@article{3773, abstract = {If distinct biological species are to coexist in sympatry, they must be reproductively isolated and must exploit different limiting resources. A two-niche Levene model is analysed, in which habitat preference and survival depend on underlying additive traits. The population genetics of preference and viability are equivalent. However, there is a linear trade-off between the chances of settling in either niche, whereas viabilities may be constrained arbitrarily. With a convex trade-off, a sexual population evolves a single generalist genotype, whereas with a concave trade-off, disruptive selection favours maximal variance. A pure habitat preference evolves to global linkage equilibrium if mating occurs in a single pool, but remarkably, evolves to pairwise linkage equilibrium within niches if mating is within those niches--independent of the genetics. With a concave trade-off, the population shifts sharply between a unimodal distribution with high gene flow and a bimodal distribution with strong isolation, as the underlying genetic variance increases. However, these alternative states are only simultaneously stable for a narrow parameter range. A sharp threshold is only seen if survival in the 'wrong' niche is low; otherwise, strong isolation is impossible. Gene flow from divergent demes makes speciation much easier in parapatry than in sympatry.}, author = {Barton, Nicholas H}, journal = {Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences}, number = {1547}, pages = {1825 -- 1840}, publisher = {Royal Society}, title = {{What role does natural selection play in speciation?}}, doi = {10.1098/rstb.2010.0001}, volume = {365}, year = {2010}, } @article{3774, abstract = {1. Hybridisation with an invasive species has the potential to alter the phenotype and hence the ecology of a native counterpart. 2. Here data from populations of native red deer Cervus elaphus and invasive sika deer Cervus nippon in Scotland is used to assess the extent to which hybridisation between them is causing phenotypic change. This is done by regression of phenotypic traits against genetic hybrid scores. 3. Hybridisation is causing increases in the body weight of sika-like deer and decreases in the body weight of red-like females. Hybridisation is causing increases in jaw length and increases in incisor arcade breadth in sika-like females. Hybridisation is also causing decreases in incisor arcade breadth in red-like females. 4. There is currently no evidence that hybridisation is causing changes in the kidney fat weight or pregnancy rates of either population. 5. Increased phenotypic similarity between the two species is likely to lead to further hybridisation. The ecological consequences of this are difficult to predict.}, author = {Senn, Helen and Swanson, Graeme and Goodman, Simon and Barton, Nicholas H and Pemberton, Josephine}, journal = {Journal of Animal Ecology}, number = {2}, pages = {414 -- 425}, publisher = {Wiley-Blackwell}, title = {{Phenotypic correlates of hybridisation between red and sika deer (genus Cervus)}}, doi = {10.1111/j.1365-2656.2009.01633.x}, volume = {79}, year = {2010}, } @article{3776, abstract = {The prevalence of recombination in eukaryotes poses one of the most puzzling questions in biology. The most compelling general explanation is that recombination facilitates selection by breaking down the negative associations generated by random drift (i.e. Hill-Robertson interference, HRI). I classify the effects of HRI owing to: deleterious mutation, balancing selection and selective sweeps on: neutral diversity, rates of adaptation and the mutation load. These effects are mediated primarily by the density of deleterious mutations and of selective sweeps. Sequence polymorphism and divergence suggest that these rates may be high enough to cause significant interference even in genomic regions of high recombination. However, neither seems able to generate enough variance in fitness to select strongly for high rates of recombination. It is plausible that spatial and temporal fluctuations in selection generate much more fitness variance, and hence selection for recombination, than can be explained by uniformly deleterious mutations or species-wide selective sweeps.}, author = {Barton, Nicholas H}, journal = {Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences}, number = {1552}, pages = {2559 -- 2569}, publisher = {Royal Society}, title = {{Genetic linkage and natural selection}}, doi = {10.1098/rstb.2010.0106}, volume = {365}, year = {2010}, } @article{3777, abstract = {Under the classical view, selection depends more or less directly on mutation: standing genetic variance is maintained by a balance between selection and mutation, and adaptation is fuelled by new favourable mutations. Recombination is favoured if it breaks negative associations among selected alleles, which interfere with adaptation. Such associations may be generated by negative epistasis, or by random drift (leading to the Hill-Robertson effect). Both deterministic and stochastic explanations depend primarily on the genomic mutation rate, U. This may be large enough to explain high recombination rates in some organisms, but seems unlikely to be so in general. Random drift is a more general source of negative linkage disequilibria, and can cause selection for recombination even in large populations, through the chance loss of new favourable mutations. The rate of species-wide substitutions is much too low to drive this mechanism, but local fluctuations in selection, combined with gene flow, may suffice. These arguments are illustrated by comparing the interaction between good and bad mutations at unlinked loci under the infinitesimal model.}, author = {Barton, Nicholas H}, journal = {Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences}, number = {1544}, pages = {1281 -- 1294}, publisher = {Royal Society}, title = {{Mutation and the evolution of recombination}}, doi = {10.1098/rstb.2009.0320}, volume = {365}, year = {2010}, } @article{3779, abstract = {Crosses between closely related species give two contrasting results. One result is that species hybrids may be inferior to their parents, for example, being less fertile [1]. The other is that F1 hybrids may display superior performance (heterosis), for example with increased vigour [2]. Although various hypotheses have been proposed to account for these two aspects of hybridisation, their biological basis is still poorly understood [3]. To gain further insights into this issue, we analysed the role that variation in gene expression may play. We took a conserved trait, flower asymmetry in Antirrhinum, and determined the extent to which the underlying regulatory genes varied in expression among closely related species. We show that expression of both genes analysed, CYC and RAD, varies significantly between species because of cis-acting differences. By making a quantitative genotype-phenotype map, using a range of mutant alleles, we demonstrate that the species lie on a plateau in gene expression-morphology space, so that the variation has no detectable phenotypic effect. However, phenotypic differences can be revealed by shifting genotypes off the plateau through genetic crosses. Our results can be readily explained if genomes are free to evolve within an effectively neutral zone in gene expression space. The consequences of this drift will be negligible for individual loci, but when multiple loci across the genome are considered, we show that the variation may have significant effects on phenotype and fitness, causing a significant drift load. By considering these consequences for various gene-expression-fitness landscapes, we conclude that F1 hybrids might be expected to show increased performance with regard to conserved traits, such as basic physiology, but reduced performance with regard to others. Thus, our study provides a new way of explaining how various aspects of hybrid performance may arise through natural variation in gene activity.}, author = {Rosas, Ulises and Barton, Nicholas H and Copsey, Lucy and Barbier De Reuille, Pierre and Coen, Enrico}, journal = {PLoS Biology}, number = {7}, publisher = {Public Library of Science}, title = {{Cryptic variation between species and the basis of hybrid performance}}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pbio.1000429}, volume = {8}, year = {2010}, } @inproceedings{3782, abstract = {In cortex surface segmentation, the extracted surface is required to have a particular topology, namely, a two-sphere. We present a new method for removing topology noise of a curve or surface within the level set framework, and thus produce a cortical surface with correct topology. We define a new energy term which quantifies topology noise. We then show how to minimize this term by computing its functional derivative with respect to the level set function. This method differs from existing methods in that it is inherently continuous and not digital; and in the way that our energy directly relates to the topology of the underlying curve or surface, versus existing knot-based measures which are related in a more indirect fashion. The proposed flow is validated empirically.}, author = {Chen, Chao and Freedman, Daniel}, booktitle = { Conference proceedings MCV 2010}, location = {Beijing, China}, pages = {31 -- 42}, publisher = {Springer}, title = {{Topology noise removal for curve and surface evolution}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-642-18421-5_4}, volume = {6533}, year = {2010}, } @article{3783, abstract = {MICROSATELIGHT is a Perl/Tk pipeline with a graphical user interface that facilitates several tasks when scoring microsatellites. It implements new subroutines in R and PERL and takes advantage of features provided by previously developed freeware. MICROSATELIGHT takes raw genotype data and automates the peak identification through PeakScanner. The PeakSelect subroutine assigns peaks to different microsatellite markers according to their multiplex group, fluorochrome type, and size range. After peak selection, binning of alleles can be carried out 1) automatically through AlleloBin or 2) by manual bin definition through Binator. In both cases, several features for quality checking and further binning improvement are provided. The genotype table can then be converted into input files for several population genetics programs through CREATE. Finally, Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium tests and confidence intervals for null allele frequency can be obtained through GENEPOP. MICROSATELIGHT is the only freely available public-domain software that facilitates full multiplex microsatellite scoring, from electropherogram files to user-defined text files to be used with population genetics software. MICROSATELIGHT has been created for the Windows XP operating system and has been successfully tested under Windows 7. It is available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/microsatelight/.}, author = {Palero, Ferran and González Candelas, Fernando and Pascual, Marta}, journal = {Journal of Heredity}, number = {2}, pages = {247 -- 249}, publisher = {Oxford University Press}, title = {{Microsatelight – Pipeline to expedite microsatellite analysis}}, doi = {10.1093/jhered/esq111}, volume = {102}, year = {2010}, } @article{3785, abstract = {Most fisheries involving spiny lobsters of the genus Palinurus have been over exploited during the last decades, so there is a raising concern about management decisions for these valuable resources. A total of 13 microsatellite DNA loci recently developed in Palinurus elephas were assayed in order to assess genetic diversity levels in every known species of the genus. Microsatellite markers gave amplifications and showed polymorphism in all species, with gene diversity values varying from 0.65060.077 SD (Palinurus barbarae) to 0.79260.051 SD (Palinurus elephas). Most importantly, when depth distribution was taken into account, shallower waters pecies consistently showed larger historical effective population sizes than their deeper-water counterparts. This could explain why deeper-water species are more sensitive to overfishing, and would indicate that overexploitation may have a larger impact on their long-term genetic diversity.}, author = {Palero, Ferran and Abello, Pere and Macpherson, E. and Matthee, C. and Pascual, Marta}, issn = {1937-240X}, journal = {Journal of Crustacean Biology}, number = {4}, pages = {658 -- 663}, publisher = {Oxford University Press}, title = {{Genetic diversity levels in fishery-exploited spiny lobsters of the Genus Palinurus (Decapoda: Achelata)}}, doi = {10.1651/09-3192.1}, volume = {30}, year = {2010}, } @article{3786, abstract = {Four rare palinurid phyllosoma larvae, one mid-stage and three final stage, were found among the unclassified collections in the Crustacea Section, Natural History Museum, London. Detailed morphological analysis of the larvae indicated that they belong to several Palinustus species given the presence of incipient blunt-horns, length of antennula, length ratio of segments of antennular peduncle, distribution of pereiopod spines, and shape of uropods and telson. Moreover, the size of the final-stage larvae agrees with that expected given the size of the recently described puerulus stage of Palinustus mossambicus. This constitutes the first description of a complete phyllosoma assigned to Palinustus species. The phyllosoma described in the present study include the largest Palinuridae larva ever found.}, author = {Palero, Ferran and Guerao, Guillermo and Clark, Paul and Abello, Pere}, journal = {Zootaxa}, number = {1}, pages = {42 -- 58}, publisher = {Magnolia Press}, title = {{Final-stage phyllosoma of Palinustus A. Milne-Edwards, 1880 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Achelata: Palinuridae)-The first complete description}}, doi = {10.11646/zootaxa.2403.1.4}, volume = {2403}, year = {2010}, } @article{3787, abstract = {DNA samples were extracted from ethanol and formalin-fixed decapod crustacean tissue using a new method based on Tetramethylsilane (TMS)-Chelex. It is shown that neither an indigestible matrix of cross-linked protein nor soluble PCR inhibitors impede PCR success when dealing with formalin-fixed material. Instead, amplification success from formalin-fixed tissue appears to depend on the presence of unmodified DNA in the extracted sample. A staining method that facilitates the targeting of samples with a high content of unmodified DNA is provided.}, author = {Palero, Ferran and Hall, Sally and Clark, Paul and Johnston, David and Mackenzie Dodds, Jackie and Thatje, Sven}, journal = {Scientia Marina}, number = {3}, pages = {465 -- 470}, publisher = {Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas}, title = {{DNA extraction from formalin-fixed tissue: new light from the deep sea}}, doi = {10.3989/scimar.2010.74n3465}, volume = {74}, year = {2010}, } @article{3788, abstract = {Cell sorting is a widespread phenomenon pivotal to the early development of multicellular organisms. In vitro cell sorting studies have been instrumental in revealing the cellular properties driving this process. However, these studies have as yet been limited to two-dimensional analysis of three-dimensional cell sorting events. Here we describe a method to record the sorting of primary zebrafish ectoderm and mesoderm germ layer progenitor cells in three dimensions over time, and quantitatively analyze their sorting behavior using an order parameter related to heterotypic interface length. We investigate the cell population size dependence of sorted aggregates and find that the germ layer progenitor cells engulfed in the final configuration display a relationship between total interfacial length and system size according to a simple geometrical argument, subject to a finite-size effect.}, author = {Klopper, Abigail and Krens, Gabriel and Grill, Stephan and Heisenberg, Carl-Philipp J}, journal = {The European Physical Journal E: Soft Matter and Biological Physics}, number = {2}, pages = {99 -- 103}, publisher = {Springer}, title = {{Finite-size corrections to scaling behavior in sorted cell aggregates}}, doi = {10.1140/epje/i2010-10642-y}, volume = {33}, year = {2010}, } @article{3789, abstract = {The development of multicellular organisms is dependent on the tight coordination between tissue growth and morphogenesis. The stereotypical orientation of cell divisions has been proposed to be a fundamental mechanism by which proliferating and growing tissues take shape. However, the actual contribution of stereotypical division orientation (SDO) to tissue morphogenesis is unclear. In zebrafish, cell divisions with stereotypical orientation have been implicated in both body-axis elongation and neural rod formation [1, 2], although there is little direct evidence for a critical function of SDO in either of these processes. Here we show that SDO is required for formation of the neural rod midline during neurulation but dispensable for elongation of the body axis during gastrulation. Our data indicate that SDO during both gastrulation and neurulation is dependent on the noncanonical Wnt receptor Frizzled 7 (Fz7) and that interfering with cell division orientation leads to severe defects in neural rod midline formation but not body-axis elongation. These findings suggest a novel function for Fz7-controlled cell division orientation in neural rod midline formation during neurulation. }, author = {Quesada-Hernández, Elena and Caneparo, Luca and Schneider, Sylvia and Winkler, Sylke and Liebling, Michael and Fraser, Scott and Heisenberg, Carl-Philipp J}, journal = {Current Biology}, number = {21}, pages = {1966 -- 1972}, publisher = {Cell Press}, title = {{Stereotypical cell division orientation controls neural rod midline formation in zebrafish}}, doi = {10.1016/j.cub.2010.10.009}, volume = {20}, year = {2010}, } @article{3790, abstract = {Cell shape and motility are primarily controlled by cellular mechanics. The attachment of the plasma membrane to the underlying actomyosin cortex has been proposed to be important for cellular processes involving membrane deformation. However, little is known about the actual function of membrane-to-cortex attachment (MCA) in cell protrusion formation and migration, in particular in the context of the developing embryo. Here, we use a multidisciplinary approach to study MCA in zebrafish mesoderm and endoderm (mesendoderm) germ layer progenitor cells, which migrate using a combination of different protrusion types, namely, lamellipodia, filopodia, and blebs, during zebrafish gastrulation. By interfering with the activity of molecules linking the cortex to the membrane and measuring resulting changes in MCA by atomic force microscopy, we show that reducing MCA in mesendoderm progenitors increases the proportion of cellular blebs and reduces the directionality of cell migration. We propose that MCA is a key parameter controlling the relative proportions of different cell protrusion types in mesendoderm progenitors, and thus is key in controlling directed migration during gastrulation.}, author = {Diz Muñoz, Alba and Krieg, Michael and Bergert, Martin and Ibarlucea Benitez, Itziar and Müller, Daniel and Paluch, Ewa and Heisenberg, Carl-Philipp J}, journal = {PLoS Biology}, number = {11}, publisher = {Public Library of Science}, title = {{Control of directed cell migration in vivo by membrane-to-cortex attachment}}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pbio.1000544}, volume = {8}, year = {2010}, } @article{3792, abstract = {The yolk syncytial layer (YSL) plays crucial roles in early zebrafish development. The YSL is a transient extra-embryonic syncytial tissue that forms during early cleavage stages and persists until larval stages. During gastrulation, the YSL undergoes highly dynamic movements, which are tightly coordinated with the movements of the overlying germ layer progenitor cells, and has critical functions in cell fate specification and morphogenesis of the early germ layers. Movement coordination between the YSL and blastoderm cells is dependent on contact between these tissues, and is probably required for the patterning and morphogenetic function of the YSL. In this review, we will discuss recent advances in elucidating the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the YSL morphogenesis and movement coordination between the YSL and blastoderm during early development.}, author = {Carvalho, Lara and Heisenberg, Carl-Philipp J}, journal = {Trends in Cell Biology}, number = {10}, pages = {586 -- 592}, publisher = {Cell Press}, title = {{The yolk syncytial layer in early, zebrafish development}}, doi = {10.1016/j.tcb.2010.06.009}, volume = {20}, year = {2010}, } @inproceedings{3793, abstract = {Recent progress in per-pixel object class labeling of natural images can be attributed to the use of multiple types of image features and sound statistical learning approaches. Within the latter, Conditional Random Fields (CRF) are prominently used for their ability to represent interactions between random variables. Despite their popularity in computer vision, parameter learning for CRFs has remained difficult, popular approaches being cross-validation and piecewise training. In this work, we propose a simple yet expressive tree-structured CRF based on a recent hierarchical image segmentation method. Our model combines and weights multiple image features within a hierarchical representation and allows simple and efficient globally-optimal learning of ≈ 105 parameters. The tractability of our model allows us to pose and answer some of the open questions regarding parameter learning applying to CRF-based approaches. The key findings for learning CRF models are, from the obvious to the surprising, i) multiple image features always help, ii) the limiting dimension with respect to current models is the amount of training data, iii) piecewise training is competitive, iv) current methods for max-margin training fail for models with many parameters. }, author = {Nowozin, Sebastian and Gehler, Peter and Lampert, Christoph}, location = {Heraklion, Crete, Greece}, pages = {98 -- 111}, publisher = {Springer}, title = {{On parameter learning in CRF-based approaches to object class image segmentation}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-642-15567-3_8}, volume = {6316}, year = {2010}, } @inproceedings{3794, abstract = {We study the problem of multimodal dimensionality reduction assuming that data samples can be missing at training time, and not all data modalities may be present at application time. Maximum covariance analysis, as a generalization of PCA, has many desirable properties, but its application to practical problems is limited by its need for perfectly paired data. We overcome this limitation by a latent variable approach that allows working with weakly paired data and is still able to efficiently process large datasets using standard numerical routines. The resulting weakly paired maximum covariance analysis often finds better representations than alternative methods, as we show in two exemplary tasks: texture discrimination and transfer learning.}, author = {Lampert, Christoph and Krömer, Oliver}, location = {Heraklion, Crete, Greece}, pages = {566 -- 579}, publisher = {Springer}, title = {{Weakly-paired maximum covariance analysis for multimodal dimensionality reduction and transfer learning}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-642-15552-9_41}, volume = {6312}, year = {2010}, } @inbook{3795, abstract = {The (apparent) contour of a smooth mapping from a 2-manifold to the plane, f: M → R2 , is the set of critical values, that is, the image of the points at which the gradients of the two component functions are linearly dependent. Assuming M is compact and orientable and measuring difference with the erosion distance, we prove that the contour is stable.}, author = {Edelsbrunner, Herbert and Morozov, Dmitriy and Patel, Amit}, booktitle = {Topological Data Analysis and Visualization: Theory, Algorithms and Applications}, pages = {27 -- 42}, publisher = {Springer}, title = {{The stability of the apparent contour of an orientable 2-manifold}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-642-15014-2_3}, year = {2010}, } @article{3829, abstract = {To determine the number of open Ca(2+) channels necessary for transmitter release at the inhibitory basket cell-granule cell synapse in rat hippocampus, we combined presynaptic Ca(2+) imaging, recording of postsynaptic currents and modeling. We found that that the opening of three or fewer Ca(2+) channels triggered transmitter release. Furthermore, a small number of Ca(2+) channels were able to evoke release with high temporal precision, despite stochastic Ca(2+) channel opening.}, author = {Bucurenciu, Iancu and Bischofberger, Josef and Peter Jonas}, journal = {Nature Neuroscience}, number = {1}, pages = {19 -- 21}, publisher = {Nature Publishing Group}, title = {{A small number of open Ca(2+) channels trigger transmitter release at a central GABAergic synapse}}, doi = {10.1038/nn.2461 }, volume = {13}, year = {2010}, } @article{3830, abstract = {Fast-spiking, parvalbumin-expressing basket cells (BCs) are important for feedforward and feedback inhibition. During network activity, BCs respond with short latency and high temporal precision. It is thought that the specific properties of input synapses are responsible for rapid recruitment. However, a potential contribution of active dendritic conductances has not been addressed. We combined confocal imaging and patch-clamp techniques to obtain simultaneous somatodendritic recordings from BCs. Action potentials were initiated in the BC axon and backpropagated into the dendrites with reduced amplitude and little activity dependence. These properties were explained by a high K+ to Na+ conductance ratio in BC dendrites. Computational analysis indicated that dendritic K+ channels convey unique integration properties to BCs, leading to the rapid and temporally precise activation by excitatory inputs.}, author = {Hua Hu and Martina, Marco and Peter Jonas}, journal = {Science}, number = {5961}, pages = {52 -- 8}, publisher = {American Association for the Advancement of Science}, title = {{Dendritic mechanisms underlying rapid synaptic activation of fast-spiking hippocampal interneurons}}, doi = {10.1126/science.1177876}, volume = {327}, year = {2010}, } @article{3831, abstract = {Fast-spiking, parvalbumin-expressing basket cells (BCs) play a key role in feedforward and feedback inhibition in the hippocampus. However, the dendritic mechanisms underlying rapid interneuron recruitment have remained unclear. To quantitatively address this question, we developed detailed passive cable models of BCs in the dentate gyrus based on dual somatic or somatodendritic recordings and complete morphologic reconstructions. Both specific membrane capacitance and axial resistivity were comparable to those of pyramidal neurons, but the average somatodendritic specific membrane resistance (R(m)) was substantially lower in BCs. Furthermore, R(m) was markedly nonuniform, being lowest in soma and proximal dendrites, intermediate in distal dendrites, and highest in the axon. Thus, the somatodendritic gradient of R(m) was the reverse of that in pyramidal neurons. Further computational analysis revealed that these unique cable properties accelerate the time course of synaptic potentials at the soma in response to fast inputs, while boosting the efficacy of slow distal inputs. These properties will facilitate both rapid phasic and efficient tonic activation of BCs in hippocampal microcircuits.}, author = {Norenberg, Anja and Hua Hu and Vida, Imre and Bartos, Marlene and Peter Jonas}, journal = {PNAS}, number = {2}, pages = {894 -- 9}, publisher = {National Academy of Sciences}, title = {{Distinct nonuniform cable properties optimize rapid and efficient activation of fast-spiking GABAergic interneurons}}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.0910716107}, volume = {107}, year = {2010}, }