Comparative Genomics Reveals Accelerated Evolution in Conserved Pathways during the Diversification of Anole Lizards

© The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. Squamates include all lizards and snakes, and display some of the most diverse and extreme morphological adaptations among vertebrates. However, compared with birds and mammals, relatively few resources exist for comparative genomic analyses of squamates, hampering efforts to understand the molecular bases of phenotypic diversification in such a speciose clade. In particular, the ∼400 species of anole lizard represent an extensive squamate radiation. Here, we sequence and assemble the draft genomes of three anole species - Anolis frenatus, Anolis auratus, and Anolis apletophallus - for comparison with the available reference genome of Anolis carolinensis. Comparative analyses reveal a rapid background rate of molecular evolution consistent with a model of punctuated equilibrium, and strong purifying selection on functional genomic elements in anoles. We find evidence for accelerated evolution in genes involved in behavior, sensory perception, and reproduction, as well as in genes regulating limb bud development and hindlimb specification. Morphometric analyses of anole fore and hindlimbs corroborated these findings. We detect signatures of positive selection across several genes related to the development and regulation of the forebrain, hormones, and the iguanian lizard dewlap, suggesting molecular changes underlying behavioral adaptations known to reinforce species boundaries were a key component in the diversification of anole lizards

PH drop impacts differentially skin and gut microbiota of the Amazonian fish tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum)

Aquatic organisms are increasingly exposed to lowering of environmental pH due to anthropogenic pressure (e.g. acid rain, acid mine drainages). Such acute variations trigger imbalance of fish-Associated microbiota, which in turn favour opportunistic diseases. We used the tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum), an Amazonian fish tolerant to significant pH variation in its natural environment, to assess the response of fish endogenous microbiota to acute short-Term acid stress. We exposed 36 specimens of tambaquis to acidic water (pH 4.0) over 2 consecutive weeks and sampled cutaneous mucus, feces and water at 0, 7 &14 days. The 16S RNA hypervariable region V4 was sequenced on Illumina MiSeq. After two weeks of acidic exposure, fecal and skin microbiota taxonomic structures exhibited different patterns: skin microbiota was still exhibiting a significantly disturbed composition whereas fecal microbiota recovered a similar composition to control group, thus suggesting a stronger resilience capacity of the intestinal microbiota than cutaneous microbiota

Privacy rights and democracy: a contradiction in terms?

This article argues that people have legitimate interests in privacy that deserve legal protection on democratic principles. It describes the right to privacy as a bundle of rights of personal choice, association and expression and shows that, so described, people have legitimate political interests in privacy. These interests reflect the ways that privacy rights can supplement the protection for people’s freedom and equality provided by rights of political choice, association and expression, and can help to make sure that these are, genuinely, democratic. Feminists have often been ambivalent about legal protection for privacy, because privacy rights have, so often, protected the coercion and exploitation of women, and made it difficult to politicise personal forms of injustice. However, attention to the differences between democratic and undemocratic forms of politics can enable us to meet these concerns, and to distinguish a democratic justification of privacy rights from the alternatives. [First paragraph