1
|
Feitosa MLB, Barbosa‐da‐Silva HR, Salomão RP, Desouza AM, de Moura GJB, Lira AFDA. Effects of landscape metrics on scorpion (Arachnida: Scorpiones) assemblage in a tropical urban ecosystem. Ecol Evol 2024; 14:e11026. [PMID: 38371872 PMCID: PMC10870332 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.11026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2023] [Revised: 01/24/2024] [Accepted: 02/01/2024] [Indexed: 02/20/2024] Open
Abstract
Urban landscapes restrain the distribution of forest-dwelling species, which may be related to challenging conditions that impair body condition. The dynamics in urban areas lead to the simplification of communities that inhabit forest patches in cities with the turnover of sensitive species for opportunistic ones. In this study, we investigated the effect of urbanization on the body condition and diversity of scorpions at the landscape scale. Sampling was carried out in 10 forest patches in an urban matrix in Brazil, originally covered by a tropical rainforest. The surroundings of the landscape of each forest patch were characterized through the amount of forest, agriculture, and urban land cover. Individual body length, dry, lipid, and muscular masses were used as proxies of Tityus pusillus body condition. In total, 147 scorpions were collected, belonging to the species Ananteris mauryi, T. pusillus, T. stigmurus, and T. neglectus. Forest cover explained 28% of species variation. There was a positive relationship between forest cover and T. pusillus and A. mauryi abundances, while T. stigmurus was negatively affected by forest cover. Species richness and total scorpion abundance were not influenced by landscape metrics. In terms of body condition, only females of T. pusillus were affected by landscape variables, with individuals showing higher body mass with an increase in forest cover. Our results suggest that urban forests can support scorpion assemblages. However, there is a turnover in specialist forest species for opportunistic species. Forest cover is a crucial factor in maintaining healthy scorpion populations in urban areas.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Renato Portela Salomão
- Facultad de Estudios Superiores IztacalaUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoTlalnepantla de BazMexico
| | - Adriano Medeiros Desouza
- Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da SaúdeUniversidade Estadual da ParaíbaCampina GrandeParaíbaBrazil
| | - Geraldo Jorge Barbosa de Moura
- Laboratorio de Estudos Herpetológicos e Paleoherpetológicos, Departamento de BiologiaUniversidade Federal Rural de PernambucoRecifePernambucoBrazil
| | - André Felipe de Araujo Lira
- Colección Nacional de Arácnidos, Departamento de Zoología, Instituto de BiologíaUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoCiudad de MéxicoMexico
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Hernandez Duran L, Wilson DT, Rymer TL. Exploring behavioral traits over different contexts in four species of Australian funnel-web spiders. Curr Zool 2023; 69:766-774. [PMID: 37876639 PMCID: PMC10591153 DOI: 10.1093/cz/zoac080] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2022] [Accepted: 10/04/2022] [Indexed: 10/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Australian funnel-web spiders are arguably the most venomous spiders in the world, with much research focusing on this aspect of their biology. However, other aspects related to their life history, ecology and behaviour have been overlooked. For the first time, we assessed repeatability, namely risk-taking behaviour, aggressiveness and activity in the contexts of predation, conspecific tolerance and exploration of a new territory in four species of Australian funnel-web spiders: two are closely related, Hadronyche valida and H. infensa, and two have overlapping distributions but occupy different habitats, H. cerberea and Atrax robustus. We also compared behaviors between species. At the species level, we found that H. valida showed consistency in risk-taking behavior when exposed to a predator stimulus, aggressiveness against conspecifics, and exploration of a new territory. In contrast, in the other species, only A. robustus showed repeatability in the context of exploration of a new territory. These results suggest that some behavioral traits are likely more flexible than others, and that the repeatability of behaviors may be species-specific in funnel-webs. When we compared species, we found differences in risk-taking behavior and defensiveness. This study provides novel insights to understanding variation in behavioral traits within and between species of funnel-web spiders, suggesting that some behavioral traits are likely context and/or species dependent, as a result of their evolutionary history. These findings provide key insights for understanding the ecological role of behavior and venom deployment in venomous animals, and a greater understanding of behavior in these medically significant and iconic spiders that are of conservation concern.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Linda Hernandez Duran
- College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, P.O. Box 6811, Cairns, QLD 4870, Australia
- Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Sciences, James Cook University, Cairns, QLD 4870, Australia
| | - David Thomas Wilson
- Centre for Molecular Therapeutics, Australian Institute for Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University, Cairns, QLD 4878, Australia
| | - Tasmin Lee Rymer
- College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, P.O. Box 6811, Cairns, QLD 4870, Australia
- Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Sciences, James Cook University, Cairns, QLD 4870, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Uhey DA, Bowker MA, Haubensak KA, Auty D, Vissa S, Hofstetter RW. Habitat Type Affects Elevational Patterns in Ground-dwelling Arthropod Communities. J Insect Sci 2022; 22:9. [PMID: 35983692 DOI: 10.1093/jisesa/ieac046] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Understanding factors that drive biodiversity distributions is central in ecology and critical to conservation. Elevational gradients are useful for studying the effects of climate on biodiversity but it can be difficult to disentangle climate effects from resource differences among habitat types. Here we compare elevational patterns and influences of environmental variables on ground-dwelling arthropods in open- and forested-habitats. We examine these comparisons in three arthropod functional groups (detritivores, predators, and herbivores) and two taxonomic groups (beetles and arachnids). We sampled twelve sites spanning 1,132 m elevation and four life zones, collecting 4,834 individual ground arthropods identified to 123 taxa. Elevation was a strong predicator for arthropod composition, however, patterns differed among functional and taxonomic groups and individual species between open- and forested-habitats. Beetles, arachnids, and predators decreased with elevation in open habitats but increased in forests showing a significant interaction between habitat type and elevation. Detritivores and herbivores showed no elevational patterns. We found 11 arthropod taxa with linear elevational patterns, seven that peaked in abundance at high elevations, and four taxa at low elevations. We also found eight taxa with parabolic elevational patterns that peaked in abundance at mid-elevations. We found that vegetation composition and productivity had stronger explanatory power for arthropod composition in forested habitats, while ground cover was a stronger predictor in open habitats. Temperature and precipitation were important in both habitats. Our findings demonstrate that relationships between animal diversity and elevation can be mediated by habitat type, suggesting that physiological restraints and resource limitations work differently between habitat types.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Derek A Uhey
- School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University, 200 East Pine Knoll Drive, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
| | - Matthew A Bowker
- School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University, 200 East Pine Knoll Drive, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
| | - Karen A Haubensak
- Department of Biological Sciences and Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, 617 North Beaver Road, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
| | - David Auty
- School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University, 200 East Pine Knoll Drive, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
| | - Sneha Vissa
- School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University, 200 East Pine Knoll Drive, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
| | - Richard W Hofstetter
- School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University, 200 East Pine Knoll Drive, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Harper A, Baudouin Gonzalez L, Schönauer A, Janssen R, Seiter M, Holzem M, Arif S, McGregor AP, Sumner-Rooney L. Widespread retention of ohnologs in key developmental gene families following whole-genome duplication in arachnopulmonates. G3 (Bethesda) 2021; 11:jkab299. [PMID: 34849767 PMCID: PMC8664421 DOI: 10.1093/g3journal/jkab299] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Revised: 07/19/2021] [Accepted: 08/03/2021] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Abstract
Whole-genome duplications (WGDs) have occurred multiple times during animal evolution, including in lineages leading to vertebrates, teleosts, horseshoe crabs, and arachnopulmonates. These dramatic events initially produce a wealth of new genetic material, generally followed by extensive gene loss. It appears, however, that developmental genes such as homeobox genes, signaling pathway components and microRNAs are frequently retained as duplicates (so-called ohnologs) following WGD. These not only provide the best evidence for WGD, but an opportunity to study its evolutionary consequences. Although these genes are well studied in the context of vertebrate WGD, similar comparisons across the extant arachnopulmonate orders are patchy. We sequenced embryonic transcriptomes from two spider species and two amblypygid species and surveyed three important gene families, Hox, Wnt, and frizzled, across these and 12 existing transcriptomic and genomic resources for chelicerates. We report extensive retention of putative ohnologs, further supporting the ancestral arachnopulmonate WGD. We also found evidence of consistent evolutionary trajectories in Hox and Wnt gene repertoires across three of the six arachnopulmonate orders, with interorder variation in the retention of specific paralogs. We identified variation between major clades in spiders and are better able to reconstruct the chronology of gene duplications and losses in spiders, amblypygids, and scorpions. These insights shed light on the evolution of the developmental toolkit in arachnopulmonates, highlight the importance of the comparative approach within lineages, and provide substantial new transcriptomic data for future study.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Amber Harper
- Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford OX3 0BP, UK
| | - Luis Baudouin Gonzalez
- Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford OX3 0BP, UK
| | - Anna Schönauer
- Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford OX3 0BP, UK
| | - Ralf Janssen
- Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Geocentrum, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Michael Seiter
- Department of Evolutionary Biology, Unit Integrative Zoology, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
| | - Michaela Holzem
- Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford OX3 0BP, UK
- Division of Signalling and Functional Genomics, German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany and Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Saad Arif
- Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford OX3 0BP, UK
- Centre for Functional Genomics, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford OX3 0BP, UK
| | - Alistair P McGregor
- Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford OX3 0BP, UK
- Centre for Functional Genomics, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford OX3 0BP, UK
| | - Lauren Sumner-Rooney
- Oxford University Museum of Natural History, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PW, UK
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Ontano AZ, Gainett G, Aharon S, Ballesteros JA, Benavides LR, Corbett KF, Gavish-Regev E, Harvey MS, Monsma S, Santibáñez-López CE, Setton EVW, Zehms JT, Zeh JA, Zeh DW, Sharma PP. Taxonomic Sampling and Rare Genomic Changes Overcome Long-Branch Attraction in the Phylogenetic Placement of Pseudoscorpions. Mol Biol Evol 2021; 38:2446-2467. [PMID: 33565584 PMCID: PMC8136511 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msab038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Long-branch attraction is a systematic artifact that results in erroneous groupings of fast-evolving taxa. The combination of short, deep internodes in tandem with long-branch attraction artifacts has produced empirically intractable parts of the Tree of Life. One such group is the arthropod subphylum Chelicerata, whose backbone phylogeny has remained unstable despite improvements in phylogenetic methods and genome-scale data sets. Pseudoscorpion placement is particularly variable across data sets and analytical frameworks, with this group either clustering with other long-branch orders or with Arachnopulmonata (scorpions and tetrapulmonates). To surmount long-branch attraction, we investigated the effect of taxonomic sampling via sequential deletion of basally branching pseudoscorpion superfamilies, as well as varying gene occupancy thresholds in supermatrices. We show that concatenated supermatrices and coalescent-based summary species tree approaches support a sister group relationship of pseudoscorpions and scorpions, when more of the basally branching taxa are sampled. Matrix completeness had demonstrably less influence on tree topology. As an external arbiter of phylogenetic placement, we leveraged the recent discovery of an ancient genome duplication in the common ancestor of Arachnopulmonata as a litmus test for competing hypotheses of pseudoscorpion relationships. We generated a high-quality developmental transcriptome and the first genome for pseudoscorpions to assess the incidence of arachnopulmonate-specific duplications (e.g., homeobox genes and miRNAs). Our results support the inclusion of pseudoscorpions in Arachnopulmonata (new definition), as the sister group of scorpions. Panscorpiones (new name) is proposed for the clade uniting Scorpiones and Pseudoscorpiones.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Z Ontano
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Guilherme Gainett
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Shlomi Aharon
- National Natural History Collections, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Jesús A Ballesteros
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Ligia R Benavides
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Kevin F Corbett
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Efrat Gavish-Regev
- National Natural History Collections, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Mark S Harvey
- Collections & Research, Western Australian Museum, Welshpool, WA, Australia
| | | | | | - Emily V W Setton
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Jakob T Zehms
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Jeanne A Zeh
- Department of Biology and Program in Ecology, Evolution & Conservation Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA
| | - David W Zeh
- Department of Biology and Program in Ecology, Evolution & Conservation Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA
| | - Prashant P Sharma
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Baudouin-Gonzalez L, Schoenauer A, Harper A, Blakeley G, Seiter M, Arif S, Sumner-Rooney L, Russell S, Sharma PP, McGregor AP. The Evolution of Sox Gene Repertoires and Regulation of Segmentation in Arachnids. Mol Biol Evol 2021; 38:3153-3169. [PMID: 33755150 PMCID: PMC8661403 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msab088] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
The Sox family of transcription factors regulates many processes during metazoan development, including stem cell maintenance and nervous system specification. Characterizing the repertoires and roles of these genes can therefore provide important insights into animal evolution and development. We further characterized the Sox repertoires of several arachnid species with and without an ancestral whole-genome duplication and compared their expression between the spider Parasteatoda tepidariorum and the harvestman Phalangium opilio. We found that most Sox families have been retained as ohnologs after whole-genome duplication and evidence for potential subfunctionalization and/or neofunctionalization events. Our results also suggest that Sox21b-1 likely regulated segmentation ancestrally in arachnids, playing a similar role to the closely related SoxB gene, Dichaete, in insects. We previously showed that Sox21b-1 is required for the simultaneous formation of prosomal segments and sequential addition of opisthosomal segments in P. tepidariorum. We studied the expression and function of Sox21b-1 further in this spider and found that although this gene regulates the generation of both prosomal and opisthosomal segments, it plays different roles in the formation of these tagmata reflecting their contrasting modes of segmentation and deployment of gene regulatory networks with different architectures.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Luis Baudouin-Gonzalez
- Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Anna Schoenauer
- Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Amber Harper
- Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Grace Blakeley
- Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Michael Seiter
- Unit Integrative Zoology, Department of Evolutionary Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Saad Arif
- Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom.,Centre for Functional Genomics, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | | | - Steven Russell
- Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Prashant P Sharma
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Alistair P McGregor
- Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom.,Centre for Functional Genomics, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Gibb H, Silvey CJ, Robinson C, L'Hotellier FA, Eldridge DJ. Experimental evidence for ecological cascades following threatened mammal reintroduction. Ecology 2020; 102:e03191. [PMID: 32892373 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3191] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2020] [Revised: 06/07/2020] [Accepted: 07/14/2020] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
Species extinction has reached unprecedented rates globally, and can cause unexpected ecological cascades. Since Europeans arrived in Australia, many endemic mammals have declined or become extinct, but their ecological roles and outcomes of their reintroduction for ecosystems are poorly understood. Using surveys and novel long-term exclusion and disturbance experiments, we tested how digging mammal reintroduction affects predatory invertebrates. Mammal exclusion tended to decrease bare ground. Although scorpion burrow abundance increased with bare ground, mammals also had direct negative effects on scorpions. Increased disturbance alone decreased scorpion abundance, but other mechanisms, such as predation, also contributed to the mammal effect. Despite negative associations between scorpions and spiders, both groups increased and spider composition changed following mammal exclusion. Our long-term research showed that threatened digging mammals drive ecosystem cascades, affecting biota through a variety of pathways. Reintroductions of locally extinct digging mammals can restore ecosystems, but ecosystem cascades may lead to unexpected restructuring.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Heloise Gibb
- Department of Ecology, Environment and Evolution, School of Life Sciences, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, 3086, Australia.,Research Centre for Future Landscapes, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, 3086, Australia
| | - Colin J Silvey
- Department of Ecology, Environment and Evolution, School of Life Sciences, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, 3086, Australia
| | - Chloe Robinson
- Department of Ecology, Environment and Evolution, School of Life Sciences, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, 3086, Australia
| | | | - David J Eldridge
- Office of Environment and Heritage, C/O Centre for Ecosystem Science, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, 2052, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
B Larouche C, Beeler-Marfisi J, Attard L, Nemeth N, Beaufrère H. Hemolymph cytology, hemocyte count, glucose, and electrolyte reference intervals in 93 Cameroon red tarantulas (Hysterocrates gigas). Vet Clin Pathol 2019; 48:461-468. [PMID: 31538350 DOI: 10.1111/vcp.12778] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2018] [Accepted: 01/31/2019] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Theraphosidae is a large family of tarantula spiders commonly kept as pets or display animals by zoological institutions. Interest and demand for arachnid medicine have grown over the last decade. While hemolymph analysis could be a fundamental tool for arachnid health assessment, RIs are generally lacking for arachnid species. OBJECTIVES The objectives of this study were to describe the appearance of hemocytes and establish RIs for total and differential hemocyte counts as well as hemolymph glucose and electrolyte concentrations in the Cameroon red tarantula (CRT) (Hysterocrates gigas). METHODS Ninety-three CRTs were anesthetized using isoflurane or sevoflurane, and hemolymph was collected from the heart. Hemocyte counts were performed using a hemocytometer and trypan blue stain, and differential cell counts were estimated using light microscopy and a Wright stain. Hemocytes were also characterized with transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Hemolymph glucose and electrolyte concentrations were obtained using a blood gas analyzer. The American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology (ASVCP) guidelines were used to calculate RIs. RESULTS The most abundant hemocytes were plasmatocytes, followed by granulocytes, cyanocytes, and prohemocytes. Hemocytes were characterized by TEM except for cyanocytes. All RIs had a broad range, likely due to a combination of population heterogeneity, high biologic variability of the species, and the propensity of samples to clot. CONCLUSIONS The current study is the first to establish RIs for hemolymph cytologic parameters with a sample size of over 20 individuals in any theraphosid species. RIs for CRT hemolymph biochemical analytes are also reported.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Cédric B Larouche
- Department of Pathobiology, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada.,Toronto Zoo, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Janet Beeler-Marfisi
- Department of Pathobiology, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | | | - Nicole Nemeth
- Department of Pathobiology, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - Hugues Beaufrère
- Department of Clinical Studies, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Dias-Lopes C, Paiva AL, Guerra-Duarte C, Molina F, Felicori L. Venomous Arachnid Diagnostic Assays, Lessons from Past Attempts. Toxins (Basel) 2018; 10:toxins10090365. [PMID: 30201918 PMCID: PMC6162545 DOI: 10.3390/toxins10090365] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2018] [Revised: 09/04/2018] [Accepted: 09/06/2018] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Diagnostic tests for arachnid accidents remain unavailable for patients and clinicians. Together with snakes, these accidents are still a global medical concern, and are recognized as neglected tropical issues. Due to arachnid toxins’ fast mechanism of action, quick detection and quantification of venom is required to accelerate treatment decisions, rationalize therapy, and reduce costs and patient risks. This review aims to understand the current limitations for arachnid venom identification and quantification in biological samples. We benchmarked the already existing initiatives regarding test requirements (sample or biomarkers of choice), performances (time, detection limit, sensitivity and specificity) and their validation (on animal models or on samples from envenomed humans). Our analysis outlines unmet needs for improving diagnosis and consequently treatment of arachnid accidents. Hence, based on lessons from past attempts, we propose a road map for raising best practice guidelines, leading to recommendations for future progress in the development of arachnid diagnostic assays.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Camila Dias-Lopes
- Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia, UFMG, Belo Horizonte 31270901, Brazil.
- Colégio Técnico (COLTEC), UFMG, Belo Horizonte 31270901, Brazil.
| | - Ana Luiza Paiva
- Fundação Ezequiel Dias (FUNED), Belo Horizonte 30510010, Brazil.
| | | | - Franck Molina
- Sys2Diag UMR 9005 CNRS Alcediag, 34000 Montpellier, France.
| | - Liza Felicori
- Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia, UFMG, Belo Horizonte 31270901, Brazil.
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Abstract
Envenomation by spiders or scorpions is a public health problem in many parts of the world and is not isolated to the tropics and subtropics. Spiders and scorpions can be unintentionally transported globally, and keeping them as pets is becoming more popular, so envenomation can occur anywhere. Emergency nurses should be prepared to assess and treat patients who present with a bite or sting. This article gives an overview of the signs, symptoms and treatment of envenomation by species of arachnids that are clinically significant to humans.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Stephen McGhee
- University of South Florida College of Nursing, Tampa, Florida, US
| | | | - Alan Finnegan
- Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
| | | | - John M Clochesy
- University of South Florida College of Nursing, Tampa, Florida, US
| | - Brian Graves
- University of South Florida College of Nursing, Tampa, Florida, US
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Turetzek N, Pechmann M, Schomburg C, Schneider J, Prpic NM. Neofunctionalization of a Duplicate dachshund Gene Underlies the Evolution of a Novel Leg Segment in Arachnids. Mol Biol Evol 2015; 33:109-21. [PMID: 26443673 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msv200] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
The acquisition of a novel function, or neofunctionalization, protects duplicated genes from redundancy and subsequent loss, and is a major force that drives adaptive evolution. Neofunctionalization has been inferred for many duplicated genes based on differences in regulation between the parental gene and its duplicate. However, only few studies actually link the new function of a duplicated gene to a novel morphological or physiological character of the organism. Here we show that the duplication of dachshund (dac) in arachnids (spiders and allies) is linked with the evolution of a novel leg segment, the patella. We have studied dac genes in two distantly related spider species, the entelegyne spider Parasteatoda tepidariorum and the haplogyne spider Pholcus phalangioides. Both species possess two paralogous dac genes that duplicated before the split between entelegyne and haplogyne spiders. In contrast to the evolutionarily highly conserved dac1, its duplicate dac2 is strongly expressed in the patella leg segment during embryogenesis in both species. Using parental RNA interference in P. tepidariorum we show that dac2 is required for the development of the patella segment. If dac2 function is impaired, then the patella is fused with the tibia into a single leg segment. Thus, removing the function of dac2 experimentally reverts P. tepidariorum leg morphology into a stage before the duplication of dac and the evolution of the patella segment. Our results indicate that the origin of the patella is the result of the duplication and subsequent neofunctionalization of dac in the arachnid lineage.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Natascha Turetzek
- Abteilung für Entwicklungsbiologie, GZMB Ernst-Caspari-Haus, Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach-Institut für Zoologie und Anthropologie, Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Matthias Pechmann
- Abteilung für Entwicklungsbiologie, GZMB Ernst-Caspari-Haus, Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach-Institut für Zoologie und Anthropologie, Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Christoph Schomburg
- Abteilung für Entwicklungsbiologie, GZMB Ernst-Caspari-Haus, Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach-Institut für Zoologie und Anthropologie, Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Julia Schneider
- Abteilung für Entwicklungsbiologie, GZMB Ernst-Caspari-Haus, Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach-Institut für Zoologie und Anthropologie, Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Nikola-Michael Prpic
- Abteilung für Entwicklungsbiologie, GZMB Ernst-Caspari-Haus, Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach-Institut für Zoologie und Anthropologie, Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Sharma PP, Fernández R, Esposito LA, González-Santillán E, Monod L. Phylogenomic resolution of scorpions reveals multilevel discordance with morphological phylogenetic signal. Proc Biol Sci 2015; 282:20142953. [PMID: 25716788 PMCID: PMC4375871 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2014.2953] [Citation(s) in RCA: 90] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2014] [Accepted: 01/26/2015] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Scorpions represent an iconic lineage of arthropods, historically renowned for their unique bauplan, ancient fossil record and venom potency. Yet, higher level relationships of scorpions, based exclusively on morphology, remain virtually untested, and no multilocus molecular phylogeny has been deployed heretofore towards assessing the basal tree topology. We applied a phylogenomic assessment to resolve scorpion phylogeny, for the first time, to our knowledge, sampling extensive molecular sequence data from all superfamilies and examining basal relationships with up to 5025 genes. Analyses of supermatrices as well as species tree approaches converged upon a robust basal topology of scorpions that is entirely at odds with traditional systematics and controverts previous understanding of scorpion evolutionary history. All analyses unanimously support a single origin of katoikogenic development, a form of parental investment wherein embryos are nurtured by direct connections to the parent's digestive system. Based on the phylogeny obtained herein, we propose the following systematic emendations: Caraboctonidae is transferred to Chactoidea new superfamilial assignment: ; superfamily Bothriuroidea revalidated: is resurrected and Bothriuridae transferred therein; and Chaerilida and Pseudochactida are synonymized with Buthida new parvordinal synonymies: .
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Prashant P Sharma
- Division of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024, USA
| | - Rosa Fernández
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Lauren A Esposito
- Essig Museum of Entomology, University of California at Berkeley, 130 Mulford Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Edmundo González-Santillán
- Laboratorio Nacional de Genómica para la Biodiversidad, Centro de Investigaciones y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politecnico Nacional, and Laboratorio de Aracnología, Departamento de Biología Comparada, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Coyoacán, C.P. 04510, México DF, México
| | - Lionel Monod
- Département des Arthropodes et d'Entomologie I, Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de la Ville de Genève, Route de Malagnou 1, Genève 1208, Switzerland
| |
Collapse
|
13
|
Abstract
Two new species of harvestman (Opiliones: Neopilionidae: Enantiobuninae) are described from the Waitomo region of the North Island, New Zealand, Forsteropsalis bonasp. n. and F. photophagasp. n. Both have been collected within caves in the region, where predation on glow-worms Arachnocampa luminosa has been previously recorded for one or both species (misidentified as ‘Megalopsalis tumida’). However, both are regarded as troglophiles rather than strict troglobites due to the presence of specimens outside the cave systems, and the absence of troglobitic adaptations. Megalopsalis tumida (Forster, 1944) is identified as a junior synonym of Forsteropsalis fabulosa (Phillipps & Grimmett, 1932).
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Christopher K Taylor
- Dept of Environment and Agriculture, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia
| | - Anna Probert
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland Mail Centre, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Abstract
Dating the Opiliones tree of life has become an important enterprise for this group of arthropods, due to their ancient origins and important biogeographic implications. To incorporate both methodological innovations in molecular dating as well as new systematic discoveries of harvestman diversity, we conducted total evidence dating on a data set uniting morphological and/or molecular sequence data for 47 Opiliones species, including all four well-known Palaeozoic fossils, to test the placement of both fossils and newly discovered lineages in a single analysis. Furthermore, we investigated node dating with a phylogenomic data set of 24,202 amino acid sites for 14 species of Opiliones, sampling all extant suborders. In this way, we approached molecular dating of basal harvestman phylogeny using different data sets and approaches to assess congruence of divergence time estimates. In spite of the markedly different composition of data sets, our results show congruence across all analyses for age estimates of basal nodes that are well constrained with respect to fossil calibrations (e.g., Opiliones, Palpatores). By contrast, derived nodes that lack fossil calibrations (e.g., the suborders Cyphophthalmi, and Laniatores) have large uncertainty intervals in diversification times, particularly in the total evidence dating analysis, reflecting the dearth of calibration points and undersampling of derived lineages. Total evidence dating consistently produced older median ages than node dating for ingroup nodes, due to the nested placement of multiple Palaeozoic fossils. Our analyses support basal diversification of Opiliones in the Ordovician-Devonian period, corroborating the inferred ancient origins of this arthropod order, and underscore the importance of diversity discovery-both paleontological and neontological-in evolutionary inference.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Prashant P. Sharma
- Division of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural HistoryNew York, NY, USA
| | - Gonzalo Giribet
- Museum of Comparative Zoology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard UniversityCambridge, MA, USA
| |
Collapse
|