Project description:Transcriptional profiling of larval epidermis at specific markings were examined using 11 developmental stages. Gene expression level was compared between mimetic white, cryptic thorax, and cryptic abdomen vs. mimetic black, cryptic eyespot, and cryptic V-shaped markings in all stages.
Project description:Transcriptional profiling of larval epidermis at specific markings were examined using 11 developmental stages. Gene expression level was compared between mimetic white, cryptic thorax, and cryptic abdomen vs. mimetic black, cryptic eyespot, and cryptic V-shaped markings in all stages. For initial screening of marking-specific genes, 6 developmental stages for mimetic pattern, and 5 developmental stages for cryptic pattern was used. Mimetic white, cryptic thorax, and cryptic abdomen were independently labelled with Cyanine 3-CTP (Cy3), and mimetic black, cryptic eyespot, and cryptic V-shaped markings were independently labelled with Cyanine 5-CTP (Cy5) in all stages.
Project description:Our work aims to assess how butterfly communities in the Italian Maritime Alps changed over the past 40 years, in parallel with altitudinal shifts occurring in plant communities. In 2019, we sampled butterflies at 7 grassland sites, between 1300-1900 m, previously investigated in 2009 and 1978, by semi-quantitative linear transects. Fine-scale temperature and precipitation data elaborated by optimal interpolation techniques were used to quantify climate changes. The changes in the vegetation cover and main habitat alterations were assessed by inspection of aerial photographs (1978-2018/1978-2006-2015). The vegetation structure showed a marked decrease of grassland habitats and an increase of woods (1978-2009). Plant physiognomy has remained stable in recent years (2009-2019) with some local exceptions due to geomorphic disturbance. We observed butterfly 'species substitution' indicating a general loss in the more specialised and a general gain in more tolerant elements. We did not observe any decrease in species richness, but rather a change in guild compositions, with (i) an overall increased abundance in some widespread and common lowland species and (ii) the disappearance (or strong decrease) of some alpine (high elevation) species, so that 'resilience' could be just delusive. Changes in butterfly community composition were consistent with predicted impacts of local warming.
Project description:Erosion of biodiversity generated by anthropogenic activities has been studied for decades and in many areas at the species level, using taxa monitoring. In contrast, genetic erosion within species has rarely been tracked, and is often studied by inferring past population dynamics from contemporaneous estimators. An alternative to such inferences is the direct examination of past genes, by analysing museum collection specimens. While providing direct access to genetic variation over time, historical DNA is usually not optimally preserved, and it is necessary to apply genotyping methods based on hybridization-capture to unravel past genetic variation. In this study, we apply such a method (i.e., HyRAD), to large time series of two butterfly species in Finland, and present a new bioinformatic pipeline, namely PopHyRAD, that standardizes and optimizes the analysis of HyRAD data at the within-species level. In the localities for which the data retrieved have sufficient power to accurately examine genetic dynamics through time, we show that genetic erosion has increased across the last 100 years, as revealed by signatures of allele extinctions and heterozygosity decreases, despite local variations. In one of the two butterflies (Erebia embla), isolation by distance also increased through time, revealing the effect of greater habitat fragmentation over time.