Frontiers in Zoology最新文献

{"title":"Effects of host state and body condition on parasite infestation of bent-wing bats.","authors":"Yik Ling Tai, Ya-Fu Lee, Yen-Min Kuo, Yu-Jen Kuo","doi":"10.1186/s12983-022-00457-w","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12983-022-00457-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Ectoparasites inhabit the body surface or outgrowths of hosts and are usually detrimental to host health and wellbeing. Hosts, however, vary in quality and may lead ectoparasites to aggregate on preferred hosts, resulting in a heterogeneous distribution of parasite load among hosts.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We set out to examine the effects of host individual state and body condition on the parasite load of multiple nycteribiid and streblid bat flies and Spinturnix wing mites on eastern bent-wing bats Miniopterus fuliginosus in a tropical forest in southern Taiwan. We detected a high parasite prevalence of 98.9% among the sampled bats, with nearly 75% of the bats harboring three or more species of parasites. The parasite abundance was higher in the wet season from mid spring to early fall, coinciding with the breeding period of female bats, than in the dry winter season. In both seasonal periods, the overall parasite abundance of adult females was higher than that of adult males. Among the bats, reproductive females, particularly lactating females, exhibited a higher body condition and were generally most infested. The Penicillidia jenynsii and Nycteribia parvula bat flies showed a consistent female-biased infection pattern. The N. allotopa and Ascodipteron speiserianum flies, however, showed a tendency towards bats of a moderate to higher body condition, particularly reproductive females and adult males.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>We found an overall positive correlation between parasite abundance and reproductive state and body condition of the host and female-biased parasitism for M. fuliginosus bats. However, the effects of body condition and female-biased infestation appear to be parasite species specific, and suggest that the mobility, life history, and potential inter-species interactions of the parasites may all play important roles.</p>","PeriodicalId":55142,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8898463/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65725000","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Eggs to long-legs: embryonic staging of the harvestman Phalangium opilio (Opiliones), an emerging model arachnid.","authors":"Guilherme Gainett, Audrey R Crawford, Benjamin C Klementz, Calvin So, Caitlin M Baker, Emily V W Setton, Prashant P Sharma","doi":"10.1186/s12983-022-00454-z","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12983-022-00454-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The comparative embryology of Chelicerata has greatly advanced in recent years with the integration of classical studies and genetics, prominently spearheaded by developmental genetic works in spiders. Nonetheless, the understanding of the evolution of development and polarization of embryological characters in Chelicerata is presently limited, as few non-spider species have been well studied. A promising focal species for chelicerate evo-devo is the daddy-long-legs (harvestman) Phalangium opilio, a member of the order Opiliones. Phalangium opilio, breeds prolifically and is easily accessible in many parts of the world, as well as tractable in a laboratory setting. Resources for this species include developmental transcriptomes, a draft genome, and protocols for RNA interference, but a modern staging system is critically missing for this emerging model system.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We present a staging system of P. opilio embryogenesis that spans the most important morphogenetic events with respect to segment formation, appendage elongation and head development. Using time-lapse imaging, confocal microscopy, colorimetric in situ hybridization, and immunohistochemistry, we tracked the development of synchronous clutches from egg laying to adulthood. We describe key events in segmentation, myogenesis, neurogenesis, and germ cell formation.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Considering the phylogenetic position of Opiliones and the unduplicated condition of its genome (in contrast to groups like spiders and scorpions), this species is poised to serve as a linchpin for comparative studies in arthropod development and genome evolution. The staging system presented herein provides a valuable reference for P. opilio that we anticipate being useful to the arthropod evo-devo community, with the goal of revitalizing research in the comparative development of non-spider arachnids.</p>","PeriodicalId":55142,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8896363/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65724954","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The interactive effect of ambient temperature and brood size manipulation on nestling body mass in blue tits: an exploratory analysis of a long-term study","authors":"A. Arct, S. Drobniak, A. Dubiec, R. Martyka, Joanna Sudyka, L. Gustafsson, M. Cichoń","doi":"10.1186/s12983-022-00456-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12983-022-00456-x","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":55142,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65724970","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Using natural history to guide supervised machine learning for cryptic species delimitation with genetic data.","authors":"Shahan Derkarabetian,&nbsp;James Starrett,&nbsp;Marshal Hedin","doi":"10.1186/s12983-022-00453-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12983-022-00453-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The diversity of biological and ecological characteristics of organisms, and the underlying genetic patterns and processes of speciation, makes the development of universally applicable genetic species delimitation methods challenging. Many approaches, like those incorporating the multispecies coalescent, sometimes delimit populations and overestimate species numbers. This issue is exacerbated in taxa with inherently high population structure due to low dispersal ability, and in cryptic species resulting from nonecological speciation. These taxa present a conundrum when delimiting species: analyses rely heavily, if not entirely, on genetic data which over split species, while other lines of evidence lump. We showcase this conundrum in the harvester Theromaster brunneus, a low dispersal taxon with a wide geographic distribution and high potential for cryptic species. Integrating morphology, mitochondrial, and sub-genomic (double-digest RADSeq and ultraconserved elements) data, we find high discordance across analyses and data types in the number of inferred species, with further evidence that multispecies coalescent approaches over split. We demonstrate the power of a supervised machine learning approach in effectively delimiting cryptic species by creating a \"custom\" training data set derived from a well-studied lineage with similar biological characteristics as Theromaster. This novel approach uses known taxa with particular biological characteristics to inform unknown taxa with similar characteristics, using modern computational tools ideally suited for species delimitation. The approach also considers the natural history of organisms to make more biologically informed species delimitation decisions, and in principle is broadly applicable for taxa across the tree of life.</p>","PeriodicalId":55142,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8862334/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39944156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Early shape divergence of developmental trajectories in the jaw of galeomorph sharks.","authors":"Faviel A López-Romero,&nbsp;Fidji Berio,&nbsp;Daniel Abed-Navandi,&nbsp;Jürgen Kriwet","doi":"10.1186/s12983-022-00452-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12983-022-00452-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The onset of morphological differences between related groups can be tracked at early stages during embryological development. This is expressed in functional traits that start with minor variations, but eventually diverge to defined specific morphologies. Several processes during this period, like proliferation, remodelling, and apoptosis for instance, can account for the variability observed between related groups. Morphological divergence through development is often associated with the hourglass model, in which early stages display higher variability and reach a conserved point with reduced variability from which divergence occurs again to the final phenotype.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Here we explored the patterns of developmental shape changes in the lower jaw of two shark species, the bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium punctatum) and the catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula). These two species present marked differences in their foraging behaviour, which is reflected in their adult jaw morphology. By tracing the developmental sequence of the cartilage condensation, we identified the onset of cartilage for both species at around stage 31. Other structures that developed later without a noticeable anlage were the labial cartilages, which appear at around stage 33. We observed that the lower jaw displays striking differences in shape from the earliest moments, without any overlap in shape through the compared stages.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The differences observed are also reflected in the functional variation in feeding mechanism between both species. Likewise, the trajectory analysis shows that the main differences are in the magnitude of the shape change through time. Both species follow a unique trajectory, which is explained by the timing between stages.</p>","PeriodicalId":55142,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8818243/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39892283","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ontogeny and ecological significance of metabolic rates in sea turtle hatchlings.","authors":"Christopher R Gatto,&nbsp;T Todd Jones,&nbsp;Brittany Imlach,&nbsp;Richard D Reina","doi":"10.1186/s12983-022-00451-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12983-022-00451-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Sea turtle hatchlings must avoid numerous predators during dispersal from their nesting beaches to foraging grounds. Hatchlings minimise time spent in predator-dense neritic waters by swimming almost continuously for approximately the first 24 h post-emergence, termed the 'frenzy'. Post-frenzy, hatchling activity gradually declines as they swim in less predator-dense pelagic waters. It is well documented that hatchlings exhibit elevated metabolic rates during the frenzy to power their almost continuous swimming, but studies on post-frenzy MRs are sparse.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We measured the frenzy and post-frenzy oxygen consumption of hatchlings of five species of sea turtle at different activity levels and ages to compare the ontogeny of mass-specific hatchling metabolic rates. Maximal metabolic rates were always higher than resting metabolic rates, but metabolic rates during routine swimming resembled resting metabolic rates in leatherback turtle hatchlings during the frenzy and post-frenzy, and in loggerhead hatchlings during the post-frenzy. Crawling metabolic rates did not differ among species, but green turtles had the highest metabolic rates during frenzy and post-frenzy swimming.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Differences in metabolic rate reflect the varying dispersal stratagems of each species and have important implications for dispersal ability, yolk consumption and survival. Our results provide the foundations for links between the physiology and ecology of dispersal of sea turtles.</p>","PeriodicalId":55142,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8818257/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39753914","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Male mate choice in mosquitofish: personality outweighs body size.","authors":"Chunlin Li,&nbsp;Xinyu Zhang,&nbsp;Peng Cui,&nbsp;Feng Zhang,&nbsp;Baowei Zhang","doi":"10.1186/s12983-022-00450-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12983-022-00450-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Despite its important implications in behavioural and evolutionary ecology, male mate choice has been poorly studied, and the relative contribution of personality and morphological traits remains largely unknown. We used standard two-choice mating trials to explore whether two personality traits (i.e., shyness and activity) and/or body size of both sexes affect mate choice in male mosquitofish Gambusia affinis. In the first set of trials involving 40 males, we tested whether males would prefer larger females and whether the preference would be affected by males' body length and personality traits, and females' activity level. In the second set of trials (using another 40 males), we tested whether males would prefer more active females and whether the preference would be affected by males' body length and personality traits.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Both shyness and activity in males were significantly repeatable and constituted a behavioural syndrome. No overall directional preference for large (or small) females with the same activity levels was detected because larger males preferred larger females and smaller males chose smaller females. Males' strength of preference for larger females was also positively correlated with the activity level of larger females but negatively with the activity level of smaller females. Males spent more time associating with active females regardless of their body lengths, indicating males' selection was more influenced by female activity level than body size. Males' preference for inactive females was enhanced when females became active. There was no convincing evidence for the effect of males' personality traits or body length on their preferences for females' activity level.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our study supports the importance of body size in male mate choice but highlights that personality traits may outweigh body size preferences when males choose mating partners.</p>","PeriodicalId":55142,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8780319/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39847142","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Repeatability of endocrine traits and dominance rank in female guinea pigs.","authors":"Taylor L Rystrom,&nbsp;Romy C Prawitt,&nbsp;S Helene Richter,&nbsp;Norbert Sachser,&nbsp;Sylvia Kaiser","doi":"10.1186/s12983-021-00449-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12983-021-00449-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Glucocorticoids (e.g. cortisol) are associated with variation in social behavior, and previous studies have linked baseline as well as challenge-induced glucocorticoid concentrations to dominance status. It is known that cortisol response to an acute challenge is repeatable and correlates to social behavior in males of many mammal species. However, it is unclear whether these patterns are also consistent for females. The aim of this study was to investigate whether baseline and response cortisol concentrations are repeatable in female guinea pigs (Cavia aperea f. porcellus) and whether dominance rank is stable and correlated to baseline cortisol concentration and/or cortisol responsiveness.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Our results show that cortisol responsiveness (after 1 h: R = 0.635, 95% CI = 0.229, 0.927; after 2 h: R = 0.764, 95% CI = 0.433, 0.951) and dominance rank (R = 0.709, 95% CI = 0.316, 0.935) of females were significantly repeatable after six weeks but not correlated. Baseline cortisol was not repeatable (R = 0, 95% CI = 0, 0.690) and also did not correlate to dominance rank. Furthermore, the difference in repeatability estimates of baseline and response values was due to high within-individual variance of baseline cortisol concentration; the amount of between-individual variance was similar for baseline cortisol and the two measures of cortisol responsiveness.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Females occupying different dominance ranks did not have long-term differences in cortisol concentrations, and cortisol responsiveness does not seem to be significantly involved in the maintenance of dominance rank. Overall, this study reveals the remarkable stability of cortisol responsiveness and dominance rank in a female rodent, and it remains an open question whether the magnitude of cortisol responsiveness is adaptive in social contexts for females.</p>","PeriodicalId":55142,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8760769/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39935627","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Pollinating fig wasps' simple solutions to complex sex ratio problems: a review.","authors":"Jaco M Greeff, Finn Kjellberg","doi":"10.1186/s12983-021-00447-4","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12983-021-00447-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Local mate competition (LMC) favours female biased clutch sex ratios because it reduces competition between brothers and provides extra mating opportunities for sons. Fig wasps seem to fit LMC model assumptions and lay female-biased sex ratios as predicted. These female biased sex ratios increase fitness greatly. In line with predictions, their sex ratios become less female-biased as the number of mothers laying in the same fig increases. However, this variation results in comparatively small fitness benefits compared to just biased ratios and data suggest substantial mismatches with LMC theory. The mismatches are due to several factors. (1) Multiple foundresses typically lay too many daughters. (2) Single foundress sex ratios are explained by sequential oviposition and ladies-last models. (3) Mortality that typically exceeds 10% may decouple the link between primary sex ratios, the focus of model predictions, and secondary sex ratios of adult wasps that are counted by researchers. (4) Model assumptions are frequently violated: (a) clutch sizes are unequal, (b) oviposition may not be simultaneous (c) cryptic/multiple wasp species inhabit the same host, (d) foundress numbers are systematically undercounted, (e) inbreeding coefficient calculations are inaccurate, and (f) male wasps sometimes disperse. These data and calculations suggest that alternative explanations must be considered seriously. Substantial data show that wasps typically lay most of their male eggs first followed by mostly female eggs require a new approach. These \"slope\" strategies result in more accurate sex ratios that are automatically adjusted to foundress number, own and relative clutch sizes and to sequential clutches. This effect will alter sex ratios in all species once the egg capacity of a fig is crossed or when interference reduces clutch sizes. In addition to this passive response, the females of about half the studied species have a conditional response that reduces female bias under higher foundress numbers by laying more sons. Therefore, wasps seem to use a very simple strategy that increases their fitness. Natural selection could have optimized parameters of the slope strategy and possibly the existence of the slope strategy itself. Variation in the slope strategy that is the result of natural selection is adaptive. Research should therefore focus on quantifying variables of this slope strategy. Currently, it is unclear how much of the variation is adaptive as opposed to being coincidental by-products.</p>","PeriodicalId":55142,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2022-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8756665/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39691772","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Correction to: Multiple phenotypic traits as triggers of host attacks towards ant symbionts: body size, morphological gestalt, and chemical mimicry accuracy.","authors":"Christoph von Beeren,&nbsp;Adrian Brückner,&nbsp;Philipp O Hoenle,&nbsp;Bryan Ospina-Jara,&nbsp;Daniel J C Kronauer,&nbsp;Nico Blüthgen","doi":"10.1186/s12983-021-00443-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12983-021-00443-8","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":55142,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8751342/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39672737","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}