Integrative and Comparative Biology最新文献

{"title":"Skin defenses and host-environment microbiome interactions in spotted salamanders.","authors":"Julian Urrutia-Carter, Joseph D Madison, J Adam Frederick, Carly R Muletz Wolz","doi":"10.1093/icb/icaf098","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icaf098","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Emerging infectious diseases have been of particular interest as a major threat to global biodiversity. In amphibians, two fungal sister taxa, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) along with the viral pathogen ranavirus have affected global populations. Factors such as host traits, abiotic and biotic environmental conditions, and pathogen prevalence contribute to species specific disease susceptibility. The eastern United States is home to the Appalachian Mountain system, known as a \"hotspot\" for salamander biodiversity. Bd and ranavirus are present throughout the Appalachians, and a Bsal emergence could be imminent. Throughout the Appalachians are the spotted salamanders, Ambystoma maculatum, a mostly terrestrial salamander that participates in mass breeding migration to ponds and vernal pools in the late spring. Previous experimental studies have shown that spotted salamanders appear to be resistant to Bd and Bsal infection, but the mechanisms behind Bd-defense remains unknown. Spotted salamanders emerging from their overwintering habitats were hypothesized to have potent anti-Bd function expressed in their mucus and in their skin microbiomes, as a countermeasure to annual Bd re-emergence. We used non-invasive sampling at two pools during the spotted salamander annual breeding event to (I) determine pathogen prevalence, (II) quantify the antifungal potential of salamander skin mucus, and (III) characterize the diversity and composition of the salamander skin microbiome and contrast it to that of the corresponding environmental microbiome. We did not detect any Bd, Bsal, or ranavirus in the salamanders. The salamander mucus did not inhibit Bd growth in vitro and anti-Bd bacteria were at low relative abundance in the microbiome. The salamander microbiome sourced a proportion of bacteria from the environment and appeared to select rare taxa from their respective pools, however their functional relevance in pathogen defense is unclear. Our results suggest that the spotted salamander mucosal secretions and skin microbiome are not the mechanisms of defense against Bd. Rather, elements not captured by the mucosome (e.g., immune cell gene expression) may confer resistance. This study contributes to the understanding of salamander intraspecies variation in disease susceptibility.</p>","PeriodicalId":54971,"journal":{"name":"Integrative and Comparative Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144303658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The effect of urbanization and sampling date on blood immunophysiology and haemosporidian parasitemia in Cardueline finches.","authors":"Xue Her, Joel W G Slade","doi":"10.1093/icb/icaf103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icaf103","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Urbanization alters habitat structure, resource availability, and influences pathogen transmission, leading to widespread ecological disruptions as it continues to expand. We investigated the impact of urbanization on physiological stress and vector-borne parasite prevalence in three Cardueline finch species: house finches (Haemorhous mexicanus), lesser goldfinches (Spinus psaltria), and pine siskins (Spinus pinus). We hypothesized that urbanization level (urban, suburban, and rural) would be associated with higher heterophil to lymphocyte (H/L) ratios, a proxy of stress, and increased parasite prevalence. To test this, we quantified H/L ratios, parasite prevalence and parasite load on blood smears with light microscopy. We found no significant effect of urbanization on H/L ratios, suggesting that urbanization did not strongly influence this measure of stress. Instead, sampling date was a significant predictor of H/L ratios, with H/L increasing as the season progressed, which may reflect the breeding season in California. Sampling date also significantly predicted parasitemia in house finches, suggesting a potential role of seasonal variation in infection risk. Also, suburban house finches had significantly higher parasite prevalence than urban individuals, which may reflect differences in environmental factors such as nearby water availability and agricultural land use. Across species, lesser goldfinches exhibited significantly higher H/L ratios than house finches, but pine siskins did not differ from the other finches. Our results emphasize the importance of considering both seasonal dynamics and local environmental conditions when assessing the ecological impacts of urbanization on avian health.</p>","PeriodicalId":54971,"journal":{"name":"Integrative and Comparative Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144303659","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cultivating Community and Research: The Spelman College Arboretum Project.","authors":"Nicole K Johnston, Nazia Mojib, Jeremy D Harris, Kevin Mowris, Jessica Terrien Dunn, Michael Walsh","doi":"10.1093/icb/icaf096","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icaf096","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Atlanta, renowned for its extensive urban tree canopies, embodies the concept of a 'city in a forest'. Spelman College, a historically Black college (HBCU), despite its relatively small footprint, acts as a steward for a small but vital portion of this urban forest. This compact campus, a shared habitat for students and a diverse ecosystem of trees, offers a unique living timeline of the institution's history. However, significant opportunities remain untapped in leveraging this environment for research and deeper student engagement with nature. This article describes the unique opportunities and rationale for student-staff collaborations within the Spelman arboretum, highlighting how such partnerships can bridge the gap between urban students and their natural surroundings, expand scientific understanding beyond traditional disciplines, and foster a stronger sense of community. It presents several examples of activities born from the Tree Map project, a faculty learning community initiative-demonstrating the range of potential collaborations-and planning future projects from them. Furthermore, it invites faculty across disciplines to conduct studies within the Spelman arboretum, bringing their science into the public eye and transforming the campus into a dynamic urban laboratory. By showcasing the Spelman arboretum project as a potential model, we aim to inspire a comprehensive approach that utilizes this unique campus environment to ask interesting research questions and unify the college community.</p>","PeriodicalId":54971,"journal":{"name":"Integrative and Comparative Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144295389","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sexual selection, energetics and ecological innovation: How sexual selection diversifies the landscape of behavior, morphology and physiology.","authors":"Ummat Somjee, Matthew J Fuxjager, Purnati Khuntia, Rebecca E Koch, Luke Larter, Noah T Leith, Venkatesh Nagarajan-Radha, Alexandre V Palaoro, Anusha Shankar, Yash Sondhi, Silu Wang, Michael J Ryan, Justin C Havird","doi":"10.1093/icb/icaf092","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icaf092","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sexual selection drives the evolution of a broad diversity of traits such as the enlarged claws of fiddler crabs, the high-energy behavioral displays of hummingbirds, the bright red plumage of house finches, the elaborated antennae of moths, the wing \"snapping\" displays of manakins, and the calculated calls of túngara frogs. A majority of work in sexual selection has aimed to measure the magnitude of these traits. Yet, we know surprisingly little about the physiology shaping such a diversity of sexually selected behavior and supportive morphology. The energetic properties underlying sexual signals are ultimately fueled by metabolic machinery at multiple scales, from mitochondrial properties and enzymatic activity to hormonal regulation and the modification of muscular and neural tissues. However, different organisms have different physiological constraints and face various ecological selection pressures; thus, selection operates and interacts at multiple scales to shape sexually selected traits and behavior. In this perspective piece, we describe illustrative case studies in different organisms to emphasize that understanding the physiological and energetic mechanisms that shape sexual traits may be critical to understanding their evolution and ramifications with ecological selection. We discuss: 1) the way sexual selection shapes multiple integrated components of physiology, behavior and morphology, 2) the way that sexually selected carotenoid pigments may reflect some aspects of cellular processes, 3) the relationship between sexually selected modalities and energetics, 4) the hormone ecdysone and its role in shaping sex-specific phenotypes in insects, 5) the way varied interaction strategies and social contexts select for signalling strategies that are responsive to social scenes, 6) the role that sexual selection may have in the exploitation of novel thermal niches. Our major objective is to describe how sexually selected behavior, physiology, and ecology are shaped in diverse organisms so that we may develop a deeper and more integrated understanding of sexual trait evolution and its ecological consequences.</p>","PeriodicalId":54971,"journal":{"name":"Integrative and Comparative Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144287141","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Host-microbiome interactions as moderators of host quality and biodiversity-disease relationships.","authors":"Kristen M Rosamond, Helen Joan Esser, Rebekka B Assink, Laura Jaramillo-Ortiz, Melissah Rowe, Ellie C Kirke, Kevin D Matson","doi":"10.1093/icb/icaf091","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icaf091","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Biodiversity-disease studies typically focus on how changes in community composition (e.g., species richness, abundance, and functional or phylogenetic metrics of biodiversity) affect disease risk. In doing so, these studies tend to overlook intraspecific variation in the organisms comprising the community. Yet, intraspecific variation, which occurs to varying degrees both within and between communities, could also modulate biodiversity-disease relationships. One important driver of intraspecific variation is the microbiome. By directly and indirectly influencing health and susceptibility to infection and disease, microbiomes are integral to organismal functioning. Thus, the microbiome plays a crucial role in host quality. We define host quality as an integration of host traits related to parasite exposure, establishment, growth, and infectivity, which ultimately shape parasite fitness. The microbiome can impact host quality via a variety of mechanisms including host size and developmental stage, immune function, reproduction, nutrient acquisition, and behavior. However, the potential for such microbiome-driven changes in host quality to trigger cascading effects on community-level processes, specifically by altering parasite transmission dynamics and community competence, has not been well explored. Here, we examine and illustrate a pathway by which the microbiome may influence variation in organismal biology (i.e., host quality) of hosts in communities. Furthermore, we consider how major anthropogenic drivers of microbiome shifts, such as climate change, pollution, land use change, and domestication, might influence this pathway and thereby alter outcomes. Future studies bridging microbiome and disease ecology research will provide opportunities to unify these concepts across scales and between the plant and animal domains. To date, most microbiome research has focused on humans, crops, and laboratory animals. However, to better understand the potential for knock-on ecological effects of microbiomes, more attention must be paid to the microbiomes of wild plants and animals. Ultimately, more experimental and theoretical data are needed to clarify how the microbiome impacts host quality and disease dynamics, as well as how anthropogenic factors continuously reshape these relationships.</p>","PeriodicalId":54971,"journal":{"name":"Integrative and Comparative Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144276751","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"That stinging sensation: modularity and the origin of the stinging cell.","authors":"Leslie S Babonis","doi":"10.1093/icb/icaf070","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icaf070","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>All cells arise through division of other cells; thus, cells with new functions (novel cell types) must evolve from ancestral cells with a different function. How, then, do novel cell types arise? Each cell is a composite of many functions that, together, confer a cell's phenotype. A single cell might have both the capacity to sense the environment and to secrete a specialized product. Allowing those two phenotypic modules to vary independently enables the diversification of groups of cells that either secrete the same product in response to diverse environmental cues or that secrete different products in response to the same cue. In this review, I summarize the shared and unique phenotypic modules that define two types of secretory cells in cnidarians (corals, jellyfish, and their kin): mechanosensory neurons and cnidocytes (stinging cells). I then propose a series of discrete changes that could have driven the origin of a cnidocyte from an ancestral cell that looked much like a modern mechanosensory neuron. I argue that modeling cell type diversification in this way-by gain, loss, and modification of existing phenotype modules-is useful for interpreting patterns of shared gene expression across related cell types and for predicting how new cell types could arise.</p>","PeriodicalId":54971,"journal":{"name":"Integrative and Comparative Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144276753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How single-cell transcriptomics of Hydractinia is informing the evolution of cnidarian sensory systems.","authors":"Christine E Schnitzler, Jingwei Song, Danielle de Jong","doi":"10.1093/icb/icaf090","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icaf090","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>For over a century, the colonial cnidarian Hydractinia has been employed as a research organism to study stem cells, germ cells, regeneration, and coloniality. For the last 70 years, it has also been used in allorecognition research within the field of comparative immunology. More recently, other aspects of Hydractinia biology, including sensory biology, have been explored. Hydractinia colonies are composed of a limited number of repeating structural units: polyps and the stolon tissue that connects polyps. Polyps are divided into three major types used for feeding, reproduction, or defense. Clonal lines grown in the lab provide unlimited material from a single genetic unit. Colonies have separate sexes and spawn regularly with exposure to light. Recently, genomic and transcriptomic resources have been released for two species of Hydractinia: H. symbiolongicarpus and H. echinata. Tools for gene expression manipulation have been developed for this organism including CRISPR/Cas9 knockout, shRNA knockdown, and overexpression via synthetic RNA. Fluorescent transgenic reporter lines have been created via random integration of circular DNA plasmids and CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene knockin. We recently constructed an updated single-cell transcriptomic atlas of adult Hydractinia colonies to explore the cellular biology and cell-type expression profiles of the animal. We are investigating known and novel cell types and validating spatial expression patterns of cell-type specific markers to enable further understanding of the animal's cellular biology. This includes gaining a deeper understanding of the genetic control of cell differentiation of specific cell types from progenitor populations and uncovering the diversity of transcriptional subtypes that may be relevant to specific functions. Since Hydractinia is a model for whole-body regeneration, the identification and validation of new cell type and cell state markers will now allow for the elucidation of potential pathways involved in regenerating specific cell types, including testing alternative pathways for regeneration that include dedifferentiation and transdifferentiation. Hydractinia is poised to become a model for sensory biology research as we can now fully explore their sensory cell types, including cnidocytes and neurons, and the expression and evolution of their gene complement with modern approaches and tools.</p>","PeriodicalId":54971,"journal":{"name":"Integrative and Comparative Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144276752","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Beyond Species Richness: The Importance of Phylogenetic Dimensions of Biodiversity in Disease Ecology.","authors":"Yingying X G Wang, Kevin D Matson, Willem Frederik de Boer","doi":"10.1093/icb/icaf093","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icaf093","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Biodiversity loss and anthropogenic changes to community composition have profound effects on disease emergence and transmission. These alterations influence disease risk by either amplifying or reducing pathogen spread, depending on the spatial scale, ecological context, and the indices used to characterize biodiversity. We argue that species richness alone is often insufficient and that evolutionary relationships among hosts offer critical and underappreciated insights into disease dynamics. By drawing on recent empirical and theoretical studies, we highlight how phylogenetic approaches can enhance our understanding of the dynamics between biodiversity and disease. Future studies must move beyond descriptive use of phylogenetic diversity and develop mechanistic frameworks that integrate community structure and host evolutionary relationships into transmission processes to better assess disease risk under global change.</p>","PeriodicalId":54971,"journal":{"name":"Integrative and Comparative Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144276749","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Collective Neuromechanics in Sea Stars.","authors":"Theodora Po, Matthew J McHenry","doi":"10.1093/icb/icaf056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icaf056","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Animal locomotion arises from the interaction between motor commands from the nervous system and the body's mechanical properties. The field of neuromechanics has traditionally framed locomotion as a product of neural control, body mechanics, and sensory feedback. However, many animals deviate from this conventional paradigm. An example includes echinoderms that combine centralized nervous control with local control that is distributed across hundreds of their locally-regulated tube feet that collectively generate locomotion. Here, we review our work combining animal experiments, robotics, and computational modeling to investigate the control architecture of sea stars. Based on our findings, we propose the concept of collective neuromechanics - a control architecture that balances centralized and local collective control among hundreds of autonomous appendages within a single system. This framework expands the scope of neuromechanics by incorporating collective behavior and offers insights into novel control architectures in both biological and engineered systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":54971,"journal":{"name":"Integrative and Comparative Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144276750","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Comparing functional immune responses in three aquatic turtle species.","authors":"Isabella V Davis, Jennifer Terry, Lorin A Neuman-Lee","doi":"10.1093/icb/icaf088","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icaf088","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Reptiles are increasingly faced with conservation challenges and ecoimmunological techniques would be a beneficial tool in monitoring and evaluating populations that are at-risk. However, the reptilian immune system is poorly understood, and few studies have made intraspecies comparisons, making generalizations difficult. To help address this gap, innate immune function across three conspecific freshwater turtle species was evaluated. Red-eared sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans), Mississippi mud (Kinosternon subrubrum hippocrepis), and musk turtles (Sternotherus odoratus), are found throughout the Southeastern United States and represent different ecological microhabitats and life histories. In spring 2024, male aquatic turtles were caught using hoop nets, and blood samples were taken to assess immune characteristics. Microbial killing assays were conducted using multiple blood serum and buffy layer (hereafter referred as \"serum + BL\") manipulations (fresh, frozen, and frozen + heat manipulated serum + BL) as well as three microbes that activate specific immunological responses: Gram-positive bacterium (Staphylococcus aureus), Gram-negative bacterium (Escherichia coli) and a fungus (Candida albicans). By using this suite of microbial assays, differences in immune prioritization can be observed across species. This study revealed that there are differences in immunocompetence in each species of freshwater turtle that varied by microbe and serum + BL manipulation. We determined that because of the contribution of complement proteins when challenged against Gram-negative bacteria, frozen manipulated serum + BL appears to be a reliable way to assess immunocompetence in individuals across turtle species. Conducting intraspecies comparisons in immune function using integrative approaches can provide valuable insight into the underlying patterns of physiological variability within wild organisms, especially those that are of conservation concern.</p>","PeriodicalId":54971,"journal":{"name":"Integrative and Comparative Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144267912","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}