Evidence for the ‘Good Genes’ Model: Association of MHC Class II DRB Alleles with Ectoparasitism and Reproductive State in the Neotropical Lesser Bulldog Bat, Noctilio albiventris

The adaptive immune system has a major impact on parasite resistance and life history strategies. Immunological defence is costly both in terms of immediate activation and long-term maintenance. The ‘good genes’ model predicts that males with genotypes that promote a good disease resistance have the ability to allocate more resources to reproductive effort which favours the transmission of good alleles into future generations. Our study shows a correlation between immune gene constitution (Major Histocompatibility Complex, MHC class II DRB), ectoparasite loads (ticks and bat flies) and the reproductive state in a neotropical bat, Noctilio albiventris. Infestation rates with ectoparasites were linked to specific Noal-DRB alleles, differed among roosts, increased with body size and co-varied with reproductive state particularly in males. Non-reproductive adult males were more infested with ectoparasites than reproductively active males, and they had more often an allele (Noal-DRB*02) associated with a higher tick infestation than reproductively active males or subadults. We conclude that the individual immune gene constitution affects ectoparasite susceptibility, and contributes to fitness relevant trade-offs in male N. albiventris as suggested by the ‘good genes’ model

Progress and Research Needs of Plant Biomass Degradation by Basidiomycete Fungi

Peer reviewe

BioTIME 2.0: Expanding and Improving a Database of Biodiversity Time Series

Motivation Here, we make available a second version of the BioTIME database, which compiles records of abundance estimates for species in sample events of ecological assemblages through time. The updated version expands version 1.0 of the database by doubling the number of studies and includes substantial additional curation to the taxonomic accuracy of the records, as well as the metadata. Moreover, we now provide an R package (BioTIMEr) to facilitate use of the database. Main Types of Variables Included The database is composed of one main data table containing the abundance records and 11 metadata tables. The data are organised in a hierarchy of scales where 11,989,233 records are nested in 1,603,067 sample events, from 553,253 sampling locations, which are nested in 708 studies. A study is defined as a sampling methodology applied to an assemblage for a minimum of 2 years. Spatial Location and Grain Sampling locations in BioTIME are distributed across the planet, including marine, terrestrial and freshwater realms. Spatial grain size and extent vary across studies depending on sampling methodology. We recommend gridding of sampling locations into areas of consistent size. Time Period and Grain The earliest time series in BioTIME start in 1874, and the most recent records are from 2023. Temporal grain and duration vary across studies. We recommend doing sample-level rarefaction to ensure consistent sampling effort through time before calculating any diversity metric. Major Taxa and Level of Measurement The database includes any eukaryotic taxa, with a combined total of 56,400 taxa. Software Format csv and. SQL