Isolation and characterization of microsatellites in Chinese sturgeon, Acipenser sinensis

From (GATA)(n) and (AAAG)(n) enriched genomic libraries for the Chinese sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis), 50 primer pairs were developed using the fast isolation by AFLP of sequences containing repeats (FIASCO) protocol. Forty-six primer pairs exhibited highly polymorphic with two to 11 alleles per locus, while the rest four displayed monomorphic. These markers yielded 246 alleles in a survey of eight specimens of wild A. sinensis. Average observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.13 to 1.00. These loci should provide sufficient levels of genetic diversity to allow parentage analysis for artificial stocking management and delineation of fine-scale population structure.

A set of polymorphic microsatellite loci for the bay scallop, Argopecten irradians

The method of creating enriched microsatellite libraries can supply an abundant source of microsatellite sequences at a considerably reduced cost. Here we report the development of 15 polymorphic microsatellite loci from the bay scallop, Argopecten irradians, using enrichment protocol. Polymorphism was assessed in a sample of hatchery population (n = 38) revealing three to seven alleles per locus. The expected and observed heterozygosities ranged from 0.198 to 0.813 and from 0.083 to 0.833, respectively. These markers will be useful for genetic variation monitoring and parentage analysis.

Significant reproductive skew in the facultatively polygynous ant Pheidole pallidula

Reproductive skew - the extent to which reproduction is unevenly shared between individuals in a social group - varies greatly between and within animal species. In this study, we investigated how queens share parentage in polygynous (multiple queen) colonies of the Mediterranean ant Pheidole pallidula. We used highly polymorphic microsatellites markers to determine parentage of gynes (new queens), males and workers in P. pallidula field colonies. The comparison of the genotypes of young and adult workers revealed a very low queen turnover (less than 2%). The first main finding of the study of reproductive skew in these colonies was that there was a significant departure from equal contribution of queens to gyne, male and worker production. Reproductive skew was greater for male production than for queen and worker production. There was no relationship between the magnitude of the reproductive skew and the number of reproductive queens per colony, their relatedness and the overall colony productivity, some of the factors predicted to influence the extent of reproductive skew. Finally, our study revealed for the first time a trade-off in the relative contribution of nestmate queens to gyne and worker production. The queens contributing more to gyne production contributed significantly less to worker production.

Partitioning of reproduction among queens in the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile

We investigated how queens share parentage (skew) in the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile, a social insect with multiple queens (polygyny). Overall, maternity of 546 male and female sexuals that mated successfully was determined with microsatellites in 26 colonies consisting of two queens and workers. The first main finding was that queens all contributed to sexual production. However, there was a significant departure from equal contribution to male and female sexual production in a notable proportion of colonies. Overall, reproductive skew for sexual (male and female) production was relatively low but higher than reproductive skew for egg production. The second interesting result was that there was a trade-off in the relative contribution of queens to male and female production. The queens contributing more to male production contributed significantly less to female sexual production. Finally, there was no significant association between colony productivity and the degree of reproductive skew. The relatively low reproductive skew is in line with predictions of the so-called concession models of reproductive skew because, in the Argentine ant, relatedness between queens is low and ecological constraints on dispersal nonexistent or weak. © 2001 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.

Dispersal and Integration in Female Chimpanzees

In chimpanzees, most females disperse from the community in which they were born to reproduce in a new community, thereby eliminating the risk of inbreeding with close kin. However, across sites, some females breed in their natal community, raising questions about the flexibility of dispersal, the costs and benefits of different strategies and the mitigation of costs associated with dispersal and integration. In this dissertation I address these questions by combining long-term behavioral data and recent field observations on maturing and young adult females in Gombe National Park with an experimental manipulation of relationship formation in captive apes in the Congo.

To assess the risk of inbreeding for females who do and do not disperse, 129 chimpanzees were genotyped and relatedness between each dyad was calculated. Natal females were more closely related to adult community males than were immigrant females. By examining the parentage of 58 surviving offspring, I found that natal females were not more related to the sires of their offspring than were immigrant females, despite three instances of close inbreeding. The sires of all offspring were less related to the mothers than non-sires regardless of the mother’s residence status. These results suggest that chimpanzees are capable of detecting relatedness and that, even when remaining natal, females can largely avoid, though not eliminate, inbreeding.

Next, I examined whether dispersal was associated with energetic, social, physiological and/or reproductive costs by comparing immigrant (n=10) and natal (n=9) females of similar age using 2358 hours of observational data. Natal and immigrant females did not differ in any energetic metric. Immigrant females received aggression from resident females more frequently than natal females. Immigrants spent less time in social grooming and more time self-grooming than natal females. Immigrant females primarily associated with resident males, had more social partners and lacked close social allies. There was no difference in levels of fecal glucocorticoid metabolites in immigrant and natal females. Immigrant females gave birth 2.5 years later than natal females, though the survival of their first offspring did not differ. These results indicate that immigrant females in Gombe National Park do not face energetic deficits upon transfer, but they do enter a hostile social environment and have a delayed first birth.

Next, I examined whether chimpanzees use condition- and phenotype-dependent cues in making dispersal decisions. I examined the effect of social and environmental conditions present at the time females of known age matured (n=25) on the females’ dispersal decisions. Females were more likely to disperse if they had more male maternal relatives and thus, a high risk of inbreeding. Females with a high ranking mother and multiple maternal female kin tended to disperse less frequently, suggesting that a strong female kin network provides benefits to the maturing daughter. Females were also somewhat less likely to disperse when fewer unrelated males were present in the group. Habitat quality and intrasexual competition did not affect dispersal decisions. Using a larger sample of 62 females observed as adults in Gombe, I also detected an effect of phenotypic differences in personality on the female’s dispersal decisions; extraverted, agreeable and open females were less likely to disperse.

Natural observations show that apes use grooming and play as social currency, but no experimental manipulations have been carried out to measure the effects of these behaviors on relationship formation, an essential component of integration. Thirty chimpanzees and 25 bonobos were given a choice between an unfamiliar human who had recently groomed or played with them over one who did not. Both species showed a preference for the human that had interacted with them, though the effect was driven by males. These results support the idea that grooming and play act as social currency in great apes that can rapidly shape social relationships between unfamiliar individuals. Further investigation is needed to elucidate the use of social currency in female apes.

I conclude that dispersal in female chimpanzees is flexible and the balance of costs and benefits varies for each individual. Females likely take into account social cues present at maturity and their own phenotype in choosing a settlement path and are especially sensitive to the presence of maternal male kin. The primary cost associated with philopatry is inbreeding risk and the primary cost associated with dispersal is delay in the age at first birth, presumably resulting from intense social competition. Finally, apes may strategically make use of affiliative behavior in pursuing particular relationships, something that should be useful in the integration process.

Photophysics of Re(I) and Ru(II) diimine complexes covalently linked to pyrene: Contributions from intra-ligand charge transfer states

The photophysical properties of Ru(II) and Re(I) polypyridyl complexes including a bis-bipyridyl pyrene ligand are presented. The complexes ([(bpy)(2)Ru](2)bpb)(4+) and [(CO)(3)ReCl(bpb)] (bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine, bpb = 1,6-bis-(4-(2,2'-bipyrid-yl)-pyrene) were designed with the intent of examining intramolecular energy migration between MLCT states localized on the metal complexes and pyrene-localized (3)(pi-pi) states. Absorption spectroscopy of both complexes containing the bpb ligand reveals that in addition to the MLCT and the pyrene-centered (1)(pi-pi) transitions, a new absorption band is observed near 400 nm for both complexes. Absorption spectral data for the Re(I) complex strongly suggest the presence of a pyrene(pi) to bpy(pi) intraligand charge transfer (ILCT) transition. Emission spectra at room temperature and at 77 K are almost identical for the Ru(II) and Re(I) complexes containing the bpb ligand. The (3)MLCT emission of related bipyridyl compounds lacking the pyrene is observed at higher energy than for the pyrene-containing complexes, ([(bpy)(2)Ru](2)bpb)(4+) and [(CO(3)ReCl(bpb)]. The Ru(II) complex emits at room temperature with a remarkably long lifetime (130 micros in degassed DMSO). This emission is also strongly sensitive to oxygen and is almost entirely quenched in an aerated solution. In addition, excited-state absorption spectra exhibit features not consistent with (3)MLCT or (3)(pi-pi) states of the parent chromophores. The combined characteristics suggest the emission arises from either (3)(pi-pi) or (3)ILCT states or a state with mixed parentage.

Genetic maternity and paternity in a local population of armadillos assessed by microsatellite DNA markers and field data.

Genetic data from polymorphic microsatellite loci were employed to estimate paternity and maternity in a local population of nine-banded armadillos (Dasypus novemcinctus) in northern Florida. The parentage assessments took advantage of maximum likelihood procedures developed expressly for situations when individuals of neither gender can be excluded a priori as candidate parents. The molecular data for 290 individuals, interpreted alone and in conjunction with detailed biological and spatial information for the population, demonstrate high exclusion probabilities and reasonably strong likelihoods of genetic parentage assignment in many cases; low mean probabilities of successful reproductive contribution to the local population by individual armadillo adults in a given year; and statistically significant microspatial associations of parents and their offspring. Results suggest that molecular assays of highly polymorphic genetic systems can add considerable power to assessments of biological parentage in natural populations even when neither parent is otherwise known.

Low mating frequency of queens in the stingless bee Scaptotrigona postica and worker maternity of males.

Kin selection models of intracolonial conflict over the maternity of males predict that social hymenopteran workers should favour the production of sons and nephews over brothers when the effective mating frequency (me) of the queen is low (me2. Stingless bees have been used to support these models in that me within the group is considered low and workers are thought often to monopolise the parentage of males. We genetically analysed 20 worker and 20 male pupae from each of 10 colonies of the stingless bee Scaptotrigona postica (= Scaptotrigona aff. depilis) using six microsatellite loci and demonstrate queen monandry in eight nests and apparent low me in the other two. However, four colonies contained an additional matriline, possibly due to queen supersedure (serial polygyny), which complicated their genetic structure. Across colonies, workers were responsible for the maternity of 13% of all males. These data are broadly in agreement with predictions from kin selection theory, though the question remains open as to why workers do not secure a greater share of male maternity in this and other stingless bee species in which workers are more closely related to nephews than brothers.

Queen-worker conflict over male production and sex ratio in a facultatively polyandrous bumble bee, Bombus hypnorum: the consequences of nest usurpation.

Evolutionary conflicts among social hymenopteran nestmates are theoretically likely to arise over the production of males and the sex ratio. Analysis of these conflicts has become an important focus of research into the role of kin selection in shaping social traits of hymenopteran colonies. We employ microsatellite analysis of nestmates of one social hymenopteran, the primitively eusocial and monogynous bumblebee Bombus hypnorum, to evaluate these conflicts. In our 14 study colonies, B. hypnorum queens mated between one and six times (arithmetic mean 2.5). One male generally predominated, fathering most of the offspring, thus the effective number of matings was substantially lower (1–3.13; harmonic mean 1.26). In addition, microsatellite analysis allowed the detection of alien workers, those who could not have been the offspring of the queen, in approximately half the colonies. Alien workers within the same colony were probably sisters. Polyandry and alien workers resulted in high variation among colonies in their sociogenetic organization. Genetic data were consistent with the view that all males (n = 233 examined) were produced by a colony’s queen. Male parentage was therefore independent of the sociogenetic organization of the colony, suggesting that the queen, and not the workers, was in control of the laying of male-destined eggs. The population-wide sex ratio (fresh weight investment ratio) was weakly female biased. No evidence for colony-level adaptive sex ratio biasing could be detected.

Development and characterization of 11 polymorphic compound tetranucleotide microsatellite loci for the Leisler's bat, Nyctalus leisleri (Vespertilionidae, Chiroptera)

Eleven polymorphic microsatellite marker loci were developed from a Leisler's bat (Nyctalus leisleri) genomic enriched library. Assessment of the usefulness of these markers for population genetics studies of Leisler's bats was carried out by screening 100 specimens sampled from eight locations in Ireland and two in Northeastern France. Both moderately and highly polymorphic marker loci were identified. Five to 28 alleles were found to be segregating per locus with observed heterozygosities values ranging from 28.4 to 94%. Initial evaluation indicates that these microsatellites will be useful for genetic based studies aiming, for instance, at parentage and population structure of Leisler's bats.

The 1863 Melbourne Shakespeare War: Barry Sullivan, Charles and Ellen Kean, and the Play of Cultural Usurpation on the Australian Stage

This essay investigates an intricate drama of cultural identity in performances of Shakespeare on the nineteenth-century Melbourne stage. It considers the rivalry between Charles and Ellen Kean and their competitor, Barry Sullivan, for the two-month period in 1863 during which their Australian tours overlapped. This Melbourne Shakespeare war was anticipated,augmented, and richly documented in Melbourne’s papers: The Age, The Argus and Melbourne Punch. This essay pursues two seams of inquiry. The first is an investigation of the discourses of cultural and aesthetic value laced through the language of reviews of their Shakespearean roles.The essay identifies how reviewers register affective engagement with the performers in these roles, and suggests how the roles themselves reflected, by accident or design, the terms of the dispute. The second is concerned with the national identity of the actors. Kean, although born in Waterford, Ireland, had held the post of Queen Victoria’s Master of the Revels and identified himself as English. Sullivan, although born in Birmingham, was of Cork parentage and was identified as Irish by both his supporters and his detractors. This essay tracks the development of the actors’ national and artistic identities established prior to Melbourne and ask how they played out on in the context of the particularities of Australian reception. It shows that, in this instance, these actors were implicated in complex debates over national authority and cultural ownership.

Isolation and characterization of eight polymorphic microsatellite loci for Natterer's bat, Myotis nattereri (Vespertilionidae, Chiroptera)

Eight new microsatellite loci were isolated and characterized for the Natterer's bat Myotis nattereri from a microsatellite-enriched genomic library. The usefulness of these markers was assessed by screening a sample comprising 100 specimens collected from throughout the species range in Europe. Both moderately and highly polymorphic loci were identified with 3-17 alleles segregating per locus (mean 8.1 SE +/- A 0.048). No evidence for departure from HWE or linkage disequilibrium among loci was observed. These markers will provide a valuable addition to the molecular toolbox currently available for studies of population genetic structure, parentage and social organisation of M. nattereri and related species.

Molecular pedigree reconstruction and estimation of evolutionary parameters in a wild Atlantic salmon river system with incomplete sampling: a power analysis

Background: Pedigree reconstruction using genetic analysis provides a useful means to estimate fundamental population biology parameters relating to population demography, trait heritability and individual fitness when combined with other sources of data. However, there remain limitations to pedigree reconstruction in wild populations, particularly in systems where parent-offspring relationships cannot be directly observed, there is incomplete sampling of individuals, or molecular parentage inference relies on low quality DNA from archived material. While much can still be inferred from incomplete or sparse pedigrees, it is crucial to evaluate the quality and power of available genetic information a priori to testing specific biological hypotheses. Here, we used microsatellite markers to reconstruct a multi-generation pedigree of wild Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) using archived scale samples collected with a total trapping system within a river over a 10 year period. Using a simulation-based approach, we determined the optimal microsatellite marker number for accurate parentage assignment, and evaluated the power of the resulting partial pedigree to investigate important evolutionary and quantitative genetic characteristics of salmon in the system.

Results: We show that at least 20 microsatellites (ave. 12 alleles/locus) are required to maximise parentage assignment and to improve the power to estimate reproductive success and heritability in this study system. We also show that 1.5 fold differences can be detected between groups simulated to have differing reproductive success, and that it is possible to detect moderate heritability values for continuous traits (h(2) similar to 0.40) with more than 80% power when using 28 moderately to highly polymorphic markers.

Conclusion: The methodologies and work flow described provide a robust approach for evaluating archived samples for pedigree-based research, even where only a proportion of the total population is sampled. The results demonstrate the feasibility of pedigree-based studies to address challenging ecological and evolutionary questions in free-living populations, where genealogies can be traced only using molecular tools, and that significant increases in pedigree assignment power can be achieved by using higher numbers of markers.

Evaluating genetic traceability methods for captive-bred marine fish and their applications in fisheries management and wildlife forensics

Growing demands for marine fish products is leading to increased pressure on already depleted wild populations and a rise in aquaculture production. Consequently, more captive-bred fish are released into the wild through accidental escape or deliberate releases. The increased mixing of captive-bred and wild fish may affect the ecological and/or genetic integrity of wild fish populations. Unambiguous identification tools for captive-bred fish will be highly valuable to manage risks (fisheries management) and tracing of escapees and seafood products (wildlife forensics). Using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data from captive-bred and wild populations of Atlantic cod Gadus morhua L. and sole Solea solea L., we explored the efficiency of population and parentage assignment techniques for the identification and tracing of captive-bred fish. Simulated and empirical data were used to correct for stochastic genetic effects. Overall, parentage assignment performed well when a large effective population size characterized the broodstock and escapees originated from early generations of captive breeding. Consequently, parentage assignments are particularly useful from a fisheries management perspective to monitor the effects of deliberate releases of captive-bred fish on wild populations. Population assignment proved to be more efficient after several generations of captive breeding, which makes it a useful method in forensic applications for well-established aquaculture species. We suggest the implementation of a case-by-case strategy when choosing the best method.

Conflit sexuel et polyandrie de la commodité chez une espèce polygynandre: les effets combinés des processus pré- et post- copulatoires sur le succès reproducteur de "Gerris buenoi"

Chez les patineurs, des processus postcopulatoires sont documentés et un conflit sexuel sur le taux d’accouplement est démontré. Cependant, leurs effets combinés sur le succès reproducteur ont rarement été investigués. Cette étude joint une analyse de filiation génétique à des observations comportementales pour évaluer l’effet des processus pré- et post- copulatoires sur le succès reproducteur de Gerris buenoi. Nos résultats montrent la nature antagoniste des combats précopulatoires et un niveau de résistance optimal intermédiaire pour les femelles. Cependant, le taux d’accouplement n’a eu aucune influence sur le succès reproducteur des deux sexes. Un taux d’accouplement élevé permettant à des processus postcopulatoires de se mettre en place ainsi que plusieurs copulations superflues ont vraisemblablement masqué les effets attendus du taux d’accouplement. Notre étude confirme l’idée que des précisions peuvent être apportées sur les forces de sélection sexuelle en jeu lorsque l’on considère tous les épisodes d’un cycle d’accouplement chez les animaux polygynandres.