Volume 2 Issue 8, August 2018

Ambitious targets for the retention — not just formal protection — of nature are urgently needed to conserve biodiversity and to maintain crucial ecosystem services for humanity.

Inspirational conservation scientist.

Several recent theoretical studies develop tools to predict species diversity in large model ecosystems, setting a new benchmark for understanding the mechanism of species coexistence in natural ecosystems.

Genomes of eight populations of the copepod Tigriopus californicus show a correlation between rapid mitochondrial evolution and compensatory nuclear evolution, suggesting that mitonuclear incompatibilities might drive speciation in this system.

A transgenerational study in sticklebacks suggests that when an individual is exposed to conflicting information about predation, either directly through personal experience or indirectly through parental exposure, the typical response is to assume a predator is present.

Predicting and steering the fate of antibiotic resistance requires developing ecology- and evolution-aware strategies.

Information on species abundances and distributions is essential for developing conservation policy and assessing change. Yet publically available data increases exploitation potential. This Perspective presents a decision framework to assess the risks and benefits of publically sharing biodiversity data.

At the Ediacaran site of Mistaken Point, spatial analyses reveal that height is not driven by resource competition, but rather dispersal.

Damselfish ‘farm' plots of algae through weeding, territorial defence and fertilization. Here, the authors show that some damselfish populations take advantage of natural CO₂ vents to enhance their crop productivity and abundance.

A new sauropodomorph dinosaur taxon, Ingentia prima, and new lessemsaurid fossils from the Late Triassic of Argentina, reveal a distinctive and early pathway towards gigantism, 30 million years before the first eusauropods appeared.

Palaeoenvironmental analysis reveals the ecological history of the Andean–Amazonian corridor, where European colonization resulted in depopulation, land-use decline and forest succession such that by the nineteenth century the region came to be seen as a pristine natural environment.

Analysing a model of randomly interacting species, the authors show that stable, biodiverse communities can be achieved in which network structure has little influence.

Analysing data from the Tara Oceans expedition, the authors show that the abundance distributions of non-dominant marine microbial eukaryotes are characterized by a power-law decay, the exponent of which varies by less than 10% across the global ocean.

Comparative genomics of eight populations of the copepod Tigriopus californicus reveals extreme mtDNA divergence and rapid protein evolution as well as positive selection in genes predicted to interact with mtDNA, which suggests mitonuclear coevolution.

Mitonuclear interactions can promote population divergence. Here, the authors find a genomic cluster of differentiation and signatures of selection in a region with an over-representation of nuclear genes that interact with mitochondrial genes in a songbird.

Genetic sequencing of 137 silkworm strains enables reconstruction of silkworm domestication history and identifies key genes involved in silk production, circadian rhythms, as well as candidate genes associated with breeding traits.

The branch-site test is commonly used to identify genes under positive selection. Here, the authors show that multinucleotide mutations can lead to false signatures of positive selection when using this test and develop a model that ameliorates the problem.

Phenotypic plasticity may play a role in initiating novelty. This study provides evidence for selection on phenotypic plasticity leading to the evolution of a carnivore morph tadpole, which allowed spadefoot toads to invade a new niche.

A model of how behaviour in animal societies can shift states is tested in social spiders. Colony size and personality composition determine the timing and ability of a group to recover from such state shifts.

Experimental work in juvenile threespine sticklebacks shows that offspring from a single clutch display the same phenotypic and molecular responses to information on predation risk when this information is conveyed through paternal cues or personal experience.

Single-species antibiotic dose response is a poor predictor of multi-species community dynamics because it cannot foresee the tipping points that cause irreversible changes in resistance that persist even when treatment stops.

Screening reveals that the bacteriophage-encoded enzyme S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) hydrolase rescues isoleucine-deficient Escherichia coli by reducing bacterial SAM levels, resulting in derepression of the promiscuous bacterial enzyme MetB.