Host shift to an invasive plant triggers rapid animal hybrid speciation

Speciation in animals is almost always envisioned as the split of an existing lineage into an ancestral and a derived species. An alternative speciation route is homoploid hybrid speciation in which two ancestral taxa give rise to a third, derived, species by hybridization without a change in chromosome number. Although theoretically possible it has been regarded as rare and hence of little importance in animals. On the basis of molecular and chromosomal evidence, hybridization is the best explanation for the origin of a handful of extant diploid bisexual animal taxa. Here we report the first case in which hybridization between two host-specific animals (tephritid fruitflies) is clearly associated with the shift to a new resource. Such a hybrid host shift presents an ecologically robust scenario for animal hybrid speciation because it offers a potential mechanism for reproductive isolation through differential adaptation to a new ecological niche. The necessary conditions for this mechanism of speciation are common in parasitic animals, which represent much of animal diversity. The frequency of homoploid hybrid speciation in animals may therefore be higher than previously assumed.     

The formation of cubic ice under conditions relevant to Earth's atmosphere

An important mechanism for ice cloud formation in the Earth's atmosphere is homogeneous nucleation of ice in aqueous droplets, and this process is generally assumed to produce hexagonal ice. However, there are some reports that the metastable crystalline phase of ice, cubic ice, may form in the Earth's atmosphere. Here we present laboratory experiments demonstrating that cubic ice forms when micrometre-sized droplets of pure water and aqueous solutions freeze homogeneously at cooling rates approaching those found in the atmosphere. We find that the formation of cubic ice is dominant when droplets freeze at temperatures below 190 K, which is in the temperature range relevant for polar stratospheric clouds and clouds in the tropical tropopause region. These results, together with heat transfer calculations, suggest that cubic ice will form in the Earth's atmosphere. If there were a significant fraction of cubic ice in some cold clouds this could increase their water vapour pressure, and modify their microphysics and ice particle size distributions. Under specific conditions this may lead to enhanced dehydration of the tropopause region.     

Nephrocystin-5, a ciliary IQ domain protein, is mutated in Senior-Loken syndrome and interacts with RPGR and calmodulin

Nephronophthisis (NPHP) is the most frequent genetic cause of chronic renal failure in children. Identification of four genes mutated in NPHP subtypes 1-4 (refs. 4-9) has linked the pathogenesis of NPHP to ciliary functions. Ten percent of affected individuals have retinitis pigmentosa, constituting the renal-retinal Senior-Loken syndrome (SLSN). Here we identify, by positional cloning, mutations in an evolutionarily conserved gene, IQCB1 (also called NPHP5), as the most frequent cause of SLSN. IQCB1 encodes an IQ-domain protein, nephrocystin-5. All individuals with IQCB1 mutations have retinitis pigmentosa. Hence, we examined the interaction of nephrocystin-5 with RPGR (retinitis pigmentosa GTPase regulator), which is expressed in photoreceptor cilia and associated with 10-20% of retinitis pigmentosa. We show that nephrocystin-5, RPGR and calmodulin can be coimmunoprecipitated from retinal extracts, and that these proteins localize to connecting cilia of photoreceptors and to primary cilia of renal epithelial cells. Our studies emphasize the central role of ciliary dysfunction in the pathogenesis of SLSN.     

Bird use of riparian vegetation along the Truckee River, Califonia and Nevada

The Truckee River in California and Nevada is subject to diverse water regimes and a corresponding variety of flow rates. Original riparian vegetation has been altered by these variable flow rates and by a variety of human uses resulting in loss of native riparian vegetation from its historic extent. We conducted bird surveys along the Truckee River during spring 193 to (1) determine relationships between birds and the present vegetation; (2) determine the importance of different vegetation types to sensitive bird species that have declined recently in the western United States due to competition from exotic plant species, cowbird ( Molothrus ater ) parasitism, reduction in nesting habitat, or other unidentified reasons; and (3) establish a monitoring program and collect baseline data for future comparisons. The most frequently detected bird species throughout the study was the Brown-headed Cowbird. The greatest number of bird species (98 of 116) was found in the native mixed willow ( Salix spp.) riparian scrub vegetation type. We recommend protecting the remaining native riparian vegetation types for bird habitat along the Truckee River.     

Vegetation zones and soil characteristics in vernal pools in the Channeled Scabland of eastern Washington

Vernal pools are seasonal pools occurring in Mediterranean-type climates within which grow concentric zones of vegetation. We studied two vernal pools that lie within an Artemisia tridentata/Festuca idahoensis shrub-steppe landscape in the Channeled Scabland of eastern Washington to determine the relationship between vegetation zonation and soil characteristics. Abundant plant species in the pools include Elymus cinereus, Poa scabrella, Lomatium grayi, Allium geyeri, Eleocharis palustris, Epilobium minutum, Myosurus aristatis, Deschampsia danthonioides, and Psilocarphus oregonus . We surveyed topography, measured plant species frequency and cover to describe the vegetation zones, and used Sorenson's index of percent to similarity to verify our designation of plant zones as communities. In one pool we described soil profiles and sampled soils throughout the growing season according to plant communities. We analyzed soils for pH; electrical conductivity; sodium, calcium, and magnesium ions; sodium absorption ratio; particle size; organic carbon; and water matric potential. ANOVA tests of soil characteristics and topography among plant communities showed that only differences in topography are statistically significant. There are, however, trends in particle size, some soil chemical parameters, and soil moisture potential among plant communities along the topographic gradient. Electrical conductivity decreased with increasing dryness of the soil through spring and summer. Seasonal changes in soil moisture potential showed that shallower soils in the centers of pools were wetter during the wet season and drier during the dry season than are deeper soils. These changes in moisture may be the most important influence on vegetation distribution within the vernal pools.     

Estimating root biomass and distribution after fire in a Great Basin woodland using cores and pits

Quantifying root biomass is critical to an estimation and understanding of ecosystem net primary production, biomass partitioning, and belowground competition. We compared 2 methods for determining root biomass: a new soil-coring technique and traditional excavation of quantitative pits. We conducted the study in an existing Joint Fire Sciences demonstration area in the central Great Basin. This area is representative of a shrub (sagebrush) ecosystem exhibiting tree (pinyon and juniper) encroachment. The demonstration area had a prescribed burn implemented 4 years prior to our study, and we sampled both control and burned plots. The samples were stratified across 3 microsites (interspace, under shrub, and under tree) and 4 soil depths (0–8, 8–23, 23–38, and 38–52 cm) to determine the effects of plant life form and burning on root biomass. We found that estimates of total root biomass were similar between quantitative pits and our soil cores. However, cores tended to show a more even distribution of root biomass across all microsites and depths than did pits. Overall, results indicated that root biomass differs significantly among microsites and soil depths and that the amount of root biomass at a given depth differs among microsites. Burning reduced root biomass in our study by 23% and altered the spatial distribution of root mass.     

Femtosecond X-ray protein nanocrystallography

X-ray crystallography provides the vast majority of macromolecular structures, but the success of the method relies on growing crystals of sufficient size. In conventional measurements, the necessary increase in X-ray dose to record data from crystals that are too small leads to extensive damage before a diffraction signal can be recorded. It is particularly challenging to obtain large, well-diffracting crystals of membrane proteins, for which fewer than 300 unique structures have been determined despite their importance in all living cells. Here we present a method for structure determination where single-crystal X-ray diffraction 'snapshots' are collected from a fully hydrated stream of nanocrystals using femtosecond pulses from a hard-X-ray free-electron laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source. We prove this concept with nanocrystals of photosystem I, one of the largest membrane protein complexes. More than 3,000,000 diffraction patterns were collected in this study, and a three-dimensional data set was assembled from individual photosystem I nanocrystals (～200?nm to 2?μm in size). We mitigate the problem of radiation damage in crystallography by using pulses briefer than the timescale of most damage processes. This offers a new approach to structure determination of macromolecules that do not yield crystals of sufficient size for studies using conventional radiation sources or are particularly sensitive to radiation damage.