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 [...]
A paper by Leszek Rychlik (Department of Systematic Zoology) and collaborators (from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) about arboreal locomotion in the feathertail glider (Acrobates pygmaeus) appeared in the Journal of Human Evolution (Q1 in Anthropology). The authors demonstrate a strong preference of A. pygmaeus for small and horizontal substrates, avoidance of large and vertical [...]
Jacek Radwan, Magdalena Migalska and Alvaro Sebastian, in collaboration with colleagues from Institute of Nature Conservation PASand Lund University, in a paper published in Molecular Ecology, documented selection acting on major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes in sedge warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus). MHC proteins are crucial in pathogen recognition, it is still poorly under-stood how pathogen-mediated selection promotes and maintains MHC diversity, and especially [...]
In the Journal of Mammalogy (Q1 in Zoology), Rafał Zwolak, Michał Bogdziewicz and Leszek Rychlik (Department of Systematic Zoology), and collaborators from the Museum and Institute of Zoology PAS, published a paper on the influence of beech masting on the cross-habitat dispersal (from forests to meadows) of competing rodents in Bieszczady Mts. Authors tested 3 [...]
In Journal of Mammalogy (Q1 in Zoology), Krzysztof Kowalski and Leszek Rychlik (Department of Systematic Zoology) published a paper on the role of venom in hunting larger prey and food hoarding by the Eurasian water shrew Neomys fodiens (Soricidae). Authors showed, among others, that N. fodiens required significantly less time than the common shrew [...]
