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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Encyclopedia Of Animal Behavior, A. Payne, P. Starks, Aviva Liebert
Encyclopedia Of Animal Behavior, A. Payne, P. Starks, Aviva Liebert
Aviva E Liebert
The Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior has engaged-with great success-the efforts of many of the best behavioral biologists of the 21st century. Section editors drawn from the most accomplished behavioral scientists of their generation have enrolled an international cast of highly respected thinkers and writers-all of whom have taken great care and joy in illuminating every imaginable corner of animal behavior. This comprehensive work covers not only the usual topics such as communication, learning, sexual selection, navigation, and the history of the field, but also emerging topics in cognition, animal welfare, conservation, and applications of animal behavior. The large section on …
Taming Of The Skew: Transactional Models Fail To Predict Reproductive Partitioning In The Paper Wasp Polistes Dominulus, Aviva Liebert, Philip Starks
Taming Of The Skew: Transactional Models Fail To Predict Reproductive Partitioning In The Paper Wasp Polistes Dominulus, Aviva Liebert, Philip Starks
Aviva E Liebert
Female Polistes paper wasps can initiate colonies either solitarily or in cooperative groups. Reproduction is often distributed unequally in groups, even to the point of complete monopolization of breeding by the dominant group member. Transactional models of reproductive skew predict the degree of reproductive partitioning, assuming that the dominant controls group membership and will yield a proportion of reproduction to a subordinate as an incentive to stay peacefully in the group. Using a combination of demographic, genetic and morphological data from a population of P. dominulus, we test predictions of 'classical' two-person skew models as well as more complex …
Sexual Interactions And Nestmate Recognition In Invasive Populations Of Polistes Dominulus Wasps, Aviva Liebert, N Wilson-Rich, C Johnson, Philip Starks
Sexual Interactions And Nestmate Recognition In Invasive Populations Of Polistes Dominulus Wasps, Aviva Liebert, N Wilson-Rich, C Johnson, Philip Starks
Aviva E Liebert
Many social insect species have mating systems or recognition abilities that minimize the chance of inbreeding. In haplodiploid systems, inbreeding is especially costly due to the production of sterile offspring such as diploid males. Diploid males (and their triploid offspring) have been identified in invasive populations of the paper wasp, Polistes dominulus, but to date have not been reported in its native populations. Due to the degree of genetic diversity in the invasive populations, it is unlikely that the production of these genetic ‘misfits’ is the result of a genetic bottleneck alone, but rather that errors in nestmate recognition may …
Nest Hydrocarbons As Cues For Philopatry In A Paper Wasp, Annagiri Sumana, Aviva Liebert, Anne Berry, Ghislaine Switz, Colin Orians, Philip Starks
Nest Hydrocarbons As Cues For Philopatry In A Paper Wasp, Annagiri Sumana, Aviva Liebert, Anne Berry, Ghislaine Switz, Colin Orians, Philip Starks
Aviva E Liebert
Philopatric behavior has been demonstrated in a wide taxonomic spread of animals. In temperate environments, overwintered Polistes wasp foundresses often return to their natal nest prior to initiating colony construction. Previous research has shown that these spring foundresses can identify the natal nest in the absence of landmark and gross morphological cues. Hydrocarbons are essential recognition cues for Polistes nest and nestmate discrimination, but cuticular hydrocarbon profiles can become homogenized when foundresses overwinter in mixed colony groups. We examined the hydrocarbon profiles of Polistes dominulus foundresses and nests before and after an overwintering period, and found that the hydrocarbon profiles …
Extreme Polygyny: Multi-Seasonal “Hypergynous” Nesting In The Introduced Paper Wasp Polistes Dominulus, Aviva Liebert, Julia Hui, Peter Nonacs, Philip Starks
Extreme Polygyny: Multi-Seasonal “Hypergynous” Nesting In The Introduced Paper Wasp Polistes Dominulus, Aviva Liebert, Julia Hui, Peter Nonacs, Philip Starks
Aviva E Liebert
In temperate climates, female paper wasps typically initiate new colonies in the spring. Several nest-founding tactics have been documented in Polistes species, including solitary nest initiation, joining a cooperative association, usurping an existing nest, or adopting an abandoned nest. Occasionally, exceptionally large groups of females have also been found reusing nests from the previous season. Here we report this phenomenon in introduced populations of the Eurasian species Polistes dominulus. We describe in detail the demographic and genetic characteristics of one such spring colony from Los Angeles, California, USA, which was collected with 84 associated adults and all stages of developing …
Solitary Nesting And Reproductive Success In The Paper Wasp Polistes Aurifer, Aviva Liebert, Peter Nonacs, Robert Wayne
Solitary Nesting And Reproductive Success In The Paper Wasp Polistes Aurifer, Aviva Liebert, Peter Nonacs, Robert Wayne
Aviva E Liebert
Female Polistes paper wasps are capable of independent nesting, yet many populations demonstrate a mixture of solitary and cooperative nest foundation. Previous studies of Polistes have found survival and/or productivity advantages of cooperative nest foundation compared to solitary nesting, and reproductive skew models have been designed to predict the dynamics of such flexible cooperation. In this paper, we examine the success of different nesting strategies in a previously unstudied population of Polistes aurifer in southern California. The colony cycle of this population is less synchronous than that of other temperate species, and the frequency of solitary nesting averages 86.2%. Our …
Diploid Males And Their Triploid Offspring In The Paper Wasp Polistes Dominulus, Aviva Liebert, Annagiri Sumana, Philip Starks
Diploid Males And Their Triploid Offspring In The Paper Wasp Polistes Dominulus, Aviva Liebert, Annagiri Sumana, Philip Starks
Aviva E Liebert
Although the hymenopteran sex-determining mechanism generally results in haploid males and diploid females, diploid males can be produced via homozygosity at the sex-determining locus. Diploid males have low fitness because they are effectively sterile or produce presumably sterile triploid offspring. Previously, triploid females were observed in three species of North American Polistes paper wasps, and this was interpreted as indirect evidence of diploid males. Here we report what is, to our knowledge, the first direct evidence: four of five early male-producing Polistes dominulus nests from three populations contained diploid males. Because haploid males were also found, however, the adaptive value …
Brca1 Dna-Binding Activity Is Stimulated By Bard1, Amanda Simons, Andrew Horwitz, Lea Starita, Karen Griffin, R Williams, J.N. Glover, Jeffrey Parvin
Brca1 Dna-Binding Activity Is Stimulated By Bard1, Amanda Simons, Andrew Horwitz, Lea Starita, Karen Griffin, R Williams, J.N. Glover, Jeffrey Parvin
Amanda Simons
The breast- and ovarian-specific tumor suppressor BRCA1 has been implicated in numerous cellular processes, including transcription, ubiquitination, and DNA repair. Its tumor suppression activity is tightly linked to that of BARD1, a protein that heterodimerizes with BRCA1. It has been previously shown that BRCA1 binds to DNA, an interesting functional observation in light of the genetic data linking BRCA1 to DNA repair pathways. In this work, we reexamine the DNA-binding properties of BRCA1, comparing them with the DNA-binding properties of the BRCA1/BARD1 heterodimer. Because nuclear BRCA1 exists as a heterodimer with BARD1, it is likely that in vitro studies of …
Direct Dna Binding Activity Of The Fanconi Anemia D2 Protein, Woo-Hyun Park, Steven Margossian, Andrew Horwitz, Amanda Simons, Alan D'Andrea, Jeffrey Parvin
Direct Dna Binding Activity Of The Fanconi Anemia D2 Protein, Woo-Hyun Park, Steven Margossian, Andrew Horwitz, Amanda Simons, Alan D'Andrea, Jeffrey Parvin
Amanda Simons
It is known that the Fanconi anemia D2 protein is vital for protecting the genome from DNA damage, but what activities this protein has are unknown. In these experiments we purified full-length Fanconi anemia protein D2 (FANCD2), and we found that FANCD2 bound to DNA with specificity for certain structures: double strand DNA ends and Holliday junctions. Proteins containing patient-derived mutations or artificial variants of the FANCD2 protein were similarly expressed and purified, and each variant bound to the Holliday junction DNA with similar affinity as did the wild-type protein. There was no single discrete domain of FANCD2 protein that …
Ground Nesting In The Paper Wasp Polistes Aurifer (Hymenoptera: Vespidae), Aviva Liebert
Ground Nesting In The Paper Wasp Polistes Aurifer (Hymenoptera: Vespidae), Aviva Liebert
Aviva E Liebert
Polistes paper wasp species vary in their nest site selection, with some nesting in relatively exposed areas and others in protected cavities. Locating the nest sites of cavity dwelling species in natural habitat can prove difficult, and most behavioral studies on these species are therefore conducted using human-built structures. Since Hungerford and Williams (1912) and Rau (1929) noted the location of several P. fuscatus (Fabricius) nests in rodent burrows, there have been no published accounts of ground nesting Polistes species. I report the occurrence of a large, dense cluster of P. aurifer (Saussure) nests located within cracks in the dried …
Phylogeny And Historical Biogeography Of The Spider Genus Lutica (Araneae, Zodariidae), Richard Beckwitt, Richard Beckwitt
Phylogeny And Historical Biogeography Of The Spider Genus Lutica (Araneae, Zodariidae), Richard Beckwitt, Richard Beckwitt
Richard D Beckwitt
Spiders of the genus Lutica from 19 populations in southern California and Baja California, including all the California Channel Islands except Anacapa, were compared electrophoretically on the basis of variability at 15 gene loci. Fixed allelic differences clearly define two species: new species A [Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, northern Channel Islands (San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz), southern Channel Islands (San Nicolas, Santa Barbara, Santa Catalina)] and new species C [Guerrero Negro, central Baja California], while morphological features define two others: new species B [Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego Counties, northern Baja California] and clementea [San Clemente Island]. …