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Environmental conditions shape the temporal pattern of investment in reproduction and survival.

ABSTRACT: The relationship between environmental stress exposure and ageing is likely to vary with stressor severity, life-history stage and the time scale over which effects are measured. Such factors could influence whether stress exposure accelerates or slows the ageing process, but their interactions have not previously been experimentally investigated. We found that experimental exposure of zebra finches to mildly challenging environmental circumstances from young to old adulthood, which increased exposure to stress hormones, reduced breeding performance during early adulthood, but had positive effects when individuals were bred in old adulthood. This difference was not due to selective mortality, because the effects were evident within individuals, and no evidence of habituation in the response to the stressor was found. The more stressful environment had no effects on survival during young or old adulthood, but substantially improved survival during middle age. Changes in the effects at different ages could be due to the duration and nature of the challenging exposure, or to variation in coping capacity or strategy with age. These results show that living under challenging environmental circumstances can influence ageing trajectories in terms of both reproductive performance and longevity. Our results provide experimental support for the emerging idea that stress exposure needs to be optimized rather than minimized to obtain the best health outcomes.

SUBMITTER: Marasco V

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5784202 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Environmental conditions shape the temporal pattern of investment in reproduction and survival.

Marasco Valeria V Boner Winnie W Griffiths Kate K Heidinger Britt B Monaghan Pat P

Proceedings. Biological sciences 20180101 1870

The relationship between environmental stress exposure and ageing is likely to vary with stressor severity, life-history stage and the time scale over which effects are measured. Such factors could influence whether stress exposure accelerates or slows the ageing process, but their interactions have not previously been experimentally investigated. We found that experimental exposure of zebra finches to mildly challenging environmental circumstances from young to old adulthood, which increased ex ...[more]

PMID: 29298939

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Project description:Cigarette smoking has been associated with worse infertility treatment outcomes, yet some studies have found null or inconsistent results. We followed 225 couples who underwent 354 fresh non-donor assisted reproductive technology (ART) cycles between 2006 and 2014. Smoking history was self-reported at study entry. We evaluated the associations between smoking patterns and ART success using multivariable discrete time Cox proportional hazards models with six time periods: cycle initiation to egg retrieval, retrieval to fertilization, fertilization to embryo transfer (ET), ET to implantation, implantation to clinical pregnancy, and clinical pregnancy to live birth to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% CIs. Time-dependent interactions between smoking intensity and ART time period were used to identify vulnerable periods. Overall, 26% of women and 32% of men reported ever smoking. The HR of failing in the ART cycle without attaining live birth for male and female ever smokers was elevated, but non-significant, compared to never smokers regardless of intensity (HR = 1.02 and 1.30, respectively). Female ever smokers were more likely to fail prior to oocyte retrieval (HR: 3.37; 95% CI: 1.00, 12.73). Every one cigarette/day increase in smoking intensity for females was associated with a HR of 1.02 of failing ART (95% CI: 0.97, 1.08), regardless of duration or current smoking status. Women with higher smoking intensities were most likely to fail a cycle prior to oocyte retrieval (HR: 1.07; 95% CI: 1.00, 1.16). Among past smokers, every additional year since a man had quit smoking reduced the risk of failing ART by 4% (HR: 0.96; 95% CI: 0.91, 1.00) particularly between clinical pregnancy and live birth (HR: 0.86; 95% CI: 0.76, 0.96). Female smoking intensity, regardless of current smoking status, is positively associated with the risk of failing ART cycles between initiation and oocyte retrieval. In men who ever smoked, smoking cessation may reduce the probability of failing ART, particularly between clinical pregnancy and live birth. NCT00011713. Registered: 27 February 2001.

Project description:Traditionally, fungal growth dynamics were assessed manually, limiting the research to a few environmental conditions and/or fungal species. Fortunately, more automated ways of measurement are gaining momentum due to the availability of cheap imaging and processing equipment and the development of dedicated image analysis algorithms. In this paper, we use image analysis to assess the impact of environmental conditions on the growth dynamics of two economically important fungal species, Coniophora puteana and Rhizoctonia solani. Sixteen environmental conditions combining four temperatures (15, 20, 25 and 30 °C) and four relative humidity (RH) conditions (65, 70, 75 and 80% RH) were tested. Fungal growth characteristics were extracted from images of the growing fungi, taken at regular points in time. Advanced time series analysis was applied to quantitatively compare the effect of the environmental conditions on these growth characteristics. The evolution of the mycelial area and the number of tips over time resulted in typical sigmoidal growth curves. Other growth characteristics such as the mean hyphal segment length did not vary significantly over time. Temperature and RH usually had a combined effect on the growth dynamics of the mycelial area and the number of tips. When defining optimal growth conditions for a fungus, it is therefore of primordial importance that the effect of temperature and RH is assessed simultaneously. At the most extreme conditions we tested, the mycelium most probably experienced water stress when developing over the inert Petri dish surface. An RH of 65% (independent of temperature) for C. puteana and a temperature of 30 °C (independent of RH) for both C. puteana and R. solani therefore always resulted in limited fungal growth, while the optimal growing conditions were at 20 °C and 75% RH and at 25 °C and 80% RH for R. solani and at 20 °C and 75% RH for C. puteana. The method applied in this study offers an updated and broader alternative to classical and narrowly focused studies on fungal growth dynamics, and is well suited to efficiently assess the effect of environmental conditions on fungal growth.

Project description:BackgroundSchistosomiasis japonica is a chronic parasitic disease that seriously harms people's health. Oncomelania hupensis is the only intermediate host of Schistosoma japonicum. The micro-environmental factors surrounding the snail have a great impact on the survival, growth and reproduction of O. hupensis, but there are few relevant systematic analyses until the present. This scoping review aims to identify and summarize the micro-environmental factors that greatly affect O. hupensis, and to find gaps in research thus to provide directions for future in-depth studies.Main bodyThis scoping review searched databases with search terms of the combinations of "Micro(-)environment", "Oncomelania" and their expanded aspects. A total of 133 original articles were recruited. Predefined data fields were extracted including research methods, influencing factors, and their effects on O. hupensis. Most studies focused on vegetation factors (54.1%), and other factors noted were soil composition (27.8%), water environmental factors (24.1%), and predator (3.0%), respectively. The factors with positive impacts included water level, pH value, soil temperature, soil humidity, the coverage and height of vegetation at suitable levels. This could provide more detailed information for O. hupensis habitat identification and prediction. The factors with negative impacts included plant extracts, snail control and disease prevention forests, and microorganisms with molluscicidal activities. It revealed a potential application as ecological molluscicides in the future. Factors such as physico-chemical properties of water, soil chemistry showed a gap in scientific studies, thus required further extensive research.ConclusionsMicro-environmental factors including water quality, soil composition as well as the technology and application of biomolluscicides (plant extracts and microorganisms) deserve more attention. Relative study findings on micro-environment have good potentials in snail control applications. Further studies should be implemented to investigate the impact of micro-environmental factors on snails and close the research gaps.

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Environmental conditions shape the temporal pattern of investment in reproduction and survival.

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Environmental conditions shape the temporal pattern of investment in reproduction and survival.

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