| 1. |
- Abelev, Betty, et al.
(författare)
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Long-range angular correlations on the near and away side in p-Pb collisions at root S-NN=5.02 TeV
- 2013
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Ingår i: Physics Letters. Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics. - : Elsevier BV. - 0370-2693. ; 719:1-3, s. 29-41
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Angular correlations between charged trigger and associated particles are measured by the ALICE detector in p-Pb collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV for transverse momentum ranges within 0.5 < P-T,P-assoc < P-T,P-trig < 4 GeV/c. The correlations are measured over two units of pseudorapidity and full azimuthal angle in different intervals of event multiplicity, and expressed as associated yield per trigger particle. Two long-range ridge-like structures, one on the near side and one on the away side, are observed when the per-trigger yield obtained in low-multiplicity events is subtracted from the one in high-multiplicity events. The excess on the near-side is qualitatively similar to that recently reported by the CMS Collaboration, while the excess on the away-side is reported for the first time. The two-ridge structure projected onto azimuthal angle is quantified with the second and third Fourier coefficients as well as by near-side and away-side yields and widths. The yields on the near side and on the away side are equal within the uncertainties for all studied event multiplicity and p(T) bins, and the widths show no significant evolution with event multiplicity or p(T). These findings suggest that the near-side ridge is accompanied by an essentially identical away-side ridge. (c) 2013 CERN. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 2. |
- Abelev, Betty, et al.
(författare)
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Measurement of prompt J/psi and beauty hadron production cross sections at mid-rapidity in pp collisions at root s=7 TeV
- 2012
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Ingår i: Journal of High Energy Physics. - 1029-8479. ; :11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The ALICE experiment at the LHC has studied J/psi production at mid-rapidity in pp collisions at root s = 7 TeV through its electron pair decay on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity L-int = 5.6 nb(-1). The fraction of J/psi from the decay of long-lived beauty hadrons was determined for J/psi candidates with transverse momentum p(t) > 1,3 GeV/c and rapidity vertical bar y vertical bar < 0.9. The cross section for prompt J/psi mesons, i.e. directly produced J/psi and prompt decays of heavier charmonium states such as the psi(2S) and chi(c) resonances, is sigma(prompt J/psi) (p(t) > 1.3 GeV/c, vertical bar y vertical bar < 0.9) = 8.3 +/- 0.8(stat.) +/- 1.1 (syst.)(-1.4)(+1.5) (syst. pol.) mu b. The cross section for the production of b-hadrons decaying to J/psi with p(t) > 1.3 GeV/c and vertical bar y vertical bar < 0.9 is a sigma(J/psi <- hB) (p(t) > 1.3 GeV/c, vertical bar y vertical bar < 0.9) = 1.46 +/- 0.38 (stat.)(-0.32)(+0.26) (syst.) mu b. The results are compared to QCD model predictions. The shape of the p(t) and y distributions of b-quarks predicted by perturbative QCD model calculations are used to extrapolate the measured cross section to derive the b (b) over bar pair total cross section and d sigma/dy at mid-rapidity.
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| 3. |
- Abelev, Betty, et al.
(författare)
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Underlying Event measurements in pp collisions at root s=0.9 and 7 TeV with the ALICE experiment at the LHC
- 2012
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Ingår i: Journal of High Energy Physics. - 1029-8479. ; :7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present measurements of Underlying Event observables in pp collisions at root s = 0 : 9 and 7 TeV. The analysis is performed as a function of the highest charged-particle transverse momentum p(T),L-T in the event. Different regions are defined with respect to the azimuthal direction of the leading (highest transverse momentum) track: Toward, Transverse and Away. The Toward and Away regions collect the fragmentation products of the hardest partonic interaction. The Transverse region is expected to be most sensitive to the Underlying Event activity. The study is performed with charged particles above three different p(T) thresholds: 0.15, 0.5 and 1.0 GeV/c. In the Transverse region we observe an increase in the multiplicity of a factor 2-3 between the lower and higher collision energies, depending on the track p(T) threshold considered. Data are compared to PYTHIA 6.4, PYTHIA 8.1 and PHOJET. On average, all models considered underestimate the multiplicity and summed p(T) in the Transverse region by about 10-30%.
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| 4. |
- Abbott, Jessica, et al.
(författare)
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Epigenetics and Sex-Specific Fitness : An Experimental Test Using Male-Limited Evolution in Drosophila melanogaster
- 2013
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 8:7, s. e70493-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- When males and females have different fitness optima for the same trait but share loci, intralocus sexual conflict is likely to occur. Epigenetic mechanisms such as genomic imprinting (in which expression is altered according to parent-of-origin) and sex-specific maternal effects have been suggested as ways by which this conflict can be resolved. However these ideas have not yet been empirically tested. We designed an experimental evolution protocol in Drosophila melanogaster that enabled us to look for epigenetic effects on the X-chromosome-a hotspot for sexually antagonistic loci. We used special compound-X females to enforce father-to-son transmission of the X-chromosome for many generations, and compared fitness and gene expression levels between Control males, males with a Control X-chromosome that had undergone one generation of father-son transmission, and males with an X-chromosome that had undergone many generations of father-son transmission. Fitness differences were dramatic, with experimentally-evolved males approximately 20% greater than controls, and with males inheriting a non-evolved X from their father about 20% lower than controls. These data are consistent with both strong intralocus sexual conflict and misimprinting of the X-chromosome under paternal inheritance. However, expression differences suggested that reduced fitness under paternal X inheritance was largely due to deleterious maternal effects. Our data confirm the sexually-antagonistic nature of Drosophila's X-chromosome and suggest that the response to male-limited X-chromosome evolution entails compensatory evolution for maternal effects, and perhaps modification of other epigenetic effects via coevolution of the sex chromosomes.
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| 5. |
- Bailey, Richard I., et al.
(författare)
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Female Drosophila melanogaster Gene Expression and Mate Choice : The X Chromosome Harbours Candidate Genes Underlying Sexual Isolation
- 2011
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 6:2, s. e17358-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: The evolution of female choice mechanisms favouring males of their own kind is considered a crucial step during the early stages of speciation. However, although the genomics of mate choice may influence both the likelihood and speed of speciation, the identity and location of genes underlying assortative mating remain largely unknown. Methods and Findings: We used mate choice experiments and gene expression analysis of female Drosophila melanogaster to examine three key components influencing speciation. We show that the 1,498 genes in Zimbabwean female D. melanogaster whose expression levels differ when mating with more (Zimbabwean) versus less (Cosmopolitan strain) preferred males include many with high expression in the central nervous system and ovaries, are disproportionately X-linked and form a number of clusters with low recombination distance. Significant involvement of the brain and ovaries is consistent with the action of a combination of pre- and postcopulatory female choice mechanisms, while sex linkage and clustering of genes lead to high potential evolutionary rate and sheltering against the homogenizing effects of gene exchange between populations. Conclusion: Taken together our results imply favourable genomic conditions for the evolution of reproductive isolation through mate choice in Zimbabwean D. melanogaster and suggest that mate choice may, in general, act as an even more important engine of speciation than previously realized.
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| 6. |
- Brero, Francesca, et al.
(författare)
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1H-NMR Relaxation of Ferrite Core-Shell Nanoparticles: Evaluation of the Coating Effect : Evaluation of the Coating Effect
- 2023
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Ingår i: Nanomaterials. - : MDPI AG. - 2079-4991. ; 13:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We investigated the effect of different organic coatings on the 1H-NMR relaxation properties of ultra-small iron-oxide-based magnetic nanoparticles. The first set of nanoparticles, with a magnetic core diameter ds1 = 4.4 ± 0.7 nm, was coated with polyacrylic acid (PAA) and dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA), while the second set, ds2 = 8.9 ± 0.9 nm, was coated with aminopropylphosphonic acid (APPA) and DMSA. At fixed core diameters but different coatings, magnetization measurements revealed a similar behavior as a function of temperature and field. On the other hand, the 1H-NMR longitudinal r1 nuclear relaxivity in the frequency range ν = 10 kHz ÷ 300 MHz displayed, for the smallest particles (diameter ds1), an intensity and a frequency behavior dependent on the kind of coating, thus indicating different electronic spin dynamics. Conversely, no differences were found in the r1 relaxivity of the biggest particles (ds2) when the coating was changed. It is concluded that, when the surface to volume ratio, i.e., the surface to bulk spins ratio, increases (smallest nanoparticles), the spin dynamics change significantly, possibly due to the contribution of surface spin dynamics/topology.
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| 7. |
- Collet, Julie M., et al.
(författare)
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Rapid evolution of the intersexual genetic correlation for fitness in Drosophila melanogaster
- 2016
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Ingår i: Evolution. - : Wiley. - 0014-3820 .- 1558-5646. ; 70:4, s. 781-795
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sexual antagonism (SA) arises when male and female phenotypes are under opposing selection, yet genetically correlated. Until resolved, antagonism limits evolution toward optimal sex-specific phenotypes. Despite its importance for sex-specific adaptation and existing theory, the dynamics of SA resolution are not well understood empirically. Here, we present data from Drosophila melanogaster, compatible with a resolution of SA. We compared two independent replicates of the LHM population in which SA had previously been described. Both had been maintained under identical, controlled conditions, and separated for around 200 generations. Although heritabilities of male and female fitness were similar, the intersexual genetic correlation differed significantly, being negative in one replicate (indicating SA) but close to zero in the other. Using population sequencing, we show that phenotypic differences were associated with population divergence in allele frequencies at nonrandom loci across the genome. Large frequency changes were more prevalent in the population without SA and were enriched at loci mapping to genes previously shown to have sexually antagonistic relationships between expression and fitness. Our data suggest that rapid evolution toward SA resolution has occurred in one of the populations and open avenues toward studying the genetics of SA and its resolution.
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| 8. |
- Gao, Yongzhi, et al.
(författare)
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Potent Inhibition of Nicotinamide N-Methyltransferase by Alkene-Linked Bisubstrate Mimics Bearing Electron Deficient Aromatics
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0022-2623 .- 1520-4804. ; 64:17, s. 12938-12963
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT) methylates nicotinamide (vitamin B3) to generate 1-methylnicotinamide (MNA). NNMT overexpression has been linked to a variety of diseases, most prominently human cancers, indicating its potential as a therapeutic target. The development of small-molecule NNMT inhibitors has gained interest in recent years, with the most potent inhibitors sharing structural features based on elements of the nicotinamide substrate and the S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) cofactor. We here report the development of new bisubstrate inhibitors that include electron-deficient aromatic groups to mimic the nicotinamide moiety. In addition, a trans-alkene linker was found to be optimal for connecting the substrate and cofactor mimics in these inhibitors. The most potent NNMT inhibitor identified exhibits an IC50 value of 3.7 nM, placing it among the most active NNMT inhibitors reported to date. Complementary analytical techniques, modeling studies, and cell-based assays provide insights into the binding mode, affinity, and selectivity of these inhibitors.
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| 9. |
- Gosden, Thomas, et al.
(författare)
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The B-matrix harbors significant and sex-specific constraints on the evolution of multicharacter sexual dimorphism.
- 2012
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Ingår i: Evolution. - : Wiley. - 1558-5646 .- 0014-3820. ; 66:7, s. 2106-2116
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The extent to which sexual dimorphism can evolve within a population depends on an interaction between sexually divergent selection and constraints imposed by a genetic architecture that is shared between males and females. The degree of constraint within a population is normally inferred from the intersexual genetic correlation, r(mf) . However, such bivariate correlations ignore the potential constraining effect of genetic covariances between other sexually coexpressed traits. Using the fruit fly Drosophila serrata, a species that exhibits mutual mate preference for blends of homologous contact pheromones, we tested the impact of between-sex between-trait genetic covariances using an extended version of the genetic variance-covariance matrix, G, that includes Lande's (1980) between-sex covariance matrix, B. We find that including B greatly reduces the degree to which male and female traits are predicted to diverge in the face of divergent phenotypic selection. However, the degree to which B alters the response to selection differs between the sexes. The overall rate of male trait evolution is predicted to decline, but its direction remains relatively unchanged, whereas the opposite is found for females. We emphasize the importance of considering the B-matrix in microevolutionary studies of constraint on the evolution of sexual dimorphism.
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| 10. |
- Ingleby, F. C., et al.
(författare)
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Between-sex genetic covariance constrains the evolution of sexual dimorphism in Drosophila melanogaster
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Evolutionary Biology. - : Wiley. - 1010-061X .- 1420-9101. ; 27:8, s. 1721-1732
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Males and females share much of their genome, and as a result, intralocus sexual conflict is generated when selection on a shared trait differs between the sexes. This conflict can be partially or entirely resolved via the evolution of sex-specific genetic variation that allows each sex to approach, or possibly achieve, its optimum phenotype, thereby generating sexual dimorphism. However, shared genetic variation between the sexes can impose constraints on the independent expression of a shared trait in males and females, hindering the evolution of sexual dimorphism. Here, we examine genetic constraints on the evolution of sexual dimorphism in Drosophila melanogaster cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) expression. We use the extended G matrix, which includes the between-sex genetic covariances that constitute the B matrix, to compare genetic constraints on two sets of CHC traits that differ in the extent of their sexual dimorphism. We find significant genetic constraints on the evolution of further dimorphism in the least dimorphic traits, but no such constraints for the most dimorphic traits. We also show that the genetic constraints on the least dimorphic CHCs are asymmetrical between the sexes. Our results suggest that there is evidence both for resolved and ongoing sexual conflict in D. melanogaster CHC profiles.
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| 11. |
- Innocenti, Paolo, et al.
(författare)
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A joint index for the intensity of sex-specific selection
- 2010
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Ingår i: Evolution. - : Wiley. - 0014-3820 .- 1558-5646. ; 64:9, s. 2775-2778
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A growing body of experimental and field data shows that selective pressures often differ between males and females. Surprisingly, to date, little attempt has been made to formalize a metric expressing the relative behavior of directional selection in the two sexes. We propose an index that describes the extent to which concordant or antagonistic selection is operating between the sexes for a given trait. This joint index could prove especially useful for the study of intralocus sexual conflict and the evolution of sexual dimorphism, providing a common scale to directly compare different traits within or among taxonomic levels, and allowing an assessment on how common sexually antagonistic selection might be in extant populations.
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| 12. |
- Innocenti, Paolo, et al.
(författare)
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Experimental Evidence Supports a Sex-Specific Selective Sieve in Mitochondrial Genome Evolution
- 2011
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Ingår i: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 332:6031, s. 845-848
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mitochondria are maternally transmitted; hence, their genome can only make a direct and adaptive response to selection through females, whereas males represent an evolutionary dead end. In theory, this creates a sex-specific selective sieve, enabling deleterious mutations to accumulate in mitochondrial genomes if they exert male-specific effects. We tested this hypothesis, expressing five mitochondrial variants alongside a standard nuclear genome in Drosophila melanogaster, and found striking sexual asymmetry in patterns of nuclear gene expression. Mitochondrial polymorphism had few effects on nuclear gene expression in females but major effects in males, modifying nearly 10% of transcripts. These were mostly male-biased in expression, with enrichment hotspots in the testes and accessory glands. Our results suggest an evolutionary mechanism that results in mitochondrial genomes harboring male-specific mutation loads.
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| 13. |
- Innocenti, Paolo, et al.
(författare)
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Female responses to experimental removal of sexual selection components in Drosophila melanogaster
- 2014
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Ingår i: BMC Evolutionary Biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1471-2148. ; 14, s. 239-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Despite the common assumption that multiple mating should in general be favored in males, but not in females, to date there is no consensus on the general impact of multiple mating on female fitness. Notably, very little is known about the genetic and physiological features underlying the female response to sexual selection pressures. By combining an experimental evolution approach with genomic techniques, we investigated the effects of single and multiple matings on female fecundity and gene expression. We experimentally manipulated the opportunity for mating in replicate populations of Drosophila melanogaster by removing components of sexual selection, with the aim of testing differences in short term post-mating effects of females evolved under different mating strategies. Results: We show that monogamous females suffer decreased fecundity, a decrease that was partially recovered by experimentally reversing the selection pressure back to the ancestral state. The post-mating gene expression profiles of monogamous females differ significantly from promiscuous females, involving 9% of the genes tested (approximately 6% of total genes in D. melanogaster). These transcripts are active in several tissues, mainly ovaries, neural tissues and midgut, and are involved in metabolic processes, reproduction and signaling pathways. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate how the female post-mating response can evolve under different mating systems, and provide novel insights into the genes targeted by sexual selection in females, by identifying a list of candidate genes responsible for the decrease in female fecundity in the absence of promiscuity.
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| 14. |
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| 15. |
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| 16. |
- Innocenti, Paolo, et al.
(författare)
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Interspecific Divergence of Transcription Networks along Lines of Genetic Variance in Drosophila : Dimensionality, Evolvability, and Constraint
- 2013
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Ingår i: Molecular biology and evolution. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0737-4038 .- 1537-1719. ; 30:6, s. 1358-1367
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Change in gene expression is a major facilitator of phenotypic evolution. Understanding the evolutionary potential of gene expression requires taking into account complex systems of regulatory networks, the structure of which could potentially bias evolutionary trajectories. We analyzed the evolutionary potential and divergence of multigene expression in three well-characterized signaling pathways in Drosophila, the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MapK), the Toll, and the insulin receptor/Foxo (InR/Foxo or InR/TOR) pathways in a multivariate quantitative genetic framework. Gene expression data from a natural population of D. melanogaster were used to estimate the genetic variance-covariance matrices (G) for each network. Although most genes within each pathway exhibited significant genetic variance, the number of independent dimensions of multivariate genetic variance was fewer than the number of genes analyzed. However, for expression, the reduction in dimensionality was not as large as seen for other trait types such as morphology. We then tested whether gene expression divergence between D. melanogaster and an additional six species of the Drosophila genus was biased along the major axes of standing variation observed in D. melanogaster. In many cases, divergence was restricted to directions of phenotypic space harboring above average levels of genetic variance in D. melanogaster, indicating that genetic covariances between genes within pathways have biased interspecific divergence. We tested whether co-expression of genes in both sexes has also biased the pattern of divergence. Including cross-sex genetic covariances increased the degree to which divergence was biased along major axes of genetic variance, suggesting that the co-expression of genes in males and females can generate further constraints on divergence across the Drosophila phylogeny. In contrast to patterns seen for morphological traits in vertebrates, transcriptional constraints do not appear to break down as divergence time between species increases, instead they persist over tens of millions of years of divergence.
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| 17. |
- Innocenti, Paolo
(författare)
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Sexual conflict and gene expression Exploring sex-specific associations between fitness and transcriptional variation
- 2011
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Ingår i: Fly. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1933-6934 .- 1933-6942. ; 5:1, s. 10-13
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In recent years, the field of evolutionary biology received a fresh impulse from the increased technical and logistical availability and cost-effectiveness of genomics techniques. In particular, we have for the first time the opportunity to effectively explore and understand the genetic basis of traits variation in laboratory (and ultimately wild) populations. Traits that are most relevant in -evolutionary and ecological contexts (e.g., morphological, life-history and behavioral traits) typically show a complex genetic architecture, being affected by many loci with small effect. Such loci often interact with one another over the same trait (epistasis), affect several traits simultaneously (pleiotropy), and/or depend in their effects on the "environmental condition" in which they are expressed (genotype by environment interactions). Modern genomics offers tools, such as microarrays and high-throughput sequencing, to gather an unprecedented amount of data on gene expression and sequence variation, and can be used in the attempt to construct a genotype-phenotype map, linking genes (or gene networks), and the variation in their sequence and expression, with the natural variation of phenotypic characters.(1)
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| 18. |
- Innocenti, Paolo, 1981-
(författare)
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Sexual Conflict and Gene Expression in Drosophila melanogaster
- 2011
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Konstnärligt arbete (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Sexual conflict is broadly defined as a conflict between the evolutionary interests of the two sexes. Depending on the genetic architecture of the traits involved, it can occur at the level of male-female interactions or take the form of selection acting to change the mean of a shared trait against the sign of its genetic correlation. The aim of my thesis was to use genome-wide expression profiles in the model organism Drosophila melanogaster to provide novel insights in the study of sexual conflict. First, we studied the female post-mating response to partition transcriptional changes associated with reproduction from male-induced effects, which are known to be harmful to females. We found substantial changes in expression of metabolic pathways associated with the activation of reproduction, while male-specific effects were dominated by the onset of an immune response. Changes in female response under different mating strategies was studied using experimental evolution: we found that monogamous females suffered decreased fecundity and their gene expression profiles suggested an overall weaker response to mating. To identify sexually antagonistic genes, we used hemiclonal lines and associated their sex-specific fitness with genome-wide transcript abundance. We confirmed the presence of a negative covariance for fitness and identified a group of candidate genes experiencing sexually antagonistic selection. We then focused on mitochondria, which can enable the accumulation of deleterious mutations with sex-specific effects due to their maternal inheritance, and found few effects on nuclear gene expression in females but major effects in males, predominantly in male-specific tissues. Finally, we used published data to compare intraspecific and interspecific genetic variation for a set of transcripts, to test whether speciation occurs along lines of maximum genetic variance. In conclusion, gene expression techniques can generate useful results in the study of sexual conflict, particularly in association with phenotypic data or when integrated with published datasets.
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| 19. |
- Innocenti, Paolo, et al.
(författare)
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The Sexually Antagonistic Genes of Drosophila melanogaster
- 2010
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Ingår i: PLoS biology. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1544-9173 .- 1545-7885. ; 8:3, s. e1000335-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- When selective pressures differ between males and females, the genes experiencing these conflicting evolutionary forces are said to be sexually antagonistic. Although the phenotypic effect of these genes has been documented in both wild and laboratory populations, their identity, number, and location remains unknown. Here, by combining data on sex-specific fitness and genome-wide transcript abundance in a quantitative genetic framework, we identified a group of candidate genes experiencing sexually antagonistic selection in the adult, which correspond to 8% of Drosophila melanogaster genes. As predicted, the X chromosome is enriched for these genes, but surprisingly they represent only a small proportion of the total number of sex-biased transcripts, indicating that the latter is a poor predictor of sexual antagonism. Furthermore, the majority of genes whose expression profiles showed a significant relationship with either male or female adult fitness are also sexually antagonistic. These results provide a first insight into the genetic basis of intralocus sexual conflict and indicate that genetic variation for fitness is dominated and maintained by sexual antagonism, potentially neutralizing any indirect genetic benefits of sexual selection.
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| 20. |
- Morrow, Edward H., et al.
(författare)
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Female postmating immune responses, immune system evolution and immunogenic males
- 2012
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Ingår i: Biological Reviews. - 1464-7931 .- 1469-185X. ; 87:3, s. 631-638
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Females in many taxa experience postmating activation of their immune system, independently of any genital trauma or pathogenic attack arising from male-female genital contact. This response has always been interpreted as a product of natural selection as it either prepares the female immune system for antigens arising from an implanted embryo (in the case of placental mammals), or is a pre-emptive strike against infection or injury acquired during mating. While the first hypothesis has empirical support, the second is not entirely satisfactory. Recently, studies that have experimentally dissected the postmating responses of Drosophila melanogaster females point to a different explanation: male reproductive peptides/proteins that have evolved in response to postmating male-male competition are directly responsible for activating particular elements of the female immune system. Thus, in a broad sense, males may be said to be immunogenic to females. Here, we discuss a possible direct role of sexual selection/sexual conflict in immune system evolution, in contrast to indirect trade-offs with other life-history traits, presenting the available evidence from a range of taxa and proposing ways in which the competing hypotheses could be tested. The major implication of this review is that immune system evolution is not only a product of natural selection but also that sexual selection and potentially sexual conflict enforces a direct selective pressure. This is a significant shift, and will compel researchers studying immune system evolution and ecological immunity to look beyond the forces generated by parasites and pathogens to those generated by the male ejaculate.
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| 21. |
- Pettersen, Emily, 1996, et al.
(författare)
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Surgical treatments for postamputation pain: study protocol for an international, double-blind, randomised controlled trial
- 2023
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Ingår i: Trials. - 1745-6215 .- 1745-6215. ; 24:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Painful conditions such as residual limb pain (RLP) and phantom limb pain (PLP) can manifest after amputation. The mechanisms underlying such postamputation pains are diverse and should be addressed accordingly. Different surgical treatment methods have shown potential for alleviating RLP due to neuroma formation - commonly known as neuroma pain - and to a lesser degree PLP. Two reconstructive surgical interventions, namely targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR) and regenerative peripheral nerve interface (RPNI), are gaining popularity in postamputation pain treatment with promising results. However, these two methods have not been directly compared in a randomised controlled trial (RCT). Here, we present a study protocol for an international, double-blind, RCT to assess the effectiveness of TMR, RPNI, and a non-reconstructive procedure called neuroma transposition (active control) in alleviating RLP, neuroma pain, and PLP. METHODS: One hundred ten upper and lower limb amputees suffering from RLP will be recruited and assigned randomly to one of the surgical interventions (TMR, RPNI, or neuroma transposition) in an equal allocation ratio. Complete evaluations will be performed during a baseline period prior to the surgical intervention, and follow-ups will be conducted in short term (1, 3, 6, and 12 months post-surgery) and in long term (2 and 4 years post-surgery). After the 12-month follow-up, the study will be unblinded for the evaluator and the participants. If the participant is unsatisfied with the outcome of the treatment at that time, further treatment including one of the other procedures will be discussed in consultation with the clinical investigator at that site. DISCUSSION: A double-blind RCT is necessary for the establishment of evidence-based procedures, hence the motivation for this work. In addition, studies on pain are challenging due to the subjectivity of the experience and the lack of objective evaluation methods. Here, we mitigate this problem by including different pain evaluation methods known to have clinical relevance. We plan to analyse the primary variable, mean change in NRS (0-10) between baseline and the 12-month follow-up, using the intention-to-treat (ITT) approach to minimise bias and keep the advantage of randomisation. The secondary outcomes will be analysed on both ITT and per-protocol (PP). An adherence protocol (PP population) analysis will be used for estimating a more realistic effect of treatment. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClincialTrials.gov NCT05009394.
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