Reduced heterozygosity impairs sperm quality in endangered mammals.

abstract：:The relationship between algae and their zooplanktonic predators typically involves consumption of nutrients by algae, grazing of the algae by zooplankton which in turn enhances predator biomass, controls algal growth and regenerates nutrients. Eutrophication raises nutrient levels, but does not simply increase normal...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Mitra A,Flynn KJ

更新日期：2006-06-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Predator foraging may be affected by previous prey capture, but it is unknown how nutrient balance affects foraging behaviour. Here, we use a trap-building predator to test whether nutrients from previous prey captures affect foraging behaviour. We fed orb-weaving spiders (Zygiella x-notata) prey flies of different nu...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Mayntz D,Toft S,Vollrath F

更新日期：2009-12-23 00:00:00

abstract：:The dynamics of leaf nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) have been intensively explored in short-term experiments, but rarely at longer timescales. Here, we investigated leaf N : P stoichiometry over a 27-year interval in an Inner Mongolia grassland by comparing leaf N : P concentration of 2006 with that of 1979. Across 8...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Mi Z,Huang Y,Gan H,Zhou W,Flynn DF,He JS

更新日期：2015-01-01 00:00:00

abstract：:The fitness landscape-the function that relates genotypes to fitness-and its role in directing evolution are a central object of evolutionary biology. However, its huge dimensionality precludes understanding of even the basic aspects of its shape. One way to approach it is to ask a simpler question: what are the prope...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Bazykin GA

更新日期：2015-10-01 00:00:00

abstract：:The response to intradermally injected phytohaemagglutinin (PHA-response) is a commonly used quantification of avian immunocompetence (the ability to resist pathogens). Parasite-mediated sexual selection requires heritable immunocompetence, but evidence for heritability of PHA-response in birds largely stems from full...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Pitala N,Gustafsson L,Sendecka J,Brommer JE

更新日期：2007-08-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Mechanisms leading to variation in diversity over energetic gradients continue to challenge ecologists. Changes in diversity may reflect the environmental capacity to support species' coexistence through increased niche packing or niche space expansion. Current ecological theory predicts that increases in energy may l...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： McClain CR,Nunnally C,Chapman ASA,Barry JP

更新日期：2018-09-12 00:00:00

abstract：:Understanding the effects of parasites on host behaviour, of host behaviour on parasite infection, and the reciprocal interactions between these processes is vital to improving our understanding of animal behaviour and disease dynamics. However, behaviour and parasite infection are both highly variable within and betw...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Stephenson JF

更新日期：2019-11-29 00:00:00

abstract：:When populations are exposed to novel conditions of growth, they often become adapted to a similar extent, and at the same time, evolve some degree of impairment in their original environment. They may also come to vary widely with respect to characters which are uncorrelated with fitness, as the result of chance gene...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Bell G

更新日期：2013-05-22 00:00:00

abstract：:The carboxy-terminal domain (CTD) of the largest subunit of RNA polymerase II (Pol II) consists of 26 and 52 heptad-repeats in yeast and mammals, respectively. Studies in yeast showed that the strong periodicity of the YSPTSPS heptads is dispensable for cell growth and that di-heptads interspersed by spacers can act a...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Shah N,Decker TM,Eick D

更新日期：2019-05-31 00:00:00

abstract：:There are two forms of ovulation: spontaneous and induced. As copulation triggers ovulation for induced ovulators, males can predict the timing of ovulation and may have greater paternity monopolization than spontaneous ovulators. However, this prediction has never, to my knowledge, been tested. Using a cross-species ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Soulsbury CD

更新日期：2010-02-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Two non-coding DNA classes, introns and intergenic regions, of Drosophila melanogaster exhibit contrasting evolutionary patterns. GC content is significantly higher in intergenic regions and affects their degree of nucleotide variability. Divergence is positively correlated with recombination rate in intergenic region...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Ometto L,De Lorenzo D,Stephan W

更新日期：2006-12-22 00:00:00

abstract：:According to theory, directional female choice for male sexual ornaments is expected to erode underlying genetic variation. Considerable attention, in this regard, has been given to understanding the ubiquity of heritable genetic variation in both female choice and male sexual traits. One intriguing possibility emergi...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Lehtonen TK,Wong BB,Lindström K

更新日期：2010-02-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Trophically transmitted parasites often alter their intermediate host's phenotype, thereby predisposing hosts to increased predation. This is generally considered to be a parasite strategy evolved to enhance transmission to the next host. However, the adaptive value of host manipulation is not clear, as it may be asso...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Seppälä O,Jokela J

更新日期：2008-12-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Regressive evolution of structures associated with vision in cave-dwelling organisms is the focus of intense research. Most work has focused on differences between extreme visual phenotypes: sighted, surface animals and their completely blind, cave-dwelling counterparts. We suggest that troglodytic systems, comprising...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Tobler M,Coleman SW,Perkins BD,Rosenthal GG

更新日期：2010-02-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Climate change is already affecting species worldwide, yet existing methods of risk assessment have not considered interactions between demography and climate and their simultaneous effect on habitat distribution and population viability. To address this issue, an international workshop was held at the University of A...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Brook BW,Akçakaya HR,Keith DA,Mace GM,Pearson RG,Araújo MB

更新日期：2009-12-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Eavesdropping on communication is widespread among animals, e.g. bystanders observing male-male contests, female mate choice copying and predator detection of prey cues. Some animals also exhibit signal matching, e.g. overlapping of competitors' acoustic signals in aggressive interactions. Fewer studies have examined ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Clark DL,Roberts JA,Uetz GW

更新日期：2012-06-23 00:00:00

abstract：:In sexually cannibalistic animals, male fitness is influenced not only by successful mate acquisition and egg fertilization, but also by avoiding being eaten. In the cannibalistic nursery web spider, Pisaurina mira, the legs of mature males are longer in relation to their body size than those of females, and males use...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Anderson AG,Hebets EA

更新日期：2016-02-01 00:00:00

abstract：:The evolution of fluorescence is largely unexplored, despite the newfound occurrence of this phenomenon in a variety of organisms. We document that spiders fluoresce under ultraviolet illumination, and find that the expression of this trait varies greatly among taxa in this species-rich group. All spiders we examined ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Andrews K,Reed SM,Masta SE

更新日期：2007-06-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Spatial and temporal heterogeneity in relative fitness of competing species is a key factor affecting the structure of communities. However, it is not intuitive why species that are ecologically similar should differ in their response to environmental changes. Here we show that two sympatric flycatchers differ in repr...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Qvarnström A,Svedin N,Wiley C,Veen T,Gustafsson L

更新日期：2005-03-22 00:00:00

abstract：:A long-standing but controversial hypothesis assumes that carnivorous plants employ aggressive mimicry to increase their prey capture success. A possible mechanism is that pitcher plants use aggressive mimicry to deceive prey about the location of the pitcher's exit. Specifically, species from unrelated families sport...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Schaefer HM,Ruxton GD

更新日期：2014-04-30 00:00:00

abstract：:The sex ratio of the local population influences mating-related behaviours in many species. Recent experiments show that male-biased sex ratios increase the amount of financial resources men will invest in potential mates, suggesting that sex ratios influence allocation of mating effort in humans. To investigate this ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Hahn AC,Fisher CI,DeBruine LM,Jones BC

更新日期：2014-06-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Near Eastern Neolithic farmers introduced several species of domestic plants and animals as they dispersed into Europe. Dogs were the only domestic species present in both Europe and the Near East prior to the Neolithic. Here, we assessed whether early Near Eastern dogs possessed a unique mitochondrial lineage that di...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Ollivier M,Tresset A,Frantz LAF,Bréhard S,Bălăşescu A,Mashkour M,Boroneanţ A,Pionnier-Capitan M,Lebrasseur O,Arbogast RM,Bartosiewicz L,Debue K,Rabinovich R,Sablin MV,Larson G,Hänni C,Hitte C,Vigne JD

更新日期：2018-10-17 00:00:00

abstract：:An audience can have a profound effect on the dynamics of communicative interactions. As a result, non-human primates often adjust their social decision-making strategies depending on the audience composition at a given time. Here we sought to test how the unique vocal behaviour of multiple audience members affected d...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Toarmino CR,Wong L,Miller CT

更新日期：2017-01-01 00:00:00

abstract：:While competition for limited breeding positions is a common feature of group life, species vary widely in the extent to which reproduction is shared among females ('reproductive skew'). In recent years, there has been considerable debate over the mechanisms that generate variation in reproductive skew, with most evid...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Raihani NJ,Clutton-Brock TH

更新日期：2010-10-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Humans shift their attention to follow another person's gaze direction, a phenomenon called gaze cueing. This study examined whether a particular social factor, intergroup threat, modulates gaze cueing. As expected, stronger responses of a particular in-group to a threatening out-group were observed when the in-group,...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Chen Y,Zhao Y

更新日期：2015-02-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Sex ratio evolution relies on genetic variation in either the phenotypic traits that influence sex ratios or sex-determining mechanisms. However, consistent variation among females in offspring sex ratio is rarely investigated. Here, we show that female painted dragons (Ctenophorus pictus) have highly repeatable sex r...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Uller T,Mott B,Odierna G,Olsson M

更新日期：2006-12-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Darwin devoted much of his working life to the study of plant reproductive systems. He recognized that many of the intricacies of floral morphology had been shaped by natural selection in favour of outcrossing, and he clearly established the deleterious effects of self-fertilization on progeny. Although Darwin hypothe...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Pannell JR

更新日期：2009-06-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Research on reproductive isolation in African cichlid fishes has largely focused on the role of nuptial colours, but other sensory modes may play an important role in mate choice. Here, we compare the relative importance of visual and olfactory cues in mate recognition by females of a Lake Malawi cichlid species. Fema...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Plenderleith M,van Oosterhout C,Robinson RL,Turner GF

更新日期：2005-12-22 00:00:00

abstract：:The temporal stability of plant reproductive features on islands has rarely been tested. Using flowers, fruits/cones and seeds from a well-dated (23 Ma) Miocene Lagerstätte in New Zealand, we show that across 23 families and 30 genera of forest angiosperms and conifers, reproductive features have remained constant for...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Conran JG,Lee WG,Lee DE,Bannister JM,Kaulfuss U

更新日期：2014-10-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Increasing numbers of climbers are attempting Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth. We compiled interview data and computed the probabilities of summiting and of dying as a function of climber age and gender (2211 climbers, spring season) for the period of 1990-2005. Men and women had similar odds of summiting...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Huey RB,Salisbury R,Wang JL,Mao M

更新日期：2007-10-22 00:00:00