionycha part A and part B. The former includes much of the Oblique Median Tapetum clade (Trochanteriidae, Gnaphosidae, Gallieniellidae, Phrurolithidae, Trachelidae, Gnaphosidae, Ammoxenidae, Lamponidae and the Molycriinae), and also Anyphaenidae and Clubionidae. Orthobula is transferred from Phrurolithidae to Trachelidae. Our data did not allow for complete resolution for the gnaphosoid families. Dionycha part B includes the families Salticidae, Eutichuridae, Miturgidae, Philodromidae, Viridasiidae, Selenopidae, Corinnidae and Xenoctenidae (new fam., including Xenoctenus, Paravulsor and Odo, transferred from Miturgidae, as well as Incasoctenus from Ctenidae). We confirm the inclusion of Zora (formerly Zoridae) within Miturgidae.
    Keywords: Ecology ; Evolution ; Behavior and Systematics
    Repository Name: National Museum of Natural History, Netherlands
    Type: info:eu-repo/semantics/article
    Format: application/pdf
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 24
    facet.materialart.
    Unknown
    Royal Society
    Publication Date: 2015-10-01
    Keywords: evolution
    Electronic ISSN: 2054-5703
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
    Published by Royal Society
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 25
    Publication Date: 2015-10-31
    Description: Social insects such as ants have evolved collective rather than individual immune defence strategies against diseases and parasites at the level of their societies (colonies), known as social immunity. Ants frequently host other arthropods, so-called myrmecophiles, in their nests. Here, we tested the hypothesis that myrmecophily may partly arise from selection for exploiting the ants’ social immunity. We used larvae of the wax moth Galleria mellonella as ‘model myrmecophiles’ (baits) to test this hypothesis. We found significantly reduced abundance of entomopathogens in ant nests compared with the surrounding environment. Specific entomopathogen groups ( Isaria fumosorosea and nematodes) were also found to be significantly less abundant inside than outside ant nests, whereas one entomopathogen ( Beauveria brongniartii ) was significantly more abundant inside nests. We therefore hypothesize that immunological benefits of entering ant nests may provide us a new explanation of why natural selection acts in favour of such a life-history strategy.
    Keywords: evolution
    Electronic ISSN: 2054-5703
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
    Published by Royal Society
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 26
    Publication Date: 2017-04-04
    Description: We show the magnetic model of the Selli-Vavilov region. The Selli Line is known as the northwestern edge of the southern Tyrrhenian basin. The tectonic evolution of the Tyrrhenian basin is dominated by a Tortonian - Quaternary extension through the eastward movement of the Apennine subduction system. This migration has generated a diffuse stretching of the continental crust with the emplacement of new oceanic material. This latter occurred in several localized zones where the eastward retreating of the Ionian subduction system produced a strong depletion of the crust with formation of basins and correlated spreading. Nowadays the presence of oceanic crust is confirmed through direct drilling investigation but a complete mapping of the oceanic crustal distribution is still lacking. The Selli-Vavilov region shows a differentiated crustal setting where seamount structures, the oceanic basement portions and continental crust blocks are superimposed. To this aim, a 2D inversion of the magnetic data of this region was conducted to define buried structures. The magnetic susceptibility pattern was computed by solving the least squares problem of the misfit between the predicted and real data for separated wavebands. This method produced two 2D models of the high and low frequency fields of the Selli-Vavilov region. The two apparent susceptibility maps provide different information for distinct ranges of depth. The results of the inversions were also combined with seismic data of the Selli region highlighting the position of the highly-magnetized buried bodies. The results confirm a role for the Selli Line as a deep crustal boundary dividing the Sardinian passive domain from the easternmost active region where different oceanic structures are located. The Selli Line has worked as a detachment fault system which has moved eastward. Finally, the Selli-Vavilov region may be interpreted as a tectonic result due to a passive asymmetrical rift occurred between the Tortonian and Pliocene.
    Description: Published
    Description: 251-266
    Description: 2.6. TTC - Laboratorio di gravimetria, magnetismo ed elettromagnetismo in aree attive
    Description: 3.4. Geomagnetismo
    Description: 3.5. Geologia e storia dei sistemi vulcanici
    Description: JCR Journal
    Description: reserved
    Keywords: Geomagnetism ; Tectonics ; Geodynamics ; Inversion ; Oceanic crust ; Volcanic structure ; 04. Solid Earth::04.05. Geomagnetism::04.05.04. Magnetic anomalies ; 04. Solid Earth::04.07. Tectonophysics::04.07.02. Geodynamics ; 05. General::05.01. Computational geophysics::05.01.03. Inverse methods
    Repository Name: Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
    Type: article
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 27
    facet.materialart.
    Unknown
    3
    In:  Computers and Geosciences, Münster, 3, vol. 28, no. 45, pp. 309-326, pp. L11609, (ISBN 0-471-26610-8)
    Publication Date: 2002
    Keywords: Inversion ; Data analysis / ~ processing ; Non-linear effects ; Discrimination ; C&G
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 28
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Journal of ornithology 141 (2000), S. 263-274 
    ISSN: 1439-0361
    Keywords: Systematics ; evolution ; anagenesis ; genealogy ; reference system
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Description / Table of Contents: Zusammenfassung Verglichen mit anderen Tiergruppen, scheint die artliche Bestandsaufnahme der rezenten Vögel nahezu abgeschlossen zu sein. Doch ist das System der Vögel weiterhin umstritten und mit vielen Neuerungen konfrontiert. Die Gründe dafür liegen hauptsächlich in neuen, vor allem molekularbiologischen Methoden und in den unerwartet reichen Fossilfunden der jüngsten Zeit. Als Beispiele werden Altgaumenvögel, Kranichvögel, Ibisse, Flamingos, Mausvögel, Hopfe und Sperlingsvögel kurz behandelt. Die hier erzielten Fortschritte lassen die Befürchtung Stresemanns, die Großsystematik der Vögel sei mit den vorhandenen Methoden phylogenetisch nicht interpretierbar, zunächst als unbergründet erscheinen. Doch erwachsen einer solchen Interpretation andere Hindernisse, deren Bedeutung bisher zu wenig beachtet wurde, nämlich Parallelentwicklungen, die viel verbreiteter sind als gemeinhin angenommen. Ihre Häufigkeit lässt sich sogar mit evolutionsbiologischen Argumenten begründen. Es ist deshalb nicht zu erwarten, dass die Diskussionen um das „richtige“ System bald verstummen. Um dennoch die Eindeutigkeit der Information in nicht-systematischen Veröffentlichungen zu wahren, wird empfohlen ein etabliertes Referenzsystem auf Zeit zu wählen.
    Notes: Summary Unlike in most animal classes the inventory of extant species of the class Aves seems to be almost complete. Nevertheless avian systematics is challenged by many novelties and seems far from being settled. This is caused mainly by the application of novel methods of molecular analysis to phylogenetic problems and by the unexpectedly rich fossil record collected within the last 10–20 years. Examples from the Palaeognathae, Gruiformes, Threskiornithidae, Phoenicopteridae, Coliiformes, Upupiformes and Passeriformes are briefly treated. The progress in the field seems to disprove Stresemann's pessimistic view that the phylogeny of higher categories (orders) cannot be reconstructed by the available methods. However, phylogenetic interpretations are impeded by obstacles not considered by Stresemann and highly underestimated in most cases, namely by multiple independent developments leading to identical features. Frequent parallel developments are to be expected for theoretical evolutionary reasons. The diagnosis of such homoplasies can be extremely difficult or even impossible. Therefore we cannot expect the discussion about the “best” system of birds to end in the near future. Considering this dynamic situation in systematics, it is recommended to maintain unambiguousness of information in not strictly systematic publications by refering to a well established system as a temporally limited reference.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 29
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Acta biotheoretica 48 (2000), S. 137-147 
    ISSN: 1572-8358
    Keywords: Sex ; sexual selection ; mate selection ; evolution ; ploidy ; assortative mating ; recombination
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract Using computer simulations I studied the simultaneous effect of variable environments, mutation rates, ploidy, number of loci subject to evolution and random and assortative mating on various reproductive systems. The simulations showed that mutants for sex and recombination are evolutionarily stable, displacing alleles for monosexuality in diploid populations mating assortatively under variable selection pressure. Assortative mating reduced excessive allelic variance induced by recombination and sex, especially among diploids. Results suggest a novel adaptive value for sex and recombination. They show that the adaptive value of diploidy and that of the segregation of sexes is different to that of sex and recombination. The results suggest that the emergence of sex had to be preceded by the emergence of diploid monosexual organisms and provide an explanation for the emergence and maintenance of sex among diploids and for the scarcity of sex among haploid organisms.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 30
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Entomologia experimentalis et applicata 97 (2000), S. 237-249 
    ISSN: 1570-7458
    Keywords: herbivores ; predators ; parasitoids ; mutualism ; induced defence ; behaviour ; ecology ; evolution ; sensory physiology ; plant fitness ; pathogens
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract Herbivorous and carnivorous arthropods use plant volatiles when foraging for food. In response to herbivory, plants emit a blend that may be quantitatively and qualitatively different from the blend emitted when intact. This induced volatile blend alters the interactions of the plant with its environment. We review recent developments regarding the induction mechanism as well as the ecological consequences in a multitrophic and evolutionary context. It has been well established that carnivores (predators and parasitoids) are attracted by the volatiles induced by their herbivorous victims. This concerns an active plant response. In the case of attraction of predators, this is likely to result in a fitness benefit to the plant, because through consumption a predator removes the herbivores from the plant. However, the benefit to the plant is less clear when parasitoids are attracted, because parasitisation does usually not result in an instantaneous or in a complete termination of consumption by the herbivore. Recently, empirical evidence has been obtained that shows that the plant's response can increase plant fitness, in terms of seed production, due to a reduced consumption rate of parasitized herbivores. However, apart from a benefit from attracting carnivores, the induced volatiles can have a serious cost because there is an increasing number of studies that show that herbivores can be attracted. However, this does not necessarily result in settlement of the herbivores on the emitting plant. The presence of cues from herbivores and/or carnivores that indicate that the plant is a competitor- and/or enemy-dense space, may lead to an avoidance response. Thus, the benefit of emission of induced volatiles is likely to depend on the prevailing faunal composition. Whether plants can adjust their response and influence the emission of the induced volatiles, taking the prevalent environmental conditions into account, is an interesting question that needs to be addressed. The induced volatiles may also affect interactions of the emitting plant with its neighbours, e.g., through altered competitive ability or by the neighbour exploiting the emitted information. Major questions to be addressed in this research field comprise mechanistic aspects, such as the identification of the minimally effective blend of volatiles that explains the attraction of carnivores to herbivore-infested plants, and evolutionary aspects such as the fitness consequences of induced volatiles. The elucidation of mechanistic aspects is important for addressing ecological and evolutionary questions. For instance, an important tool to address ecological and evolutionary aspects would be to have plant pairs that differ in only a single trait. Such plants are likely to become available in the near future as a result of mechanistic studies on signal-transduction pathways and an increased interest in molecular genetics.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 31
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Entomologia experimentalis et applicata 95 (2000), S. 141-149 
    ISSN: 1570-7458
    Keywords: ecology ; reproductive success ; fecundity ; intraspecific competition ; evolution ; pest outbreaks ; pest control ; chemical control ; economic threshold ; oilseed rape ; turnip rape
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract Populations of the rapeseed pollen beetle Meligethes aeneus F. (Col., Nitidulidae) from areas with 0–16 years of history of intensive rapeseed growing were compared for key ecological characters. During the first 16 years of rapeseed cultivation the reproductive success of M. aeneus increased 200–300% over that of the beetles living on the natural host plants, cruciferous weeds. The increase was linear over time and statistically highly significant, and it did not appear to be related to food quality or to the size of the beetles. During the same period the tolerance to intraspecific competition decreased, possibly due to the relative absence of such competition on the new crop. Furthermore, the optimum population density for M. aeneus to maximize the size of its next generation on summer turnip rape was determined to be 0.5–1.0 beetles/plant, which is slightly below the economic threshold for chemical control (1 beetle/plant). Therefore the practical protection of the rapeseed yield also ensures the highest possible pest population size for the next year. These mechanisms may in part explain the particular noxiousness of the species as a pest all over Europe. In general these data show that after the introduction of a new crop plant into a region, significant changes during the recruitment process in a pestiferous insect may take place, contributing to the future pest status of the insect. It is suggested that such genetic and ecological changes in insects may be a more common mechanism than previously thought in initiating and sustaining pest outbreaks, and that conventional pest management methods may enhance that effect.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 32
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Journal of insect behavior 13 (2000), S. 71-86 
    ISSN: 1572-8889
    Keywords: copulatory courtship ; behavioral interactions ; songs ; evolution
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract D. birchii and D. serrata, two endemic Australian Drosophila species, have a copulatory courtship. The males of these species begin to court the female after mounting her and often go on with the courtship after the copulation is over. In the present paper we have described behavioral interactions between the male and the female and analyzed acoustic signals produced by the flies during courtship. Species differences were more pronounced in female than in male behavior. Variation within the species was obvious in the relative proportions of time the flies spent in different behaviors. Even though courtship took place nearly solely during copulation, some remains of precopulatory courtship were observed in both species. It is suggested that copulatory courtship exhibited by D. birchii and D. serrata flies is a derived rather than a primitive character.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 33
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Geometriae dedicata 83 (2000), S. 31-37 
    ISSN: 1572-9168
    Keywords: Vollständiges Viereck ; Kegelschnittbüschel ; Konjugiertheitsabbildung ; Inversion
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Mathematics
    Notes: Abstract The conjugacy mapping rel. to a complete quadrangle in a Pappian projective plane of characteristic ≠2 is constructed by using a bijection of the line set onto the bundle of conics through the diagonal points of the quadrangle. The inversion with center O of the inversion circle going through the point P in the Euclidean plane proves to be the product of the reflection at OP and the affine restriction of the conjugacy mapping rel. to the quadrangle having P as one of its vertices and O together with the circular points at infinity as diagonal points.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 34
    ISSN: 1572-9028
    Keywords: rutile supported V2O5–WO3 catalyst ; evolution ; NO reduction
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Chemistry and Pharmacology
    Notes: Abstract This paper concerns the relation between surface structure of crystalline vanadia-like active species on vanadia–tungsta catalyst and their activity in the selective reduction of NO by ammonia to nitrogen. The investigations were performed for Ti–Sn-rutile-supported isopropoxy-derived catalyst. The SCR activity and surface species structure were determined for the freshly prepared catalyst, for the catalyst previously used in NO reduction by ammonia (320 ppm NO, 335 ppm NH3 and 2.35 vol% O2) at 573 K as well as for the catalyst previously annealed at 573 K in helium stream containing 2.35 vol% O2. The crystalline islands, exposing main V2O5 surface, with some tungsten atoms substituted for V-ones, were found, with XPS and FT Raman spectroscopy, to be present at the surface of the freshly prepared catalyst. A profound evolution of the active species during the catalyst use at 573 K was observed. Dissociative water adsorption on V5+OW6+ sites is discussed as mainly responsible for the catalyst activity at 473 K and that on both V5+OW6+ and V4+OW6+ sites as determining the activity at 523 K.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 35
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Foundations of science 5 (2000), S. 429-456 
    ISSN: 1572-8471
    Keywords: awareness ; reflexive awareness and consciousness ; evolution ; experience and pattern matching ; symbolic language
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
    Notes: Abstract An evolutionary point of view is proposed to make more appropriate distinctions between experience, awareness and consciousness. Experience can be defined as a characteristic linked closely to specific pattern matching, a characteristic already apparent at the molecular level at least. Awareness can be regarded as the special experience of one or more central, final modules in the animal neuronal brain. Awareness is what experience is to animals. Finally, consciousness could be defined as reflexive awareness. The ability for reflexive awareness is distinctly different from animal and human awareness and depends upon the availability of a separate frame of reference, as provided by symbolic language. As such, words have made reflexive awareness – a specific and infrequent form of awareness – possible. Conciousness might be defined as the experience evoked by considering, i.e. thinking about experiences themselves. If there is a hard problem of explaining consciousness, than this actually must be considered as the hard problem already met when trying to explain basic experience, since its nature remains elusive.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 36
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Journal for general philosophy of science 31 (2000), S. 57-73 
    ISSN: 1572-8587
    Keywords: complex systems ; evolution ; nonlinearity ; pre-determination ; self-organization ; soft management ; structure-attractors ; synergetics
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Philosophy , Nature of Science, Research, Systems of Higher Education, Museum Science
    Notes: Abstract The philosophical consequences of synergetics, the interdisciplinary theory of evolution and self-organization of complex systems, are being drawn in the paper. The idea of discreteness of evolutionary paths is in the focus of attention. Although the future is open, and there are many alternative evolutionary paths for complex systems, not any arbitrary (either conceivable or desirable) evolutionary path is feasible in a given system. There are discrete spectra of possible evolutionary paths which are determined exclusively by inner properties of the corresponding systems. Synergetics allows us to reveal general laws of self-organization and, therefore, certain limits of arbitrariness of nature in choosing possible paths of evolution as well as in constructing of a complex evolutionary whole. A comparative analysis between the modern synergetic notions and a few ideas of the Western philosophy (F. Nietzsche, N. Hartmann, M. Heidegger) and of the Eastern teachings (Taoism, Buddhism) is made.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 37
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    International journal of value-based management 13 (2000), S. 297-308 
    ISSN: 1572-8528
    Keywords: morality ; moral systems ; behavior ; evolution ; adaptation ; natural selection ; altruism ; reciprocal altruism ; fitness ; reciprocity
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Economics
    Notes: Abstract The ethical and moral behavior of Homo sapiens is no longer the exclusive domain of religion and philosophy because we recognize that such behavior affects the reproductive success of individuals within the species. We are a social species and therefore our survival is influenced by our capacity for cooperation and our willingness to take risks for kin. Emotions, some of which are found in other species, help to mediate our altruistic behavior. The reproductive benefits of helping kin, especially offspring, are readily seen. Helping non-kin can be beneficial if individuals can differentiate between ‘reciprocators’ and ‘non-reciprocators’ and direct altruistic behavior toward reciprocators. Also, if third parties are favorably impressed by observing altruistic behavior, the rewards need not come from the recipient of the altruistic behavior.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 38
    ISSN: 1432-1211
    Keywords: Key words Antigen presentation ; Autoimmune disease ; Evolution ; MHC ; Self peptides
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Medicine
    Notes: Abstract  Comparison of peptides eluted from human class I and class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules and the proteins from which they are derived (source proteins) revealed that class I MHC bind peptides derived from proteins that are highly conserved, hydrophilic, and universally expressed, while the peptides themselves are hydrophobic and even more conserved than their source proteins. In contrast, source proteins for class II-bound peptides were not significantly more conserved than a random sample of proteins. Class II-bound peptides were generally more conserved than their source proteins but were significantly less conserved than class I-bound peptides. The characteristics of class I-bound peptides can probably be explained by the selectivity of processing and transport of peptides for binding by class I, while the relative lack of selectivity of peptide binding for class II may explain the high incidence of autoimmune diseases associated with alleles of these molecules.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 39
    ISSN: 1432-1211
    Keywords: Key words iNOS ; Fish ; Parasite ; Evolution ; Transcription
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Medicine
    Notes: Abstract  Using an oligonucleotide primer based on a partial goldfish inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) sequence, a complete carp iNOS cDNA was isolated from an activated carp phagocyte cDNA library. Nucleotide and predicted amino acid sequence analysis indicate that carp iNOS encodes a 1127-amino acid protein with 57% sequence identity to human iNOS. Like mammalian NOSs, carp iNOS protein contains putative binding sites for heme, tetrahydrobiopterin, calmodulin, flavine mononucleotide, flavine adenine dinucleotide, and NADPH. Phylogenetic analysis, using neighbor joining, showed that the carp iNOS protein clustered together with the other vertebrate iNOS proteins. Inducibility of carp iNOS was confirmed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction after stimulation of carp phagocytes with lipopolysaccharide or the protozoan blood flagellate Trypanoplasma borreli. These stimulators produced high amounts of nitric oxide that were toxic for T. borreli in vitro. The nuclear transciption factor NF-κB was shown to play a role in the induction of iNOS transcription.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 40
    ISSN: 1432-1211
    Keywords: Key words HLA ; Patr class I molecules ; Evolution ; Polymorphism ; AIDS
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Medicine
    Notes: Abstract  Human immunodefiency virus (HIV) poses a major threat to humankind. And though, like humans, chimpanzees are susceptible to HIV infection, they are considered to be resistant to the development of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Little is known about major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I diversity in chimpanzee populations and, moreover, whether qualitative aspects of Patr class I molecules may control resistance to AIDS. To address these questions, we assayed MHC class I diversity in a West African chimpanzee population and in some animals from other subspecies of chimpanzee. Application of different techniques allowed the detection of 17 full-length Patr-A, 19 Patr-B, and 10 Patr-C alleles. All Patr-A alleles cluster only into the HLA-A1/A3/A11 family, which supports the idea that chimpanzees have experienced a reduction in their repertoire of A locus alleles. The Patr-B alleles do not cluster in the same lineages as their human equivalents, due to frequent exchange of polymorphic sequence motifs. Furthermore, polymorphic motifs may have been exchanged between Patr-A and Patr-B loci, resulting in convergence. With regard to evolutionary stability, the Patr-C locus is more similar to the Patr-A locus than it is to the Patr-B locus. Despite the relatively low number of animals analyzed, humans and chimpanzees were ascertained as sharing similar degrees of diversity at the contact residues constituting the B and F pockets in the peptide-binding side of MHC class I molecules. Our results indicate that within a small sample of a West African chimpanzee population, a high degree of Patr class I diversity is encountered. This is in agreement with the fact that chimpanzees display more mitochondrial DNA variation than humans. In addition, population analyses demonstrated that particular Patr-B molecules, with the capacity to bind conserved HIV-1 epitopes, are characterized by high gene frequencies. These findings have important implications for evaluating immune responses in HIV vaccine studies and, more importantly, may help in understanding the relative resistance of chimpanzees to AIDS.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 41
    ISSN: 1432-1211
    Keywords: Key words HLA genes ; IgV genes ; Evolution ; Gene conversion ; Sheep ileal Peyer's patch
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Medicine
    Notes: Abstract  Polymorphic sequence variation in the peptide-binding domains of MHC class I molecules appears to have been driven largely by the constructive action of natural selection on the specificity of the peptide-binding groove. Similar features are displayed by the variable domains of immunoglobulins generated in the sheep ileal Peyer's patch, but in this case there is evidence that the action of a targeted hypermutator acting on a selected substrate rather than antigen-driven selection is responsible for the pattern of variation in the system. Such a hypermutator acting in the germ line would not only mimic the action of natural selection but also, by convergent mutation, generate similar patterns of variation in unrelated alleles that could be interpreted as evidence for short-tract gene conversion. We analyzed human class I MHC alleles in the light of these data, but failed to find evidence of the action of a similar hypermutator. A search for other mutationally driven patterns of variation also failed, even in hypervariable residues from parsimonious phylogenies. Single-nucleotide variation at these residues is also frequent in recent allelic variants, but the data are as consistent with short-tract gene conversion as with base mutation. We conclude that the patterns of allelic variation in MHC molecules are not driven by mutational pressure, but rather by conventional mutational processes, accompanied by short-tract gene conversion and intense natural selection.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 42
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Immunogenetics 51 (2000), S. 587-590 
    ISSN: 1432-1211
    Keywords: Key words J chain ; Immunoglobulin ; Amphibian ; Evolution ; Comparative immunology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Medicine
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 43
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Immunogenetics 51 (2000), S. 606-609 
    ISSN: 1432-1211
    Keywords: Key words MHC ; Evolution ; Primate ; Callithrix ; Callicebus
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Medicine
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 44
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Mycorrhiza 10 (2000), S. 145-149 
    ISSN: 1432-1890
    Keywords: Keywords Arbuscular mycorrhiza ; Pteridophyte ; Evolution
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract  The percentage of arbuscular mycorrhizal pteridophytes among 256 pteridophyte species distributed in Yunnan (southwest China) was found to be lower than that in angiosperms. In the pteridophytes, the occurrence of arbuscular mycorrhizas was low in sporophytes of fern-allies and leptosporangiates, whereas in the eusporangiates it was relatively high. From the standpoint of mycotrophism, the evolutionary trend in the Filicineae may be from constantly mycorrhizal to facultative mycorrhizal and finally to nonmycorrhizal plants.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 45
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Journal of comparative physiology 186 (2000), S. 105-118 
    ISSN: 1432-1351
    Keywords: Key words Stomatogastric nervous system ; Penaeus ; Motor pattern ; Neural network ; Evolution
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Medicine
    Notes: Abstract  Motor patterns of the cardiac sac, the gastric and the pyloric network in the stomatogastric nervous system of the shrimp Penaeus japonicus, the most primitive decapod species, were studied. Single neurons can switch from the gastric or the pyloric pattern to the cardiac sac pattern. Some of the pyloric neurons fire with the gastric pattern. All of the gastric neurons fire with the pyloric pattern, unlike those in reptantians. Proctolin activates and modulates the cardiac sac and the pyloric rhythm, and promotes reconfiguration of the networks. Neurons of the three networks have so many interconnections that they construct a multifunctional neural network like those in Cancer. This network may function in different configurations under the appropriate conditions. Several modes of interactions between the networks found in different reptantian species can apply to the penaeidean shrimp. Such interactions are general features of the stomatogastric nervous system in decapods. Phylogenetic differences among the decapod infraorders are seen in the number and orientation of muscles and the innervation pattern of muscles. The multifunctional networks have existed in the most primitive decapod species, and types of configurations of the networks would have evolved to produce a wide range of motor patterns as the foregut structure has become complex.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 46
    ISSN: 1572-9737
    Keywords: conservation genetics ; Equus ; evolution ; mitochondrial DNA control region ; mitochondrial 12S rRNA
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract The evolution, taxonomy and conservation of the genus Equuswere investigated by examining the mitochondrial DNA sequences of thecontrol region and 12S rRNA gene. The phylogenetic analysis of thesesequences provides further evidence that the deepest node in thephylogeny of the extant species is a divergence between twolineages; one leading to the ancestor of modern horses (E.ferus, domestic and przewalskii) and the other to thezebra and ass ancestor, with the later speciation events of the zebrasand asses occurring either as one or more rapid radiations, or withextensive secondary contact after speciation. Examination of the geneticdiversity within species suggested that two of the E. hemionussubspecies (E. h. onager and E. h. kulan) onlyrecently diverged, and perhaps, are insufficiently different to beclassified as separate subspecies. The genetic divergence betweendomestic and wild forms of E. ferus (horse) and E.africanus (African ass) was no greater than expected within anequid species. In E. burchelli (plains zebra) there was anindication of mtDNA divergence between populations increasing withdistance. The implications of these results for equid conservation arediscussed and recommendations are made for conservation action.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 47
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Journal of the history of biology 33 (2000), S. 457-491 
    ISSN: 1573-0387
    Keywords: J. B. S. Haldane ; biology ; politics ; genetics ; evolution ; population genetics ; physiology ; Darwinism ; experimental biology ; eugenics ; Britain ; Russia ; India ; Soviet ; Communism ; socialism ; philosophy ; vision ; literature ; popularization ; religion ; human experimentation ; bioethics ; Venus ; Mars ; science fiction ; technocracy ; futurology ; H. G. Wells ; Julian Huxley ; Olaf Stapledon ; C. S. Lewis
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , History
    Notes: Abstract This paper seeks to reinterpret the life and work of J. B. S. Haldane by focusing on an illuminating but largely ignored essay he published in1927, “The Last Judgment” – the sequel to his better known work, Daedalus (1924). This astonishing essay expresses a vision of the human future over the next 40,000,000 years, one that revises and updates Wellsian futurism with the long range implications of the “new biology” for human destiny. That vision served as a kind of lifelong credo, one that infused and informed his diverse scientific work, political activities, and popular writing, and that gave unity and coherence to his remarkable career.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 48
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Journal of the history of biology 33 (2000), S. 221-246 
    ISSN: 1573-0387
    Keywords: August Weismann ; ciliates ; Clifford Dobell ; cytology ; death ; Emile Maupas ; evolution ; Herbert Spencer Jennings ; Otto Bütschli ; Paramecium ; rejuvenescence ; sex
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , History
    Notes: Abstract In the period 1875–1920, a debate about the generality and applicability of evolutionary theory to all organisms was motivated by work on unicellular ciliates like Paramecium because of their peculiar nuclear dualism and life cycles. The French cytologist Emile Maupas and the German zoologist August Weismann argued in the 1880s about the evolutionary origins and functions of sex (which in the ciliates is not linked to reproduction), and death (which appeared to be the inevitable fate of lineages denied sexual conjugation), an argument rooted in the question of whether the ciliates and their processes where homologous to other cellular organisms. In the beginning of the twentieth century, this question of homology came to be less important as the ciliates were used by the British protozoologist Clifford Dobell and the American zoologist Herbert Spencer Jennings to study evolutionary processes in general rather than problems of development and cytology. For them, homology mattered less than analogy. This story illustrates two partially distinct problems in evolutionary biology: first, the question of whether all living things have common features and origins; and second, whether their history and current nature can be described by identical mechanisms. Where Maupas (contra Weismann) made the ciliates qualitatively the same as all other organisms in order to create a cohesive evolutionary theory for biology, Jennings and Dobell made them qualitatively different in order to achieve the same end.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 49
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Development genes and evolution 210 (2000), S. 644-650 
    ISSN: 1432-041X
    Keywords: Keywords Pax protein ; Paired domain ; Homeobox ; Transposase ; Evolution
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract  Pax proteins play a diverse role in early animal development and contain the characteristic paired domain, consisting of two conserved helix-turn-helix motifs. In many Pax proteins the paired domain is fused to a second DNA binding domain of the paired-like homeobox family. By amino acid sequence alignments, secondary structure prediction, 3D-structure comparison, and phylogenetic reconstruction, we analyzed the relationship between Pax proteins and members of the Tc1 family of transposases, which possibly share a common ancestor with Pax proteins. We suggest that the DNA binding domain of an ancestral transposase (proto-Pax transposase) was fused to a homeodomain shortly after the emergence of metazoans about one billion years ago. Using the transposase sequences as an outgroup we reexamined the early evolution of the Pax proteins. Our novel evolutionary scenario features a single homeobox capturing event and an early duplication of Pax genes before the divergence of porifera, indicating a more diverse role of Pax proteins in primitive animals than previously expected.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 50
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Development genes and evolution 210 (2000), S. 82-91 
    ISSN: 1432-041X
    Keywords: Key words T-box genes ; Zebrafish ; Fins ; Evolution ; Gene duplication
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract  The presence of two sets of paired appendages is one of the defining features of jawed vertebrates. We are interested in identifying genetic systems that could have been responsible for the origin of the first set of such appendages, for their subsequent duplication at a different axial level, and/or for the generation of their distinct identities. It has been hypothesized that four genes of the T-box gene family (Tbx2–Tbx5) played important roles in the course of vertebrate limb evolution. To test this idea, we characterized the orthologs of tetrapod limb-expressed T-box genes from a teleost, Danio rerio. Here we report isolation of three of these genes, tbx2, tbx4, and tbx5. We found that their expression patterns are remarkably similar to those of their tetrapod counterparts. In particular, expression of tbx5 and tbx4 is restricted to pectoral and pelvic fin buds, respectively, while tbx2 can be detected at the anterior and posterior margins of the outgrowing fin buds. This, in combination with conserved expression patterns in other tissues, suggests that the last common ancestor of teleosts and tetrapods possessed all four of these limb-expressed T-box genes (Tbx2–Tbx5), and that these genes had already acquired, and have subsequently maintained, their gene-specific functions. Furthermore, this evidence provides molecular support for the notion that teleost pectoral and pelvic fins and tetrapod fore- and hindlimbs, respectively, are homologous structures, as suggested by comparative morphological analyses.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 51
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Environmental geology 39 (2000), S. 360-371 
    ISSN: 1432-0495
    Keywords: Key words Environmental geophysics ; Resistivity ; Inversion ; Landfill mining ; Waste ; Characterization
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Geosciences
    Notes: Abstract  Geophysical investigations using 2-D DC resistivity were carried out on old parts of two similar landfills, with waste of different ages. The data sets, which included high data density in both vertical and horizontal directions, were interpreted with 2-D smoothness constrained inversion. The landfills were excavated after the surveying. The objective was to test the capability of the resistivity method as a pre-characterization technique. The objectives were only partially fulfilled. First, the moisture content was the parameter that appeared to exert the dominant control over the resistivity distribution of the landfill. The most important potential information that can be recovered is, therefore, an indication of the waste piles hydraulics. Second, it was neither possible to estimate the amount of recoverable soils, nor to correlate the type of waste with the resistivity models. However, discrete anomalies were identified, and if specific materials are searched for, the resistivity models indicate possible places to search.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 52
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Development genes and evolution 210 (2000), S. 329-336 
    ISSN: 1432-041X
    Keywords: Key words Development ; Evolution ; Notch ; Insect
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract  Studies of somitogenesis in vertebrates have identified a number of genes that are regulated by a periodic oscillator that patterns the pre-somitic mesoderm. One of these genes, hairy, is homologous to a Drosophila segmentation gene that also shows periodic spatial expression. This, and the periodic expression of a zebrafish homologue of hairy during somitogenesis, has suggested that insect segmentation and vertebrate somitogenesis may use similar molecular mechanisms and possibly share a common origin. In chicks and mice expression of the lunatic fringe gene also oscillates in the presomitic mesoderm. Fringe encodes an extracellular protein that regulates Notch signalling. This, and the finding that mutations in Notch or its ligands disrupt somite patterning, suggests that Notch signalling plays an important role in vertebrate somitogenesis. Although Notch signalling is not known to play a role in the formation of segments in Drosophila, we reasoned that it might do so in other insects such as the grasshopper, where segment boundaries form between cells, not between syncytial nuclei as they do in Drosophila. Here we report the cloning of a single fringe gene from the grasshopper Schistocerca. We show that it is not detectably expressed in the forming trunk segments of the embryo until after segment boundaries have formed. We conclude that fringe is not part of the mechanism that makes segments in Schistocerca. Thereafter it is expressed in a pattern which shows that it is a downstream target of the segmentation machinery and suggests that it may play a role in segment morphogenesis. Like its Drosophila counterpart, Schistocerca fringe is also expressed in the eye, in rings in the legs, and during oogenesis, in follicle cells.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 53
    ISSN: 1432-0819
    Keywords: Stratigraphy ; Evolution ; El Chichón ; México
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Geosciences
    Notes: 2 abundance and depletion in MgO, CaO, TiO2, as well as trace and rare earth elements. This suggests segregation of olivine and orthopyroxene from the melt. Since human settlements in southeast Mexico and Central America can be traced as far back as approximately 2500 years BP, most of these events probably affected human activity. In fact, there are reports of pottery shards and other artifacts in deposits from the eruption of 1250 BP. Pottery fragments in deposits of an eruption that took place 2500 BP are also reported in this paper. Thus, the impact of the volcano on human activities has been frequent, with most of the repose intervals lasting between 100 to 600 years. The impact of the eruptions was probably of greater than local extent, because airfall tephra could reach distant sites and possibly even affect weather. The eruptive history of El Chichón also offers clues in the investigation of the Maya civilization. Several researchers have considered the volcano as an important factor in the answer to some intriguing questions such as the extensive use of volcanic ash in Late Classic Maya ceramics or, of greater importance, the causes of the collapse of the Classic Maya civilization.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 54
    ISSN: 1432-1211
    Keywords: Key words KIR ; Multigene family ; Gene duplication ; Evolution
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Medicine
    Notes: Abstract. Natural killer (NK) immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) are a family of polymorphic receptors which interact with specific motifs on HLA class I molecules and modulate NK cytolytic activity. In this study, we analyzed a recently sequenced subgenomic region on chromosome 19q13.4 containing eight members of the KIR receptor repertoire. Six members are clustered within a 100-kb continuous sequence. These genes include a previously unpublished member of the KIR gene family 2DS6, as well as 2DL1, 2DL4, 3DL1, 2DS4, 3DL2, from centromere to telomere. Two additional KIR genes, KIRCI and 2DL3, which may be located centromeric of this cluster were also analyzed. We show that the KIR genes have undergone repeated gene duplications. Diversification between the genes has occurred postduplication primarily as a result of retroelement indels and gene truncation. Using pre- and postduplication Alu sequences identified within these genes as evolutionary molecular clocks, the evolution and duplication of this gene cluster is estimated to have occurred 30–45 million years ago, during primate evolution. A proposed model of the duplication history of the KIR gene family leading to their present organization is presented.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 55
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Immunogenetics 51 (2000), S. 69-74 
    ISSN: 1432-1211
    Keywords: Key words MHC class I ; Pseudogene ; Evolution ; Gorilla ; Chimpanzee
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Medicine
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 56
    ISSN: 1432-1211
    Keywords: Key words Immunoglobulin ; Fugu ; VH family ; Teleosts ; Evolution
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Medicine
    Notes: Abstract. The variable region of the immunoglobulin heavy chain is created by a somatic rearrangement of a limited number of germline genes. This mechanism of gene assembly [V(D)J recombination] has been found to take place only in jawed vertebrates (gnathostomes). To understand how this mechanism evolved and diversified it is necessary to study the genomic organization of the heavy-chain gene in different vertebrate lineages. Since there is scant sequence information on the VH locus in fish, shotgun sequencing of a cosmid clone containing part of the VH genomic region of the Japanese pufferfish, Fugu rubripes, was undertaken. Eight full-length VH genes were isolated and characterized. They have higher homology to trout genes, but show the same structural features as VHs found in other vertebrates. Two VH subgroups have been identified whose members are interspersed. The frequency of synonymous and nonsynonymous substitution for VH comparisons between family members was found to be higher in the complementarity-determining regions than in the framework regions. Finally, there are four other genes interspersed with the VH genes, one of which is the first full-length retrotransposon element characterized in vertebrates.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 57
    ISSN: 1432-1211
    Keywords: Key words J chain ; Polymeric immunoglobulin ; Ontogeny ; Evolution ; Comparative immunology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Medicine
    Notes: Abstract  The J chain is a component of polymeric immunoglobulin (Ig) molecules and may play an important role in their polymerization and the transport of polymeric Ig across epithelial cells. In this study, the primary structure of the chicken J chain was determined by sequencing cDNA clones. The cDNA had an open reading frame of 476 nucleotides encoding a putative protein of 158 amino acid residues including the signal sequence. The 3′ untranslated region consisted of 1216 nucleotides and a poly(A) tail. The deduced amino acid sequence of the chicken J chain had a high degree of homology to that of human, cow, rabbit, mouse, frog, and earthworm, with eight conserved Cys residues identical to the mammalian J chains. Northern blot hybridization performed with total RNA from various chicken tissues revealed high levels of J-chain mRNA expression in spleen, intestine, Harderian gland, and bursa of Fabricius, and low levels in the thymus. The J chain was expressed in the bursa as early as day 15 of embryogenesis. These data indicated that the chicken J-chain gene displays a high degree of homology with that of other species, and is expressed at an early stage of development of the chicken immune system.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 58
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Oecologia 123 (2000), S. 330-341 
    ISSN: 1432-1939
    Keywords: Key words  Arabidopsis thaliana ; Carbon dioxide ; Evolution ; Reproduction ; Selection
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract  Atmospheric CO2 partial pressure (pCO2) was as low as 18 Pa during the Pleistocene and is projected to increase from 36 to 70 Pa CO2 before the end of the 21st century. High pCO2 often increases the growth and reproduction of C3 annuals, whereas low pCO2 decreases growth and may reduce or prevent reproduction. Previous predictions regarding the effects of high and low pCO2 on C3 plants have rarely considered the effects of evolution. Knowledge of the potential for evolution of C3 plants in response to CO2 is important for predicting the degree to which plants may sequester atmospheric CO2 in the future, and for understanding how plants may have functioned in response to low pCO2 during the Pleistocene. Therefore, three studies using Arabidopsis thaliana as a model system for C3 annuals were conducted: (1) a selection experiment to measure responses to selection for high seed number (a major component of fitness) at Pleistocene (20 Pa) and future (70 Pa) pCO2 and to determine changes in development rate and biomass production during selection, (2) a growth experiment to determine if the effects of selection on final biomass were evident prior to reproduction, and (3) a reciprocal transplant experiment to test if pCO2 was a selective agent on Arabidopsis. Arabidopsis showed significant positive responses to selection for high seed number at both 20 and 70 Pa CO2 during the selection process. Furthermore, plants selected at 20 Pa CO2 performed better than plants selected at 70 Pa CO2 under low CO2 conditions, indicating that low CO2 acted as a selective agent on these annuals. However, plants selected at 70 Pa CO2 did not have significantly higher seed production than plants selected at 20 Pa CO2 when grown at high pCO2. Nevertheless, there was some evidence that high CO2 may also be a selective agent because changes in development rate and biomass production during selection occurred in opposite directions at low and high pCO2. Plants selected at high pCO2 showed no change or reductions in biomass relative to control plants due to a decrease in the length of the life cycle, as indicated by earlier initiation of flowering and senescence. In contrast, selection at low CO2 resulted in an average 35% increase in biomass production, due to an increase in the length of the life cycle that resulted in a longer period for biomass accumulation before senescence. From the Arabidopsis model system we conclude that some C3 annuals may have produced greater biomass in response to low pCO2 during the Pleistocene relative to what has been predicted from studies exposing a single generation of C3 plants to low pCO2. Furthermore, C3 annuals may exhibit evolutionary responses to high pCO2 in the future that may result in developmental changes, but these are unlikely to increase biomass production. This series of studies shows that CO2 may potentially act as a selective agent on C3 annuals, producing changes in development rate and carbon accumulation that could not have been predicted from single-generation studies.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 59
    ISSN: 1432-0983
    Keywords: Key words Arbuscular mycorrhizas ; Evolution ; Glomus mosseae ; Plasma membrane H+-ATPase genes
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract  To identify genes that encode plasma membrane H+-ATPases in the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Glomus mosseae two sets of degenerate primers matching highly conserved motifs present in all plant and fungal ATPases were designed. Nested PCR-amplification of G. mosseae genomic DNA using the designed degenerate primers was carried out. Sequence analysis of the cloned PCR products identified five different clones (GmHA1, GmHA2, GmHA3, GmHA4 and GmHA5) encoding putative plasma membrane H+-ATPases. Comparison of the deduced amino-acid sequences of GmHA1–GmHA5 indicate that GmHA1, GmHA3 and GmHA4 are highly identical, while GmHA2 and GmHA5 are more divergent. The evolutionary and functional significance of the divergence found among the different members of the H+-ATPase gene family in G. mosseae is discussed.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 60
    ISSN: 1432-2242
    Keywords: Key words Cicer species ; Microsatellites ; Zero-allele ; Phylogenetic tree ; Evolution
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract  The conservation of 90 microsatellite-flanking sequences from chickpea in 39 accessions of eight annual and 1 accession of a perennial species of the genus Cicer was investigated. All of the primer sequences successfully amplified microsatellites in related species, indicating the conservation of microsatellite-flanking sequences in chickpea’s relatives. However, the degree of conservation of the primer sites varied between species depending on their known phylogenetic relationship to chickpea, ranging from 92.2% in C. reticulatum, chickpea’s closest relative and potential ancestor, down to 50% for C. cuneatum. A phylogenetic tree revealed that chickpea and the other members of its crossability group were more closely related to the perennial C. anatolicum than to other annual species of the genus. Considerable variation in size and number of amplification products between and within species was observed. Sequence analysis of highly divergent amplification products proved that variation is either due to large differences in the number of microsatellite repeats or to the amplification of a locus unrelated to the one amplified from chickpea. Sequence information and bootstrapping using PAUP suggested that STMSs derived from chickpea may be efficiently and reliably used for synteny studies in chickpea’s crossability group, including C. anatolicum. However, care should be taken when applying these markers to other species of the genus. Considering the data presented here and the known historical record, the age of section Monocicer, including chickpea, is estimated to be about 100,000 years.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 61
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Theoretical and applied genetics 100 (2000), S. 1267-1273 
    ISSN: 1432-2242
    Keywords: Keywords Domestication ; Evolution ; QTL ; Map-based cloning ; Lycopersicon esculentum
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract  The seeds of domesticated plants are normally much larger than those of their wild counterparts. This change in seed weight was most likely in response to the selection pressure for yield, uniform germination and seedling vigor which was exerted by humans during domestication. However, despite the evolutionary and agronomic significance of seed weight, very little is know about the genetic and developmental controls of this trait; and, thus far, none of the genes in this pathway have been isolated from any plant species. QTL mapping experiments conducted in tomato during the past decade have allowed the identification of many seed-weight QTLs and have also revealed that only a few loci are responsible for the majority of the seed-weight changes that accompanied the domestication of tomato. This review presents a consensus map for seed weight QTL identified in previously published reports and in unpublished results from our laboratory. This summary of seed-weight QTL data allows for the identification of the major loci controlling this trait in the genus Lycopersicon. It is hoped that this work will allow the elucidation of this important phenotypic transition that occurred during crop-plant domestication and will also provide the starting point for the cloning of a gene responsible for seed-weight variation.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 62
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Theoretical and applied genetics 101 (2000), S. 379-387 
    ISSN: 1432-2242
    Keywords: Key words Rice ; Isozyme variation ; Multilocus organization ; Evolution
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract  Genetic organization of isozyme variation in rice (Oryza sativa L.) was investigated based on 17 polymorphic isozyme loci using a sample of 511 accessions of worldwide origin. The genetic diversity within the species was very high (H=0.36 with 4.82 alleles per locus), as compared with most selfing plant species. Three diversity centers were detected for isozyme variation including South Asia, China and Southeast Asia. The accessions were classified into three well-differentiated cultivar groups corresponding to the indica and japonica subspecies, and a new unnamed group. Variation within the cultivar groups accounted for 80% of the total isozyme variation. Within-country variation accounted for 58% of the total variation while among-region and among-country variation within the cultivar groups accounted for only 14% and 8% of the total variation. Analyses using log-linear models revealed that pronounced non-random associations between and among alleles at many unlinked isozyme loci were organized in a non-hierarchical pattern, and subspecific and macro-geographic differentiation was much more pronounced in multilocus phenotype frequencies than in allelic frequencies at individual loci. These results suggest that selection on multilocus gene complexes was largely responsible for the maintenance of the extensive isozyme variation within the species and the indica-japonica differentiation. Our results further suggest the independent domestication of indica and japonica, the dual origins of the indica rice from China and South Asia (India), and the differentiation of the ecotypes ’javanica’ and the ’temperate japonica’ within the japonica subspecies.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 63
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Theoretical and applied genetics 101 (2000), S. 1259-1268 
    ISSN: 1432-2242
    Keywords: Key words Enriched-library ; SSR ; Repetitive elements ; Allelic diversity ; Evolution
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract  Microsatellites have many desirable marker properties. There has been no report of the development and utilization of microsatellite markers in oat. The objectives of the present study were to construct oat microsatellite-enriched libraries, to isolate microsatellite sequences and evaluate their level of polymorphism in Avena species and oat cultivars. One hundred clones were isolated and sequenced from three oat microsatellite-libraries enriched for either (AC/TG) n , (AG/TC) n or (AAG/TTC) n repeats. Seventy eight clones contained microsatellites. A database search showed that 42% of the microsatellite flanking sequences shared significant homology with various repetitive elements. Alu and retrotransposon sequences were the two largest groups associated with the microsatellites. Forty four primer sets were used to amplify the DNA from 12 Avena species and 20 Avena sativa cultivars. Sixty two percent of the primers revealed polymorphism among the Avena species, but only 36% among the cultivars. In the cultivars, the microsatellites associated with repetitive elements were less polymorphic than those not associated with repetitive elements. Only 25% of the microsatellites associated with repetitive elements were polymorphic, while 46% of the microsatellites not associated with repetitive elements showed polymorphism in the cultivars. An average of four alleles with a polymorphism information content (PIC) of 0.57 per primer set was detected among the Avena species, and 3.8 alleles with a PIC of 0.55 among the cultivars. In addition, 54 barley microsatellite primers were tested in Avena species and 26% of the primers amplified microsatellites from oat. Using microsatellite polymorphisms, dendrograms were constructed showing phylogenetic relationships among Avena species and genetic relationships among oat cultivars.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 64
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    The environmentalist 20 (2000), S. 257-271 
    ISSN: 1573-2991
    Keywords: evolution ; tides ; sea level ; time series
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract The increasing use of computers since the 1960s, has implied the digitization of observations in meteorology, oceanography and other observational sciences. Enough data has been accumulated to suggest that some patterns of evolution in the world may be discernable. The present article deals with what appears as changing tides around Canada.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 65
    ISSN: 1573-4927
    Keywords: ancient endogenous provirus ; evolution ; retrotransposition
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Chemistry and Pharmacology
    Notes: Abstract A new family of murine endogenous proviruses (VL6.0) is described here. The intact provirus is near 6 kb in length and shows a genomic organization of 5" LTR, gag, pol, env, and 3" LTR. The primer binding site (PBS) is that of a tRNAgly. The lack of functional open reading frames and occurrence of significant gaps in most, if not all, members of this group show it to be ancient. Our estimate of copy number per haploid genome is 30+. Members of this group have been isolated from Mus musculus domesticus, M. m. casteneus, M. m. hortulanus, M. caroli, and M. spretus. The occurrence of these sequences throughout such diverse members of the genus Mus may indicate that the date of the original infection predated the divergence of the extant Mus lineages at around 2.5 million years ago. Analysis of gap (deletion/insertion) patterns indicates that these sequences may have proliferated within the Mus genome by a mechanism of reverse transcriptase-mediated transposition. As yet, there are no closely related murine retroviruses described. The closest mammalian retrovirus based on sequence similarity is from the miniature swine (Sus scrofa).
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 66
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Behavioral ecology and sociobiology 49 (2000), S. 48-56 
    ISSN: 1432-0762
    Keywords: Keywords Antipredator behavior ; Phylogenetic inertia ; Conflicting selection pressures ; Evolution ; Salamanders
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract  The streamside salamander, Ambystoma barbouri, exhibits ineffective antipredator behavior (high emergence rate from refuge, and high activity while out of refuge) and thus suffers heavy predation in stream pools with sunfish. A. barbouri evolved relatively recently from an ancestor that closely resembled a sister species, A. texanum, which breeds in fishless, ephemeral ponds. Sunfish thus represent a relatively new selection pressure for A. barbouri. Phylogenetic inertia predicts that (1) A. texanum should be very poor at coping with fish and (2) because it has only recently been exposed to fish, A. barbouri should still be poor at avoiding fish, but due to its recent exposure to fish, A. barbouri should be better than A. texanum at coping with sunfish. Experimental results provided mixed support for these predictions. As predicted, A. texanum suffered heavy sunfish predation. Compared to A. texanum, A. barbouri showed a greater tendency to initiate alarm moves that enhanced escape success from fish. However, in both the presence and absence of fish, A. barbouri showed higher emergence rates from refuge and higher movement while out of refuge than A. texanum. These behaviors tend to increase exposure to sunfish, i.e., for these key behaviors, A. barbouri apparently evolved in the wrong direction as far as fish predation is concerned. Due to these offsetting effects (increased exposure to fish, increased escape success), A. barbouri is no better at surviving with sunfish than A. texanum. A possible explanation for the high activity of A. barbouri is its use of highly ephemeral habitats (relative to A. texanum) that favor the evolution of higher activity, feeding, and developmental rates for A. barbouri relative to A. texanum.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 67
    ISSN: 1617-4623
    Keywords: Key wordsDrosophila melanogaster ; Ceratitis capitata ; Tephritids ; Evolution ; Dacus
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract The alcohol dehydrogenase genes make up one of the best studied gene families in Drosophila, both in terms of expression and evolution. Moreover, alcohol dehydrogenase genes constitute potential versatile markers in insect transformation experiments. However, due to their rapid evolution, these genes cannot be cloned from other insect genera by DNA hybridization or PCR-based strategies. We have therefore explored an alternative strategy: cloning by functional complementation of appropriate yeast mutants. Here we report that two alcohol dehydrogenase genes from the medfly Ceratitis capitata can functionally replace the yeast enzymes, even though the medfly and yeast genes have evolved independently, acquiring their enzymatic function convergently. Using this method, we have cloned an alcohol dehydrogenase gene from the olive pest Bactrocera oleae. We conclude that functional complementation in yeast can be used to clone alcohol dehydrogenase genes that are unrelated in sequence to those of yeast, thus providing a powerful tool for isolation of dominant insect transformation marker genes.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 68
    ISSN: 1617-4623
    Keywords: Key wordsDictyostelium discoideum ; Mitochondrial DNA ; Genome sequencing ; Genetic map ; Evolution
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract We present an overview of the gene content and organization of the mitochondrial genome of Dictyostelium discoideum. The mitochondria genome consists of 55,564 bp with an A + T content of 72.6%. The identified genes include those for two ribosomal RNAs (rnl and rns), 18 tRNAs, ten subunits of the NADH dehydrogenase complex (nad1, 2, 3, 4, 4L, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 11), apocytochrome b (cytb), three subunits of the cytochrome oxidase (cox1/2 and 3), four subunits of the ATP synthase complex (atp1, 6, 8 and 9), 15 ribosomal proteins, and five other ORFs, excluding intronic ORFs. Notable features of D. discoideum mtDNA include the following. (1) All genes are encoded on the same strand of the DNA and a universal genetic code is used. (2) The cox1 gene has no termination codon and is fused to the downstream cox2 gene. The 13 genes for ribosomal proteins and four ORF genes form a cluster 15.4 kb long with several gene overlaps. (3) The number of tRNAs encoded in the genome is not sufficient to support the synthesis of mitochondrial protein. (4) In total, five group I introns reside in rnl and cox1/2, and three of those in cox1/2 contain four free-standing ORFs. We compare the genome to other sequenced mitochondrial genomes, particularly that of Acanthamoeba castellanii.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 69
    ISSN: 1618-2545
    Keywords: biogeography ; calmodulin ; DNA sequence ; elongation factor EF-1α ; evolution
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract Phylogenetic relationships within theGibberella fujikuroi species complex were extended to newly discovered strains using nucleotide characters obtained by sequencing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplified DNA from 4 loci used in a previous study [nuclear large subunit 28S rDNA, nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, mitochondriaal small subunit (mtSSU) ribosomal DNA, and β-tubulin] together with two newly sampled protein-encoding nuclear genes, translation elongation factor EF-1α and calmodulin. Sequences from the ribosomal ITS region were analyzed separately and found to contain of two highly divergent, nonorthologous ITS2 types. Phylogenetic analysis of the individual and combined datasets identified 10 new phylogenetically distinct species distributed among the following three areas: 2 within Asia and 4 within both Africa and South America. Hypotheses of the monophyly ofFusarium subglutinans and its two formae speciales, f. sp.pini and f. sp.ananas, were strongly rejected by a likelihood analysis. Maximum parsimony results further indicate that the protein-encoding nuclear genes provide considerably more phylogenetic signal that the ribosomal genes sequenced. Relative apparent synapomorphy analysis was used to detect long-branch attraction taxa and to obtain a statistical measure of phylogenetic signal in the individual and combined datasets.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 70
    ISSN: 1618-2545
    Keywords: Ascomycota ; evolution ; pyrenomycetes ; systematics
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract To investigate the systematic position of the unitunicate pyremomycetePapulosa amerospora, we performed phylogenetic analyses of SSU rDNA sequences from 37 ascomycetes. Among these sequences were some new ones from taxa that might be related toPapulosa: Hyponectriaceae (Hyponectria buxi, Monographella nivalis), Phyllachorales (Phyllachora graminis), and Xylariales (Barrmaelia melanotes, Poronia punctata). Our results showed 100% bootstrap support for a clade of all unitunicate pyrenomycetes, the class Sordariomycetes. We also found strong support for recognizing the subclasses Hypocreomycetidae and Xylariomycetidae. The remaining taxa, belonging to subclass Sordariomycetidae, appeared as a polyphyletic group in one analysis, but was monophyletic when shorter SSU sequences were used.Barrmaelia melanotes, Poronia punctata, Hyponectria buxi, andMonographella nivalis are members of Xylariomycetidae, but we could not determine whetherMonographella should be included in Hyponectriaceae. The new family Papulosaceae is erected forPapulosa on molecular and morphological bases, but the exact systematic position ofPapulosa within subclass Sordariomycetidae is still uncertain, since the genus did not cluster consistently with any of the included taxa. Phyllachorales are not closely related to Diaporthales, as previously suggested.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 71
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Artificial life and robotics 4 (2000), S. 109-118 
    ISSN: 1614-7456
    Keywords: Parallel and distributed processing ; Space navigation ; Evolution ; WAVE model ; Cooperative behavior ; Mobile robots
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Computer Science
    Notes: Abstract This paper modifies the WAVE model for parallel processing in virtual networks to explore and process continuous physical worlds. Expressing distributed activity by cooperative jobs spreading in space and “seeing” each other, rather than as vehicles exchanging messages, the model allows complex missions to be planned in a very flexible manner, with mobile hardware being assigned to the evolving space-conquering programs (waves) dynamically, when required or available. A number of cooperative scenarios in a physical world demonstrate the simplicity and compactness of the wave code. The execution of waves by mobile hardware is discussed, including run-time mapping of waves to vehicles, and supporting multiple distributed jobs in cases of hardware shortages. WAVE can be used efficiently for solving complex problems in space by organized groups of cheap specialized mobile robots, where intelligent behavior is provided by very high level of system organization rather than by the smartness of individual units. In a broader sense, it may also serve as a basic technology for parallel and distributed simulation, and the management of evolution and self-organization of large open systems of different natures.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 72
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Glycoconjugate journal 17 (2000), S. 465-483 
    ISSN: 1573-4986
    Keywords: N-acetylglucosaminyltransferases ; glycosylation ; glycoproteins ; Golgi complex ; evolution ; development
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Chemistry and Pharmacology
    Notes: Abstract This review covers discoveries made over the past 30–35 years that were important to our understanding of the synthetic pathway required for initiation of the antennae or branches on complex N-glycans and O-glycans. The review deals primarily with the author's contributions but the relevant work of other laboratories is also discussed. The focus of the review is almost entirely on the glycosyltransferases involved in the process. The following topics are discussed. (1) The localization of the synthesis of complex N-glycan antennae to the Golgi apparatus. (2) The “evolutionary boundary” at the stage in N-glycan processing where there is a change from oligomannose to complex N-glycans; this switch correlates with the appearance of multicellular organisms. (3) The discovery of the three enzymes which play a key role in this switch, N-acetylglucosaminyltransferases I and II and mannosidase II. (4) The “yellow brick road” which leads from oligomannose to highly branched complex N-glycans with emphasis on the enzymes involved in the process and the factors which control the routes of synthesis. (5) A short discussion of the characteristics of the enzymes involved and of the genes that encode them. (6) The role of complex N-glycans in mammalian and Caenorhabditis elegans development. (7) The crystal structure of N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase I. (8) The discovery of the enzymes which synthesize O-glycan cores 1, 2, 3 and 4 and their elongation.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 73
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Journal of bioeconomics 2 (2000), S. 9-23 
    ISSN: 1573-6989
    Keywords: evolution ; altruism ; morality ; utilitarianism ; Marxism ; Rawls ; fairness
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Economics
    Notes: Abstract Several evolutionary mechanisms have been identified in the literature that would generate altruism in humans. The most powerful (except for kin selection) and most controversial is group selection, as recently analyzed by Sober & D.S. Wilson. I do not take a stand on the issue of the existence of group selection. Instead, I examine the level of human altruism that could exist if group selection were an engine of human evolution. For the Sober & Wilson mechanism to work, groups practicing altruism must grow faster than other groups. I call altruistic behavior that would lead to faster growth ‘efficient altruism’. This often consists of cooperation in a prisoner's dilemma. ltruistic acts such as helping a temporarily hungry or injured person would qualify as efficient altruism. Efficient altruism would also require monitoring recipients to avoid shirking. Utilitarianism would be an ethical system consistent with efficient altruism, but Marxism or the Rawlsian system would not. Discussions of efficient altruism also help understand intuitions about fairness. We perceive those behaviors as ‘fair’ that are consistent with efficient altruism. It is important to understand that, even if humans are selected to be altruistic, the forms of altruism that might exist must be carefully considered and ircumscribed.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 74
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 15 (2000), S. 443-463 
    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: David Hull ; evolution ; selection
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract One of the principal difficulties in assessing Science as aProcess (Hull 1988) is determining the relationship between the various elements of Hull's theory. In particular, it is hard to understand precisely how conceptual selection is related to Hull's account of the social dynamics of science. This essay aims to clarify the relation between these aspects of his theory by examining his discussion of the``demic structure'' of science. I conclude that the social account cando significant explanatory work independently of the selectionistaccount. Further, I maintain that Hull's treatment of the demicstructure of science points us toward an important set of issues insocial epistemology. If my reading of Science as a Process iscorrect, then most of Hull's critics (e.g., those who focus solelyon his account of conceptual selection) have ignored promisingaspects of his theory.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 75
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 15 (2000), S. 493-508 
    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: complexity ; entropy balance ; environment independence ; evolution ; information fundamental identity ; uncertainty
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Some real objects show a very particular tendency: that of becomingindependent with regard to the uncertainty of their surroundings. This isachieved by the exchange of three quantities: matter, energy andinformation. A conceptual framework, based on both Non-equilibriumThermodynamic and the Mathematical Theory of Communication is proposedin order to review the concept of change in living individuals. Three mainsituations are discussed in this context: passive independence inconnection with resistant living forms (such as seeds, spores, hibernation,...), active independence in connection with the life span of aliving individual (whether an ant or an ant farm), and the newindependence in connection with the general debate of biological evolution.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 76
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 15 (2000), S. 641-668 
    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: complexity ; evolution ; function ; modularity ; parts
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract The functional complexity, or the number of functions, of organisms hasfigured prominently in certain theoretical and empirical work inevolutionary biology. Large-scale trends in functional complexity andcorrelations between functional complexity and other variables, such assize, have been proposed. However, the notion of number of functions hasalso been operationally intractable, in that no method has been developedfor counting functions in an organism in a systematic and reliable way.Thus, studies have had to rely on the largely unsupported assumption thatnumber of functions can be measured indirectly, by using number ofmorphological, physiological, and behavioral “parts” as a proxy. Here, amodel is developed that supports this assumption. Specifically, the modelpredicts that few parts will have many functions overlapping in them, andtherefore the variance in number of functions per part will be low. If so,then number of parts is expected to be well correlated with number offunctions, and we can use part counts as proxies for function counts incomparative studies of organisms, even when part counts are low. Alsodiscussed briefly is a strategy for identifying certain kinds of parts inorganisms in a systematic way.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 77
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 15 (2000), S. 713-732 
    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: Darwin ; error theory ; ethics ; evolution ; evolutionary ethics ; Mackie ; naturalistic fallacy ; Ruse
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Suppose that the human tendency to think of certain actions andomissions as morally required – a notion that surely lies at the heart of moral discourse – is a trait that has been naturallyselected for. Many have thought that from this premise we canjustify or vindicate moral concepts. I argue that this is mistaken, and defend Michael Ruse's view that the moreplausible implication is an error theory – the idea thatmorality is an illusion foisted upon us by evolution. Thenaturalistic fallacy is a red herring in this debate,since there is really nothing that counts as a ‘fallacy’ at all. If morality is an illusion, it appears to followthat we should, upon discovering this, abolish moraldiscourse on pain of irrationality. I argue that thisconclusion is too hasty, and that we may be able usefullyto employ a moral discourse, warts and all, withoutbelieving in it.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 78
    ISSN: 1618-2545
    Keywords: Ascomycota ; evolution ; molecular clock ; plant pathogen ; powdery mildew
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract Phylogenetic relationships of Erysiphales within Ascomycota were inferred from the newly determined sequences of the 18S rDNA and partial sequences of the 28S rDNA including the D1 and D2 regions of 10 Erysiphales taxa. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that the Erysiphales form a distinct clade among ascomycetous fungi suggesting that the Erysiphales diverged from a single ancestral taxon. The Myxotrichaceae of the Onygenales was distantly related to the other onygenalean families and was the sister group to the Erysiphales calde, with which it combined to form a clade. The Erysiphales/Myxotrichaceae clade was also closely related to some discomycetous fungi (Leotiales, Cyttariales and Thelebolaceae) including taxa that form cleistothecial ascomata. The present molecular analyses as well as previously reported morphological observations suggest the possible existence of a novel evolutionary pathway from cleistothecial discomycetous fungi to Erysiphales and Myxotrichaceae. However, since most of these fungi, except for the Erysiphales, are saprophytic on dung and/or plant materials, the questions of how and why an obligate biotroph like the Erysiphales radiated from the saprophytic fungi remain to be addressed. We also estimated the radiation time of the Erysiphales using the 18S rDNA sequences and the two molecular clockes that have been previously reported. The calculation showed that the Erysiphales split from the Myxotrichaceae 190–127 myr ago. Since the radiation time of the Erysiphales does not exceed 230 myr ago, even when allowance is made for the uncertainty of the molecular clocks, it is possible to consider that the Erysiphales evolved after the radiation of angiosperms. The results of our calculation also showed that the first radiation within the Erysiphales (138–92 myr ago) coincided with the date of a major diversification of angiosperms (130–90 myr ago). These results may support our early assumption that the radiation of the Erysiphales coincided with the evolution of angiosperm plants.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 79
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Neural processing letters 11 (2000), S. 29-38 
    ISSN: 1573-773X
    Keywords: evolution ; online ; game ; neural ; network ; genetic ; real-time
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Computer Science
    Notes: Abstract In standard neuro-evolution, a population of networks is evolved in a task, and the network that best solves the task is found. This network is then fixed and used to solve future instances of the problem. Networks evolved in this way do not handle real-time interaction very well. It is hard to evolve a solution ahead of time that can cope effectively with all the possible environments that might arise in the future and with all the possible ways someone may interact with it. This paper proposes evolving feedforward neural networks online to create agents that improve their performance through real-time interaction. This approach is demonstrated in a game world where neural-network-controlled individuals play against humans. Through evolution, these individuals learn to react to varying opponents while appropriately taking into account conflicting goals. After initial evaluation offline, the population is allowed to evolve online, and its performance improves considerably. The population not only adapts to novel situations brought about by changing strategies in the opponent and the game layout, but it also improves its performance in situations that it has already seen in offline training. This paper will describe an implementation of online evolution and shows that it is a practical method that exceeds the performance of offline evolution alone.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 80
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Journal of mammalian evolution 7 (2000), S. 1-22 
    ISSN: 1573-7055
    Keywords: Dasyurus ; marsupials ; control region ; mtDNA ; evolution
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract There has been a great deal of interest in determining phylogenetic relationships within the family Dasyuridae due to the widespread distribution, ecological diversity, and relative plesiomorphy of this taxon within the Australasian marsupial radiation. In the past, it has been extremely problematic to determine the phylogenetic relationships among species within Dasyurus, with numerous studies using both morphological and molecular characters providing different topologies. Here, the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region is used as a novel set of characters in an attempt to identify relationships among the six closely related extant species. Sequences were obtained from multiple individuals representing all extant species of quolls including, when possible, individuals from different geographical regions. Sequences were analyzed using both parsimony criteria and neighbor-joining methods. Results presented here concur with those of Krajewski et al. (1997) in (1) placing D. geoffroii in a highly supported clade with D. spartacus, (2) resolving a monophyletic group of D. albopunctatus + D. geoffroii + D. spartacus, and (3) placing D. hallucatus as the sister taxon to all other species of quolls. Results also show two highly supported and geographically distinct clades of D. maculatus (Tasmanian and mainland) that do not correspond to the currently used subspecific nomenclature. Preliminary results also indicate that there are different clades among geographic groups of D. hallucatus that warrant further investigation. The mtDNA control region is a highly variable locus and may be used in forensic tests for species identification in this genus.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 81
    ISSN: 1573-6857
    Keywords: evolution ; Oryza ; retrotransposon ; rice ; wild species
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract The Oryza officinalis complex is a genetically diverse, tertiary genepool of rice. We analyzed part of the primary structure of the integrase coding domain (ICD) of a gypsy-like retrotransposon from species of the O. officinalis species complex. PCR was performed with degenerate primers that hybridized to conserved sequences in the integrase genes of gypsy-type retrotransposons, using total DNA from different species of the O. officinalis complex as templates. Cloning and sequencing of the PCR products showed that the amplified fragments are highly homologous to each other (75–90%) and belong to one family of retrotransposons that is related to the previously studied RIRE-2 element from rice. Two main subfamilies of 292 and 351 bp were distinguished. Analysis of primary sequence data supports previous reports that sequence divergence during vertical transmission has been the major influence on the evolution of gypsy-type retrotransposons in Oryza species. Based on sequence data phylogenetic relationships among species of the O. officinalis complex were estimated. The data suggests that O. eichingeri is more closely related to the ancestral species of the complex.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 82
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    International journal of primatology 21 (2000), S. 421-444 
    ISSN: 1573-8604
    Keywords: phylogenetics ; biogeography ; speciation ; Ateles ; evolution
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract We used the results of phylogenetic analyses of relationships among spider monkeys (Ateles) based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA to investigate questions of their evolutionary origins and speciation mechanisms. We employed the concept of a local molecular clock to date nodes of interest (corresponding to hypothesized species and subspecies) in the various phylograms for comparison to hypothesized biogeographical events that might have affected speciation. We considered various mechanisms—Pleistocene refuge formation, riverine barriers, geological fluctuations, and ecological changes associated with these mechanisms—for their contribution to speciation in Ateles. Most speciation among the various species of Ateles occurred during the middle to late Pliocene, suggesting that Pleistocene refuge formation was not a key speciation mechanism. However, it is likely that the genetic structure of populations of Ateles was modified to some extent by refuge formation. Additionally, riverine barriers do not seem to interrupt gene flow significantly among Ateles. No river formed a barrier among species of Ateles, with the exception of the lower Amazon and possibly some of the black-water rivers draining the Guianan highlands. Large-scale geographic changes associated with the continued rise of the eastern and western cordilleras of the northern Andes and associated changes in habitat were the most important causes of speciation in Ateles. The various factors that modify genetic structure in Ateles are important to consider in order to protect endangered primate genera in the Neotropics.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 83
    ISSN: 1573-8604
    Keywords: vocalization ; sexual advertisement ; predator advertisement ; taxonomy ; evolution ; mouse lemur ; primate ; Madagascar
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract Advertisement calls are often important noninvasive tools for discriminating cryptic species and for assessing specific diversity and speciation patterns in nature. We investigated the contribution of these calls to uncover specific diversity in nocturnal Malagasy lemurs. We compared sexual advertisement and predator advertisement calls of two mouse lemur species, western gray and eastern rufous mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus and M. rufus, respectively) living in two contrasting habitats (dry deciduous vs. rain forest), and analyzed them statistically. Both species emitted several highly variable whistle calls in the context of predator-avoidance. Intrapopulation variation was high and overlapped interspecific variation. Sexual advertisement calls, given in the mating context, displayed a totally distinct, species-specific acoustic structure. Whereas gray mouse lemurs produced rapidly multifrequency modulated, long trill calls, rufous mouse lemurs gave slowly frequency-modulated short chirp calls. Our results suggest specific status for gray and rufous mouse lemurs and indicate the importance of predation and social needs in shaping vocal communication.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 84
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Evolutionary ecology 14 (2000), S. 665-692 
    ISSN: 1573-8477
    Keywords: disease ; evolution ; frequency-dependent selection ; genetic diversity ; life history ; lifespan ; polymorphism ; reproduction rate ; resistance ; specificity ; virulence
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract Pathogens and parasites can be strong agents of selection, and often exhibit some degree of genetic specificity for individual host strains. Here we show that this host–pathogen specificity can affect the evolution of host life history traits. All else equal, evolution should select for genes that increase individuals' reproduction rates or lifespans (and thus total reproduction per individual). Using a simple host–pathogen model, we show that when the genetic specificity of pathogen infection is low, host strains with higher reproduction rates or longer lifespans drive slower-reproducing or shorter-lived host strains to extinction, as one would expect. However, when pathogens exhibit specificity for host strains with different life history traits, the evolutionary advantages of these traits can be greatly diminished by pathogen-mediated selection. Given sufficient host–pathogen specificity, pathogen-mediated selection can maintain polymorphism in host traits that are correlated with pathogen resistance traits, despite large intrinsic fitness differences among host strains. These results have two important implications. First, selection on host life history traits will be weaker than expected, whenever host fitness is significantly affected by genotype-specific pathogen attack. Second, where polymorphism in host traits is maintained by pathogen-mediated selection, preserving the genetic diversity of host species may require preserving their pathogens as well.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 85
    ISSN: 1615-6110
    Keywords: Cladistics ; evolution ; Illiciales ; Illicium ; ITS ; star anise
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract Sequences of the internal transcribed spacers (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA were determined for 15 species ofIllicium (Illiciaceae) to examine phylogenetic relationships. The ITS trees show a major dichotomy between the two North American species (I. floridanum andI. parviflorum) and the remaining east Asian species. This suggests that the existing division between two sections (sect.Illicium and sect.Cymbostemon) ofIllicium based on tepal characters in unnatural. The ITS phylogeny shows congruence with palynology: of the species examined, the three species (I. angustisepalum, I. anisatum andI. fargesii) from sect.Illicium that possess trizonocolpate pollen consistently form a clade, although nesting within a clade consisting of the species of sect.Cymbostemon, which generally have trisyncolpate pollen. The low ITS sequence divergence and the close relationship among east Asian species suggest a recent diversification of this group of species or an unusual slowdown of sequence mutations.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 86
    ISSN: 1615-6110
    Keywords: In situ hybridization ; evolution ; NOR ; rDNA ; Muscari
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract In the subgenusLeopoldia of the genusMuscari, M. comosum is an exceptional species because it presents the most asymmetrical karyotype of the group and because its only active NOR is located in the fifth chromosome pair, while in the other species it is located in the first or second chromosome pairs (all the species have 2n = 18 chromosomes). SinceM. comosum has a derived karyotype different from those of the other species of the group, the resulting question is whether, in the first and second chromosome pair of this species, ribosomal cistrons persist. Observations after fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) using rDNA probes indicate that there are indeed ribosomal loci in the first and second chromosome pairs of this species, although these loci are inactive with respect to nucleolus organization. The location of rDNA regions in another three species of the same genus (M. atlanticum, M. dionysicum andM. matritensis) provides a basis for examining the significance of these findings in relation to the evolution of the ribosomal loci in this genus. Our observations indicate that in the genusMuscari, the largest sites for rRNA genes are not necessarily active, and, therefore, the activation of these regions is not related to the number of copies but to a specific regulation mechanism.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 87
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Journal of economics 71 (2000), S. 1-30 
    ISSN: 1617-7134
    Keywords: evolution ; local interaction ; cooperation ; prisoner's dilemma ; Markov processes ; C78
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Economics
    Notes: Abstract We study local interaction within a population located on a connected graph. Subjects engage in several bilateral interactions during each round in a generalized Prisoners' Dilemma (PD). In each round of play one randomly selected player gets the possibility to update the action he plays in this PD. All individuals use the update rule “Win Cooperate, Lose Defect,” a multi-player variant of Tit-for-Tat. Theoretical results on the set of stable states of the associated dynamics are provided for the cases with and without rare mutations. Simulations provide insight into the probability distribution over these stable states. In both cases a rather high probability is assigned to stable states with a moderate level of cooperation implying that dominated strategies are used. Furthermore, the probability of reaching the stable state with Nash equilibrium play is small.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 88
    ISSN: 1573-5028
    Keywords: evolution ; C4 plant ; maize ; ribulose-bisphosphate carboxylase
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract The small subunit of ribulose-bisphosphate carboxylase (Rubisco), encoded by rbcS, is essential for photosynthesis in both C3 and C4 plants, even though the cell specificity of rbcS expression is different between C3 and C4 plants. The C3 rbcS is specifically expressed in mesophyll cells, while the C4 rbcS is expressed in bundle sheath cells, and not mesophyll cells. Two chimeric genes were constructed consisting of the structural gene encoding β-glucuronidase (GUS) controlled by the two promoters from maize (C4) and rice (C3) rbcS genes. These constructs were introduced into a C4 plant, maize. Both chimeric genes were specifically expressed in photosynthetic organs, such as leaf blade, but not in non-photosynthetic organs. The expressions of the genes were also regulated by light. However, the rice promoter drove the GUS activity mainly in mesophyll cells and relatively low in bundle sheath cells, while the maize rbcS promoter induced the activity specifically in bundle sheath cells. These results suggest that the rice promoter contains some cis-acting elements responding in an organ-pecific and light-inducible regulation manner in maize but does not contain element(s) for bundle sheath cell-specific expression, while the maize promoter does contain such element(s). Based on this result, we discuss the similarities and differences between the rice (C3) and maize (C4) rbcS promoter in terms of the evolution of the C4 photosynthetic gene.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 89
    ISSN: 1573-5036
    Keywords: evolution ; glutamine synthetase ; sequences ; subunit composition ; Trientalis europaea
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Fishery, Domestic Science, Nutrition
    Notes: Abstract Ion-exchange chromatography of extracts from Trientalis europaea L. leaf tissue have been shown to contain two distinct isoforms of glutamine synthetase (GS). However, analysis by Western blotting has shown that the first peak to elute contains a mixture of large and small GS subunits, whilst the second peak is comprised entirely of a smaller subunit. This is contrary to the widespread assumptions concerning plant GS biochemistry. Isolation of intact chloroplasts and subsequent extraction of GS, followed by ion-exchange chromatography, has shown that the first peak to elute contains a large subunit, and the second chloroplastic peak is composed entirely of the small subunit. This smaller subunit may be present due to it being encoded by a separate chloroplastic GS gene, or it may be present as a product of post-translational modification. DNA sequencing has been used to try and determine which of these may be occurring. The three partial DNA sequences (505 nucleotides) we have obtained from T. europaea have been compared with 64 other sequences available on the NCBI database, which have mainly been obtained from crop species. Neighbour joining and parsimony analysis (1000 bootstrap) has shown support (∼30%) for the separation of plant GS from all other phyla. Within the plant phylum, there is total support for the separation of chloroplastic and cytosolic GS (100%), whilst the cytosolic sequences divide further into monocot and dicot species (77% support by NJ). Further subgroups of plants from the same families is also suggested. This is consistent with previous work containing fewer, but longer (∼1000 nucleotides) GS sequences. The addition of GS sequences obtained from wild plant species, such as T. europaea, to the large amount of information already available on the database, will permit a better understanding of the evolution of this important enzyme.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 90
    ISSN: 1573-5079
    Keywords: anatomy ; C3 and C4 photosynthesis ; Chenopodiaceae ; cotyledon ; deserts ; evolution ; leaf ; Salsola
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract Most species of the genus Salsola (Chenopodiaceae) that have been examined exhibit C4 photosynthesis in leaves. Four Salsola species from Central Asia were investigated in this study to determine the structural and functional relationships in photosynthesis of cotyledons compared to leaves, using anatomical (Kranz versus non-Kranz anatomy, chloroplast ultrastructure) and biochemical (activities of photosynthetic enzymes of the C3 and C4 pathways, 14C labeling of primary photosynthesis products and 13C/12C carbon isotope fractionation) criteria. The species included S. paulsenii from section Salsola, S. richteri from section Coccosalsola, S. laricina from section Caroxylon, and S. gemmascens from section Malpigipila. The results show that all four species have a C4 type of photosynthesis in leaves with a Salsoloid type Kranz anatomy, whereas both C3 and C4 types of photosynthesis were found in cotyledons. S. paulsenii and S. richteri have NADP- (NADP-ME) C4 type biochemistry with Salsoloid Kranz anatomy in both leaves and cotyledons. In S. laricina, both cotyledons and leaves have NAD-malic enzyme (NAD-ME) C4 type photosynthesis; however, while the leaves have Salsoloid type Kranz anatomy, cotyledons have Atriplicoid type Kranz anatomy. In S. gemmascens, cotyledons exhibit C3 type photosynthesis, while leaves perform NAD-ME type photosynthesis. Since the four species studied belong to different Salsola sections, this suggests that differences in photosynthetic types of leaves and cotyledons may be used as a basis or studies of the origin and evolution of C4 photosynthesis in the family Chenopodiaceae.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 91
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Genetic resources and crop evolution 47 (2000), S. 385-393 
    ISSN: 1573-5109
    Keywords: Citrullus lanatus ; cluster analysis ; evolution ; morphology ; watermelon
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Fishery, Domestic Science, Nutrition
    Notes: Abstract Morphological data recorded from field trials using Citrullus lanatus germplasm collected in Namibia were used to analyse and compare the various morphotypes of this species. The experiment comprised wild types and local landraces as well as commercial cultivars. Cluster analysis supported the indigenous classification system used in Namibia, in which Citrullus types are distinguished based on gross morphology, ecology and usage and grouped into seed, cooking and fresh-eating (watermelon) types. Commercial watermelon cultivars formed a distinct cluster. Wide variation was found within the local types whereas the genetic basis of the commercial type appears to be narrow. The commercial cultivars were most closely related to local watermelon types and more distantly related to the wild types, whereas the cooking melons form an intermediate group.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 92
    ISSN: 1573-5117
    Keywords: reflecting organ ; upper lip ; Myodocopa ; chemical cues ; evolution
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract Multifunctions of the upper lip in a bioluminescent myodocopid Vargula hilgendorfii were studied by video observation and histological method. The localization of luciferin and luciferase gland cells within the upper lip was partly successful. Two long protrusions of the upper lip, both of V. hilgendorfii and a non-luminescent species of the same family, immediately anterior to the mouth, were found to show very flexible movement especially while eating, as if smearing on the food surface a secretion from the protrusions (glands), which may support the hypothesized secretion of digestive enzymes from the upper lip. This hypothesis is further supported by the new finding of a pair of ducts which connect the basal part of the upper lip with the posterior digestive duct (stomach). Comparative studies of V. hilgendorfii with several sympatric non-luminescent species of the same family have also revealed that it has a characteristic reflecting organ immediately posterior to the anus. It is a conical small protrusion, as if dangling from the ventral edge of the abdomen at the apex of the cone. It is observable only in live specimens, when the furca, which is located outwardly to the organ, is sufficiently transparent. When illuminated, the reflecting organ reflects the distinct light. The diameter of the mirror (chemical composition provisionally analyzed) is about 6–8% of the carapace length. The organ develops from the very first stage of its ontogeny without reference to sex, which suggests that the function may be related to intraspecific signaling or predatory deterrence.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 93
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Hydrobiologia 419 (2000), S. 31-63 
    ISSN: 1573-5117
    Keywords: morphology ; ontogeny ; Ostracoda ; evolution ; fifth limb ; crustacean phylogeny
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract The chaetotaxy (shape, structure and distribution of setae) of appendages and valve allometry during the post embryonic ontogeny of the cyprididine ostracod Eucypris virens are described. It is shown that the basic ontogenetic development of E. virens is very similar to that of other species of the family Cyprididae. During ontogeny, the chaetotaxy shows continual development on all podomeres of the limbs with the exception of the last podomere on the antennulae. The long setae on the exopodite and protopodite of the antennae have a natatory function until the actual natatory setae develop in later instars. Aesthetascs (presumed chemoreceptors) ya and y3 are the first to develop and may have an important function in the first instars. Cyprididae require a pediform limb in the posterior of the body presumably to help them to attach to substrates and this is reflected by the pediform nature of one limb at all times throughout all instars. This study has also shown that the fifth limb is most probably of thoracic origin and hence ostracods have only one pair of maxillae.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 94
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Hydrobiologia 419 (2000), S. 7-11 
    ISSN: 1573-5117
    Keywords: morphology ; palaeontology ; ecology ; genetics ; Ostracoda ; evolution
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract Morphology, palaeontology, genetics and ecology are the main scientific domains contributing theories, concepts and new data to evolutionary biology. Ostracods are potentially very good model organisms for evolutionary studies because they combine an excellent fossil record with a wide extant distribution and, therefore, allow studies on both patterns and processes leading to extant diversity. This preface provides an overview of the 15 contributions to the present volume and concludes that this set of papers supports the claim that ostracod studies are situated in all main evolutionary domains.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 95
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Hydrobiologia 417 (2000), S. 91-99 
    ISSN: 1573-5117
    Keywords: evolution ; phylogeny ; larval characters ; morphology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract The plesiomorphic mode of crustacean development is widely accepted to be via a larva called the nauplius. Extant taxa like the Cephalocarida, Branchiopoda, Ostracoda, Mystacocarida, Copepoda, Cirripedia, Ascothoracida, Facetotecta, Euphausiacea and Penaeidea hatch from an egg as a free-living nauplius. Other crustaceans show an embryonic phase of development suggestive of a naupliar organization. Several features of the nauplius larva have been proposed as diagnostic characters for the Crustacea: a median (nauplius) eye; at least three pairs of head appendages (antennules, antennae, mandibles); a posteriorly directed fold (the labrum) extending over the mouth and a cephalic (nauplius) shield. The relationship between trilobite protaspis with at least four appendages and the crustacean nauplius remains unclear, but reports of a copepod orthonauplius with four appendages are rejected. Swimming is suggested to represent the underived mode of locomotion for the crustacean nauplius, and that naupliar swimming directly results in naupliar feeding which also is underived.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 96
    ISSN: 1573-5117
    Keywords: population genetics ; evolution ; allozymes ; DNA ; marine genetics ; Acanthaster planci
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract The basic assumptions that widespread marine species should show little spatial variation in genetic structure, given their high potential for dispersal on ocean currents, is being questioned. This has taken some time because there are few studies of widespread marine species over oceanic scales, few data sets that have the high density of sampling required for the detection of fine population structure, and there is little incentive to look further if initial analyses suggest the expected result. The interpretation of the population genetic structure of crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) has been found to vary considerably depending on the sample set included in the analyses and on the method of analysis used. Scatter plots of genetic distance or θ, and spatial autocorrelation approaches gave markedly different results ranging from no structure to isolation by distance. Only visual examination of maps of patterns of variation in allele variation first detected that crown-of-thorns starfish occupy large regions with little between population differentiation, but between which there are markedly higher levels of differentiation. These findings highlight the care required in interpreting population structure, particularly where there are few sample points. Many marine species may have population structures where sharp genetic disjunctions, not associated with any obvious environmental boundaries, separate regions of relative genetic homogeneity. Such population structures are very different from those traditionally assumed and are not yet understood. Further advances in understanding the genetic structure of marine species will demand an iterative approach where a greater number of samples are collected over particular regions identified by earlier interpretations.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 97
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Hydrobiologia 420 (2000), S. 15-27 
    ISSN: 1573-5117
    Keywords: phylogeny ; evolution ; allozymes ; rDNA ; DNA sequence
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract The first application of molecular systematics to sponges was in the 1980s, using allozyme divergence to dis-criminate between conspecific and congeneric sponge populations. Since this time, a fairly large database has been accumulated and, although the first findings seemed to indicate that sponge species were genetically more divergent than those of other marine invertebrates, a recent review of the available dataset indicates that levels of interspecific gene identities in most sponges fall within the normal range found between species of other invertebrates. Nevertheless, some sponge genera have species that are extremely divergent from each other, suggesting a possible polyphyly of these genera. In the 1990s, molecular studies comparing sequences of ribosomal RNA have been used to reappraise the phylogenetic relationships among sponge genera, families, orders and classes. Both the 18S small subunit and the 28S large subunit rRNA genes have been sequenced (41 complete or partial and 75 partial sequences, respectively). Sequences of 18S rRNA show good support for Porifera being true Metazoa, but they are not informative for resolving relationships among genera, families or orders. 28S rRNA domains D1 and D2 appear to be more informative for the terminal nodes and provide resolution for internal topologies in sufficiently closely related species, but the deep nodes between orders or classes cannot be resolved using this molecule. Recently, a more conserved gene, Hsp70, has been used to try to resolve the relationships in the deep nodes. Metazoan monophyly is very well supported. Nevertheless, the divergence between the three classes of Porifera, as well as the divergence between Porifera, Cnidaria and Ctenophora, is not resolved. Research is in progress using other genes such as those of the homeodomain, the tyrosine kinase domain, and those coding for the aggregation factor. For the moment the dataset for these genes is too restricted to resolve the phylogenetic relationships of these phyla. However, whichever the genes, the phylogenies obtained suggest that Porifera could be paraphyletic and that the phylogenetic relationships of most of the families and orders of the Demospongiae have to be reassessed. The Calcarea and Hexactinellida are still to be studied at the molecular level.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 98
    ISSN: 1573-5133
    Keywords: Cyprinidae ; piscivores ; prey fish ; small barbs ; species flock ; evolution ; speciation
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract The endemic cyprinid species flock in Lake Tana consists of 15 species of large hexaploid barbs, eight of which are piscivorous. Previously, it was assumed that all piscivores preyed on the same small barb species, Barbus trispilopleura. In this paper we present a description of morphology and ecology of a new abundant small barb species, Barbus tanapelagius sp. nova (holotype RMNH 33731) from Lake Tana, Ethiopia, which appears to be the major prey species for the large pelagic piscivorous barbs. B. tanapelagius differs clearly in morphology from the other 3 small, diploid Barbus species known from Lake Tana, B. trispilopleura Boulenger, 1902, B. humilis Boulenger, 1902 and B. pleurogramma Boulenger, 1902. Conspicuous differences are its elongated body, large eye diameter, prominent and hooked lower jaw contour and colouration. Preliminary data suggest that B. tanapelagius also differs ecologically from the other small Barbus spp. by its pelagic, strictly zooplanktivorous feeding and its occurrence mainly in the deeper, offshore waters. The other small Barbus species are most probably largely benthic feeders and dominant in the shallow inshore waters. Previous views about the evolution of the present 8 endemic piscivorous large barb species therefore require reconsideration, as the present paper shows a more complex scenario including several prey species.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 99
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Hydrobiologia 420 (2000), S. 55-62 
    ISSN: 1573-5117
    Keywords: chromosomes ; evolution ; nucleolar organizer region
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract The number of cytogenetic studies of marine fish has increased in recent years. Fish groups, such as Perciformes, which comprises many of the extant marine teleosts of economic importance, show little divergence in chromosome number and most species display a diploid number of 48 acrocentric chromosomes. In the Serranidae, Sparidae, Sciaenidae (Perciformes) and Mugilidae (Mugiliformes) small chromosome variations are restricted to subtle heterochromatin or nucleolar organizer region (NOR) modifications. There appears to exist a strict relationship between both absence of geographic barriers throughout the marine environment and high mobility of these animals (eggs, larvae, or adults), with a rarity of chromosome rearrangement at the macrostructural level. Moreover, a cellular homeostasis might also be important to karyotype maintenance among these fishes, limiting changes in the chromosome complement to cryptic chromosome rearrangements. Other groups, such as Blenniidae, Gobiidae and Scorpaenidae, for instance, show more extensive chromosome diversity, which is probably related to limited mobility. Numerical and structural chromosome polymorphisms and several sexual chromosome systems are recurrent among these fishes. A wide karyotypic diversification also characterizes the Tetraodontiformes, an interesting fish group with peculiar morphological, physiological and ecological characteristics.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 100
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Environmental biology of fishes 57 (2000), S. 443-449 
    ISSN: 1573-5133
    Keywords: parental care ; feeding behaviour ; evolution ; trade-off ; individual differences ; fish
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract The function of the fin digging behaviour in increasing food availability for the offspring was analysed in the convict cichlid, Cichlasoma (Archocentrus) nigrofasciatum. Consistent individual differences in the frequency of fin digging were found in the parental fish. Examination of the gastrointestinal tract of young revealed that higher frequency of parental fin digging was associated with higher consumption of large and more profitable prey (Diptera larvae), which inhabited deep horizons of the bottom substrate and possibly were difficult to access without parental assistance. Thus, parental fin digging was initially associated with a significant increase of the offspring growth rate. However, at later brood intervals, when parental care ceased, the young of the high-digging parents were characterised by a poorer consumption of small larvae that were most accessible for them without parental aid and represented an increasingly more important component of their ration than large larvae. Offspring of the low-digging parents, on the other hand, presumably as a result of their individual experience, showed a considerably better consumption of small larvae, increasing their growth rate. As a consequence, prior parental fin digging did not affect the offspring body size after independence. Thus, there exist pronounced individual differences and alternative parental styles in the convict cichlid.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
Close ⊗
This website uses cookies and the analysis tool Matomo. More information can be found here...