BMC Evolutionary Biology最新文献

{"title":"Impact of cucurbit crop management techniques on the foraging behavior of honeybees and hoverflies in Morogoro, Tanzania","authors":"Elvillah William Rweyemamu, Maulid Walad Mwatawala, George Muhamba Tryphone, Marc De Meyer, Sija Kabota, Patroba Masatu Bwire","doi":"10.1186/s12862-024-02202-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-024-02202-9","url":null,"abstract":"Poor agricultural practices have drastically threatened insect pollinators’ biodiversity. Little is known in Tanzania about how different agricultural practices affect pollinators’ foraging behavior. This study investigated the effects of the agroecological zone, season, cucurbit species and management practices on visitation frequency, visitation rate and time spent on cucurbit flowers by five pollinator species viz. Apis mellifera, Eristalinus megacephalus, Mesembrius caffer, Paragus borbonicus and Toxomerus floralis. The experiment was designed as a 5 × 3 × 3 × 2 × 2 factorial arrangement in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four replications. GAMOUR-Agroecology was tested against conventional practices and untreated control. This study revealed significant effects of agroecological zone × season × cucurbit species × management practice on pollinators’ visitation frequency (p = 0.007) and time spent on flowers (p = 0.005). Also, agroecological zone × season × cucurbit species × pollinator species significantly (p < 0.0001) affected pollinators’ visitation frequency. Agroecological zones × season × cucurbit species × cucurbits management practices × pollinators significantly (p = 0.001) affected pollinators’ visitation rate. Apis mellifera was the most frequent visitor in Cucurbita moschata plots treated with GAMOUR- Agroecology in the plateau zone, also, visited higher number of Cucumis sativus plots under GAMOUR-Agroecology practices in the mountainous zone during the October–November season. Furthermore, it has been found that pollinators spent much in cucurbit flowers on plots with GAMOUR-Agroecology practices and control. Pollinators’ foraging behavior were enhanced by GAMOUR-Agroecology practices. Therefore, this study recommended that cucurbit growers should consider management practices that positively influence pollinator foraging activities for sustainable cucurbit production.","PeriodicalId":9111,"journal":{"name":"BMC Evolutionary Biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2024-01-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139482624","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Expectations of duplicate gene retention under the gene duplicability hypothesis","authors":"Amanda E. Wilson, David A. Liberles","doi":"10.1186/s12862-023-02174-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-023-02174-2","url":null,"abstract":"Gene duplication is an important process in evolution. What causes some genes to be retained after duplication and others to be lost is a process not well understood. The most prevalent theory is the gene duplicability hypothesis, that something about the function and number of interacting partners (number of subunits of protein complex, etc.), determines whether copies have more opportunity to be retained for long evolutionary periods. Some genes are also more susceptible to dosage balance effects following WGD events, making them more likely to be retained for longer periods of time. One would expect these processes that affect the retention of duplicate copies to affect the conditional probability ratio after consecutive whole genome duplication events. The probability that a gene will be retained after a second whole genome duplication event (WGD2), given that it was retained after the first whole genome duplication event (WGD1) versus the probability a gene will be retained after WGD2, given it was lost after WGD1 defines the probability ratio that is calculated. Since duplicate gene retention is a time heterogeneous process, the time between the events (t1) and the time since the most recent event (t2) are relevant factors in calculating the expectation for observation in any genome. Here, we use a survival analysis framework to predict the probability ratio for genomes with different values of t1 and t2 under the gene duplicability hypothesis, that some genes are more susceptible to selectable functional shifts, some more susceptible to dosage compensation, and others only drifting. We also predict the probability ratio with different values of t1 and t2 under the mutational opportunity hypothesis, that probability of retention for certain genes changes in subsequent events depending upon how they were previously retained. These models are nested such that the mutational opportunity model encompasses the gene duplicability model with shifting duplicability over time. Here we present a formalization of the gene duplicability and mutational opportunity hypotheses to characterize evolutionary dynamics and explanatory power in a recently developed statistical framework. This work presents expectations of the gene duplicability and mutational opportunity hypotheses over time under different sets of assumptions. This expectation will enable formal testing of processes leading to duplicate gene retention.","PeriodicalId":9111,"journal":{"name":"BMC Evolutionary Biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2023-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138629978","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Microsatellites reveal divergence in population genetic diversity, and structure of osyris lanceolata (santalaceae) in Uganda and Kenya","authors":"Ben Belden Mugula, S. F. Omondi, Manuel Curto, Samuel Kuria Kiboi, James Ireri Kanya, Anthony Egeru, Paul Okullo, Harald Meimberg","doi":"10.1186/s12862-023-02182-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-023-02182-2","url":null,"abstract":"Osyris lanceolata (Hochst. & Steud.) (Santalaceae) is a multipurpose plant highly valued culturally and economically in Africa. However, O. lanceolata populations have rapidly dwindled in East Africa due to overexploitation and this is believed to cause further consequences on the species’ genetic diversity and structure within the region. Information regarding a species’ genetic diversity and structure is necessary for conservation but this is currently lacking for O. lanceolata in Uganda and Kenya. Lack of adequate scientific data hinders conservation efforts hence threatening the species survival and livelihoods. This study investigated patterns in genetic diversity and structure of O. lanceolata in Uganda and Kenya. Ten polymorphic microsatellite loci were used to genotype 210 individuals: 96 from Ugandan and 114 from Kenyan populations. All populations were highly polymorphic (80–100% polymorphism). A genetic differentiation was found between Kenyan and Ugandan populations. The highest genetic differentiation was among individuals and the least among populations. The Kenyan populations showed higher genetic diversity than Ugandan populations. The Ugandan populations showed more marker deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and inbreeding coefficient. Two populations showed evidence of going through a recent bottleneck. There was significant genetic differentiation and structuring at higher K values into larger clusters and observed admixture between populations. The populations were significantly isolated by altitude as opposed to distance and climatic variables. Main barriers were associated with altitude differences. The data supports the idea of long-distance gene-flow between high altitude populations in both countries. The divergence in genetic structure suggests unrecognised taxonomic units within O. lanceolata which are characteristic to lower altitudes and higher altitudes including most Kenyan populations with divergent evolutionary patterns. Geographical barriers and environmental gradients could have influenced this genetic divergence, and such patterns may escalate the species microevolutionary processes into full allopatric speciation. Further investigations into the species’ genetic admixture and emerging taxonomic units are necessary to guide conservation strategies in the region.","PeriodicalId":9111,"journal":{"name":"BMC Evolutionary Biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138554680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Age, growth, and energy storage of the subterranean fish Triplophysa rosa (Cypriniformes: Nemacheilidae) from Chongqing, China","authors":"Yuan Xu, Yangyang Jing, Jing Zhou, Rui Long, Juanzhu Meng, Ya Yang, Yiping Luo","doi":"10.1186/s12862-023-02186-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-023-02186-y","url":null,"abstract":"This study explores the age, growth, and energy storage of Triplophysa rosa, a troglobitic cavefish. A total of 102 wild T. rosa specimens were collected in Wulong County, Chongqing, China, between 2018 and 2022, with otoliths used for age determination. The earliest mature individuals were determined to be 4.8 years old, while the maximum ages for females and males were estimated at 15.8 years and 12.2 years, respectively. The length (L, cm)-weight (W, g) relationship was found to be the same for both sexes, following the eq. W = 0.0046 L3.03. Von Bertalanffy growth models were applied to the total length-at-age data, resulting in an asymptotic length of 23.4 cm and a K-parameter of 0.060 year−1. The body content of protein, ash, and glycogen did not show a significant correlation with the total length of T. rosa. However, both lipid and energy content exhibited a significant increase with total length. The lipid content ranged from 40.5 to 167.1 mg g−1, while the energy content ranged from 4.50 to 11.39 kJ g−1, indicating high storage features of T. rosa. The results affirm that T. rosa exhibits life traits conducive to its population dynamics in cave conditions, characterized by slow growth, small size, and high lipid energy storage.","PeriodicalId":9111,"journal":{"name":"BMC Evolutionary Biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2023-12-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138554686","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Globins in the marine annelid Platynereis dumerilii shed new light on hemoglobin evolution in bilaterians.","authors":"Solène Song, Viktor Starunov, Xavier Bailly, Christine Ruta, Pierre Kerner, Annemiek J M Cornelissen, Guillaume Balavoine","doi":"10.1186/s12862-020-01714-4","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12862-020-01714-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>How vascular systems and their respiratory pigments evolved is still debated. While many animals present a vascular system, hemoglobin exists as a blood pigment only in a few groups (vertebrates, annelids, a few arthropod and mollusk species). Hemoglobins are formed of globin sub-units, belonging to multigene families, in various multimeric assemblages. It was so far unclear whether hemoglobin families from different bilaterian groups had a common origin.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>To unravel globin evolution in bilaterians, we studied the marine annelid Platynereis dumerilii, a species with a slow evolving genome. Platynereis exhibits a closed vascular system filled with extracellular hemoglobin. Platynereis genome and transcriptomes reveal a family of 19 globins, nine of which are predicted to be extracellular. Extracellular globins are produced by specialized cells lining the vessels of the segmental appendages of the worm, serving as gills, and thus likely participate in the assembly of a previously characterized annelid-specific giant hemoglobin. Extracellular globin mRNAs are absent in smaller juveniles, accumulate considerably in growing and more active worms and peak in swarming adults, as the need for O₂ culminates. Next, we conducted a metazoan-wide phylogenetic analysis of globins using data from complete genomes. We establish that five globin genes (stem globins) were present in the last common ancestor of bilaterians. Based on these results, we propose a new nomenclature of globins, with five clades. All five ancestral stem-globin clades are retained in some spiralians, while some clades disappeared early in deuterostome and ecdysozoan evolution. All known bilaterian blood globin families are grouped in a single clade (clade I) together with intracellular globins of bilaterians devoid of red blood.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>We uncover a complex \"pre-blood\" evolution of globins, with an early gene radiation in ancestral bilaterians. Circulating hemoglobins in various bilaterian groups evolved convergently, presumably in correlation with animal size and activity. However, all hemoglobins derive from a clade I globin, or cytoglobin, probably involved in intracellular O₂ transit and regulation. The annelid Platynereis is remarkable in having a large family of extracellular blood globins, while retaining all clades of ancestral bilaterian globins.</p>","PeriodicalId":9111,"journal":{"name":"BMC Evolutionary Biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2020-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7771090/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38758666","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Is there any intron sliding in mammals?","authors":"Irina V Poverennaya,&nbsp;Nadezhda A Potapova,&nbsp;Sergey A Spirin","doi":"10.1186/s12862-020-01726-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-020-01726-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Eukaryotic protein-coding genes consist of exons and introns. Exon-intron borders are conserved between species and thus their changes might be observed only on quite long evolutionary distances. One of the rarest types of change, in which intron relocates over a short distance, is called \"intron sliding\", but the reality of this event has been debated for a long time. The main idea of a search for intron sliding is to use the most accurate genome annotation and genome sequence, as well as high-quality transcriptome data. We applied them in a search for sliding introns in mammals in order to widen knowledge about the presence or absence of such phenomena in this group.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We didn't find any significant evidence of intron sliding in the primate group (human, chimpanzee, rhesus macaque, crab-eating macaque, green monkey, marmoset). Only one possible intron sliding event supported by a set of high quality transcriptomes was observed between EIF1AX human and sheep gene orthologs. Also, we checked a list of previously observed intron sliding events in mammals and showed that most likely they are artifacts of genome annotations and are not shown in subsequent annotation versions as well as are not supported by transcriptomic data.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>We assume that intron sliding is indeed a very rare evolutionary event if it exists at all. Every case of intron sliding needs a lot of supportive data for detection and confirmation.</p>","PeriodicalId":9111,"journal":{"name":"BMC Evolutionary Biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2020-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1186/s12862-020-01726-0","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38700904","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"You don't have the guts: a diverse set of fungi survive passage through Macrotermes bellicosus termite guts.","authors":"Nick Bos,&nbsp;Leandro Guimaraes,&nbsp;Romen Palenzuela,&nbsp;Justinn Renelies-Hamilton,&nbsp;Lorrie Maccario,&nbsp;Simon Kolotchèlèma Silue,&nbsp;N 'golo Abdoulaye Koné,&nbsp;Michael Poulsen","doi":"10.1186/s12862-020-01727-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-020-01727-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Monoculture farming poses significant disease challenges, but fungus-farming termites are able to successfully keep their monoculture crop free from contamination by other fungi. It has been hypothesised that obligate gut passage of all plant substrate used to manure the fungal symbiont is key to accomplish this. Here we refute this hypothesis in the fungus-farming termite species Macrotermes bellicosus.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We first used ITS amplicon sequencing to show that plant substrate foraged on by termite workers harbour diverse fungal communities, which potentially could challenge the farming symbiosis. Subsequently, we cultivated fungi from dissected sections of termite guts to show that fungal diversity does not decrease during gut passage. Therefore, we investigated if healthy combs harboured these undesirable fungal genera, and whether the presence of workers affected fungal diversity within combs. Removal of workers led to a surge in fungal diversity in combs, implying that termite defences must be responsible for the near-complete absence of other fungi in functioning termite gardens.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The rapid proliferation of some of these fungi when colonies are compromised indicates that some antagonists successfully employ a sit-and-wait strategy that allows them to remain dormant until conditions are favourable. Although this strategy requires potentially many years of waiting, it prevents these fungi from engaging in an evolutionary arms race with the termite host, which employs a series of complementary behavioural and chemical defences that may prove insurmountable.</p>","PeriodicalId":9111,"journal":{"name":"BMC Evolutionary Biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2020-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1186/s12862-020-01727-z","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38692844","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The evolution of the huntingtin-associated protein 40 (HAP40) in conjunction with huntingtin.","authors":"Manuel Seefelder, Vikram Alva, Bin Huang, Tatjana Engler, Wolfgang Baumeister, Qiang Guo, Rubén Fernández-Busnadiego, Andrei N Lupas, Stefan Kochanek","doi":"10.1186/s12862-020-01705-5","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12862-020-01705-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The huntingtin-associated protein 40 (HAP40) abundantly interacts with huntingtin (HTT), the protein that is altered in Huntington's disease (HD). Therefore, we analysed the evolution of HAP40 and its interaction with HTT.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We found that in amniotes HAP40 is encoded by a single-exon gene, whereas in all other organisms it is expressed from multi-exon genes. HAP40 co-occurs with HTT in unikonts, including filastereans such as Capsaspora owczarzaki and the amoebozoan Dictyostelium discoideum, but both proteins are absent from fungi. Outside unikonts, a few species, such as the free-living amoeboflagellate Naegleria gruberi, contain putative HTT and HAP40 orthologs. Biochemically we show that the interaction between HTT and HAP40 extends to fish, and bioinformatic analyses provide evidence for evolutionary conservation of this interaction. The closest homologue of HAP40 in current protein databases is the family of soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment proteins (SNAPs).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Our results indicate that the transition from a multi-exon to a single-exon gene appears to have taken place by retroposition during the divergence of amphibians and amniotes, followed by the loss of the parental multi-exon gene. Furthermore, it appears that the two proteins probably originated at the root of eukaryotes. Conservation of the interaction between HAP40 and HTT and their likely coevolution strongly indicate functional importance of this interaction.</p>","PeriodicalId":9111,"journal":{"name":"BMC Evolutionary Biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2020-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7725122/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38704246","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mitochondrial DNAs provide insight into trypanosome phylogeny and molecular evolution.","authors":"C Kay,&nbsp;T A Williams,&nbsp;W Gibson","doi":"10.1186/s12862-020-01701-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-020-01701-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Trypanosomes are single-celled eukaryotic parasites characterised by the unique biology of their mitochondrial DNA. African livestock trypanosomes impose a major burden on agriculture across sub-Saharan Africa, but are poorly understood compared to those that cause sleeping sickness and Chagas disease in humans. Here we explore the potential of the maxicircle, a component of trypanosome mitochondrial DNA to study the evolutionary history of trypanosomes.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We used long-read sequencing to completely assemble maxicircle mitochondrial DNA from four previously uncharacterized African trypanosomes, and leveraged these assemblies to scaffold and assemble a further 103 trypanosome maxicircle gene coding regions from published short-read data. While synteny was largely conserved, there were repeated, independent losses of Complex I genes. Comparison of pre-edited and non-edited genes revealed the impact of RNA editing on nucleotide composition, with non-edited genes approaching the limits of GC loss. African tsetse-transmitted trypanosomes showed high levels of RNA editing compared to other trypanosomes. The gene coding regions of maxicircle mitochondrial DNAs were used to construct time-resolved phylogenetic trees, revealing deep divergence events among isolates of the pathogens Trypanosoma brucei and T. congolense.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our data represents a new resource for experimental and evolutionary analyses of trypanosome phylogeny, molecular evolution and function. Molecular clock analyses yielded a timescale for trypanosome evolution congruent with major biogeographical events in Africa and revealed the recent emergence of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense and T. equiperdum, major human and animal pathogens.</p>","PeriodicalId":9111,"journal":{"name":"BMC Evolutionary Biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2020-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1186/s12862-020-01701-9","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38355580","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Stress-related changes in leukocyte profiles and telomere shortening in the shortest-lived tetrapod, Furcifer labordi.","authors":"Falk Eckhardt,&nbsp;Angela Pauliny,&nbsp;Nicky Rollings,&nbsp;Frank Mutschmann,&nbsp;Mats Olsson,&nbsp;Cornelia Kraus,&nbsp;Peter M Kappeler","doi":"10.1186/s12862-020-01724-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-020-01724-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Life history theory predicts that during the lifespan of an organism, resources are allocated to either growth, somatic maintenance or reproduction. Resource allocation trade-offs determine the evolution and ecology of different life history strategies and define an organisms' position along a fast-slow continuum in interspecific comparisons. Labord's chameleon (Furcifer labordi) from the seasonal dry forests of Madagascar is the tetrapod species with the shortest reported lifespan (4-9 months). Previous investigations revealed that their lifespan is to some degree dependent on environmental factors, such as the amount of rainfall and the length of the vegetation period. However, the intrinsic mechanisms shaping such a fast life history remain unknown. Environmental stressors are known to increase the secretion of glucocorticoids in other vertebrates, which, in turn, can shorten telomeres via oxidative stress. To investigate to what extent age-related changes in these molecular and cellular mechanisms contribute to the relatively short lifetime of F. labordi, we assessed the effects of stressors indirectly via leukocyte profiles (H/L ratio) and quantified relative telomere length from blood samples in a wild population in Kirindy Forest. We compared our findings with the sympatric, but longer-lived sister species F. cf. nicosiai, which exhibit the same annual timing of reproductive events, and with wild-caught F. labordi that were singly housed under ambient conditions.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We found that H/L ratios were consistently higher in wild F. labordi compared to F. cf. nicosiai. Moreover, F. labordi already exhibited relatively short telomeres during the mating season when they were 3-4 months old, and telomeres further shortened during their post-reproductive lives. At the beginning of their active season, telomere length was relatively longer in F. cf. nicosiai, but undergoing rapid shortening towards the southern winter, when both species gradually die off. Captive F. labordi showed comparatively longer lifespans and lower H/L ratios than their wild counterparts.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>We suggest that environmental stress and the corresponding accelerated telomere attrition have profound effects on the lifespan of F. labordi in the wild, and identify physiological mechanisms potentially driving their relatively early senescence and mortality.</p>","PeriodicalId":9111,"journal":{"name":"BMC Evolutionary Biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2020-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1186/s12862-020-01724-2","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38665010","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}