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First Records and Expanding Distribution of a Small Big-Headed Ant, Pheidole parva, in Florida, USANARA Subscribed
Pheidole parva Mayr (1865) is a small ubiquitous ant native to the Indomalayan region where it is considered a pest in healthcare facilities. This tramp ant was first reported outside its native range more than 100 years ago in the Seychelles Islands. Since then, it has been found in other areas of the Old World, where it was likely accidentally introduced via trading ships. In the 2000s, this ant was detected in Japan (2001),...
We previously determined that electrically stimulated fire ants release exocrine gland products, e.g., venom, recruitment and alarm pheromones. We hypothesized that exocrine gland emissions from electrically stimulated fire ant workers might attract phorid fly parasitoids of fire ants. Bioassays demonstrated that electrically stimulated worker ants did attract phorid fly parasitoids in the field. Phorid fly ( Pseudacteon tricu...
Increases in invertebrate abundance and shifts in assemblage composition following rodent eradication on Lord Howe IslandNARA Subscribed
Invasive rodents represent one of the most serious threats to island ecosystems, affecting a wide range of native plants, vertebrates and invertebrates. While nearly ubiquitous on human-modified islands, the last four decades have seen the advent of targeted rodent eradications, which have generally resulted in positive impacts for biodiversity. Invertebrates, which are crucial to the functioning of island ecosystems, are know...
Nitrogen fixation, crop production and bacterial communities of common bean cultivars: a 77-year breeding perspectiveNARA Subscribed
Background and aims Common bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is an important food legume which contributes to sustainable agriculture by fixing atmospheric nitrogen (N). However, modern breeding programs have mostly focused on improving crop yield and agronomic traits, ignoring the crop’s capacity for effective symbiotic nitrogen fixation and interactions with microbial communities. We sought to investigate how genotype, soil N av...
Heat-labile toxin (LT) from enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is an important pathogenic protein. Anti-LT antibodies (Abs) induced by vaccination can neutralize the toxin and potentially prevent diarrheal secretion from ~ 60% of ETEC strains expressing LT. However, only superficial investigation of the anti-toxin response is usually conducted in clinical trials. Here, we utilized human serum samples from two clinical tri...
Cholesterol is a vital component of the cell membrane and plays an essential role in mediating integral membrane protein function. Altered cholesterol regulation has been implicated in neurological diseases that are associated with blood–brain barrier breakdown. However, the role of brain barrier function in inherited disorders of cholesterol metabolism, such as Niemann-Pick disease C1 (NP-C1), remains unclear. In this study,...
Methylation array signals are predictive of chronological age without bisulfite conversionNARA Subscribed
DNA methylation data has been used to make “epigenetic clocks” which attempt to measure chronological and biological aging. These models rely on data derived from bisulfite-based measurements, which exploit a semi-selective deamination and a genomic reference to determine methylation states. We found that non-methylation factors lead to “pseudomethylation” signals that are both confounding of epigenetic clocks and uniquely age...
Increasingly, climate change is pushing species to the limits of their thermal tolerance, with cascading effects across ecosystems. Animals use behavior to prevent these harmful physiological states, but their need and ability to do so varies with their traits. Within species, traits such as sex and reproductive status affect heat sensitivity, perhaps eliciting differences in behavioral responses to thermal extremes. We evalua...
Remains of megatheres have been known since the 18th -century and were among the first megafaunal vertebrates to be studied. While several examples of preserved integument show a thick coverage of fur for smaller ground sloths living in cold climates such as Mylodon and Nothrotheriops , comparatively very little is known about megathere skin. Assuming a typical placental mammal metabolism, it was previously hypothesized that m...