To understand the dynamics of host-pathogens coevolution and its epidemiological consequences, we need to know how new races of invasive parasites emerge. In our recent work, published in Molecular Ecology (Konczal et al. 2020, link), we shed some light on this process by analyzing whole genomes of Gyrodactylus turnbulli, ectoparasitic flukes infecting guppies. Mateusz Konczal [...]
The prestigious Behavioral Ecology has just published an article (online for now) by Leszek Rychlik and colleagues from Portugal (University of Lisbon) on the differences in metabolism and behavior of greater white-toothed shrews (Crocidura russula) from urban and rural populations. Wild-trapped shrews were brought to lab where their RMR, boldness, and exploration rate were measured. [...]
Recently, an article about the causes of behavioral differentiation among shrews, by Leszek Rychlik and co-authors from Portugal (University of Lisbon) and Germany (University of Munich), appeared, in its final form, in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. Comparing the behavior in five species of shrews from several locations in Europe, the authors tested if fast-lived species [...]
Genomic analyses reveal adaptive evolution of the fish ectoparasite, Gyrodactylus bullatarudis that is shaped by the combination of gene duplications, divergence and recombination. In a paper by Konczal et al. published in Molecular Ecology, we describe reference genome of /G. bullatarudis/ the authors compare it with other Platyhelminthes. Results suggest that duplications in several gene [...]
Jacek Radwan (Evolutionary Biology Group) and colleagues have published a paper in Trends in Genetics in which they review evolutionary mechanisms explaining landmark features of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes, including their extreme polymorphism, and identify open questions in MHC evolution research. Open access!
The impacts of climate change on forests can be dramatic but can also play out via more subtle interactions between different species. A new study published in Nature Plants demonstrates how the overall effect of climate change on tree reproduction depends on complex interactions between climate, the trees, and the insects that eat their seeds. [...]
In a new Ideas and Perspectives paper in Ecology Letters, Bogdziewicz et al. review the most relevant proximate drivers of masting and outline a research agenda that takes the biology of masting from a largely observational field of ecology to one rooted in mechanistic understanding. They divide the experimental framework into three main processes: resource [...]
Our recent study, done by an international team of scientists led by Marcos Fernandez Martinez from the University of Antwerp, is now published in Nature Plants. In the paper, we used a huge dataset of seed production and nutrient status of plants and showed that plants that are nutrient-poor show stronger masting (larger year-to-year variability) [...]
In the last issue of the Journal of Medical Entomology (Q1 in Entomology), you can find a paper by Leszek Rychlik (Department of Systematic Zoology) and collaborators from three institutions in Warsaw and Košice (Slovakia) on competition between immatures (larvae and nymphs) of two tick species (Ixodes ricinus and Dermacentor reticulatus) for rodent hosts. The [...]
The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is central for self-/non–self-recognition and acquired immunity. The extreme polymorphism of MHC genes, promoted by parasite-mediated selection, contrasts with limited within-individual diversity. The prevailing explanation is a trade-off between increased pathogen recognition and the anti-autoimmune T cell receptor (TCR) depletion mechanism. However, the predicted inverse relationship between individual MHC diversity [...]
