| 1. |
- Sanli, Kemal, et al.
(författare)
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Metagenomic Sequencing of Marine Periphyton: Taxonomic and Functional Insights into Biofilm Communities
- 2015
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Microbiology. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 1664-302X. ; 6:1192
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Periphyton communities are complex phototrophic, multispecies biofilms that develop on surfaces in aquatic environments. These communities harbor a large diversity of organisms comprising viruses, bacteria, algae, fungi, protozoans and metazoans. However, thus far the total biodiversity of periphyton has not been described. In this study, we use metagenomics to characterize periphyton communities from the marine environment of the Swedish west coast. Although we found approximately ten times more eukaryotic rRNA marker gene sequences compared to prokaryotic, the whole metagenome-based similarity searches showed that bacteria constitute the most abundant phyla in these biofilms. We show that marine periphyton encompass a range of heterotrophic and phototrophic organisms. Heterotrophic bacteria, including the majority of proteobacterial clades and Bacteroidetes, and eukaryotic macro-invertebrates were found to dominate periphyton. The phototrophic groups comprise Cyanobacteria and the alpha-proteobacterial genus Roseobacter, followed by different micro- and macro-algae. We also assess the metabolic pathways that predispose these communities to an attached lifestyle. Functional indicators of the biofilm form of life in periphyton involve genes coding for enzymes that catalyze the production and degradation of extracellular polymeric substances, mainly in the form of complex sugars such as starch and glycogen-like meshes together with chitin. Genes for 278 different transporter proteins were detected in the metagenome, constituting the most abundant protein complexes. Finally, genes encoding enzymes that participate in anaerobic pathways, such as denitrification and methanogenesis, were detected suggesting the presence of anaerobic or low-oxygen micro-zones within the biofilms.
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| 2. |
- Radek, Renate, et al.
(författare)
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Morphologic and molecular data help adopting the insect-pathogenic nephridiophagids (Nephridiophagidae) among the early diverging fungal lineages, close to the Chytridiomycota
- 2017
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Ingår i: MycoKeys. - : Pensoft Publishers. - 1314-4057 .- 1314-4049. ; 25, s. 31-50
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Nephridiophagids are poorly known unicellular eukaryotes, previously of uncertain systematic position, that parasitize the Malpighian tubules of insects. Their life cycle includes merogony with multinucleate plasmodia and sporogony leading to small, uninucleate spores. We examined the phylogenetic affiliations of three species of Nephridiophaga, including one new species, Nephridiophaga maderae, from the Madeira cockroach (Leucophaea maderae). In addition to the specific host, the new species differs from those already known by the size of the spores and by the number of spores within the sporogenic plasmodium. The inferred phylogenetic analyses strongly support a placement of the nephridiophagids in the fungal kingdom near its root and with a close, but unresolved, relationship to the chytids (Chytridiomycota). We found evidence for the nephridiophagidean speciation as being strongly coupled to host speciation.
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| 3. |
- Sigvald, Roland, et al.
(författare)
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Molecular identification of bloodmeals and species composition in Culicoides biting midges
- 2013
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Ingår i: Medical and Veterinary Entomology. - : Wiley. - 0269-283X .- 1365-2915. ; 27, s. 104-112
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Investigations of host preferences in haematophagous insects, including Culicoides biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae), are critical in order to assess transmission routes of vector-borne diseases. In this study, we collected and morphologically identified 164 blood-engorged Culicoides females caught in both light traps and permanent 12-m high suction traps during 20082010 in Sweden. Molecular analysis of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene in the biting midges was performed to verify species classification, discern phylogenetic relationships and uncover possible cryptic species. Bloodmeal analysis using universal vertebrate cytochrome b primers revealed a clear distinction in host selection between mammalophilic and ornithophilic Culicoides species. Host sequences found matches in horse (n = 59), sheep (n = 39), cattle (n = 26), Eurasian elk (n = 1) and 10 different bird species (n = 18). We identified 15 Culicoides species previously recorded in Scandinavia and four additional species haplotypes that were distinctly different from the described species. All ornithophilic individuals (n = 23) were caught exclusively in the suction traps, as were, interestingly, almost all mammalophilic species (n = 41), indicating that many biting midge species may be able to cover long distances after completing a bloodmeal. These results add new information on the composition of Culicoides species and their host preferences and their potential long-distance dispersal while blood-engorged.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Alm Rosenblad, Magnus, 1957, et al.
(författare)
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Detection of signal recognition particle (SRP) RNAs in the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) of three lineages of ectomycorrhizal fungi (Agaricomycetes, Basidiomycota)
- 2016
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Ingår i: MycoKeys. - : Pensoft Publishers. - 1314-4057 .- 1314-4049. ; 13, s. 21-33
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- During a routine scan for Signal Recognition Particle (SRP) RNAs in eukaryotic sequences, we surprisingly found in silico evidence in GenBank for a 265-base long SRP RNA sequence in the ITS1 region of a total of 11 fully identified species in three ectomycorrhizal genera of the Basidiomycota (Fungi): Astraeus, Russula, and Lactarius. To rule out sequence artifacts, one specimen from a species indicated to have the SRP RNA-containing ITS region in each of these genera was ordered and re-sequenced. Sequences identical to the corresponding GenBank entries were recovered, or in the case of a non-original but conspecific specimen differed by three bases, showing that these species indeed have an SRP RNA sequence incorporated into their ITS1 region. Other than the ribosomal genes, this is the first known case of non-coding RNAs in the eukaryotic ITS region, and it may assist in the examination of other types of insertions in fungal genomes.
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| 6. |
- Nilsson, R. Henrik, 1976, et al.
(författare)
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Mycobiome diversity: high-throughput sequencing and identification of fungi.
- 2019
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Ingår i: Nature reviews. Microbiology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1740-1534 .- 1740-1526. ; 17, s. 95-109
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Fungi are major ecological players in both terrestrial and aquatic environments by cycling organic matter and channelling nutrients across trophic levels. High-throughput sequencing (HTS) studies of fungal communities are redrawing the map of the fungal kingdom by hinting at its enormous - and largely uncharted - taxonomic and functional diversity. However, HTS approaches come with a range of pitfalls and potential biases, cautioning against unwary application and interpretation of HTS technologies and results. In this Review, we provide an overview and practical recommendations for aspects of HTS studies ranging from sampling and laboratory practices to data processing and analysis. We also discuss upcoming trends and techniques in the field and summarize recent and noteworthy results from HTS studies targeting fungal communities and guilds. Our Review highlights the need for reproducibility and public data availability in the study of fungal communities. If the associated challenges and conceptual barriers are overcome, HTS offers immense possibilities in mycology and elsewhere.
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| 7. |
- Anslan, Sten, et al.
(författare)
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Great differences in performance and outcome of high-throughput sequencing data analysis platforms for fungal metabarcoding
- 2018
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Ingår i: MycoKeys. - : Pensoft Publishers. - 1314-4057 .- 1314-4049. ; 39, s. 29-40
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Along with recent developments in high-throughput sequencing (HTS) technologies and thus fast accumulation of HTS data, there has been a growing need and interest for developing tools for HTS data processing and communication. In particular, a number of bioinformatics tools have been designed for analysing metabarcoding data, each with specific features, assumptions and outputs. To evaluate the potential effect of the application of different bioinformatics workflow on the results, we compared the performance of different analysis platforms on two contrasting high-throughput sequencing data sets. Our analysis revealed that the computation time, quality of error filtering and hence output of specific bioinformatics process largely depends on the platform used. Our results show that none of the bioinformatics workflows appears to perfectly filter out the accumulated errors and generate Operational Taxonomic Units, although PipeCraft, LotuS and PIPITS perform better than QIIME2 and Galaxy for the tested fungal amplicon dataset. We conclude that the output of each platform requires manual validation of the OTUs by examining the taxonomy assignment values.
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| 8. |
- Retter, Alice, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring the taxonomic composition of two fungal communities on the Swedish west coast through metabarcoding
- 2019
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Ingår i: Biodiversity Data Journal. - 1314-2828 .- 1314-2836. ; 7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background Fungi are heterotrophic, unicellular or filamentous organisms that exhibit a wide range of different lifestyles as, e.g., symbionts, parasites, and saprotrophs. Mycologists have traditionally considered fungi to be a nearly exclusively terrestrial group of organisms, but it is now known that fungi have a significant presence in aquatic environments as well. We know little about most fungi in limnic and marine systems, including aspects of their taxonomy, ecology, and geographic distribution. The present study seeks to improve our knowledge of fungi in the marine environment. The fungal communities of two coastal marine environments of the Kattegat sea, Sweden, were explored with metabarcoding techniques using the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) metabarcode. Our data add new information to the current picture of fungal community composition in benthic and coastal habitats in Northern Europe. New information The dataset describes the number of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and their taxonomic affiliations in two littoral gradients sampled on the Swedish west coast, Gothenburg municipality. Our data include basic diversity indices as well as chemical and edaphic sediment/soil parameters of the sampling sites. From the sites, 3470 and 4315 fungal OTUs, respectively, were recovered. The number of reads were 673,711 and 779,899, respectively, after quality filtering. Within the benthic sites, more than 80% of the sequences could not be classified taxonomically. The phylum composition of the classifiable sequences was dominated in both localities by Dikarya, which made up around 33% of the OTUs. Within Dikarya, Ascomycota was the dominant phylum. Guild assignment failed for more than half of the classifiable OTUs, with undefined saprotrophs being the most common resolved guild. This guild classification was slightly more common in the ocean sediment samples than in the terrestrial ones. Our metadata indicated that ocean sites contain organisms at a lower trophic level and that there are predominantly endophytic, parasitic, and pathogenic fungi in the marine environments. This hints at the presence of interesting and currently poorly understood fungus-driven ecological processes. It is also clear from our results that a very large number of marine fungi are in urgent need of taxonomic study and formal description.
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| 9. |
- Kõljalg, Urmas, et al.
(författare)
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A price tag on species
- 2022
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Ingår i: Research Ideas and Outcomes_RIO. - : Pensoft Publishers. - 2367-7163. ; 8, s. 1-7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Species have intrinsic value but also partake in a long range of ecosystem services of major economic value to humans. These values have proved hard to quantify precisely, making it all too easy to dismiss them altogether. We outline the concept of the species stock market (SSM), a system to provide a unified basis for valuation of all living species. The SSM amalgamates digitized information from natural history collections, occurrence data, and molecular sequence databases to quantify our knowledge of each species from scientific, societal, and economic points of view. The conceptual trading system will necessarily be very unlike that of the regular stock market, but the looming biodiversity crisis implores us to finally put an open and transparent price tag on symbiosis, deforestation, and pollution
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| 10. |
- Nilsson, R. Henrik, 1976, et al.
(författare)
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Introducing guidelines for publishing DNA-derived occurrence data through biodiversity data platforms
- 2022
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Ingår i: Metabarcoding and Metagenomics. - : Pensoft Publishers. - 2534-9708. ; 6, s. 239-244
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- DNA sequencing efforts of environmental and other biological samples disclose unprecedented and largely untapped opportunities for advances in the taxonomy, ecology, and geographical distributions of our living world. To realise this potential, DNA-derived occurrence data (notably sequences with dates and coordinates) – much like traditional specimens and observations – need to be discoverable and interpretable through biodiversity data platforms. The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) recently headed a community effort to assemble a set of guidelines for publishing DNA-derived data. These guidelines target the principles and approaches of exposing DNA-derived occurrence data in the context of broader biodiversity data. They cover a choice of terms using a controlled vocabulary, common pitfalls, and good practices, without going into platform-specific details. Our hope is that they will benefit anyone interested in better exposure of DNA-derived occurrence data through general biodiversity data platforms, including national biodiversity portals. This paper provides a brief rationale and an overview of the guidelines, an up-to-date version of which is maintained at https://doi.org/10.35035/doc-vf1a-nr22. User feedback and interaction are encouraged as new techniques and best practices emerge.
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| 11. |
- Sernland, Emma
(författare)
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Optimal strategies and information in foraging theory
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this thesis, I present both theoretical and empirical work where we have studied how humans and animals use information in situations where they need to continually update their information on the density of a resource. We have found that the amount of information, and the way the information is presented, are important factors for how well decisions are adapted to current circumstances. In an empirical study on humans, we found that humans seem to have a default idea of the distribution of a resource. This default idea seems to be plastic, i.e. it is adjusted according to incoming information. The way additional information was presented, as well as the information content, was important for how well the default idea was adjusted to current circumstances.By using mathematical models, we have also studied whether access to information from group members, so called public information, is one of the reasons why some species live in groups. When group members aim to maximize its intake rate of food and share both information and food items found equally, and when each individual has to pay all the cost for travelling between foraging patches, the intake rate of food will decrease with increasing group size. The animals will spend a larger proportion of the time on travelling between patches and less time on foraging the larger the group size. In this case, information sharing on food density in patches is not a reason why animals live in groups.We have also used mathematical models to study the information dynamics in a group of foraging animals that cannot both search for food and information at the same time. The animals aim to maximize their survival, and are given three behavioural choices in each time step: stay and search for food, stay and scan for information, or leave the current patch. The results show that the choice of behaviour depends on the energy reserves of the individual. An animal with low energy reserves searches for food and leaves the patch if its assessment of potential patch quality decreases to a certain level. An animal with high energy reserves chooses to stay in the patch and scan for information. In our model we assume that when one individual leaves the patch, the rest of the group also leaves. This means that it is those individuals that have low energy reserves that will make the leaving decisions for the group.In the end, we use these theories on Bayesian foraging, information updating and decision-making in order to develop a new type of effort-based quota for sustainable fisheries management: an effort-based dynamic quota (EDQ). We show that by using information from ongoing fishing combined with fishing data from earlier years, we can reach a higher maximum sustainable yield compared to using a total allowable catch (TAC).
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| 12. |
- Unterseher, Martin, et al.
(författare)
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Mycobiomes of sympatric Amorphophallus albispathus (Araceae) and Camellia sinensis (Theaceae) – a case study reveals clear tissue preferences and differences in diversity and composition
- 2018
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Ingår i: Mycological Progress. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1617-416X .- 1861-8952. ; 17:4, s. 489-500
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Multiple biotic and abiotic parameters influence the dynamics of individual fungal species and entire communities. Major drivers for tropical plant endophytes are undoubtedly seasonality, local habitat conditions and biogeography. However, host specialization and tissue preferences also contribute to the structuring of endophytic mycobiomes. To elucidate such specializations and preferences, we sampled two commercially important, unrelated plant species, Amorphophallus albispathus and Camellia sinensis (tea plant) simultaneously at close proximity. The mycobiomes of different tissue types were assessed with high-throughput amplicon sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer DNA region. Both plants hosted different fungal communities and varied in α- and β-diversity, despite their neighboring occurrence. However, the fungal assemblages of Amorphophallus leaflets shared taxa with the mycobiomes of tea leaves, thereby suggesting common driving forces for leaf-inhabiting fungi irrespective of host plant identity. The mycobiome composition and diversity of tea leaves was clearly driven by leaf age. We suggest that the very youngest tea leaves are colonized by stochastic processes, while mycobiomes of old leaves are rather similar as the result of progressive succession. The biodiversity of fungi associated with A. albispathus was characterized by a large number of unclassified OTUs (at genus and species level) and by tissue-specific composition.This study is the first cultivation-independent high-throughput assessment of fungal biodiversity of an Amorphophallus species, and additionally expands the knowledge base on fungi associated with tea plants.
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| 13. |
- Nilsson, R. Henrik, 1976, et al.
(författare)
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How, not if, is the question mycologists should be asking about DNA-based typification
- 2023
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Ingår i: MycoKeys. - : Pensoft Publishers. - 1314-4057 .- 1314-4049. ; :96, s. 143-157
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Fungal metabarcoding of substrates such as soil, wood, and water is uncovering an unprecedented number of fungal species that do not seem to produce tangible morphological structures and that defy our best attempts at cultivation, thus falling outside the scope of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants. The present study uses the new, ninth release of the species hypotheses of the UNITE database to show that species discovery through environmental sequencing vastly outpaces traditional, Sanger sequencing-based efforts in a strongly increasing trend over the last five years. Our findings chal-lenge the present stance of some in the mycological community - that the current situation is satisfactory and that no change is needed to "the code" - and suggest that we should be discussing not whether to allow DNA-based descriptions (typifications) of species and by extension higher ranks of fungi, but what the precise requirements for such DNA-based typifications should be. We submit a tentative list of such criteria for further discussion. The present authors hope for a revitalized and deepened discussion on DNA-based typification, because to us it seems harmful and counter-productive to intentionally deny the overwhelming majority of extant fungi a formal standing under the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants.
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| 14. |
- Eriksson, Martin, 1970, et al.
(författare)
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Triclosan changes community composition and selects for specific bacterial taxa in marine periphyton biofilms in low nanomolar concentrations
- 2020
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Ingår i: Ecotoxicology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0963-9292 .- 1573-3017. ; 29:7, s. 1083-1094
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The antibacterial agent Triclosan (TCS) is a ubiquitous environmental contaminant due to its widespread use. Sensitivity to TCS varies substantially among eu- and pro-karyotic species and its risk for the marine environment remains to be better elucidated. In particular, the effects that TCS causes on marine microbial communities are largely unknown. In this study we therefore used 16S amplicon rDNA sequencing to investigate TCS effects on the bacterial composition in marine periphyton communities that developed under long-term exposure to different TCS concentrations. Exposure to TCS resulted in clear changes in bacterial composition already at concentrations of 1 to 3.16 nM. We conclude that TCS affects the structure of the bacterial part of periphyton communities at concentrations that actually occur in the marine environment. Sensitive taxa, whose abundance decreased significantly with increasing TCS concentrations, include the Rhodobiaceae and Rhodobacteraceae families of Alphaproteobacteria, and unidentified members of the Candidate division Parcubacteria. Tolerant taxa, whose abundance increased significantly with higher TCS concentrations, include the families Erythrobacteraceae (Alphaproteobacteria), Flavobacteriaceae (Bacteroidetes), Bdellovibrionaceae (Deltaproteobacteria), several families of Gammaproteobacteria, and members of the Candidate phylum Gracilibacteria. Our results demonstrate the variability of TCS sensitivity among bacteria, and that TCS can change marine bacterial composition at concentrations that have been detected in the marine environment.
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| 15. |
- Gómez-Martínez, Daniela, et al.
(författare)
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Phenotypic and transcriptomic acclimation of the green microalga Raphidocelis subcapitata to high environmental levels of the herbicide diflufenican
- 2023
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Ingår i: Science of the Total Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 0048-9697 .- 1879-1026. ; 875
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Herbicide pollution poses a worldwide threat to plants and freshwater ecosystems. However, the understanding of how organisms develop tolerance to these chemicals and the associated trade-off expenses are largely unknown. This study aims to investigate the physiological and transcriptional mechanisms underlying the acclimation of the green microalgal model species Raphidocelis subcapitata (Selenastraceae) towards the herbicide diflufenican, and the fitness costs associated with tolerance development. Algae were exposed for 12 weeks (corresponding to 100 generations) to diflufenican at the two environmental concentrations 10 and 310 ng/L. The monitoring of growth, pigment composition, and photosynthetic performance throughout the experiment revealed an initial dose-dependent stress phase (week 1) with an EC50 of 397 ng/L, followed by a time-dependent recovery phase during weeks 2 to 4. After week 4, R. subcapitata was acclimated to diflufenican exposure with a similar growth rate, content of carotenoids, and photosynthetic performance as the unexposed control algae. This acclimation state of the algae was explored in terms of tolerance acquisition, changes in the fatty acids composition, diflufenican removal rate, cell size, and changes in mRNA gene expression profile, revealing potential fitness costs associated with acclimation, such as up-regulation of genes related to cell division, structure, morphology, and reduction of cell size. Overall, this study demonstrates that R. subcapitata can quickly acclimate to environmental but toxic levels of diflufenican; however, the acclimation is associated with trade-off expenses that result in smaller cell size.
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| 16. |
- Nilsson, R. Henrik, 1976, et al.
(författare)
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The UNITE database for molecular identification of fungi: handling dark taxa and parallel taxonomic classifications.
- 2019
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Ingår i: Nucleic acids research. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1362-4962 .- 0305-1048. ; 47:D1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- UNITE (https://unite.ut.ee/) is a web-based database and sequence management environment for the molecular identification of fungi. It targets the formal fungal barcode-the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer(ITS) region-and offers all ∼1 000000 public fungal ITS sequences for reference. These are clustered into ∼459000 species hypotheses and assigned digital object identifiers (DOIs) to promote unambiguous reference across studies. In-house and web-based third-party sequence curation and annotation have resulted in more than 275000 improvements to the data over the past 15 years. UNITE serves as a data provider for a range of metabarcoding software pipelines and regularly exchanges data with all major fungal sequence databases and other community resources. Recent improvements include redesigned handling of unclassifiable species hypotheses, integration with the taxonomic backbone of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, and support for an unlimited number of parallel taxonomic classification systems.
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| 17. |
- Boberg, Johanna, et al.
(författare)
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Nitrogen and Carbon Reallocation in Fungal Mycelia during Decomposition of Boreal Forest Litter
- 2014
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science. - 1932-6203. ; 9:3, s. e92897-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Boreal forests are characterized by spatially heterogeneous soils with low N availability. The decomposition of coniferous litter in these systems is primarily performed by basidiomycete fungi, which often form large mycelia with a well-developed capacity to reallocate resources spatially-an advantageous trait in heterogeneous environments. In axenic microcosm systems we tested whether fungi increase their biomass production by reallocating N between Pinus sylvestris (Scots pine) needles at different stages of decomposition. We estimated fungal biomass production by analysing the accumulation of the fungal cell wall compound chitin. Monospecific systems were compared with systems with interspecific interactions. We found that the fungi reallocated assimilated N and mycelial growth away from well-degraded litter towards fresh litter components. This redistribution was accompanied by reduced decomposition of older litter. Interconnection of substrates increased over-all fungal C use efficiency (i.e. the allocation of assimilated C to biomass rather than respiration), presumably by enabling fungal translocation of growth-limiting N to litter with higher C quality. Fungal connection between different substrates also restricted N-mineralization and production of dissolved organic N, suggesting that litter saprotrophs in boreal forest ecosystems primarily act to redistribute rather than release N. This spatial integration of different resource qualities was hindered by interspecific interactions, in which litters of contrasting quality were colonised by two different basidiomycete species. The experiments provide a detailed picture of how resource reallocation in two decomposer fungi leads to a more efficient utilisation of spatially separated resources under N-limitation. From an ecosystem point of view, such economic fungal behaviour could potentially contribute to organic matter accumulation in the litter layers of boreal forests.
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| 18. |
- Mikusinska, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Quantifying landscape change during the last two centuries in Bialowieza Primeval Forest
- 2013
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Ingår i: Applied Vegetation Science. - 1402-2001 .- 1654-109X. ; 16:2, s. 217-226
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- QuestionWhat changes in character and extent of land use have occurred during the last 200yr in the Biaowiea Primeval Forest (BPF)? Are the landscape transformations described from the multi-temporal analysis of historical maps coherent with vegetation changes expressed by the previous palynological analyses?LocationBiaowiea Primeval Forest, PolishBelarusian border. MethodsWe used five historical maps (from 1793 to 1936) and one digital land-use map (19992000) to quantify the landscape changes. Land-use types according to historical maps were digitized and georeferenced. The maps were then used for both comparing the extent of cover types in each time step and analysing the nature of change through transition matrices. The sequence of changes concerning the proportion of land-use types was then compared with classes of pollen, which were assumed to represent corresponding vegetation types. ResultsMost of the area (>70%) has been continuously covered with forest. In the period between 1793 and 1830, the forest declined, being the main donor to agricultural land and villages. In the 20th century, the trend was reversed. We found a significant correlation between the percentage of the main vegetation types derived from historical maps and the corresponding vegetation types, as indicated by pollen, with a mean time lag of 20yr. ConclusionThe BPF landscape has been quite stable throughout the last 200yr, mainly due to the high continuity of forest cover. The results obtained from landscape analysis based on maps are coherent with pollen data collected in the same area.
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| 19. |
- Witzgall, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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"This is not an Apple"-Yeast Mutualism in Codling Moth
- 2012
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Ingår i: Journal of Chemical Ecology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1573-1561 .- 0098-0331. ; 38:8, s. 949-957
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The larva of codling moth Cydia pomonella (Tortricidae, Lepidoptera) is known as the worm in the apple, mining the fruit for food. We here show that codling moth larvae are closely associated with yeasts of the genus Metschnikowia. Yeast is an essential part of the larval diet and further promotes larval survival by reducing the incidence of fungal infestations in the apple. Larval feeding, on the other hand, enables yeast proliferation on unripe fruit. Chemical, physiological and behavioral analyses demonstrate that codling moth senses and responds to yeast aroma. Female moths are attracted to fermenting yeast and lay more eggs on yeast-inoculated than on yeast-free apples. An olfactory response to yeast volatiles strongly suggests a contributing role of yeast in host finding, in addition to plant volatiles. Codling moth is a widely studied insect of worldwide economic importance, and it is noteworthy that its association with yeasts has gone unnoticed. Tripartite relationships between moths, plants, and microorganisms may, accordingly, be more widespread than previously thought. It, therefore, is important to study the impact of microorganisms on host plant ecology and their contribution to the signals that mediate host plant finding and recognition. A better comprehension of host volatile signatures also will facilitate further development of semiochemicals for sustainable insect control.
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| 20. |
- Vickers, Kim, et al.
(författare)
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Predicting island beetle faunas by their climate ranges : the tabula rasa/refugia theory in the North Atlantic
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Biogeography. - : Wiley-Blackwell. - 0305-0270 .- 1365-2699. ; 42:11, s. 2031-2048
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aim: This paper addresses two opposing theories put forward for the origins of the beetle fauna of the North Atlantic islands. The first is that the biota of the isolated oceanic islands of the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland immigrated across a Palaeogene–Neogene land bridge from Europe, and survived Pleistocene glaciations in ameliorated refugia. The second argues for a tabula rasa in which the biota of the islands was exterminated during glaciations and is Holocene in origin. The crux of these theories lies in the ability of the flora and fauna to survive in a range of environmental extremes. This paper sets out to assess the viability of the refugia hypothesis using the climatic tolerances of one aspect of the biota: the beetle fauna. Location: The paper focuses on Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Methods: The known temperature requirements of the recorded beetle faunas of the North Atlantic islands were compared with published proxy climate reconstructions for successive climate periods since the severing of a North Atlantic land bridge. We used the MCR (mutual climatic range) method available in the open access BugsCEP database software. Results: We show that most of the MCR faunas of the North Atlantic islands could not have survived in situ since the Palaeogene–Neogene, and are likely to have been exterminated by the Pleistocene glaciations. Main conclusions: The discrepancy between the climatic tolerances of the North Atlantic beetle fauna and the estimated climatic regimes since the severing of a land bridge strongly support the tabula rasa theory and suggests that the North Atlantic coleopteran fauna is Holocene in origin.
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| 21. |
- Enquist, Magnus, et al.
(författare)
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One cultural parent makes no culture
- 2010
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Ingår i: Animal Behaviour. - : Elsevier BV. - 0003-3472 .- 1095-8282. ; 79:6, s. 1353-1362
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The ability to acquire knowledge and skills from others is widespread in animals and is commonly thought to be responsible for the behavioural traditions observed in many species. However, in spite of the extensive literature on theoretical analyses and empirical studies of social learning, little attention has been given to whether individuals acquire knowledge from a single individual or multiple models. Researchers commonly refer to instances of sons learning from fathers, or daughters from mothers, while theoreticians have constructed models of uniparental transmission, with little consideration of whether such restricted modes of transmission are actually feasible. We used mathematical models to demonstrate that the conditions under which learning from a single cultural parent can lead to stable culture are surprisingly restricted ( the same reasoning applies to a single social-learning event). Conversely, we demonstrate how learning from more than one cultural parent can establish culture, and find that cultural traits will reach a nonzero equilibrium in the population provided the product of the fidelity of social learning and the number of cultural parents exceeds 1. We discuss the implications of the analysis for interpreting various findings in the animal social-learning literature, as well as the unique features of human culture.
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| 22. |
- Strand, Malin, et al.
(författare)
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Size of genera - biology or taxonomy?
- 2015
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Ingår i: Zoologica Scripta. - : Wiley. - 0300-3256 .- 1463-6409. ; 44, s. 106-116
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Annan publikation (refereegranskat)
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| 23. |
- Subhash, Santhilal, 1987, et al.
(författare)
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Sperm Originated Chromatin Imprints and LincRNAs in Organismal Development and Cancer
- 2020
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Ingår i: iScience. - : Elsevier BV. - 2589-0042. ; 23:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Importance of sperm-derived transcripts and chromatin imprints in organismal development is poorly investigated. Here using an integrative approach, we show that human sperm transcripts are equally important as oocyte. Sperm-specific and sperm-oocyte common transcripts carry distinct chromatin structures at their promoters correlating with corresponding transcript levels in sperm. Interestingly, sperm-specific H3K4me3 patterns at the lincRNA promoters are not maintained in the germ layers and somatic tissues. However, bivalent chromatin at the sperm-specific protein-coding gene promoters is maintained throughout the development. Sperm-specific transcripts reach their peak expression during zygotic genome activation, whereas sperm-oocyte common transcripts are present during early preimplantation development but decline at the onset of zygotic genome activation. Additionally, there is an inverse correlation between sperm-specific and sperm-oocyte lincRNAs throughout the development. Sperm-lincRNAs also show aberrant activation in tumors. Overall, our observations indicate that sperm transcripts carrying chromatin imprints may play an important role in human development and cancer.
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| 24. |
- Drennan, Regan, et al.
(författare)
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Annelid Fauna of the Prince Gustav Channel, a Previously Ice-Covered Seaway on the Northeastern Antarctic Peninsula
- 2021
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Marine Science. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2296-7745. ; 7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Prince Gustav Channel is a narrow seaway located in the western Weddell Sea on the northeastern-most tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. The channel is notable for both its deep (>1200 m) basins, and a dynamic glacial history that most recently includes the break-up of the Prince Gustav Ice Shelf, which covered the southern portion of the channel until its collapse in 1995. However, the channel remains mostly unsampled, with very little known about its benthic biology. We present a preliminary account of the benthic annelid fauna of the Prince Gustav Channel in addition to samples from Duse Bay, a sheltered, glacier-influenced embayment in the northwestern portion of the channel. Samples were collected using an Agassiz Trawl, targeting megafaunal and large macrofaunal sized animals at depths ranging between 200–1200 m; the seafloor and associated fauna were also documented in situ using a Shallow Underwater Camera System (SUCS). Sample sites varied in terms of depth, substrate type, and current regime, and communities were locally variable across sites in terms of richness, abundance, and both taxonomic and functional composition. The most diverse family included the motile predator/scavenger Polynoidae, with 105 individuals in at least 12 morphospecies, primarily from a single site. This study provides first insights into diverse and spatially heterogeneous benthic communities in a dynamic habitat with continuing glacial influence, filling sampling gaps in a poorly studied region of the Southern Ocean at direct risk from climate change. These specimens will also be utilized in future molecular investigations, both in terms of describing the genetic biodiversity of this site and as part of wider phylogeographic and population genetic analyses assessing the connectivity, evolutionary origins, and demographic history of annelid fauna in the region.
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| 25. |
- Blicharska, Malgorzata, et al.
(författare)
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Old Trees: Cultural Value
- 2013
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Ingår i: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 339, s. 904-
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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