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596 results for “cast”
Data from: Environmental variables associated with Nothophaeocryptopus gaeumannii population structure and Swiss needle cast severity in Western Oregon and Washington
The environment has a strong influence on the abundance and distribution of plant pathogenic organisms, and plays a major role in the causation of plant disease. Climatological factors may also alter the dynamics of the interactions between plant pathogens and their hosts. Nothophaeocryptopus (=Phaeocryptopus) gaeumannii, the causal agent of Swiss needle cast (SNC) of Douglas-fir, is endemic to western North America where it exists as two sympatric, reproductively isolated lineages. The abundance of this fungus and the severity of SNC are strongly influenced by climate. We used statistical and population genetic analyses to examine relationships between environment, pathogen population structure, and SNC severity. Although N. gaeumannii Lineage 2 in western Oregon and Washington was most abundant where SNC symptoms were most severe, we did not detect a significant relationship between Lineage 2 and disease severity. Warmer winter temperatures were inversely correlated with foliage retention (AFR) and positively correlated with the relative abundance of Lineage 2 (PL2). However when distance inland, which was strongly correlated with both AFR and PL2, was included in the model, there was no significant relationship between Lineage 2 and AFR. Spring/early summer dew point temperatures also were positively associated with total N. gaeumannii abundance (colonization index (CI)), and inversely correlated with AFR. Warmer summer mean temperatures were associated with lower CI and higher AFR. Our results suggest that the two lineages have overlapping environmental optima, but slightly different tolerance ranges. Lineage 2 was absent from more inland sites where winters are colder and summers are warm and dry, while Lineage 1 occurred at most sites across an environmental gradient suggesting broader environmental tolerance. These relationships suggest that climate influences the abundance and distribution of this ecologically important plant pathogen, and may have played a role in the evolutionary divergence of these two cryptic fungal lineages.
Temperature drives caste-specific morphological clines in ants
The morphology of organisms relates to most aspects of their life history and autecology. In particular, morphology can reflect adaptation to the abiotic environment in which species occur. As such, elucidating the drivers of morphological variation along environmental gradients might give insight into processes limiting species distributions. In eusocial organisms, the concept of morphology is more complex than in solitary organisms. Eusocial insects such as ants exhibit drastic morphological differences between reproductive and worker castes. How environmental selection operates on the morphology of each caste, and whether caste-specific selection has fitness consequences is largely unknown, but potentially crucial to understand what limits ant species' distributions. Here, we used 26,472 georeferenced morphometric measurements from 2206 individual ants belonging to 32 closely related North American species in the genus Formica to assess how ant morphology relates to geographic variation in the abiotic environment. Although precipitation and seasonality explained some of the geographic variation in morphology, temperature was the best predictor. Specifically, geographic variation in body size was positively related to temperature, meaning that ants are smaller in cold than in warm environments. Moreover, the strength of the relationship between size and temperature was stronger for the reproductive castes (i.e. queens and males) than for the worker caste. The shape of workers and males also varied along these large-scale abiotic gradients. Specifically, the relative length of workers' legs, thoraxes and antennae positively related to temperature, meaning that they had shorter appendages in cold environments. In contrast, males had smaller heads, but larger thoraxes in more seasonal environments. Overall, our results suggest that geographic variation in ambient temperature influences the morphology of ants, but that the strength of this effect is caste-specific. The effect of temperature on the queen caste may play an important role in determining colony fitness, and perhaps, limiting northern distributional limits. In conclusion, whereas ant ecology has traditionally focused on the worker caste, our study shows that considering the ecology of the reproductive castes is imperative to move forward in this field. 04-Aug-2020
Data from: Save your host, save yourself? caste-ratio adjustment in a parasite with division of labor and snail host survival following shell damage
Shell damage and parasitic infections are frequent in gastropods, influencing key snail host life-history traits such as survival, growth, and reproduction. However, their interactions and potential effects on hosts and parasites have never been tested. Host–parasite interactions are particularly interesting in the context of the recently discovered division of labor in trematodes infecting marine snails. Some species have colonies consisting of two different castes present at varying ratios; reproductive members and nonreproductive soldiers specialized in defending the colony. We assessed snail host survival, growth, and shell regeneration in interaction with infections by two trematode species, Philophthalmus sp. and Maritrema novaezealandense, following damage to the shell in the New Zealand mud snail Zeacumantus subcarinatus. We concomitantly assessed caste-ratio adjustment between nonreproductive soldiers and reproductive members in colonies of the trematode Philophthalmus sp. in response to interspecific competition and shell damage to its snail host. Shell damage, but not parasitic infection, significantly increased snail mortality, likely due to secondary infections by pathogens. However, trematode infection and shell damage did not negatively affect shell regeneration or growth in Z. subcarinatus; infected snails actually produced more new shell than their uninfected counterparts. Both interspecific competition and shell damage to the snail host induced caste-ratio adjustment in Philophthalmus sp. colonies. The proportion of nonreproductive soldiers increased in response to interspecific competition and host shell damage, likely to defend the parasite colony and potentially the snail host against increasing threats. These results indicate that secondary infections by pathogens following shell damage to snails both significantly increased snail mortality and induced caste-ratio adjustments in parasites. This is the first evidence that parasites with a division of labor may be able to produce nonreproductive soldiers according to environmental factors other than interspecific competition with other parasites.
Data from: Two new phragmotic ant species from Africa: morphology and next-generation sequencing solve a caste association problem in the genus Carebara Westwood
Phragmotic or "door head" ants have evolved independently in several ant genera across the world, but in Africa only one case has been documented until now. Carebara elmenteitae (Patrizi) is known from only a single phragmotic major worker collected from sifted leaf-litter near Lake Elmenteita in Kenya, but here the worker castes of two species collected from Kakamega Forest, a small rainforest in Western Kenya, are studied. Phragmotic major workers were previously identified as Carebara elmenteitae and non-phragmotic major and minor workers were assigned to C. thoracica (Weber). Using evidence of both morphological and next-generation sequencing analysis, it is shown that phragmotic and non-phragmotic workers of the two different species are actually the same and that neither name – C. elmenteitae or C. thoracica – correctly applies to them. Instead, this and another closely related species from Ivory Coast are both morphologically different from C. elmenteitae, and thus they are described as the new species Carebara phragmotica sp. n. and Carebara lilith sp. n.
Data from: Caste ratios affect the reproductive output of social trematode colonies
Intraspecific phenotypic diversification in social organisms often leads to formation of physical castes which are morphologically specialised for particular tasks within the colony. The optimal caste allocation theory argues that specialised morphological castes are efficient at specific tasks, and hence different caste ratios should affect the ergonomic efficiency, hence reproductive output of the colony. However, the reproductive output of different caste ratios has been documented only in few species of insects with equivocal support for the theory. The present study investigated whether the ratios of non-reproductive and reproductive morphs affect the reproductive output of a recently discovered social trematode, Philophthalmus sp., in which the non-reproductive members are hypothesized to be defensive specialists. Census of natural infections and a manipulative in-vitro experiment demonstrated a positive association between the reproductive output of trematode colonies and the ratio of non-reproductive to reproductive morphs in the presence of an intra-host trematode competitor, Maritrema novaezealandensis. On the contrary, without the competitor, reproductive output was negatively associated with the proportion of non-reproductive castes in colonies. Our findings demonstrate for the first time a clear fitness benefit associated with the non-reproductive castes in the presence of a competitor while illustrating the cost of maintaining such morphs in non-competitive situations. Although the proximate mechanisms controlling caste ratio remain unclear in this trematode system, the present study supports the prediction that the fitness of colonies is influenced by the composition of specialized functional morphs in social organisms, suggesting a potential for adaptive shifts of caste ratios over evolutionary time.
Data from: The influence of slavemaking lifestyle, caste and sex on chemical profiles in Temnothorax ants: insights into the evolution of cuticular hydrocarbons
Chemical communication is central for the formation and maintenance of insect societies. Generally, social insects only allow nest-mates into their colony, which are recognized by their cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs). Social parasites, which exploit insect societies, are selected to circumvent host recognition. Here, we studied whether chemical strategies to reduce recognition evolved convergently in slavemaking ants, and whether they extend to workers, queens and males alike. We studied CHCs of three social parasites and their related hosts to investigate whether the parasitic lifestyle selects for specific chemical traits that reduce host recognition. Slavemaker profiles were characterized by shorter-chained hydrocarbons and a shift from methyl-branched alkanes to n-alkanes, presumably to reduce recognition cue quantity. These shifts were consistent across independent origins of slavery and were found in isolated ants and those emerging in their mother colony. Lifestyle influenced profiles of workers most profoundly, with little effect on virgin queen profiles. We detected an across-species caste signal, with workers, for which nest-mate recognition is particularly important, carrying more and longer-chained hydrocarbons and males exhibiting a larger fraction of n-alkanes. This comprehensive study of CHCs across castes and species reveals how lifestyle-specific selection can result in convergent evolution of chemical phenotypes.
Data from: Genetic constraints on dishonesty and caste dimorphism in an ant
The ultimate causes of honest signaling remain a subject of debate, with questions remaining over the relative importance of costs and constraints. Signal costs may make dishonesty prohibitively expensive, while genetic constraints could make it impossible. We investigated honest signaling using full-sib analysis and parent-offspring regression in the ant Lasius niger, in which queens produce a cuticular hydrocarbon-based pheromone that signals fertility and inhibits worker reproduction and aggression. We found multiple lines of evidence that cuticular hydrocarbon production is genetically correlated with oogenesis and that the queen pheromone 3-methylhentriacontane and other 3-methylalkanes have strong genetic links with fertility relative to other cuticular hydrocarbons. These genetic correlations may maintain honesty in the face of directional selection on signaling and explain the putatively widespread use of cuticular hydrocarbons in fertility signaling across the social insects. We also found evidence for a positive genetic correlation for fertility between the castes; that is, the most fertile queens produced especially fertile workers. These results highlight that intercaste genetic correlations could constrain the evolution of queen-worker dimorphism, such that worker reproduction may sometimes reflect a nonadaptive "caste load" rather than positively selected cheating.
Data from: Cast adrift on an island: introduced populations experience an altered balance between selection and drift
A long-standing question in evolutionary biology is what becomes of adaptive traits when a species expands its range into novel environments. Here we report the results of a study on an adaptive colour pattern polymorphism (stripes) of the coqui frog following its introduction to Hawaii from Puerto Rico. We compared population differentiation (φ'ST and FST) for the stripes locus —which underlies this colour pattern polymorphism— with neutral microsatellite loci to test for a signature of selection among native and introduced populations. Among native populations, φ'ST and FST for stripes were lower than expected under the neutral model, suggesting uniform balancing selection. Alternatively, among introduced populations, φ'ST and FST for stripes did not differ from the neutral model. These results suggest that the evolutionary dynamics of this previously adaptive trait have become dominated by random genetic drift following the range expansion.
Pictish stone (cast), Meigle Museum, Angus
This model shows the cast of the base of a Pictish stone which was originally carved with cup and ring markings. A number of these motifs have now been lost as they are set into the concrete base used to support the slab. However, this cast shows what they once looked like. For the full slab see: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/pictish-slab-later-re-use-meigle-museum-angus-3146a4c2c4704158877071dfad0d4bf8 For more information, see: https://canmore.org.uk/site/30838/meigle And see: https://www.rockart.scot/rock-art-database/?scrapToolsaction=datatools:panel&id=C639207A-3A8C-4F4F-980C282E00102B6B Accreditation: ScRAP ©HES. Source: Objaverse 1.0 / Sketchfab
Cast Iron Door
Recovered from a 19th-century site in the America West. This cast-iron door still has its provenance tag visible (see the pink flagging tape?) in the corner, which made for a fun contrast in the scan. I was working with a student to test LiDar scanning's capabiities with dark, corroded ferrous objects. I think he did a good job with the scan, don't you? Source: Objaverse 1.0 / Sketchfab
Michelangelo mouth plaster cast
Source: Objaverse 1.0 / Sketchfab
Cast Iron Bracings on Victorian Railway Bridge
Source: Objaverse 1.0 / Sketchfab
FIGURES 4–7. Coendutermes tucum soldier, MZUSP 19433 in Coendutermes tucum Fontes (Isoptera, Termitidae, Nasutitermitinae): description of the imago caste and additional notes
FIGURES 4–7. Coendutermes tucum soldier, MZUSP 19433: 4, head in dorsal view; 5, head in profile; 6, surface of head with characteristic bristles, arrow indicating the pits; 7, detail of a "bristle" and a pit, arrow showing the hole of the possible conducting canal.
FIGURES 13–14. Coendutermes tucum workers, MZUSP 19433 in Coendutermes tucum Fontes (Isoptera, Termitidae, Nasutitermitinae): description of the imago caste and additional notes
FIGURES 13–14. Coendutermes tucum workers, MZUSP 19433: 13, gizzard armature, type 1 worker. CI: column I; CII: column II, PI: pulvillus I; PII: pulvillus II. 14, enteric valve cushions arranged in two rings and ileum ornamentation of worker type 1. P1: ileum ornamentation, white arrow. P2: oval cushions, black arrow.
FIGURES 1–3. Coendutermes tucum female dealate, MZUSP 19433 in Coendutermes tucum Fontes (Isoptera, Termitidae, Nasutitermitinae): description of the imago caste and additional notes
FIGURES 1–3. Coendutermes tucum female dealate, MZUSP 19433: 1, head in dorsal view; 2, head in profile; 3, thorax in dorsal view.
FIGURES 8–11. Coendutermes tucum workers, MZUSP 19433, 15108 in Coendutermes tucum Fontes (Isoptera, Termitidae, Nasutitermitinae): description of the imago caste and additional notes
FIGURES 8–11. Coendutermes tucum workers, MZUSP 19433, 15108: 8, mandibles, type 1; 9, worker type I, profile; 10, mandibles, type 2; 11, worker type 2, profile.
FIGURE 1 in RedIscovery of the rare ant genus Bannapone (Hymenoptera: FormIcIdae: AmblyoponInae) and descrIptIon of the worker caste
FIGURE 1. Global distribution of the subfamily Amblyoponinae. Regions in green represent the current known distribution. Fossil records are presented in orange (Eocene) and yellow (Miocene).
FIGURE 16 in Caetetermes taquarussu Fontes (Isoptera, Termitidae, Nasutitermitinae): description of the imago caste and new distributional records
FIGURE 16. Currently known distribution of Caetetermes taquarussu: circles indicate new records, squares indicate published records, and stars indicate holotype and paratype localities.
FIGURES 7–10 in Caetetermes taquarussu Fontes (Isoptera, Termitidae, Nasutitermitinae): description of the imago caste and new distributional records
FIGURES 7–10. Workers of Caetetermes taquarussu, MZUSP 12738: 7, profile and, 9, dorsal view of worker type 1. 8, profile and, 10, dorsal view of worker type 2. Scale bar: 0.5 mm.
FIGURE 6 in Caetetermes taquarussu Fontes (Isoptera, Termitidae, Nasutitermitinae): description of the imago caste and new distributional records
FIGURE 6. Soldiers of C. taquarussu. Variation in the type colony from Ecuador (two on left), in a colony from Rondônia (three in middle), and in a colony from Mato Grosso (two on right).
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Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
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.