Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2014-09"
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- Evolution of Escherichia coli to Macrophage Cell LinePublication . Miskinyte, Migla; Gordo, IsabelThe genomes of species of Escherichia coli (E. coli) show an extraordinary amount of diversity, which include commensal strains and strains belonging to different pathovars. Many strains of E. coli, which can cause mild or severe pathologies in humans, have a commensal ancestor. Understanding the evolutionary changes that can lead to a transition from commensal to pathogen is an important task, which requires integration of different methodologies. One method is experimental evolution of bacteria, in controlled environments, that mimic some of the selective pressures, likely to be important during the transition to pathogenesis. The success of such a transition will depend, at least partially, on ability of E. coli to adapt to the presence of cells of the immune system. Here, we describe a protocol for performing experimental evolution of a commensal strain of E. coli, a derivative of the well studied K12, under the constant selective pressure imposed by cells of the innate immune system, specifically RAW 264.7 murine macrophage cell line.
- Is Diagnosability an Indicator of Speciation? Response to "Why One Century of Phenetics Is Enough"Publication . Heller, R.; Frandsen, P.; Lorenzen, E. D.; Siegismund, H. R.Recently (Heller et al. 2013; H&A), we commented on a revision of the bovid taxonomy, which proposes a doubling in the number of recognized species (Groves and Grubb 2011; G&G). The subsequent response by Cotterill et al. (2014; C&A) contains a number of misunderstandings and leaves much of the critique voiced in our paper unanswered, focusing instead on species ontologies and taxonomic history. C&A argue strongly against phenetics, morphospecies, and taxonomic conservatism, ascribing us views that we do not hold and hence confusing the substance of our disagreement. These misconceptions oblige us to clarify our views on certain key issues to avoid being misrepresented. More seriously, however, the authors fail to respond to, or acknowledge, some of our crucial practical concerns, notably the risk of taxonomic inflation (Isaac et al. 2004) posed by their diagnostic phylogenetic species concept (dPSC). Here, we restate a number of our concerns regarding the proposed bovid taxonomy of G&G and discuss their treatment in C&A.
- Ecdysteroid Hormones Link the Juvenile Environment to Alternative Adult Life Histories in a Seasonal InsectPublication . Oostra, Vicencio; Mateus, Ana Rita A.; van der Burg, Karin R. L.; Piessens, Thomas; van Eijk, Marleen; Brakefield, Paul M.; Beldade, Patrícia; Zwaan, Bas J.The conditional expression of alternative life strategies is a widespread feature of animal life and a pivotal adaptation to life in seasonal environments. To optimally match suites of traits to seasonally changing ecological opportunities, animals living in seasonal environments need mechanisms linking information on environmental quality to resource allocation decisions. The butterfly Bicyclus anynana expresses alternative adult life histories in the alternating wet and dry seasons of its habitat as endpoints of divergent developmental pathways triggered by seasonal variation in preadult temperature. Pupal ecdysteroid hormone titers are correlated with the seasonal environment, but whether they play a functional role in coordinating the coupling of adult traits in the alternative life histories is unknown. Here, we show that manipulating pupal ecdysteroid levels is sufficient to mimic in direction and magnitude the shifts in adult reproductive resource allocation normally induced by seasonal temperature. Crucially, this allocation shift is accompanied by changes in ecologically relevant traits, including timing of reproduction, life span, and starvation resistance. Together, our results support a functional role for ecdysteroids during development in mediating strategic reproductive investment decisions in response to predictive indicators of environmental quality. This study provides a physiological mechanism for adaptive developmental plasticity, allowing organisms to cope with variable environments.
- Fitness Measurements of Evolved Esherichia coliPublication . Miskinyte, Migla; Gordo, IsabelBacteria can adapt very rapidly to novel selective pressures. In the transition from commensalism to pathogenicity bacteria have to face and adapt to the host immune system. Specifically, the antagonistic interaction imposed by one of the first line of defense of innate immunity cells, macrophages, on commensal bacteria, such as Escherichia coli (E. coli), can lead to its rapid adaptation. Such adaptation is characterized by the emergence of clones with mutations that allow them to better escape macrophage phagocytosis. Here, we describe how to quantify the amount of fitness increase of bacterial clones that evolved under the constant selective pressure of macrophages, from a murine cell line RAW 264.7. The most widely used assay for measuring fitness changes along an evolutionary laboratory experiment is a competitive fitness assay. This assay consists of determining how fast an evolved strain outcompetes the ancestral in a competition where each starts at equal frequency. The strains compete in the same environment of the evolution experiment and if the evolved strain has acquired strong beneficial mutations it will become significantly overrepresented in repeated competitive fitness assays.
- Symbionts commonly provide broad spectrum resistance to viruses in insects: a comparative analysis of Wolbachia strainsPublication . Martinez, Julien; Longdon, Ben; Bauer, Simone; Chan, Yuk-Sang; Miller, Wolfgang J; Bourtzis, Kostas; Teixeira, Luis; Jiggins, Francis MIn the last decade, bacterial symbionts have been shown to play an important role in protecting hosts against pathogens. Wolbachia, a widespread symbiont in arthropods, can protect Drosophila and mosquito species against viral infections. We have investigated antiviral protection in 19 Wolbachia strains originating from 16 Drosophila species after transfer into the same genotype of Drosophila simulans. We found that approximately half of the strains protected against two RNA viruses. Given that 40% of terrestrial arthropod species are estimated to harbour Wolbachia, as many as a fifth of all arthropods species may benefit from Wolbachia-mediated protection. The level of protection against two distantly related RNA viruses--DCV and FHV--was strongly genetically correlated, which suggests that there is a single mechanism of protection with broad specificity. Furthermore, Wolbachia is making flies resistant to viruses, as increases in survival can be largely explained by reductions in viral titer. Variation in the level of antiviral protection provided by different Wolbachia strains is strongly genetically correlated to the density of the bacteria strains in host tissues. We found no support for two previously proposed mechanisms of Wolbachia-mediated protection--activation of the immune system and upregulation of the methyltransferase Dnmt2. The large variation in Wolbachia's antiviral properties highlights the need to carefully select Wolbachia strains introduced into mosquito populations to prevent the transmission of arboviruses.
- The representativeness of a European multi-center network for influenza-like-illness participatory surveillancePublication . Cantarelli, Pietro; Debin, Marion; Turbelin, Clément; Poletto, Chiara; Blanchon, Thierry; Falchi, Alessandra; Hanslik, Thomas; Bonmarin, Isabelle; Levy-Bruhl, Daniel; Micheletti, Alessandra; Paolotti, Daniela; Vespignani, Alessandro; Edmunds, John; Eames, Ken; Smallenburg, Ronald; Koppeschaar, Carl; Franco, Ana O; Faustino, Vitor; Carnahan, AnnaSara; Rehn, Moa; Colizza, VittoriaThe Internet is becoming more commonly used as a tool for disease surveillance. Similarly to other surveillance systems and to studies using online data collection, Internet-based surveillance will have biases in participation, affecting the generalizability of the results. Here we quantify the participation biases of Influenzanet, an ongoing European-wide network of Internet-based participatory surveillance systems for influenza-like-illness.
- Abscisic Acid (ABA) Regulation of Arabidopsis SR Protein Gene ExpressionPublication . Cruz, Tiago; Carvalho, Raquel; Richardson, Dale; Duque, PaulaSerine/arginine-rich (SR) proteins are major modulators of alternative splicing, a key generator of proteomic diversity and flexible means of regulating gene expression likely to be crucial in plant environmental responses. Indeed, mounting evidence implicates splicing factors in signal transduction of the abscisic acid (ABA) phytohormone, which plays pivotal roles in the response to various abiotic stresses. Using real-time RT-qPCR, we analyzed total steady-state transcript levels of the 18 SR and two SR-like genes from Arabidopsis thaliana in seedlings treated with ABA and in genetic backgrounds with altered expression of the ABA-biosynthesis ABA2 and the ABA-signaling ABI1 and ABI4 genes. We also searched for ABA-responsive cis elements in the upstream regions of the 20 genes. We found that members of the plant-specific SC35-Like (SCL) Arabidopsis SR protein subfamily are distinctively responsive to exogenous ABA, while the expression of seven SR and SR-related genes is affected by alterations in key components of the ABA pathway. Finally, despite pervasiveness of established ABA-responsive promoter elements in Arabidopsis SR and SR-like genes, their expression is likely governed by additional, yet unidentified cis-acting elements. Overall, this study pinpoints SR34, SR34b, SCL30a, SCL28, SCL33, RS40, SR45 and SR45a as promising candidates for involvement in ABA-mediated stress responses.
- Hope for GWAS: Relevant Risk Genes Uncovered from GWAS Statistical NoisePublication . Correia, Catarina; Diekmann, Yoan; Vicente, Astrid; Pereira-Leal, JoséHundreds of genetic variants have been associated to common diseases through genome-wide association studies (GWAS), yet there are limits to current approaches in detecting true small effect risk variants against a background of false positive findings. Here we addressed the missing heritability problem, aiming to test whether there are indeed risk variants within GWAS statistical noise and to develop a systematic strategy to retrieve these hidden variants. Employing an integrative approach, which combines protein-protein interactions with association data from GWAS for 6 common diseases, we found that associated-genes at less stringent significance levels (p < 0.1) with any of these diseases are functionally connected beyond noise expectation. This functional coherence was used to identify disease-relevant subnetworks, which were shown to be enriched in known genes, outperforming the selection of top GWAS genes. As a proof of principle, we applied this approach to breast cancer, supporting well-known breast cancer genes, while pinpointing novel susceptibility genes for experimental validation. This study reinforces the idea that GWAS are under-analyzed and that missing heritability is rather hidden. It extends the use of protein networks to reveal this missing heritability, thus leveraging the large investment in GWAS that produced so far little tangible gain.
- Hope for GWAS: Relevant Risk Genes Uncovered from GWAS Statistical NoisePublication . Correia, Catarina; Diekmann, Yoan; Vicente, Astrid; Pereira-Leal, JoséHundreds of genetic variants have been associated to common diseases through genome-wide association studies (GWAS), yet there are limits to current approaches in detecting true small effect risk variants against a background of false positive findings. Here we addressed the missing heritability problem, aiming to test whether there are indeed risk variants within GWAS statistical noise and to develop a systematic strategy to retrieve these hidden variants. Employing an integrative approach, which combines protein-protein interactions with association data from GWAS for 6 common diseases, we found that associated-genes at less stringent significance levels (p < 0.1) with any of these diseases are functionally connected beyond noise expectation. This functional coherence was used to identify disease-relevant subnetworks, which were shown to be enriched in known genes, outperforming the selection of top GWAS genes. As a proof of principle, we applied this approach to breast cancer, supporting well-known breast cancer genes, while pinpointing novel susceptibility genes for experimental validation. This study reinforces the idea that GWAS are under-analyzed and that missing heritability is rather hidden. It extends the use of protein networks to reveal this missing heritability, thus leveraging the large investment in GWAS that produced so far little tangible gain.
- Behavioural Stress Responses Predict Environmental Perception in European Sea Bass (Dicentrarchus labrax)Publication . Millot, Sandie; Cerqueira, Marco; Castanheira, Maria-Filipa; Øverli, Øyvind; Oliveira, Rui F.; Martins, Catarina I. M.Individual variation in the response to environmental challenges depends partly on innate reaction norms, partly on experience-based cognitive/emotional evaluations that individuals make of the situation. The goal of this study was to investigate whether pre-existing differences in behaviour predict the outcome of such assessment of environmental cues, using a conditioned place preference/avoidance (CPP/CPA) paradigm. A comparative vertebrate model (European sea bass, Dicentrarchus labrax) was used, and ninety juvenile individuals were initially screened for behavioural reactivity using a net restraining test. Thereafter each individual was tested in a choice tank using net chasing as aversive stimulus or exposure to familiar conspecifics as appetitive stimulus in the preferred or non preferred side respectively (called hereafter stimulation side). Locomotor behaviour (i.e. time spent, distance travelled and swimming speed in each tank side) of each individual was recorded and analysed with video software. The results showed that fish which were previously exposed to appetitive stimulus increased significantly the time spent on the stimulation side, while aversive stimulus led to a strong decrease in time spent on the stimulation side. Moreover, this study showed clearly that proactive fish were characterised by a stronger preference for the social stimulus and when placed in a putative aversive environment showed a lower physiological stress responses than reactive fish. In conclusion, this study showed for the first time in sea bass, that the CPP/CPA paradigm can be used to assess the valence (positive vs. negative) that fish attribute to different stimuli and that individual behavioural traits is predictive of how stimuli are perceived and thus of the magnitude of preference or avoidance behaviour.