Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Insecticide applications to soil contribute to the development of Burkholderia mediating insecticide resistance in stinkbugs

Some soil Burkholderia strains are capable of degrading the organophosphorus insecticide, fenitrothion, and establish symbiosis with stinkbugs, making the host insects fenitrothion‐resistant. However, the ecology of the symbiotic degrading Burkholderia adapting to fenitrothion in the free‐living environment is unknown. We hypothesized that fenitrothion applications affect the dynamics of fenitrothion‐degrading Burkholderia, thereby controlling the transmission of symbiotic degrading Burkholderia from the soil to stinkbugs. We investigated changes in the density and diversity of culturable Burkholderia (i.e. symbiotic and nonsymbiotic fenitrothion degraders and nondegraders) in fenitrothion‐treated soil using microcosms. During the incubation with five applications of pesticide, the density of the degraders increased from less than the detection limit to around 106/g of soil. The number of dominant species among the degraders declined with the increasing density of degraders; eventually, one species predominated. This process can be explained according to the competitive exclusion principle using Vmax and Km values for fenitrothion metabolism by the degraders. We performed a phylogenetic analysis of representative strains isolated from the microcosms and evaluated their ability to establish symbiosis with the stinkbug Riptortus pedestris. The strains that established symbiosis with R. pedestris were assigned to a cluster including symbionts commonly isolated from stinkbugs. The strains outside the cluster could not necessarily associate with the host. The degraders in the cluster predominated during the initial phase of degrader dynamics in the soil. Therefore, only a few applications of fenitrothion could allow symbiotic degraders to associate with their hosts and may cause the emergence of symbiont‐mediated insecticide resistance.
Islands within islands: two montane palaeo‐endemic birds impacted by recent anthropogenic fragmentation

Anthropogenic habitat fragmentation of species that live in naturally patchy metapopulations such as mountaintops or sky islands experiences two levels of patchiness. Effects of such multilevel patchiness on species have rarely been examined. Metapopulation theory suggests that patchy habitats could have varied impacts on persistence, dependent on differential migration. It is not known whether montane endemic species, evolutionarily adapted to natural patchiness, are able to disperse between anthropogenic fragments at similar spatial scales as natural patches. We investigated historic and contemporary gene flow between natural and anthropogenic patches across the distribution range of a Western Ghats sky‐island‐endemic bird species complex. Data from 14 microsatellites for 218 individuals detected major genetic structuring by deep valleys, including one hitherto undescribed barrier. As expected, we found strong effects of historic genetic differentiation across natural patches, but not across anthropogenic fragments. Contrastingly, contemporary differentiation (DPS) was higher relative to historic differentiation (FST) in anthropogenic fragments, despite the species’ ability to historically traverse shallow valleys. Simulations of recent isolation resulted in high DPS/FST values, confirming recent isolation in Western Ghats anthropogenic fragments and also suggesting that this ratio can be used to identifying recent fragmentation in the context of historic connectedness. We suggest that in this landscape, in addition to natural patchiness affecting population connectivity, anthropogenic fragmentation additionally impacts connectivity, making anthropogenic fragments akin to islands within natural islands of montane habitat, a pattern that may be recovered in other sky‐island systems.
Moving the Boundaries: Peer Learning between Nursing and Physiotherapy Students

Aim: The objective of this study was to explore nursing and physiotherapy students' views on peer learning as an innovative learning strategy. Background: Departments of nursing and physiotherapy at Oslo University College, Norway, initiated a cooperative project based on interdisciplinary and cross-level learning inpatient transfer activities. Patient transfer is based on natural human body movement patterns, ergonomics, and communication skills. The project involved partnering second-year physiotherapy students as tutors with first-year nursing students as tutees in a peer learning relationship. Methods: In order to evaluate the project 990 students from both groups completed a questionnaire with closed- and open-ended questions. Results: Even though the nursing students had a significantly higher score for theoretical knowledge and practical skills, both groups of students seemed to agree that learning patient transfer with and from each other were considered advantageous. Conclusions: The findings indicate that students valued the use value of this innovative method for interdisciplinary and cross-level learning.
Comparative analyses of plastid and AFLP data suggest different colonization history and asymmetric hybridization between Betula pubescens and B. nana

Birches (Betula spp.) hybridize readily, confounding genetic signatures of refugial isolation and postglacial migration. We aimed to distinguish hybridization from range‐shift processes in the two widespread and cold‐adapted species B. nana and B. pubescens, previously shown to share a similarly east–west‐structured variation in plastid DNA (pDNA). We sampled the two species throughout their ranges and included reference samples of five other Betula species and putative hybrids. We analysed 901 individual plants using mainly nuclear high‐resolution markers (amplified fragment length polymorphisms; AFLPs); a subset of 64 plants was also sequenced for two pDNA regions. Whereas the pDNA variation as expected was largely shared between B. nana and B. pubescens, the two species were distinctly differentiated at AFLP loci. In B. nana, both the AFLP and pDNA results corroborated the former pDNA‐based hypothesis that it expanded from at least two major refugia in Eurasia, one south of and one east of the North European ice sheets. In contrast, B. pubescens showed a striking lack of geographic structuring of its AFLP variation. We identified a weak but significant increase in nuclear (AFLP) gene flow from B. nana into B. pubescens with increasing latitude, suggesting hybridization has been most frequent at the postglacial expansion front of B. pubescens and that hybrids mainly backcrossed to B. pubescens. Incongruence between pDNA and AFLP variation in B. pubescens can be explained by efficient expansion from a single large refugium combined with leading‐edge hybridization and plastid capture from B. nana during colonization of new territory already occupied by this more cold‐tolerant species.
Geographically contrasting biodiversity reductions in a widespread New Zealand seabird

Unravelling prehistoric anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity represents a key challenge for biologists and archaeologists. New Zealand's endemic Stewart Island Shag (Leucocarbo chalconotus) comprises two distinct phylogeographic lineages, currently restricted to the country's south and southeast. However, fossil and archaeological remains suggest a far more widespread distribution at the time of Polynesian settlement ca. 1280 AD, encompassing much of coastal South Island. We used modern and ancient DNA, radiocarbon dating, and Bayesian modelling, to assess the impacts of human arrival on this taxon. Our analyses show that the southeast South Island (Otago) lineage was formerly widespread across coastal South Island, but experienced dramatic population extinctions, range retraction and lineage loss soon after human arrival. By comparison, the southernmost (Foveaux Strait) lineage has experienced a relatively stable demographic and biogeographic history since human arrival, retaining much of its mitochondrial diversity. Archaeological data suggest that these contrasting demographic histories (retraction vs. stability) reflect differential human impacts in mainland South Island vs. Foveaux Strait, highlighting the importance of testing for temporal and spatial variation in human‐driven faunal declines.
Higher genetic diversity in recolonized areas than in refugia of Alnus glutinosa triggered by continent‐wide lineage admixture

Genetic admixture is supposed to be an important trigger of species expansions because it can create the potential for selection of genotypes suitable for new climatic conditions. Up until now, however, no continent‐wide population genetic study has performed a detailed reconstruction of admixture events during natural species expansions. To fill this gap, we analysed the postglacial history of Alnus glutinosa, a keystone species of European swamp habitats, across its entire distribution range using two molecular markers, cpDNA and nuclear microsatellites. CpDNA revealed multiple southern refugia located in the Iberian, Apennine, Balkan and Anatolian Peninsulas, Corsica and North Africa. Analysis of microsatellites variation revealed three main directions of postglacial expansion: (i) from the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula to Western and Central Europe and subsequently to the British Isles, (ii) from the Apennine Peninsula to the Alps and (iii) from the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula to the Carpathians followed by expansion towards the Northern European plains. This challenges the classical paradigm that most European populations originated from refugial areas in the Carpathians. It has been shown that colonizing lineages have met several times and formed secondary contact zones with unexpectedly high population genetic diversity in Central Europe and Scandinavia. On the contrary, limited genetic admixture in southern refugial areas of A. glutinosa renders rear‐edge populations in the Mediterranean region more vulnerable to extinction due to climate change.
Diet is the primary determinant of bacterial community structure in the guts of higher termites

The gut microbiota of termites plays critical roles in the symbiotic digestion of lignocellulose. While phylogenetically ‘lower termites’ are characterized by a unique association with cellulolytic flagellates, higher termites (family Termitidae) harbour exclusively prokaryotic communities in their dilated hindguts. Unlike the more primitive termite families, which primarily feed on wood, they have adapted to a variety of lignocellulosic food sources in different stages of humification, ranging from sound wood to soil organic matter. In this study, we comparatively analysed representatives of different taxonomic lineages and feeding groups of higher termites to identify the major drivers of bacterial community structure in the termite gut, using amplicon libraries of 16S rRNA genes from 18 species of higher termites. In all analyses, the wood‐feeding species were clearly separated from humus and soil feeders, irrespective of their taxonomic affiliation, offering compelling evidence that diet is the primary determinant of bacterial community structure. Within each diet group, however, gut communities of termites from the same subfamily were more similar than those of distantly related species. A highly resolved classification using a curated reference database revealed only few genus‐level taxa whose distribution patterns indicated specificity for certain host lineages, limiting any possible cospeciation between the gut microbiota and host to short evolutionary timescales. Rather, the observed patterns in the host‐specific distribution of the bacterial lineages in termite guts are best explained by diet‐related differences in the availability of microhabitats and functional niches.
Martelella radicis sp. nov. and Martelella mangrovi sp. nov., isolated from mangrove sediment.

Two Gram-stain-negative, non-motile, rod-shaped bacterial strains, designated BM5-7(T) and BM9-1(T) were isolated from soil of the root system of a mangrove forest. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the two isolates belong to the genus Martelella. The chemotaxonomic characteristics of these isolates included the presence of C19 : 0 cyclo ω8c and C18 : 1ω7c as the major cellular fatty acids and Q-10 as the dominant ubiquinone. The genomic DNA G+C contents of strains BM5-7(T) and BM9-1(T) were 61.0 and 59.7 mol% (HPLC method), respectively. The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity between the two strains was 98.1 %, but DNA-DNA hybridization indicated 44 % relatedness. Strains BM5-7(T) and BM9-1(T) exhibited 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities of 98.0-99.2 % and 97.7-98.1 %, respectively, with type strains of Martelella endophytica and Martelella mediterranea. Combined data from phenotypic, phylogenetic and DNA-DNA relatedness studies demonstrated that strains BM5-7(T) and BM9-1(T) are representatives of two novel species of the genus Martelella, for which the names Martelella radicis sp. nov. (type strain BM5-7(T) = DSM 28101(T) = LMG 27958(T)) and Martelella mangrovi sp. nov. (type strain BM9-1(T) = DSM 28102(T) = LMG 27959(T)) are proposed.
Reconstructing the invasion history of Heracleum persicum (Apiaceae) into Europe

Sparse, incomplete and inappropriate historical records of invasive species often hamper invasive species management interventions. Population genetic analyses of invaders might provide a suitable context for the identification of their source populations and possible introduction routes. Here, we describe the population genetics of Heracleum persicum Desf. ex Fisch and trace its route of introduction into Europe. Microsatellite markers revealed a significantly higher genetic diversity of H. persicum in its native range, and the loss of diversity in the introduced range may be attributed to a recent genetic bottleneck. Bayesian cluster analysis on regional levels identified three and two genetic clusters in the native and the introduced ranges, respectively. A global structure analysis revealed two worldwide distinct genetic groups: one primarily in Iran and Denmark, the other primarily in Norway. There were also varying degrees of admixture in England, Sweden, Finland and Latvia. Approximate Bayesian computation indicated two independent introductions of H. persicum from Iran to Europe: the first one in Denmark and the second one in England. Finland was subsequently colonized by English populations. In contrast to the contemporary hypothesis of English origin of Norwegian populations, we found Finland to be a more likely source for Norwegian populations, a scenario supported by higher estimated histor‐ical migration from Finland to Norway. Genetic diversity per se is not a primary determinant of invasiveness in H. persicum. Our results indicate that, due to either pre‐adaptations or rapid local adaptations, introduced populations may have acqu‐ired invasiveness after subsequent introductions, once a suitable environment was encountered.
Crisis resolution and home treatment teams for older people with mental illness

AIMS AND METHOD We examined the impact of a crisis resolution and home treatment teams (CRHTT) on hospital admission rates, bed days and treatment satisfaction among older people with mental illness and their carers. We compared these factors in the 6 months before the service started and 6 months after its introduction. RESULTS The CRHTT significantly reduced admissions ( P <0.001), but there was no significant difference in the length of hospital stay as compared before and after the introduction of this service. There was a trend towards carers, but not patients, being more satisfied with treatment after the introduction of the CRHTT. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS The CRHTT reduced hospital admissions for older people by 31% and carers preferred the service. Further research on crisis teams in older people with mental illness is needed using randomised controlled methodology.
Population genomic footprints of fine‐scale differentiation between habitats in Mediterranean blue tits

Linking population genetic variation to the spatial heterogeneity of the environment is of fundamental interest to evolutionary biology and ecology, in particular when phenotypic differences between populations are observed at biologically small spatial scales. Here, we applied restriction‐site associated DNA sequencing (RAD‐Seq) to test whether phenotypically differentiated populations of wild blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) breeding in a highly heterogeneous environment exhibit genetic structure related to habitat type. Using 12 106 SNPs in 197 individuals from deciduous and evergreen oak woodlands, we applied complementary population genomic analyses, which revealed that genetic variation is influenced by both geographical distance and habitat type. A fine‐scale genetic differentiation supported by genome‐ and transcriptome‐wide analyses was found within Corsica, between two adjacent habitats where blue tits exhibit marked differences in breeding time while nesting < 6 km apart. Using redundancy analysis (RDA), we show that genomic variation remains associated with habitat type when controlling for spatial and temporal effects. Finally, our results suggest that the observed patterns of genomic differentiation were not driven by a small proportion of highly differentiated loci, but rather emerged through a process such as habitat choice, which reduces gene flow between habitats across the entire genome. The pattern of genomic isolation‐by‐environment closely matches differentiation observed at the phenotypic level, thereby offering significant potential for future inference of phenotype‐genotype associations in a heterogeneous environment.
The influence of population structure on gene expression and flowering time variation in the ubiquitous weed Capsella bursa‐pastoris (Brassicaceae)

Population structure is a potential problem when testing for adaptive phenotypic differences among populations. The observed phenotypic differences among populations can simply be due to genetic drift, and if the genetic distance between them is not considered, the differentiation may be falsely interpreted as adaptive. Conversely, adaptive and demographic processes might have been tightly associated and correcting for the population structure may lead to false negatives. Here, we evaluated this problem in the cosmopolitan weed Capsella bursa‐pastoris. We used RNA‐Seq to analyse gene expression differences among 24 accessions, which belonged to a much larger group that had been previously characterized for flowering time and circadian rhythm and were genotyped using genotyping‐by‐sequencing (GBS) technique. We found that clustering of accessions for gene expression retrieved the same three clusters that were obtained with GBS data previously, namely Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Moreover, the three groups were also differentiated for both flowering time and circadian rhythm variation. Correction for population genetic structure when analysing differential gene expression analysis removed all differences among the three groups. This may suggest that most differences are neutral and simply reflect population history. However, geographical variation in flowering time and circadian rhythm indicated that the distribution of adaptive traits might be confounded by population structure. To bypass this confounding effect, we compared gene expression differentiation between flowering ecotypes within the genetic groups. Among the differentially expressed genes, FLOWERING LOCUS C was the strongest candidate for local adaptation in regulation of flowering time.
Origins of multicellular complexity: Volvox and the volvocine algae

The collection of evolutionary transformations known as the ‘major transitions’ or ‘transitions in individuality’ resulted in changes in the units of evolution and in the hierarchical structure of cellular life. Volvox and related algae have become an important model system for the major transition from unicellular to multicellular life, which touches on several fundamental questions in evolutionary biology. The Third International Volvox Conference was held at the University of Cambridge in August 2015 to discuss recent advances in the biology and evolution of this group of algae. Here, I highlight the benefits of integrating phylogenetic comparative methods and experimental evolution with detailed studies of developmental genetics in a model system with substantial genetic and genomic resources. I summarize recent research on Volvox and its relatives and comment on its implications for the genomic changes underlying major evolutionary transitions, evolution and development of complex traits, evolution of sex and sexes, evolution of cellular differentiation and the biophysics of motility. Finally, I outline challenges and suggest future directions for research into the biology and evolution of the volvocine algae.
Litoribaculum gwangyangense gen. nov., sp. nov., isolated from a sea-tidal flat sediment.

A Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic bacterium, designated strain GY12(T), was isolated from a tidal flat of South Korea. Cells were moderately halotolerant, catalase- and oxidase-positive rods with gliding motility, and were devoid of flagella. Growth of strain GY12(T) was observed at 15-40 °C (optimum 25-30 °C), pH 6.0-8.5 (optimum pH 7.0-7.5) and with 1-5 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum 1-2 %). The major cellular fatty acids were iso-C15 : 1 G, iso-C15 : 0 and iso-C15 : 0 3-OH. The polar lipids consisted almost entirely of phosphatidylethanolamine, two unidentified aminolipids and two unidentified lipids. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 34.8 mol% and the only respiratory quinone detected was menaquinone-6 (MK-6). Strain GY12(T) was most closely related to the genera Gaetbulibacter, Flaviramulus, Mariniflexile and Tamlana with 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities of 94-97 %, but phylogenetic inferences based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the strain formed phyletic lineages distinct from these genera within the family Flavobacteriaceae. On the basis of phenotypic and molecular features, strain GY12(T) represents a novel species of a new genus in the family Flavobacteriaceae, for which the name Litoribaculum gwangyangense gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of the type species is GY12(T) ( = KACC 16441(T) = JCM 18325(T)).