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424 results for “Ecological genetics”
Data from: Riverscape genetics identifies replicated ecological divergence across an Amazonian ecotone
Ecological speciation involves the evolution of reproductive isolation and niche divergence in the absence of a physical barrier to gene flow. The process is one of the most controversial topics of the speciation debate, particularly in tropical regions. Here, we investigate ecologically based divergence across an Amazonian ecotone in the electric fish, Steatogenys elegans. We combine phylogenetics, genome scans, and population genetics with a recently developed individual-based evolutionary landscape genetics approach that incorporates selection. This framework is used to assess the relative contributions of geography and divergent natural selection between environments as biodiversity drivers. We report on two closely related and sympatric lineages that exemplify how divergent selection across a major Amazonian aquatic ecotone (i.e., between rivers with markedly different hydrochemical properties) may result in replicated ecologically mediated speciation. The results link selection across an ecological gradient with reproductive isolation and we propose that assortative mating based on water color may be driving the divergence. Divergence resulting from ecologically driven selection highlights the importance of considering environmental heterogeneity in studies of speciation in tropical regions. Furthermore, we show that framing ecological speciation in a spatially explicit evolutionary landscape genetics framework provides an important first step in exploring a wide range of the potential effects of spatial dependence in natural selection.
Data from: Bioclimatic, ecological, and phenotypic intermediacy and high genetic admixture in a natural hybrid of octoploid strawberries
PREMISE OF THE STUDY: Hybrid zones provide 'natural laboratories' for understanding the processes of selection, reinforcement and speciation. We sought to gain insight into the degree of introgression and the extent of ecological/phenotypic intermediacy in the natural hybrid strawberry, Fragaria × ananassa subsp. cuneifolia. METHODS: We used whole plastome sequencing to identify parental species-specific (Fragaria chiloensis and F. virginiana) chloroplast SNPs, and combined the use of these with nuclear microsatellite markers to genetically characterize the hybrid zone. We assessed the potential role of selection in the observed geographic patterns by bioclimatically characterizing the niche of the hybrid populations and phenotypically characterizing hybrid individuals of known genomic constitution. KEY RESULTS: Significant admixture and little overall maternal bias in chloroplast or nuclear genomes suggest a high degree of inter-fertility among the parental and hybrid species and point to a long history of backcrossing and genetic mixing in the hybrid zone. Even though hybrids were phenotypically intermediate to the parental species there was still a discernible fingerprint of the parental genotype within hybrid individuals. Thus, while the pattern of introgression observed suggests geographic limitations to gene flow, it may be reinforced by selection for specific parental traits in the bioclimatically-intermediate habitat occupied by the hybrid. CONCLUSION: This work uncovered the genetic complexity underlying the hybrid zone of the wild relatives of the cultivated strawberry. It lays the foundation for experimental dissection of the causes of genomic introgression and nuclear-cytoplasmic disassociation, and understanding other parts of the Fragaria evolutionary history.
Data from: Approaches to integrating genetic data into ecological networks
As molecular tools for assessing trophic interactions become common, research is increasingly focused on the construction of interaction networks. Here we demonstrate three key methods for incorporating DNA data into network ecology and discuss analytical considerations using a model consisting of plants, insects, bats and their parasites from the Costa Rican dry forest. The simplest method involves the use of Sanger sequencing to acquire long sequences to validate or refine field identifications, for example of bats and their parasites, where one specimen yields one sequence and one identification. This method can be fully quantified and resolved and these data resemble traditional ecological networks. For more complex taxonomic identifications, we target multiple DNA loci e.g. from a seed or fruit pulp sample in faeces. These networks are also well resolved but gene targets vary in resolution and quantification is difficult. Finally for mixed templates such as faecal contents of insectivorous bats we use DNA metabarcoding targeting two sequence lengths (157bp, 407bp) of one gene region and a MOTU, BLAST and BIN association approach to resolve nodes. This network type is complex to generate and analyse and we discuss the implications of this type of resolution on network analysis. Using these data we construct the first molecular-based network of networks containing 3304 interactions between 762 nodes of 8 trophic functions and involving parasitic, mutualistic, and predatory interactions. We provide a comparison of the relative strengths and weaknesses of these data types in network ecology.
Data from: Correlation between genetic diversity and environmental suitability: taking uncertainty from ecological niche models into account
The hindcast of shifts in the geographical ranges of species as estimated by ecological niche modelling (ENM) has been coupled with phylogeographical patterns, allowing the inference of past processes that drove population differentiation and genetic variability. However, more recently, some studies have suggested that maps of environmental suitability estimated by ENM may be correlated to species' abundance, raising the possibility of using environmental suitability to infer processes related to population demographic dynamics and genetic variability. In both cases, one of the main problems is that there is a wide variation in ENM development methods and climatic models. In this study, we analyse the relationship between heterozygosity (He) and environmental suitability from multiple ENMs for 25 population estimates for Dipteryx alata, a widely distributed, endemic tree species of the Cerrado region of central Brazil. We propose a new approach for generating a statistical distribution of correlations under randomly generated ENM. The confidence intervals from these distributions indicate how model selection with different properties affects the ability to detect a correlation of interest (e.g. the correlation between He and suitability). Additionally, our approach allows us to explore which particular ensemble of ENMs produces the better result for finding an association between environmental suitability and He. Caution is necessary when choosing a method or a climatic data set for modelling geographical distributions, but the new approach proposed here provides a conservative way to evaluate the ability of ensembles to detect patterns of interest.
Data from: Genetic signatures of ecological diversity along an urbanization gradient
Despite decades of work in environmental science and ecology, estimating human influences on ecosystems remains challenging. This is partly due to complex chains of causation among ecosystem elements, exacerbated by the difficulty of collecting biological data at sufficient spatial, temporal, and taxonomic scales. Here, we demonstrate the utility of environmental DNA (eDNA) for quantifying associations between human land use and changes in an adjacent ecosystem. We analyze metazoan eDNA sequences from water sampled in nearshore marine eelgrass communities and assess the relationship between these ecological communities and the degree of urbanization in the surrounding watershed. Counter to conventional wisdom, we find strongly increasing richness and decreasing beta diversity with greater urbanization, and similar trends in the diversity of life histories with urbanization. We also find evidence that urbanization influences nearshore communities at local (hundreds of meters) rather than regional (tens of km) scales. Given that different survey methods sample different components of an ecosystem, we then discuss the advantages of eDNA—which we use here to detect hundreds of taxa simultaneously—as a complement to traditional ecological sampling, particularly in the context of broad ecological assessments where exhaustive manual sampling is impractical. Genetic data are a powerful means of uncovering human-ecosystem interactions that might otherwise remain hidden; nevertheless, no sampling method reveals the whole of a biological community.
Data from: The interplay between local ecology, divergent selection and genetic drift in population divergence of a sexually antagonistic female trait
Genetically polymorphic species offer the possibility to study maintenance of genetic variation and the potential role for genetic drift in population divergence. Indirect inference of the selection regimes operating on polymorphic traits can be achieved by comparing population divergence in neutral genetic markers with population divergence in trait frequencies. Such an approach could further be combined with ecological data to better understand agents of selection. Here, we infer the selective regimes acting on a polymorphic mating trait in an insect group; the dorsal structures (either rough or smooth) of female diving beetles. Our recent work suggests that the rough structures have a sexually antagonistic function in reducing male mating attempts. For two species (Dytiscus lapponicus and Graphoderus zonatus), we could not reject genetic drift as an explanation for population divergence in morph frequencies, while for the third (Hygrotus impressopunctatus) we found that divergent selection pulls morph frequencies apart across populations. Furthermore, population morph frequencies in H. impressopunctatus were significantly related to local bioclimatic factors, providing an additional line of evidence for local adaptation in this species. These data therefore suggest that local ecological factors and sexual conflict interact over larger spatial scales to shape population divergence in the polymorphism.
Data from: A test of the central-marginal hypothesis using population genetics and ecological niche modelling in an endemic salamander (Ambystoma barbouri)
The central-marginal hypothesis (CMH) predicts that population size, genetic diversity, and genetic connectivity are highest at the core and decrease near the edges of species' geographic distributions. We provide a test of the CMH using three replicated core-to-edge transects that encompass nearly the entire geographic range of the endemic streamside salamander (Ambystoma barbouri). We confirmed that the mapped core of the distribution was the most suitable habitat using ecological niche modelling (ENM) and via genetic estimates of effective population sizes. As predicted by the CMH, we found statistical support for decreased genetic diversity, effective population size, and genetic connectivity from core to edge in western and northern transects, yet not along a southern transect. Based on our niche model, habitat suitability is lower towards the southern range edge, presumably leading to conflicting core-to-edge genetic patterns. These results suggest that multiple processes may influence a species' distribution based on the heterogeneity of habitat across a species' range and that replicated sampling may be needed to accurately test the CMH. Our work also emphasizes the importance of identifying the geographic range core with methods other than using the Euclidean center on a map, which may help to explain discrepancies among other empirical tests of the CMH. Assessing core to edge population genetic patterns across an entire species' range accompanied with ENM can inform our general understanding of the mechanisms leading to species' geographic range limits.
Data from: Extending RAD tag analysis to microbial ecology: a comparison between multi locus sequence typing (MLST) and 2b-RAD to investigate Listeria monocytogenes genetic structure
The advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS) has dramatically changed bacterial typing technologies, increasing our ability to differentiate bacterial isolates. Despite it is now possible to sequence a bacterial genome in a few days and at reasonable costs, most genetic analyses do not require whole-genome sequencing, which also remains impractical for large population samples due to the cost of individual library preparation and bioinformatics. More traditional sequencing approaches, however, such as MultiLocus Sequence Typing (mlst) are quite laborious and time-consuming, especially for large-scale analyses. In this study, a genotyping approach based on restriction site-associated (RAD) tag sequencing, 2b-RAD, was applied to characterize Listeria monocytogenes strains. To verify the feasibility of the method, an in silico analysis was performed on 30 available complete genomes. For the same set of strains, in silico mlst analysis was conducted as well. Subsequently, 2b-RAD and mlst analyses were experimentally carried out on 58 isolates collected from food samples or food-processing sites. The obtained results demonstrate that 2b-RAD predicts mlst types and often provides more detailed information on population structure than mlst. Moreover, the majority of variants differentiating identical sequence type isolates mapped against accessory fragments, thus providing additional information to characterize strains. Although mlst still represents a reliable typing method, large-scale studies on molecular epidemiology and public health, as well as bacterial phylogenetics, population genetics and biosafety could benefit of a low cost and fast turnaround time approach such as the 2b-RAD analysis proposed here.
Data from: Genetic and ecological data reveal species boundaries between viviparous and oviparous lizard lineages
Identification of cryptic species is an essential aim for conservation biologists to avoid premature extinctions of 'unrecognized' species. Integrating different types of data can undoubtedly aid in resolving the issue of species delimitation. We studied here two lineages of the common lizard Zootoca vivipara that display different reproductive mode (the viviparous Z. v. vivipara and the oviparous Z. v. carniolica) and that overlap their distributional ranges in the European Alps. With the purpose of delimiting species' boundaries, we analyzed their ecological, genetic and natural history features. More than 300 samples were collected and analyzed at cytochrome b and 11 microsatellites loci for investigating genetic variation, population structure, individual relatedness and evolutionary histories of the two lineages. Additionally, we compared their ecological niches using eight ecological variables. Genetic data showed contrasting patterns of genetic structure between the two lineages, different demographic dynamics and no hybridization events. Also strong ecological differences (such as temperature) emerged between the two lineages, and niche overlap was limited. Taken together, these results indicate that Z. v. vivipara and Z. v. carniolica should be recognized as two separate species, and particular conservation consideration should be given to the oviparous lineage that tends to live in areas threatened by increasing impact of human activities. However, recent and rapid climate warming might determine an increasing risk for the persistence of the viviparous lineage, being adapted to cold environments.
FIGURE 19 in Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928 (Diplopoda: Chordeumatida): new insights into its taxonomy, systematics, molecular genetics, biogeography and ecology
FIGURE 19. Distribution of the genus Hungarosoma Verhoeff, 1928. Empty dot: H. inexpectatum, solid dots: H. bokori. Distribution of H. bokori in Slovak-Aggtelek Karst drawn in higher scale.
FIGURE 16. Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928 in Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928 (Diplopoda: Chordeumatida): new insights into its taxonomy, systematics, molecular genetics, biogeography and ecology
FIGURE 16. Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928, male, gonopods (Abaliget Cave). Right lateral view. Letters a–h signal equivalent structures in both views. Abbreviations: Letters a–h signal equivalent structures in both views. Anterior gonopods (legs 8): a = cheirite, b = brush-like arm, c = additive divided arm, d = hyaline process. Posterior gonopods (legs 9): e = gonopod, f = ventral hyaline prominence, g = claw shape process with long seta.
FIGURE 18. A in Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928 (Diplopoda: Chordeumatida): new insights into its taxonomy, systematics, molecular genetics, biogeography and ecology
FIGURE 18. A Maximum-Likelihood tree (GTR+G+I model) based on the COI gene and rooted with Polyxenus lagurus. All data—except from H. bokori—were obtained from Genbank. Numbers refer to bootstrap values (1000 replicates). Scale bar = 0.02 substitutions/site. For origin of the H. bokori material, see Table 1.
FIGURE 15. Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928 in Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928 (Diplopoda: Chordeumatida): new insights into its taxonomy, systematics, molecular genetics, biogeography and ecology
FIGURE 15. Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928, male, gonopods (Abaliget Cave). Anterior view (right side of pair structures is slightly turned laterally). Abbreviations: Letters a–h signal equivalent structures in both views. Anterior gonopods (legs 8): a = cheirite, b = brush-like arm, c = additive divided arm, d = hyaline process. Posterior gonopods (legs 9): e = gonopod, f = ventral hyaline prominence, g = claw shape process with long seta.
FIGURES 12–14. Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928 in Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928 (Diplopoda: Chordeumatida): new insights into its taxonomy, systematics, molecular genetics, biogeography and ecology
FIGURES 12–14. Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928, male (Abaliget Cave). 12: Antenna. 13: Gonopod complex, anterior view. The right side of pair structures is slightly turned laterally. 14: Gonopods in right lateral view. Abbreviations: Letters a– h signal equivalent structures in both views. Anterior gonopods (legs 8): a = cheirite, b = brush-like arm, c = additive divided arm, d = hyaline process. Posterior gonopods (legs 9): e = gonopod, f = ventral hyaline prominence, g = claw shape process with long seta. Not scaled. Photos: Andrej Mock.
FIGURES 10–11. Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928 in Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928 (Diplopoda: Chordeumatida): new insights into its taxonomy, systematics, molecular genetics, biogeography and ecology
FIGURES 10–11. Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928, female from the Driny Cave, scanning electronic microscopy of details of the shape and surface of mid-body segments. 10: Dorsolateral view (left side). 11: A pleurotergite, dorsolateral view in detail. Photos: Andrej Mock & Karel Tajovský.
FIGURES 2–5. Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928 in Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928 (Diplopoda: Chordeumatida): new insights into its taxonomy, systematics, molecular genetics, biogeography and ecology
FIGURES 2–5. Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928, female, holotype (Abaliget Cave). 2: Head end of the body, right lateral view. 3: Tergite 15, dorsal view. 4: Antenna, lateral view. 5: Discernable vulvae in situ (v), right lateral view. Photos: Jörg Spelda.
FIGURE 1. Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928 in Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928 (Diplopoda: Chordeumatida): new insights into its taxonomy, systematics, molecular genetics, biogeography and ecology
FIGURE 1. Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928, female, sampled at the entrance of the Baradla Cave, Hungary, 21.iii.2013. Photo: Ľubomír Kováč & Andrej Mock.
FIGURES 20–21. 20 in Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928 (Diplopoda: Chordeumatida): new insights into its taxonomy, systematics, molecular genetics, biogeography and ecology
FIGURES 20–21. 20. Distribution of localities with Hungarosoma spp. along the altitudinal gradient. H. inexpectatum (empty dot) was found in the town of Cluj (Romania, 350 m a.s.l.), other values belong to the localities with records of H. bokori (solid dots). 21. Seasonality of records of Hungarosoma spp. (based on original and available published data).
FIGURES 6–9. Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928 in Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928 (Diplopoda: Chordeumatida): new insights into its taxonomy, systematics, molecular genetics, biogeography and ecology
FIGURES 6–9. Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928, specimens from the Abaliget Cave, preserved in alcohol (not scaled). 6: Habitus of adult male in lateral view; the cheirites of anterior gonopods are visible. 7: Details of the dorsal part of the male trunk. 8: Ventral side of mid-body segments in detail. 9: Dorsal side of a juvenile of stadium III with the shape of the pleurotergites typical for the genus (all material from the Abaliget Cave, Hungary). Photos: Andrej Mock.
FIGURE 17. Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928 in Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928 (Diplopoda: Chordeumatida): new insights into its taxonomy, systematics, molecular genetics, biogeography and ecology
FIGURE 17. Hungarosoma bokori Verhoeff, 1928, female, vulvae (Driny Cave). Vulvae in posterior-ventral view (o = opercula) Not scaled.
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Allen Brain Atlas
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DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
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International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.