Conversion of tropical forests into intensely managed plantations is a threat to ecosystem functions. On Sumatra, Indonesia, oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) plantations are rapidly expanding, displacing rain forests and extensively used rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) agro-forests. Here, we tested the influence of land use systems on root traits including chemical traits (carbon, nitrogen, mineral nut...

I should like to review very briefly the various kinds of genetic damage that might be expected to occur from chemical mutagens, the time delay before such effects might be manifest, and something of the kind of impact that these might be expected to have on human well-being. I hardly need to add that this is an area where we know very little; we know enough to be apprehensive, but not enough t...

Recent work suggests that the inability of genetically distinct colonies of the bacterium Bacillus subtilis to freely merge is often a byproduct of microbial warfare mediated by divergent suites of chemical weaponry. Any effects of such kin-discriminatory antagonisms on levels of within-group cooperation at other traits remain unclear.

My comments on Lea et al.’s review discussing “developmental plasticity: bridging research in evolution human health” will focus on the implications of developmental plasticity on human life history parameters. Today, it is well-known that members of the same sex, age and even species differ dramatically in anatomical, physiological and behavioral traits and that this kind of variation is due t...

Mendelian traits are considered to be at the lower end of the complexity spectrum of heritable phenotypes. However, more than a century after the rediscovery of Mendel's law, the global landscape of monogenic variants, as well as their effects and inheritance patterns within natural populations, is still not well understood. Using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we performed a species-wide ...

The evolution of specific seed traits in scatter-hoarded tree species often has been attributed to granivore foraging behavior. However, the degree to which foraging investments and seed traits correlate with phylogenetic relationships among trees remains unexplored. We presented seeds of 23 different hardwood tree species (families Betulaceae, Fagaceae, Juglandaceae) to eastern gray squirrels ...

Magnetotactic bacteria, which most commonly live within the oxic-anoxic transition zone (OATZ) of aquatic environments, produce intracellular crystals of magnetic minerals, specifically magnetite or greigite. The crystals cause the bacteria to orient themselves passively with respect to the geomagnetic field and thereby facilitate the bacteria’s search for optimal conditions within the sharp ch...

Resistance to sweetpotato weevils (Cylas spp.) has been identified in several sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) landraces from East Africa and shown to be conferred by hydroxycinnamic acids that occur on the surface of storage roots. The segregation of resistance in this crop is unknown and could be monitored using these chemical traits as markers for resistance in F1 offspring from breeding progra...

Grazing-induced plant defences that reduce palatability to herbivores are widespread in terrestrial plants and seaweeds, but they have not yet been reported in seagrasses. We investigated the ability of two seagrass species to induce defences in response to direct grazing by three associated mesograzers. Specifically, we conducted feeding-assayed induction experiments to examine how mesograzer-...