| 11. |
- Blanckenhorn, Wolf U, et al.
(författare)
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Proximate causes of Rensch's rule : Does sexual size dimorphism in arthropods result from sex differences in development time?
- 2007
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Ingår i: American Naturalist. ; 169:2, s. 245-257
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A prominent interspecific pattern of sexual size dimorphism (SSD) is Rensch's rule, according to which male body size is more variable or evolutionarily divergent than female body size. Assuming equal growth rates of males and females, SSD would be entirely mediated, and Rensch's rule proximately caused, by sexual differences in development times, or sexual bimaturism (SBM), with the larger sex developing for a proportionately longer time. Only a subset of the seven arthropod groups investigated in this study exhibits Rensch's rule. Furthermore, we found only a weak positive relationship between SSD and SBM overall, suggesting that growth rate differences between the sexes are more important than development time differences in proximately mediating SSD in a wide but by no means comprehensive range of arthropod taxa. Except when protandry is of selective advantage ( as in many butterflies, Hymenoptera, and spiders), male development time was equal to ( in water striders and beetles) or even longer than ( in drosophilid and sepsid flies) that of females. Because all taxa show female-biased SSD, this implies faster growth of females in general, a pattern markedly different from that of primates and birds (analyzed here for comparison). We discuss three potential explanations for this pattern based on life-history trade-offs and sexual selection.
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| 12. |
- Bresell, Anders, et al.
(författare)
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Bioinformatic and enzymatic characterization of the MAPEG superfamily
- 2005
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Ingår i: The FEBS Journal. - : Wiley. - 1742-464X .- 1742-4658. ; 272:7, s. 1688-1703
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The membrane associated proteins in eicosanoid and glutathione metabolism (MAPEG) superfamily includes structurally related membrane proteins with diverse functions of widespread origin. A total of 136 proteins belonging to the MAPEG superfamily were found in database and genome screenings. The members were found in prokaryotes and eukaryotes, but not in any archaeal organism. Multiple sequence alignments and calculations of evolutionary trees revealed a clear subdivision of the eukaryotic MAPEG members, corresponding to the six families of microsomal glutathione transferases (MGST) 1, 2 and 3, leukotriene C4 synthase (LTC4), 5-lipoxygenase activating protein (FLAP), and prostaglandin E synthase. Prokaryotes contain at least two distinct potential ancestral subfamilies, of which one is unique, whereas the other most closely resembles enzymes that belong to the MGST2/FLAP/LTC4 synthase families. The insect members are most similar to MGST1/prostaglandin E synthase. With the new data available, we observe that fish enzymes are present in all six families, showing an early origin for MAPEG family differentiation. Thus, the evolutionary origins and relationships of the MAPEG superfamily can be defined, including distinct sequence patterns characteristic for each of the subfamilies. We have further investigated and functionally characterized representative gene products from Escherichia coli, Synechocystis sp., Arabidopsis thaliana and Drosophila melanogaster, and the fish liver enzyme, purified from pike (Esox lucius). Protein overexpression and enzyme activity analysis demonstrated that all proteins catalyzed the conjugation of 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene with reduced glutathione. The E. coli protein displayed glutathione transferase activity of 0.11 µmol·min−1·mg−1 in the membrane fraction from bacteria overexpressing the protein. Partial purification of the Synechocystis sp. protein yielded an enzyme of the expected molecular mass and an N-terminal amino acid sequence that was at least 50% pure, with a specific activity towards 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene of 11 µmol·min−1·mg−1. Yeast microsomes expressing the Arabidopsis enzyme showed an activity of 0.02 µmol·min−1·mg−1, whereas the Drosophila enzyme expressed in E. coli was highly active at 3.6 µmol·min−1·mg−1. The purified pike enzyme is the most active MGST described so far with a specific activity of 285 µmol·min−1·mg−1. Drosophila and pike enzymes also displayed glutathione peroxidase activity towards cumene hydroperoxide (0.4 and 2.2 µmol·min−1·mg−1, respectively). Glutathione transferase activity can thus be regarded as a common denominator for a majority of MAPEG members throughout the kingdoms of life whereas glutathione peroxidase activity occurs in representatives from the MGST1, 2 and 3 and PGES subfamilies.
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| 13. |
- Friberg, Magne, et al.
(författare)
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Female mate choice determines reproductive isolation between sympatric butterflies
- 2008
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Ingår i: Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. - Berlin : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0340-5443 .- 1432-0762. ; 62:6, s. 873-886
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Animal courtship rituals are important for species recognition, and a variety of cues might be utilized to recognize conspecific mates. In this paper, we investigate different species-recognition mechanisms between two sympatric butterfly sister species: the wood white (Leptidea sinapis) and Real's wood white (Leptidea reali). We show that males of both species frequently court heterospecific females both under laboratory and field conditions. The long-lasting elaborate courtships impose energetic costs, since the second courtship of males that were introduced to two subsequent conspecific females lasted on average only one fourth as long as the first courtship. In this paper, we demonstrate that premating reproductive isolation is dependent on female unwillingness to accept heterospecific mates. We studied female and male courtship behavior, chemical signaling, and the morphology of the sexually dimorphic antennae, one of the few male traits visible for females during courtship. We found no differences in ultraviolet (UV) reflectance and only small differences in longer wavelengths and brightness, significant between-species differences, but strongly overlapping distributions of male L. sinapis and L. reali antennal morphology and chemical signals and minor differences in courtship behavior. The lack of clear-cut between-species differences further explains the lack of male species recognition, and the overall similarity might have caused the long-lasting elaborate courtships, if females need prolonged male courtships to distinguish between con- and heterospecific suitors.
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| 14. |
- Friberg, Magne, et al.
(författare)
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Generation-dependent female choice: behavioral polyphenism in a bivoltine butterfly
- 2007
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Ingår i: Behavioral Ecology. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1045-2249 .- 1465-7279. ; 18:4, s. 758-763
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Climatic and biotic circumstances vary as seasons shift, and different cohorts of multivoltine species are likely subjected to different selection regimes. The bivoltine butterfly Leptidea reali (Re´al’s wood white; Lepidoptera: Pieridae) appears during May and June in central Sweden and has a partial second generation in late July. We manipulated both generations to appear simultaneously and performed laboratory mating experiments that showed the presence of a behavioral polyphenism in mating propensity, which is induced during the developmental stages. Females of the summer generation expressed higher mating propensities than spring generation females. Spring females showed an increase in mating propensity with increasing age, whereas summer females accepted most matings already when they were only 1 or 2 days old. It is likely that larval time constraints, a lower abundance of males and a lower risk of accepting a male of their univoltine sister species Leptidea sinapis (wood white), have relaxed selection on mate discrimination among summer generation females. A major challenge for future research is to further investigate the developmental pathways causing the polyphenism and the adaptive implications of cohort dependent behaviors.
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| 15. |
- Friberg, Magne, et al.
(författare)
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Habitat choice precedes host plant choice - niche separation in a species pair of a generalist and a specialist butterfly
- 2008
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Ingår i: Oikos. - Lund : Department of Ecology, Lund university. ; 117:9, s. 1337-1344
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The sister species Leptidea reali and L. sinapis have partitioned their niches differently in different parts of their sympatric distribution. In Spain and France L. sinapis is a widespread generalist whereas L. reali is specialized on high altitude open areas. Interestingly, the reverse is true in Ireland and the Czech Republic where L. reali is widespread and L. sinapis specialized on meadows. In Sweden, L. reali is a habitat specialist confined to meadows, whereas L. sinapis is a habitat generalist also inhabiting forests. Ultimately, the geographic mosaic of niche separation is the result of local processes in each contact zone or a secondary effect of the host plant distribution, if L. sinapis and L. reali prefer different legume host plants. Hence, in Sweden L. sinapis might utilize the forest habitat either due to a wider habitat preference or due to a wider host plant preference than L. reali. Studies of wild butterflies showed that L. sinapis laid 26% of their eggs on forest-associated legumes compared to 6% in L. reali, although laboratory experiments showed that both species had virtually identical host plant preferences strongly preferring the meadow-associated legume Lathyrus pratensis. Furthermore, flight duration tests in a variety of temperatures demonstrated a between-species difference; L. sinapis females reached their flight optimum at a lower temperature than L. reali females. The lower L. sinapis flight temperature optimum is most probably a secondary effect due to habitat-specific selection, and therefore a consequence rather than the cause of the habitat partitioning. The finding that habitat choice precedes host plant choice suggests that the European geographic mosaic of niche separation, with L. sinapis and L. reali shifting habitat specialist/generalist roles, is not caused by rigid between-species differences in a related niche parameter, but instead is a result of local processes within each secondary contact zone.
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| 16. |
- Friberg, Magne, et al.
(författare)
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Host plant preference and performance of the sibling species of butterflies Leptidea sinapis and Leptidea reali : a test of the trade-off hypothesis for food specialisation.
- 2009
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Ingår i: Oecologia. - Berlin : Springer. - 0029-8549 .- 1432-1939. ; 159:1, s. 127-137
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A large proportion of phytophagous insect species are specialised on one or a few host plants, and female host plant preference is predicted to be tightly linked to high larval survival and performance on the preferred plant(s). Specialisation is likely favoured by selection under stable circumstances, since different host plant species are likely to differ in suitability-a pattern usually explained by the "trade-off hypothesis", which posits that increased performance on a given plant comes at a cost of decreased performance on other plants. Host plant specialisation is also ascribed an important role in host shift speciation, where different incipient species specialise on different host plants. Hence, it is important to determine the role of host plants when studying species divergence and niche partitioning between closely related species, such as the butterfly species pair Leptidea sinapis and Leptidea reali. In Sweden, Leptidea sinapis is a habitat generalist, appearing in both forests and meadows, whereas Leptidea reali is specialised on meadows. Here, we study the female preference and larval survival and performance in terms of growth rate, pupal weight and development time on the seven most-utilised host plants. Both species showed similar host plant rank orders, and larvae survived and performed equally well on most plants with the exceptions of two rarely utilised forest plants. We therefore conclude that differences in preference or performance on plants from the two habitats do not drive, or maintain, niche separation, and we argue that the results of this study do not support the trade-off hypothesis for host plant specialisation, since the host plant generalist Leptidea sinapis survived and performed as well on the most preferred meadow host plant Lathyrus pratensis as did Leptidea reali although the generalist species also includes other plants in its host range.
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| 17. |
- Friberg, Magne, et al.
(författare)
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Niche separation in space and time between two sympatric sister species—a case of ecological pleiotropy
- 2008
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Ingår i: Evolutionary Ecology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0269-7653 .- 1573-8477.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Abstract We investigate the niche separation in space and time between the Palearctic sister species Leptidea sinapis and L. reali (Lepidoptera, Pieridae) in central Sweden. Using field sampling, we show that L. reali is a habitat specialist confined to meadows, whereas L. sinapis is a habitat generalist also inhabiting forests. This difference in habitat utilization was corroborated by experimental release of laboratory-reared L. sinapis and L. reali in two adjacent forest and meadow habitats during their natural flight period; virtually all recaptured L. reali that were released in the forest were later caught in the meadow, whereas L. sinapis shifted equally often from meadow to forest as in the opposite direction. In the field, both species fly in May–June, but L. reali appears on average a week earlier in spring and has a substantial second generation in July, whereas L. sinapis is practically univoltine. When overwintered pupae were incubated under identical conditions in the laboratory, females did, however, not differ in phenology, and L. sinapis males actually emerged earlier than L. reali males. When larvae were reared at 23°C on the host plant Lotus corniculatus at a range of daylengths, both species produced a substantial proportion of directly developing individuals at an 18.5 h daylength or longer. When reared at 23°C and a 22 h daylength, L. reali showed an overall higher propensity to develop directly than L. sinapis on plant species originating from both the meadow and the forest habitat. Both Leptidea species showed a lower propensity to enter direct development on forest associated plants than on meadow associated plants. Hence, we suggest that the difference in phenology and voltinism between L. sinapis and L. reali is largely the result of environmentally implemented ecological pleiotropic effects caused by the between-species difference in habitat preference.
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| 18. |
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| 19. |
- Friberg, Magne, 1979-
(författare)
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The evolutionary ecology of niche separation : Studies on the sympatric butterflies Leptidea sinapis and Leptidea reali
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Studies of ecology and evolution have become largely integrated, and increasing attention is paid to the role of ecology for speciation and post speciation divergence. In this thesis I have applied an in-depth approach studying the ecology of a butterfly species pair; the morphologically virtually identical sister-species, the Wood white (Leptidea sinapis) and Reál’s wood white (Leptidea reali). PAPER I showed a quite deep between-species division in sequence data from mitochondrial DNA. The reuniting in secondary contact zones might in contrast be quite recent, as males of L. sinapis and L. reali cannot distinguish between con- and heterospecific females (PAPER II) and since the between-species niche separation is incomplete (PAPER III, IV, V). Furthermore, the two species have partitioned their niches in different directions in different European regions as the two species shift habitat generalist and specialist roles throughout their joint distribution (PAPER III). However, the local niche partitioning has resulted in species-specific adaptations in terms of propensity to enter diapause (PAPER III, V, VI), host plant acceptance (PAPER V), and in ability to use host plant as cue for the decision to enter diapause or direct development (PAPER VI). The habitat separation is decoupled from host plant preference, at least in south central Sweden (PAPER IV), which implies that selection for niche partitioning has acted on habitat preferences directly and not via divergent selection on host plant preference. Finally, there is a high cost of appearing at a site where the other species is in the majority as much time (PAPER VII) and energy (PAPER II) are devoted to court heterospecific females or being courted by heterospecific males (PAPER VII). Hence, selection likely favours habitat specialisation in the rarest species in each region, and the direction of niche separation might simply be decided by which species that reached an area first. The species that first colonises an area would then most likely become a generalist filling up all suitable habitats, whereas the second invader might be forced to specialise, as the cost of being rare is too large everywhere but in the core population. This thesis highlights the role of ecology, and especially of local processes, for post-speciation selection and character displacement.
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| 20. |
- Gustafsson, Mats, et al.
(författare)
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Effekter av vinterdäck : en kunskapsöversikt
- 2006
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Choice of winter tyres has, from mainly being a matter of safety and economic costs for wearing of road pavements, during later years also become a matter of inhalable particles formed during pavement wear from studded tyres and their negative effects on public health. Further, the tyres' effects on environment and noise have been illustrated in several studies. The issue is also complicated by the fact that tyre choice effects on traffic safety have several components, including such diverging parameters as friction and behaviour. Finally all aspects have to be evaluated from a socioeconomic point of view for society to be able to decide which kind of distribution of tyre types that is the most profitable. This report is a summary of current knowledge in this complex research field.
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