Retroviral Oligonucleotide Distributions Correlate with Biased Nucleotide Compositions of Retrovirus Sequences,Suggesting a Duplicative Stepwise Molecular Evolution

A computer-assisted analysis was made of 24 complete nucleotide sequences selected from the vertebrate retroviruses to represent the ten viral groups. The conclusions of this analysis extend and strengthen the previously made hypothesis on the Moloney murine leukemia virus: The evolution of the nucleotide sequence appears to have occurred mainly through at least three overlapping levels of duplication: (1) The distributions of overrepresented (3–6)-mers are consistent with the universal rule of a trend toward TG/CT excess and with the persistence of a certain degree of symmetry between the two strands of DNA. This suggests one or several original tandemly repeated sequences and some inverted duplications. (2) The existence of two general core consensuses at the level of these (3–6)-mers supports the hypothesis of a common evolutionary origin of vertebrate retroviruses. Consensuses more specific to certain sequences are compatible with phylogenetic trees established independently. The consensuses could correspond to intermediary evolutionary stages. (3) Most of the (3–6)-mers with a significantly higher than average frequency appear to be internally repeated (with monomeric or oligomeric internal iterations) and seem to be at least partly the cause of the bias observed by other researchers at the level of retroviral nucleotide composition. They suggest a third evolutionary stage by slippage-like stepwise local duplications. Received: 3 January 1996 / Accepted: 27 March 1996     

Long-Term Trends in Matrilineal Inbreeding Among the Japanese Macaques of Arashiyama B Troop

In a long-term study of sexual behavior in Japanese macaques, we found that matrilineal inbreeding accounted for 2.9% of the copulations recorded for the Arashiyama B troop during 7 mating seasons between 1968 and 1984. Of the 906 copulatory dyads, 46 (5.1%) occurred among kin. Close matrilineal kin dyads (r = 1/2–1/8, 1.1% of the total of copulatory dyads) strongly avoided matrilineal inbreeding, but for remote kin dyads (r > 1/8, 4.0% of the total) the tendency was weaker in some years. Among the possible determinants of matrilineal inbreeding, we found that it tended to occur among younger and lower-ranking males as an effect of troop demographic changes. There is no significant association between female rank and matrilineal inbreeding. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that different degrees of kin relatedness are discriminated by individuals with respect to mate choice.     

Characterization of a cryptic plasmid from a Greenland ice core Arthrobacter isolate and construction of a shuttle vector that replicates in psychrophilic high G+C Gram-positive recipients

Over 60 Greenland glacial isolates were screened for plasmids and antibiotic resistance/sensitivity as the first step in establishing a genetic system. Sequence analysis of a small, cryptic, 1,950 bp plasmid, p54, from isolate GIC54, related to Arthrobacter agilis, showed a region similar to that found in theta replicating Rhodococcus plasmids. A 6,002 bp shuttle vector, pSVJ21, was constructed by ligating p54 and pUC18 and inserting a chloramphenicol acetyl transferase (CAT) cassette conferring chloramphenicol resistance. Candidate Gram-positive recipients were chosen among glacial isolates based on phylogenetic relatedness, relatively short doubling times at low temperatures, sensitivity to antibiotics, and absence of indigenous plasmids. We developed an electroporation protocol and transformed seven isolates related to members of the Arthrobacter, Microbacterium, Curtobacterium, and Rhodoglobus genera with pSVJ21. Plasmid stability was demonstrated by successive transformation into Escherichia coli and four Gram-positive isolates, growth without antibiotic, and plasmid re-isolation. This shuttle vector and our transformation protocol provide the basis for genetic experiments with different high G+C Gram-positive hosts to study cold adaptation and expression of cold-active enzymes at low temperatures.     

Resource quality and spatial variation in sex ratios of a free-living solitary sawfly,Dineura virididorsata (Hym., Tenthredinidae)

The sex ratio in final-instar larvae of a birch-feeding, free-living solitary sawfly, Dineura virididorsata, was investigated in Finnish Lapland. The prepupal proportion of females, pooled over ten sites, was 56%, and at four individual sites the sex ratio was significantly female-biased. Larval survival from egg to prepupae did not differ between the sexes. This suggests a femalebiased primary sex ratio in the field. The sex ratio varied among the sites but not among host trees within sites. Contrary to previous results with hymenopterans, we did not find that differences in the sex ratio depended on forage quality: site-specific or tree-specific sex ratios did not correlate with the average prepupal weight. A literature search indicated that female-biased sex ratios are also common in other free-living sawflies. We are unable to explain sex ratios of Dineura virididorsata or other free-living sawflies with existing general models.     

Female mate choice across mating stages and between sequential mates in flour beetles

Few studies have examined how female premating choice correlates with the outcome of copulatory and post-copulatory processes. It has been shown that polyandrous Tribolium castaneum females discriminate among males before mating based on olfactory cues, and also exert cryptic choice during mating through several mechanisms. This study tested whether a male's relative attractiveness predicted his insemination success during copulation. Bioassays with male olfactory cues were used to rank two males as more and less attractive to females; each female was then mated to either her more attractive male followed by less attractive male, or vice versa. Dissections immediately after second copulations revealed a significantly higher percent of successful inseminations for females that remated with more attractive males compared with those that remated with less attractive males. These results indicate that cryptic female choice during copulation reinforces precopulatory female choice in T. castaneum, and suggest that females could use cryptic choice to trade up to more attractive males, possibly gaining better phenotypic or genetic quality of sires.