Risk assessment of genetically engineered crops: fitness effects of virus-resistance transgenes in wild Cucurbita pepo

The development of crops genetically engineered for pathogen resistance has raised concerns that crop-to-wild gene flow could release wild or weedy relatives from regulation by the pathogens targeted by the transgenes that confer resistance. Investigation of these risks has also raised questions about the impact of gene flow from conventional crops into wild plant populations. Viruses in natural plant populations can play important roles in plant fecundity and competitive interactions. Here, we show that virus-resistance transgenes and conventional crop genes can increase fecundity of wild plants under virus pressure. We asked how gene flow from a cultivated squash (Cucurbita pepo) engineered for virus resistance would affect the fecundity of wild squash (C. pepo) in the presence and absence of virus pressure. A transgenic squash cultivar was crossed and backcrossed with wild C. pepo from Arkansas. Wild C. pepo, transgenic backcross plants, and non-transgenic backcross plants were compared in field plots in Ithaca, New York, USA. The second and third generations of backcrosses (BC2 and BC3) were used in 2002 and 2003, respectively. One-half of the plants were inoculated with zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV), and one-half of the plants were maintained as healthy controls. Virus pressure dramatically decreased the fecundity of wild C. pepo plants and non-transgenic backcross plants relative to transgenic backcross plants, which showed continued functioning of the virus-resistance transgene. In 2002, non-transgenic backcross fecundity was slightly higher than wild C. pepo fecundity under virus pressure, indicating a possible benefit of conventional crop alleles, but they did not differ in 2003 when fecundity was lower in both groups. We detected no fitness costs of the transgene in the absence of the virus. If viruses play a role in the population dynamics of wild C. pepo, we predict that gene flow from transgenic, virus-resistant squash and, to a much lesser extent, conventionally bred squash would increase C. pepo fecundity. Studies such as this one, in combination with documentation of the probability of crop-to-wild gene flow and surveys of virus incidence in wild populations, can provide a solid basis for environmental risk assessments of crops genetically engineered for virus resistance

Ecosystem services and agriculture: tradeoffs and synergies

Agricultural ecosystems provide humans with food, forage, bioenergy and pharmaceuticals and are essential to human wellbeing. These systems rely on ecosystem services provided by natural ecosystems, including pollination, biological pest control, maintenance of soil structure and fertility, nutrient cycling and hydrological services. Preliminary assessments indicate that the value of these ecosystem services to agriculture is enormous and often underappreciated. Agroecosystems also produce a variety of ecosystem services, such as regulation of soil and water quality, carbon sequestration, support for biodiversity and cultural services. Depending on management practices, agriculture can also be the source of numerous disservices, including loss of wildlife habitat, nutrient runoff, sedimentation of waterways, greenhouse gas emissions, and pesticide poisoning of humans and non-target species. The tradeoffs that may occur between provisioning services and other ecosystem services and disservices should be evaluated in terms of spatial scale, temporal scale and reversibility. As more effective methods for valuing ecosystem services become available, the potential for ‘win–win’ scenarios increases. Under all scenarios, appropriate agricultural management practices are critical to realizing the benefits of ecosystem services and reducing disservices from agricultural activities

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

European farmers’ incentives to promote natural pest control service in arable fields

Integrated pest management (IPM) is widely encouraged among the European Union (EU) member states. The successful adoption of IPM techniques requires strong farmer motivation and participation. However, few studies have explored EU farmers’ incentives to promote natural enemies of crop pests in the fields, and none have addressed how this could be influenced by farmers’ recognition of natural pest control service. Based on interviews among arable farmers involved in an EU funded agri-environmental project across seven member states, natural pest control was perceived to be a less important contributor to crop production than soil fertility and pollination. Preferences toward managing semi-natural habitats for natural enemies were also relatively low, while insecticides were commonly used among participants. Ordinal logistic regression indicates that farmers’ decision to promote natural pest control was positively associated with the perceived importance of this ecosystem service for crop production. However, they expressed a relatively low confidence in the pest control efficacies of natural enemies compared with insecticides, especially under high pest damage levels. Farmers with greater income have more financial flexibility to adopt either pest control method. The environment surrounding a farm may also influence its owner’s willingness to promote natural pest control

Jurisdiction Over Endangered Species' Habitat: the Impacts of People and Property on Recovery Planning

Coordinating management among multiple landowners and jurisdictional agencies is one of the greatest challenges confronting conservation planning. In this study, we assessed the impacts on recovery progress of the people and property involved in recovery plan development and implementation. We compared indices of recovery progress among endangered species whose primary habitat falls into one of four federal jurisdiction categories: nonfederal land only, 50% but not all federal land, and all federal land. Species found exclusively on federal land are more likely to be improving in status. This may result from the fact that overall implementation of recovery tasks is lower among species occurring exclusively on nonfederal lands. Revision status, the existence of a centralized database, the designation of a person or committee to coordinate plan implementation, the parties involved in drafting the plan, and those designated as responsible for implementing recovery tasks are also significant factors in determining recovery plan implementation. Specifically, diversity of recovery team membership and the average number of participants increase with increasing federal jurisdiction, and tasks are more likely to be completed when more parties are involved in developing recovery plans. However, fewer recovery tasks are completed as the number of parties involved in implementation increases, suggesting that species on federal lands may benefit from less division of labor among agencies. Differences in drafting plans and administering their implementation appear to be stronger determinants of the observed variation in recovery success than differences in the kinds of threats facing species and their habitats

Viral diversity and prevalence gradients in North American Pacific Coast grasslands

Host-pathogen interactions may be governed by the number of pathogens coexisting within an individual host (i.e., coinfection) and among different hosts, although most sampling in natural systems focuses on the prevalence of single pathogens and/or single hosts. We measured the prevalence of four barley and cereal yellow dwarf viruses (B/CYDVs) in three grass species at 26 natural grasslands along a 2000-km latitudinal gradient in the western United States and Canada. B/CYDVs are aphid-vectored RNA viruses that cause one of the most prevalent of all plant diseases worldwide. Pathogen prevalence and coinfection were uncorrelated, suggesting that different forces likely drive them. Coinfection, the number of viruses in a single infected host (alpha diversity), did not differ among host species but increased roughly twofold across our latitudinal transect. This increase in coinfection corresponded with a decline in among-host pathogen turnover (beta diversity), suggesting that B/CYDVs in northern populations experience less transmission limitation than in southern populations. In contrast to pathogen diversity, pathogen prevalence was a function of host identity as well as biotic and abiotic environmental conditions. Prevalence declined with precipitation and increased with soil nitrate concentration, an important limiting nutrient for hosts and vectors of B/CYDVs. This work demonstrates the need for further studies of processes governing coinfection, and the utility of applying theory developed to explain diversity in communities of free-living organisms to pathogen systems

From global to local: reshoring for sustainability

The UK clothing industry has seen the extensive offshoring of manufacturing, which has created fragmented global supply chains; these present a range of supply issues and challenges, including many related to sustainability. Reshoring is a reversion of a previous offshoring decision, thereby ‘bringing manufacturing back home’ (Gray et al. J Supply Chain Management 49(2):27–33, 2013), and can be motivated by increased costs and supply management problems. While not a new phenomenon, the reshoring of activities is growing in practice and there is an imperative for academic research (Fratocchi et al. J Purch Supply Manag 20:54–59, 2014). Through an in-depth longitudinal case study, this paper explores how sustainability can be addressed through reshoring; the studied UK-based clothing SME has strong principles and is explicitly committed to bringing its supply chain ‘home’. There is a recognised need for more OM research using a social lens (Burgess and Singh Oper Manag Res 5:57–68, 2012), so Social Network Theory (SNT) is employed to examine the reshoring decision-making process. SNT applies a relational, qualitative approach to understand the interactions between network actors, and focuses on the types and strengths of relationships and how they provide context for decisions (Galaskiewicz J Supply Chain Manag 47(1):4–8, 2011). The findings demonstrate the importance of socially complex, long-term relationships in managing a sustainable supply network. These relationships contribute to the resources that a firm can harness in its supply practices, and SNT extends this with its emphasis on the strength of ties with suppliers, and the trust, reciprocity and shared meanings it engenders. For the studied firm these advantages are derived through its localised supply chain, and collaborative supplier relationships, and its progressive reshoring of activities is integral to achieving its sustainability principles

Genetic variants associated with subjective well-being, depressive symptoms, and neuroticism identified through genome-wide analyses

Very few genetic variants have been associated with depression and neuroticism, likely because of limitations on sample size in previous studies. Subjective well-being, a phenotype that is genetically correlated with both of these traits, has not yet been studied with genome-wide data. We conducted genome-wide association studies of three phenotypes: subjective well-being (n = 298,420), depressive symptoms (n = 161,460), and neuroticism (n = 170,911). We identify 3 variants associated with subjective well-being, 2 variants associated with depressive symptoms, and 11 variants associated with neuroticism, including 2 inversion polymorphisms. The two loci associated with depressive symptoms replicate in an independent depression sample. Joint analyses that exploit the high genetic correlations between the phenotypes (|ρ^| ≈ 0.8) strengthen the overall credibility of the findings and allow us to identify additional variants. Across our phenotypes, loci regulating expression in central nervous system and adrenal or pancreas tissues are strongly enriched for association.</p

Both consumptive and non-consumptive effects of predators impact mosquito populations and have implications for disease transmission

Predator-prey interactions influence prey traits through both consumptive and non-consumptive effects, and variation in these traits can shape vector-borne disease dynamics. Meta-analysis methods were employed to generate predation effect sizes by different categories of predators and mosquito prey. This analysis showed that multiple families of aquatic predators are effective in consumptively reducing mosquito survival, and that the survival of Aedes, Anopheles, and Culex mosquitoes is negatively impacted by consumptive effects of predators. Mosquito larval size was found to play a more important role in explaining the heterogeneity of consumptive effects from predators than mosquito genus. Mosquito survival and body size were reduced by non-consumptive effects of predators, but development time was not significantly impacted. In addition, Culex vectors demonstrated predator avoidance behavior during oviposition. The results of this meta-analysis suggest that predators limit disease transmission by reducing both vector survival and vector size, and that associations between drought and human West Nile virus cases could be driven by the vector behavior of predator avoidance during oviposition. These findings are likely to be useful to infectious disease modelers who rely on vector traits as predictors of transmission