Life-history evolution and the polyphenic regulation of somatic maintenance and survival.

Here we discuss life-history evolution from the perspective of adaptive phenotypic plasticity, with a focus on polyphenisms for somatic maintenance and survival. Polyphenisms are adaptive discrete alternative phenotypes that develop in response to changes in the environment. We suggest that dauer larval diapause and its associated adult phenotypes in the nematode (Caenorhabditis elegans), reproductive dormancy in the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) and other insects, and the worker castes of the honey bee (Apis mellifera) are examples of what may be viewed as the polyphenic regulation of somatic maintenance and survival. In these and other cases, the same genotype can--depending upon its environment--express either of two alternative sets of life-history phenotypes that differ markedly with respect to somatic maintenance, survival ability, and thus life span. This plastic modulation of somatic maintenance and survival has traditionally been underappreciated by researchers working on aging and life history. We review the current evidence for such adaptive life-history switches and their molecular regulation and suggest that they are caused by temporally and/or spatially varying, stressful environments that impose diversifying selection, thereby favoring the evolution of plasticity of somatic maintenance and survival under strong regulatory control. By considering somatic maintenance and survivorship from the perspective of adaptive life-history switches, we may gain novel insights into the mechanisms and evolution of aging.

Taudinaiheuttajien, lääkkeiden ja vierasaineiden vaikutuksista mehiläisen (Apis mellifera L.) tartunnanvastaiseen puolustukseen

Summary: Immunotoxic and immunomodulatory aspects of pathogens, drugs and xenobiotics in protection of the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) to infections

Relaxed selection is a precursor to the evolution of phenotypic plasticity.

Phenotypic plasticity allows organisms to produce alternative phenotypes under different conditions and represents one of the most important ways by which organisms adaptively respond to the environment. However, the relationship between phenotypic plasticity and molecular evolution remains poorly understood. We addressed this issue by investigating the evolution of genes associated with phenotypically plastic castes, sexes, and developmental stages of the fire ant Solenopsis invicta. We first determined if genes associated with phenotypic plasticity in S. invicta evolved at a rapid rate, as predicted under theoretical models. We found that genes differentially expressed between S. invicta castes, sexes, and developmental stages all exhibited elevated rates of evolution compared with ubiquitously expressed genes. We next investigated the evolutionary history of genes associated with the production of castes. Surprisingly, we found that orthologs of caste-biased genes in S. invicta and the social bee Apis mellifera evolved rapidly in lineages without castes. Thus, in contrast to some theoretical predictions, our results suggest that rapid rates of molecular evolution may not arise primarily as a consequence of phenotypic plasticity. Instead, genes evolving under relaxed purifying selection may more readily adopt new forms of biased expression during the evolution of alternate phenotypes. These results suggest that relaxed selective constraint on protein-coding genes is an important and underappreciated element in the evolutionary origin of phenotypic plasticity.

Ecological niche overlap in sister species: how do oil-collecting bees Macropis europaea and M. fulvipes (Hymenoptera: Melittidae) avoid competition and hybridization?

Oil-collecting bees are found worldwide and always in association with particular oil-producing flowers. In the Western Palearctic, three oil-collecting bee species within the genus Macropis (Hymenoptera, Melittidae) interact in a tight pollination mutualism with species of the only European oil-producing plant genus Lysimachia L. (Myrsinaceae). Two of these oil-collecting bees (Macropis europaea and Macropis fulvipes) show overlapping geographic distributions, comparable morphologies, and similar ecological characteristics (e.g., habitat type, floral preferences). In view of these similarities, we presume that hybridization should occur between the two species unless potential variation among the species' ecological niches prevents it, simultaneously decreasing competition for resources. Using modern genetic analyses and ecological niche modeling on a large bee sampling throughout Europe, we discuss new perspectives on the ecology and evolutionary history of this mutualism.

Medicinal application of long synthetic peptide technology.

This review covers the latest developments of long synthetic peptide technology for the rapid identification and development of malaria vaccine candidates and immunological modulators. A brief description of the two most common solid-phase synthetic procedures, together with the latest advances in optimisation of peptide chain assembly and analytical instrumentation, is given, with special attention to non-specialists. Several examples of vaccine candidates developed in the authors' or their collaborators' laboratories are also provided.

1209-006 Waterloo Creek Watershed Final Report

Waterloo Creek Watershed is a 30,610 acre area that straddles the Iowa and Minnesota border. The lower 43% of the watershed is in Iowa. Bee and Duck Creeks in Minnesota flow into Waterloo Creek in Iowa. Designated as a primary contact recreational stream as well as a high-quality, cold water stream in Iowa, Waterloo Creek is a popular destination for anglers and other nature enthusiasts. The stream was on the Iowa DNR’s “Impaired Waters List” in 2008 and 2010 for Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria. Samples collected in 2010 and 2011 showed higher levels of E. coli. at sites with cattle in close proximity to the stream and were generally greater after high rainfall events. Other factors affecting water quality are high turbidity levels and frequent flooding. There is a deficiency in upland land treatment and an abundance of conventional tillage which increases the amount of erosion and potential for surface runoff to carry sediment to the stream. A comprehensive watershed assessment and management plan have been completed for the watershed which identify the causes of and solutions to water quality impairments. The goals of this project are to 1) develop a formal working relationship between technical staff in Iowa and Minnesota, 2) identify specific locations for Best Management Practice (BMP) implementation, 3) reduce sediment loading to Waterloo Creek to improve aquatic habitat and decrease bacteria delivery, and 4) reduce flooding potential in the watershed. The following BMPs will be implemented to reach these goals: terraces, grade stabilization structures, pasture management, stream buffers, stream bank stabilization, and agricultural waste structures.

Odorant binding proteins of the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta: an example of the problems facing the analysis of widely divergent proteins.

We describe the odorant binding proteins (OBPs) of the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, obtained from analyses of an EST library and separate 454 sequencing runs of two normalized cDNA libraries. We identified a total of 18 putative functional OBPs in this ant. A third of the fire ant OBPs are orthologs to honey bee OBPs. Another third of the OBPs belong to a lineage-specific expansion, which is a common feature of insect OBP evolution. Like other OBPs, the different fire ant OBPs share little sequence similarity (∼ 20%), rendering evolutionary analyses difficult. We discuss the resulting problems with sequence alignment, phylogenetic analysis, and tests of selection. As previously suggested, our results underscore the importance for careful exploration of the sensitivity to the effects of alignment methods for data comprising widely divergent sequences.

¿Una imagen o mil palabras? La competencia comunicativa lingüística audiovisual encuadrada a través del cine

El documento de trabajo contiene descripción y documentación de cómo trabajar películas en el aula de lengua y literatura en la etapa de educación primaria y secundaria. El cine es la maquinaria más formidable de desplegar emociones y conectarnos con el mundo, con las personas, con la vida. Desde que nació la “pantalla fascinadora” a finales del siglo XIX, el cine ha ido evolucionando y transformándose adoptando distintas formas. Pero a pesar de ello, su fuerza comunicativa y motivadora sigue siendo fascinante, desbordante, mágica.Cada vez son más son compartidas las grandes contribuciones pedagógicas del uso del cine en clase para promover conocimientos interdisciplinarios, contextualizar contenidos de enseñanza, favorecer la identificación sujeto-objeto, recuperar el carácter documental que el cine posee desde sus inicios, ahondar en el enfoque comunicativo que proporciona para el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras, el acercamiento a la literatura, establecer y reconocer relaciones intertextuales con otros textos y para educar en el goce artístico-lúdico. A todas estas contribuciones pedagógicas tenemos que añadir que en la pantalla conviven varios lenguajes: el verbal, el no verbal y el audiovisual, fundamentales para el desarrollo del intelecto humano. La multimodalidad es inherente al lenguaje cinematográfico, y tenemos que saber leer e interpretar los mensajes en distintos códigos. Desde Cinescola defendemos la necesidad de desarrollar la alfabetización múltiple (Unión Europea, 2012), que tanto engloba las competencias de lectura como de escritura para la comprensión, utilización y evaluación crítica de diferentes formas de información y textos. En esta línea, presentaremos propuestas didácticas experimentadas para educación primaria y secundaria que fomentan la comprensión tanto del lenguaje verbal como el audiovisual. Sustentadas en el proceso de recepción lectora y sus distintas fases, se apoyan en dos estrategias clave para la fase de comprensión e interpretación: la estrategia de comparación de textos breves (cinematográfico, literario, narrativo, ilustrado, etc.) y la estrategia de traducción de textos (por ejemplo, explicar con imágenes un fragmento escrito, narrar de forma oral o escrita una secuencia fílmica, etc.). Con ello, contribuimos de forma clara al desarrollo de la competencia comunicativa lingüística y la audiovisual a partir del cine. En nuestra pantalla proyectaremos secuencias de las películas Smoke (Wang, 1995); Akeelah and the Bee (Doug Atchinson, 2006); El pequeño vampiro (Edel, 2000); Mis tardes con Margueritte (Becker, 2010); junto con la novela El cine de Claudia (Breu, 2014) para aprender cine a través de una novela.

¿ Una imagen o mil palabras? La competencia comunicativa lingüística audiovisual encuadrada a través del cine

El documento de trabajo contiene descripción y documentación de cómo trabajar películas en el aula de lengua y literatura en la etapa de educación primaria y secundaria. El cine es la maquinaria más formidable de desplegar emociones y conectarnos con el mundo, con las personas, con la vida. Desde que nació la “pantalla fascinadora” a finales del siglo XIX, el cine ha ido evolucionando y transformándose adoptando distintas formas. Pero a pesar de ello, su fuerza comunicativa y motivadora sigue siendo fascinante, desbordante, mágica.Cada vez son más son compartidas las grandes contribuciones pedagógicas del uso del cine en clase para promover conocimientos interdisciplinarios, contextualizar contenidos de enseñanza, favorecer la identificación sujeto-objeto, recuperar el carácter documental que el cine posee desde sus inicios, ahondar en el enfoque comunicativo que proporciona para el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras, el acercamiento a la literatura, establecer y reconocer relaciones intertextuales con otros textos y para educar en el goce artístico-lúdico. A todas estas contribuciones pedagógicas tenemos que añadir que en la pantalla conviven varios lenguajes: el verbal, el no verbal y el audiovisual, fundamentales para el desarrollo del intelecto humano. La multimodalidad es inherente al lenguaje cinematográfico, y tenemos que saber leer e interpretar los mensajes en distintos códigos. Desde Cinescola defendemos la necesidad de desarrollar la alfabetización múltiple (Unión Europea, 2012), que tanto engloba las competencias de lectura como de escritura para la comprensión, utilización y evaluación crítica de diferentes formas de información y textos. En esta línea, presentaremos propuestas didácticas experimentadas para educación primaria y secundaria que fomentan la comprensión tanto del lenguaje verbal como el audiovisual. Sustentadas en el proceso de recepción lectora y sus distintas fases, se apoyan en dos estrategias clave para la fase de comprensión e interpretación: la estrategia de comparación de textos breves (cinematográfico, literario, narrativo, ilustrado, etc.) y la estrategia de traducción de textos (por ejemplo, explicar con imágenes un fragmento escrito, narrar de forma oral o escrita una secuencia fílmica, etc.). Con ello, contribuimos de forma clara al desarrollo de la competencia comunicativa lingüística y la audiovisual a partir del cine. En nuestra pantalla proyectaremos secuencias de las películas Smoke (Wang, 1995); Akeelah and the Bee (Doug Atchinson, 2006); El pequeño vampiro (Edel, 2000); Mis tardes con Margueritte (Becker, 2010); junto con la novela El cine de Claudia (Breu, 2014) para aprender cine a través de una novela.

Long live the queen: studying aging in social insects

Aging is a fascinating, albeit controversial, chapter in biology. Few other subjects have elicited more than a century of ever-increasing scientific interest. In this review, we discuss studies on aging in social insects, a group of species that includes ants and termites, as well as certain bee and wasp species. One striking feature of social insects is the lifespan of queens (reproductive females), which can reach nearly 30 years in some ant species. This is over 100 times the average lifespan of solitary insects. Moreover, there is a tremendous variation in lifespan among castes, with queens living up to 500 times longer than males and 10 times longer than workers (non-reproductive individuals). This lifespan polymorphism has allowed researchers to test the evolutionary theory of aging and Y more recently Y to investigate the proximate causes of aging. The originality of these studies lies in their use of naturally evolved systems to address questions related to aging and lifespan determination that cannot be answered using the conventional model organisms.

Mehiläisen merkissä

Summary: Working as hard as a bee

The Bacterium Frischella perrara Causes Scab Formation in the Gut of its Honeybee Host.

UNLABELLED: Honeybees harbor well-defined bacterial communities in their guts. The major members of these communities appear to benefit the host, but little is known about how they interact with the host and specifically how they interface with the host immune system. In the pylorus, a short region between the midgut and hindgut, honeybees frequently exhibit scab-like structures on the epithelial gut surface. These structures are reminiscent of a melanization response of the insect immune system. Despite the wide distribution of this phenotype in honeybee populations, its cause has remained elusive. Here, we show that the presence of a common member of the bee gut microbiota, the gammaproteobacterium Frischella perrara, correlates with the appearance of the scab phenotype. Bacterial colonization precedes scab formation, and F. perrara specifically localizes to the melanized regions of the host epithelium. Under controlled laboratory conditions, we demonstrate that exposure of microbiota-free bees to F. perrara but not to other bacteria results in scab formation. This shows that F. perrara can become established in a spatially restricted niche in the gut and triggers a morphological change of the epithelial surface, potentially due to a host immune response. As an intermittent colonizer, this bacterium holds promise for addressing questions of community invasion in a simple yet relevant model system. Moreover, our results show that gut symbionts of bees engage in differential host interactions that are likely to affect gut homeostasis. Future studies should focus on how these different gut bacteria impact honeybee health. IMPORTANCE: As pollinators, honeybees are key species for agricultural and natural ecosystems. Their guts harbor simple communities composed of characteristic bacterial species. Because of these features, bees are ideal systems for studying fundamental aspects of gut microbiota-host interactions. However, little is known about how these bacteria interact with their host. Here, we show that a common member of the bee gut microbiota causes the formation of a scab-like structure on the gut epithelium of its host. This phenotype was first described in 1946, but since then it has not been much further characterized, despite being found in bee populations worldwide. The scab phenotype is reminiscent of melanization, a conserved innate immune response of insects. Our results show that high abundance of one member of the bee gut microbiota triggers this specific phenotype, suggesting that the gut microbiota composition can affect the immune status of this key pollinator species.

Phylogenomics Controlling for Base Compositional Bias Reveals a Single Origin of Eusociality in Corbiculate Bees.

As increasingly large molecular data sets are collected for phylogenomics, the conflicting phylogenetic signal among gene trees poses challenges to resolve some difficult nodes of the Tree of Life. Among these nodes, the phylogenetic position of the honey bees (Apini) within the corbiculate bee group remains controversial, despite its considerable importance for understanding the emergence and maintenance of eusociality. Here, we show that this controversy stems in part from pervasive phylogenetic conflicts among GC-rich gene trees. GC-rich genes typically have a high nucleotidic heterogeneity among species, which can induce topological conflicts among gene trees. When retaining only the most GC-homogeneous genes or using a nonhomogeneous model of sequence evolution, our analyses reveal a monophyletic group of the three lineages with a eusocial lifestyle (honey bees, bumble bees, and stingless bees). These phylogenetic relationships strongly suggest a single origin of eusociality in the corbiculate bees, with no reversal to solitary living in this group. To accurately reconstruct other important evolutionary steps across the Tree of Life, we suggest removing GC-rich and GC-heterogeneous genes from large phylogenomic data sets. Interpreted as a consequence of genome-wide variations in recombination rates, this GC effect can affect all taxa featuring GC-biased gene conversion, which is common in eukaryotes.

Própolis: 100 anos de pesquisa e suas perspectivas futuras

Propolis is a multifunctional material used by bees in the construction and maintenance of their hives. The chemical composition and pharmacological properties have been studied for centuries. Today they represent an important raw material for many health products and constitute a new interdisciplinary area for research. Among others they show important antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities and various pharmacological properties. This paper presents an overview of the scientific literature and patents concerning propolis.

Triterpenóides tipo cicloartano de própolis de Teresina - PI

The chemical study of the propolis produced in Teresina city, state of Piaui, resulted in the identification of six cycloartane triterpenoids: isomangiferolic acid, 24-methylenecycloartane-3beta,26-diol, mangiferolic acid, mangiferonic acid, ambonic acid and ambolic acid. The substances were characterized by one and two-dimensional ¹H and 13C NMR analysis.