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Dynamic light filtering over dermal opsin as a sensory feedback system in fish color change
Despite its prevalence, the function of dermal photoreception in color-changing animals remains poorly understood. Here, the authors describe an optical mechanism in hogfish skin, suggesting that one function is to obtain sensory feedback about color change performance.
- Lorian E. Schweikert
- , Laura E. Bagge
- & Sönke Johnsen
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Genome-wide association studies reveal novel loci associated with pyrethroid and organophosphate resistance in Anopheles gambiae and Anopheles coluzzii
Insecticide resistance in mosquitoes threatens the success of malaria control programmes. This study found that in different populations of a malaria mosquito species in West Africa, resistance is associated with different genes or different mutations in the same set of genes.
- Eric R. Lucas
- , Sanjay C. Nagi
- & David Weetman
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Mammalian maxilloturbinal evolution does not reflect thermal biology
The maxilloturbinal, an area of the mammalian nasal cavity, has been proposed to play a pivotal role in body temperature maintenance. Here, the authors use computed tomographic data to show that neither corrected basal metabolic rate nor body temperature significantly correlate with the relative surface area of the maxilloturbinal.
- Quentin Martinez
- , Jan Okrouhlík
- & Pierre-Henri Fabre
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C. elegans ageing is accelerated by a self-destructive reproductive programme
Caenorhabditis elegans is used as a model species to investigate ageing, yet has a very high degree of plasticity in lifespan. This study argues that ageing in C. elegans is driven by suicidal reproductive effort, unlike many other organisms.
- Carina C. Kern
- , Shivangi Srivastava
- & David Gems
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Hearing of malaria mosquitoes is modulated by a beta-adrenergic-like octopamine receptor which serves as insecticide target
Malaria mosquitoes use their ears to detect the flight tones of mating partners in the swarm as part of the courtship ritual. Here, the authors describe the auditory role of octopamine as a modulator of auditory plasticity in malaria mosquitoes and identify the main receptors involved in this process.
- Marcos Georgiades
- , Alexandros Alampounti
- & Marta Andrés
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Complementarity in Allen’s and Bergmann’s rules among birds
Birds can adapt to temperature gradients by changing body size (Bergmann’s rule) or bill size (Allen’s rule), but many groups don’t conform to these patterns. Here the authors show that most bird families show subtle and complementary changes in bill and body size, while also being constrained by feeding ecology.
- Justin W. Baldwin
- , Joan Garcia-Porta
- & Carlos A. Botero
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Short-term particulate matter contamination severely compromises insect antennal olfactory perception
The consequences for insects of sub-lethal levels of ambient particulate matter pollution exposure have not received much attention. Here, the authors show that accumulation of particulate matter on houseflies severely compromises their olfactory and other key physiological functions.
- Qike Wang
- , Genting Liu
- & Mark A. Elgar
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Group size and mating system predict sex differences in vocal fundamental frequency in anthropoid primates
Sexual dimorphism in the fundamental frequency of primate vocalizations is variable. Here, the authors examine 1914 vocalizations from 37 anthropoid species to find that fundamental frequency dimorphism increased with larger group size and polygyny, due to sexual selection.
- Toe Aung
- , Alexander K. Hill
- & David A. Puts
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Rapid expansion and visual specialisation of learning and memory centres in the brains of Heliconiini butterflies
Changes in the abundance and diversity of neural cell types provide the substrate for behavioral evolution. This study provides evidence of extensive, mosaic expansion of an integration brain center, among closely related Heliconiini butterflies, associated with increased neuron number, visual processing and long term memory.
- Antoine Couto
- , Fletcher J. Young
- & Stephen H. Montgomery
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A mid-Cambrian tunicate and the deep origin of the ascidiacean body plan
Our understanding of the origins of tunicates, an important group of filter-feeding marine invertebrate chordates, is limited due to a poor fossil record. Here, the authors present a 500 million year old tunicate fossil, demonstrating that the modern tunicate body plan was established shortly after the Cambrian Explosion.
- Karma Nanglu
- , Rudy Lerosey-Aubril
- & Javier Ortega-Hernández
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Important role of endogenous microbial symbionts of fish gills in the challenging but highly biodiverse Amazonian blackwaters
Amazonian blackwaters are acidic and physiologically-challenging, but are one of Earth’s most diversified ecosystems. This study revealed that fish survival in these hostile habitats depends on the colonization of their gills by endogenous blackwater Betaproteobacteria, with the potential to regulate host ionoregulatory processes.
- Sylvain François-Étienne
- , Leroux Nicolas
- & Derome Nicolas
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Parallel and convergent genomic changes underlie independent subterranean colonization across beetles
The genomic underpinnings of cave-related phenotypes are underexplored. Here, the authors investigate adaptation to underground life in cave beetle lineages using transcriptomic and genomic data, finding both parallel and convergent changes in six independent episodes of subterranean colonization.
- Pau Balart-García
- , Leandro Aristide
- & Rosa Fernández
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A salivary GMC oxidoreductase of Manduca sexta re-arranges the green leaf volatile profile of its host plant
Green leaf volatiles are emitted from plants in response to stress. Here the authors identify an isomerase in Manduca sexta that both modulate plant green leaf volatiles and functions in insect development.
- Yu-Hsien Lin
- , Juliette J. M. Silven
- & Silke Allmann
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Seasonal specialization drives divergent population dynamics in two closely related butterflies
Seasons may impose different selection pressures on organisms. Here, the authors propose that species may either maximize gains during the growth season or minimize losses during winter, and provide empirical support of such seasonal specialisation in two closely related butterfly species.
- Loke von Schmalensee
- , Pauline Caillault
- & Philipp Lehmann
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Sexual selection for both diversity and repetition in birdsong
Birdsong is simultaneously repetitive and highly diverse. Sierro et al. resolve this apparent paradox through experiments in blue tits showing that consistent repetition is a fitness indicator, while song diversity reduces habituation during singing displays.
- Javier Sierro
- , Selvino R. de Kort
- & Ian R. Hartley
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Coordinated adaptations define the ontogenetic shift from worm- to fish-hunting in a venomous cone snail
Challenges rearing juvenile cone snails have limited our understanding of their developmental biology. This study cultured Conus magus cone snails and revealed how complex morphological, behavioural and molecular changes facilitate the ontogenetic shift from juvenile worm-hunters to fish-hunting adults.
- Aymeric Rogalski
- , S. W. A. Himaya
- & Richard J. Lewis
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Data fusion and multivariate analysis for food authenticity analysis
Using two different mass spectrometric platforms, authors demonstrate how metabolomic data fusion and multivariate analysis can be used to accurately identify the geographic origin and production method of salmon.
- Yunhe Hong
- , Nicholas Birse
- & Christopher T. Elliott
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Engineered symbiotic bacteria interfering Nosema redox system inhibit microsporidia parasitism in honeybees
Microsporidia parasitism affect honeybees health and has been implicated in colony losses. Here, the authors show that members of the honeybee gut microbiota inhibit microsporidia proliferation, and engineer a gut symbiont that protects against Nosema ceranae infection via inhibiting its redox system.
- Haoyu Lang
- , Hao Wang
- & Hao Zheng
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Patterns of ontogenetic evolution across extant marsupials reflect different allometric pathways to ecomorphological diversity
The high level of morphological diversity in Australasian marsupials compared to those from the Americas remains poorly understood. This study shows that variation in ontogenetic allometry among Australasian and American marsupials is similar, despite this great difference in ecomorphological diversity.
- Laura A. B. Wilson
- , Camilo López-Aguirre
- & Norberto P. Giannini
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Call combinations and compositional processing in wild chimpanzees
Syntax is a key feature distinguishing human language from other animal communication systems. Here, Leroux et al. show that chimpanzees produce a compositional syntactic-like structure, suggesting syntax might be evolutionary ancient and potentially already present in our last common ancestor with chimpanzees.
- Maël Leroux
- , Anne M. Schel
- & Simon W. Townsend
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Bridging clinic and wildlife care with AI-powered pan-species computational pathology
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential of assisting the study and diagnosis of veterinary cancers. Here, the authors build a cancer digital pathology atlas encompassing multiple animal species and demonstrate an AI approach for comparative pathology, which yields insights about immune response and morphological similarities.
- Khalid AbdulJabbar
- , Simon P. Castillo
- & Yinyin Yuan
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Bird tolerance to humans in open tropical ecosystems
The degree to which species tolerate human disturbance contributes to shape human-wildlife coexistence. Here, the authors identify key predictors of avian tolerance of humans across 842 bird species from open tropical ecosystems.
- Peter Mikula
- , Oldřich Tomášek
- & Tomáš Albrecht
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Thermal sensitivity of metabolic rate mirrors biogeographic differences between teleosts and elasmobranchs
Although diverse species of teleost fishes are present in polar waters, sharks and rays are relatively rare. This study presents analyses to explain this biodiversity pattern, showing that among-species thermal sensitivity of resting metabolic rates is lower than within-species sensitivity in teleosts, but not in sharks and rays.
- Yuuki Y. Watanabe
- & Nicholas L. Payne
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Anthropogenic impacts on threatened species erode functional diversity in chelonians and crocodilians
Many species of reptiles are threatened with extinction. This analysis on 259 species of turtles, tortoises and crocodilians identifies anthropogenic threats that disproportionally affect species with certain life history strategies and others that affect all species similarly.
- R. C. Rodríguez-Caro
- , E. Graciá
- & R. Salguero-Gómez
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Decoupling body shape and mass distribution in birds and their dinosaurian ancestors
Here, the authors track the evolution of mass distribution through bird evolution challenging suggested coupling between body shape and centre-of-mass position, and instead showing that crouched bipedalism evolved after powered flight.
- Sophie Macaulay
- , Tatjana Hoehfurtner
- & Karl T. Bates
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A male-killing gene encoded by a symbiotic virus of Drosophila
Maternally inherited symbionts that kill male insect hosts are well known in bacteria, but are also beginning to be recognised in viruses. In this study, the authors identify a gene from a symbiotic virus genome that is responsible for the male-killing phenotype of this virus in the fly Drosophila biauraria.
- Daisuke Kageyama
- , Toshiyuki Harumoto
- & Masayoshi Watada
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Key innovations and the diversification of Hymenoptera
Hymenoptera is an incredibly diverse order, with numerous behavioral and morphological innovations. Here, the authors compile a time-calibrated Hymenoptera phylogeny and find that secondary transitions to phytophagy, plant feeding, are associated with significant increases in diversification rate in this group.
- Bonnie B. Blaimer
- , Bernardo F. Santos
- & Matthew L. Buffington
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Social complexity, life-history and lineage influence the molecular basis of castes in vespid wasps
A key hypothesis for the evolution of division of labour in social insects is that a shared set of genes – a genetic toolkit - regulates reproductive castes across species. Here, the authors analyze brain transcriptomes from nine species of social wasps to identify the factors that shape this toolkit.
- Christopher Douglas Robert Wyatt
- , Michael Andrew Bentley
- & Seirian Sumner
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Disentangling the causes of temporal variation in the opportunity for sexual selection
The opportunity for sexual selection is a key evolutionary parameter but we know little about its temporal dynamics. Using data from multiple animal species the authors show that this metric varies rapidly through time and that simulations should be used to avoid substantial misinterpretation.
- Rômulo Carleial
- , Tommaso Pizzari
- & Grant C. McDonald
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Planthopper salivary sheath protein LsSP1 contributes to manipulation of rice plant defenses
Salivary elicitors secreted by herbivorous insects can be perceived by host plants to trigger plant immunity. Here, the authors show that the small brown planthopper salivary sheath protein LsSP1 binds to salivary sheath proteins and contributes to insect feeding by manipulating rice plant defenses.
- Hai-Jian Huang
- , Yi-Zhe Wang
- & Chuan-Xi Zhang
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A conserved tooth resorption mechanism in modern and fossil snakes
Living snakes replace their teeth without external resorption. Here, the authors use histology to show that odontoclasts resorb dentine internally and investigate this mechanism in fossil snakes.
- A. R. H. LeBlanc
- , A. Palci
- & M. W. Caldwell
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The function and evolution of a genetic switch controlling sexually dimorphic eye differentiation in honeybees
Sexual dimorphism results in widely diverse animal forms, but sexual determination is generally attributed to a single gene in animal models. Here they find that the glu gene regulates sexual dimorphism of honeybee eyes, demonstrating diversification of genetic programs for dimorphism.
- Oksana Netschitailo
- , Yidong Wang
- & Martin Beye
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Exceptional preservation and foot structure reveal ecological transitions and lifestyles of early theropod flyers
The shape of bird toe pads and foot scales can be used to infer their behaviour. Here, the authors examine fossil evidence of toe pads and scales, in addition to claws and bones, from birds and close relatives, illustrating diverse lifestyles and ecological roles among early theropod flyers.
- Michael Pittman
- , Phil R. Bell
- & Thomas G. Kaye
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A signal-like role for floral humidity in a nocturnal pollination system
Flowers are well known for attracting pollinators with visual and olfactory displays. Here, the authors show that in a nocturnal, desert pollination system, flower choice by pollinators is also mediated by floral humidity.
- Ajinkya Dahake
- , Piyush Jain
- & Robert A. Raguso
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Sex differences in allometry for phenotypic traits in mice indicate that females are not scaled males
Research aimed at improving healthcare has largely focused on male animals and cells. Here, the authors use data from the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium to show that body weight does not account for all phenotypic differences between male and female mice, supporting more female-focused research.
- Laura A. B. Wilson
- , Susanne R. K. Zajitschek
- & Shinichi Nakagawa
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Multiple drivers and lineage-specific insect extinctions during the Permo–Triassic
The impact of three extinction events during the Permo–Triassic interval on terrestrial invertebrates is unclear. Here, the authors find that key abiotic and biotic factors, including changes in floral assemblages, were correlated with changes in insect diversity through this interval.
- Corentin Jouault
- , André Nel
- & Fabien L. Condamine
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The evolution of reproductive modes and life cycles in amphibians
Here, the authors use reproductive mode data with matching phylogenetic data to explore the evolution of reproductive mode, transitions between reproductive modes, and diversification rates in amphibians.
- H. Christoph Liedtke
- , John J. Wiens
- & Ivan Gomez-Mestre
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Tiger sharks support the characterization of the world’s largest seagrass ecosystem
This study characterizes the world’s largest seagrass ecosystem in The Bahamas by integrating spatial estimates with remote sensing and performing extensive ground-truthing of benthic habitat with 2,542 diver surveys, as well as data obtained from instrument-equipped tiger sharks, which have strong fidelity to seagrass ecosystems.
- Austin J. Gallagher
- , Jacob W. Brownscombe
- & Carlos M. Duarte
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The emergence and development of behavioral individuality in clonal fish
You’re unique just like everyone else. But when does such individuality appear? Laskowski et al. find that clonal fish show unique behavioral patterns on their first day of life, and these patterns predict their behavior up to at least 10 weeks later.
- Kate L. Laskowski
- , David Bierbach
- & Max Wolf
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Common evolutionary origin of acoustic communication in choanate vertebrates
Here, the authors record acoustic communication in 53 species commonly considered non-vocal and reconstruct acoustic communication as originating 407 million years ago.
- Gabriel Jorgewich-Cohen
- , Simon William Townsend
- & Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra
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A single transcription factor facilitates an insect host combating Bacillus thuringiensis infection while maintaining fitness
Plutella xylostella endures Bt toxins with no performance costs. This study reveals how, depending on the presence of the toxin, this insect modifies MAPK phosphorylation to modulate the transcription factor FTZ-F1 binding, to up- or down- regulate Bt receptors or non-receptor (resistant) paralogs.
- Zhaojiang Guo
- , Le Guo
- & Youjun Zhang
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Independent origin of large labyrinth size in turtles
The size and shape of the inner ear, or bony labyrinth, is thought to be related to ecological adaptations in vertebrates. Here, the authors examine this relationship in turtles across 230 million years of evolution, unexpectedly finding large labyrinth size and no association with ecology.
- Serjoscha W. Evers
- , Walter G. Joyce
- & Roger B. J. Benson
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Biological invasions as a selective filter driving behavioral divergence
Invasive species are a leading driver of global biodiversity loss. Here, the authors show that the process of invasion itself can promote behavioral changes important to the success of widespread invaders, with implications for understanding the effects of alien species on invaded communities.
- David G. Chapple
- , Annalise C. Naimo
- & Bob B. M. Wong
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Experimental evidence for core-Merge in the vocal communication system of a wild passerine
It has been hypothesized that language depends on a capacity to produce and recognize two items (e.g., “come” + “talk”) as a single unit (e.g., “come talk”). Here, the authors show that a wild passerine also uses this capacity in vocal communication.
- Toshitaka N. Suzuki
- & Yui K. Matsumoto
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High-resolution silkworm pan-genome provides genetic insights into artificial selection and ecological adaptation
Tong et al. describe a super pangenome assembled from long-read sequences of 545 wild and domesticated silkworms. Naturally selected (diapause, aposemantic coloration) or artificially selected (silk yield and fineness) sets of genes are delineated.
- Xiaoling Tong
- , Min-Jin Han
- & Fangyin Dai
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Matters Arising
| Open AccessRevisiting life history and morphological proxies for early mammaliaform metabolic rates
- Shai Meiri
- & Eran Levin
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Matters Arising
| Open AccessReply to: Revisiting life history and morphological proxies for early mammaliaform metabolic rates
- Elis Newham
- , Pamela G. Gill
- & Ian J. Corfe
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Article
| Open Access
Long read genome assemblies complemented by single cell RNA-sequencing reveal genetic and cellular mechanisms underlying the adaptive evolution of yak
The genetic bases of yak adaptations to extreme conditions remains elusive. This study compares yak and cattle at a genomic and transcriptomic level, revealing a new type of endothelial cell and candidate genes related with elastic fiber formation in yak lungs that might contribute to high altitude adaptation.
- Xue Gao
- , Sheng Wang
- & Qi-En Yang
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| Open Access
Raptors avoid the confusion effect by targeting fixed points in dense aerial prey aggregations
Flocking, schooling, and swarming prey are thought to benefit from a confusion effect. However, here the authors show that hawks attacking swarming bats avoid confusion by steering towards a fixed point in the swarm instead of targeting any one individual.
- Caroline H. Brighton
- , Laura N. Kloepper
- & Graham K. Taylor
Behavioural individuality determines infection risk in clonal ant colonies