TY  - JOUR
A1  - Mazza, Valeria
A1  - Czyperreck, Inken
A1  - Eccard, Jana
A1  - Dammhahn, Melanie
T1  - Cross-Context Responses to Novelty in Rural and Urban Small Mammals
JF  - Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
N2  - The Anthropocene is the era of urbanization. The accelerating expansion of cities occurs at the expense of natural reservoirs of biodiversity and presents animals with challenges for which their evolutionary past might not have prepared them. Cognitive and behavioral adjustments to novelty could promote animals’ persistence under these altered conditions. We investigated the structure of, and covariance between, different aspects of responses to novelty in rural and urban small mammals of two non-commensal rodent species. We ran replicated experiments testing responses to three novelty types (object, food, or space) of 47 individual common voles (Microtus arvalis) and 41 individual striped field mice (Apodemus agrarius). We found partial support for the hypothesis that responses to novelty are structured, clustering (i) speed of responses, (ii) intensity of responses, and (iii) responses to food into separate dimensions. Rural and urban small mammals did not differ in most responses to novelty, suggesting that urban habitats do not reduce neophobia in these species. Further studies investigating whether comparable response patters are found throughout different stages of colonization, and along synurbanization processes of different duration, will help illuminate the dynamics of animals’ cognitive adjustments to urban life.
KW  - animal cognition
KW  - anthropogenic environment
KW  - HIREC
KW  - novelty
KW  - neophobia
KW  - neophilia
KW  - rodents
KW  - urbanization
Y1  - 2021
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.661971
SN  - 2296-701X
VL  - 9
PB  - Frontiers Media
CY  - Lausanne
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Hilgers, Leon
A1  - Hartmann, Stefanie
A1  - Hofreiter, Michael
A1  - von Rintelen, Thomas
T1  - Novel Genes, Ancient Genes, and Gene Co-Option Contributed o the Genetic Basis of the Radula, a Molluscan Innovation
JF  - Molecular biology and evolution
N2  - The radula is the central foraging organ and apomorphy of the Mollusca. However, in contrast to other innovations, including the mollusk shell, genetic underpinnings of radula formation remain virtually unknown. Here, we present the first radula formative tissue transcriptome using the viviparous freshwater snail Tylomelania sarasinorum and compare it to foot tissue and the shell-building mantle of the same species. We combine differential expression, functional enrichment, and phylostratigraphic analyses to identify both specific and shared genetic underpinnings of the three tissues as well as their dominant functions and evolutionary origins. Gene expression of radula formative tissue is very distinct, but nevertheless more similar to mantle than to foot. Generally, the genetic bases of both radula and shell formation were shaped by novel orchestration of preexisting genes and continuous evolution of novel genes. A significantly increased proportion of radula-specific genes originated since the origin of stem-mollusks, indicating that novel genes were especially important for radula evolution. Genes with radula-specific expression in our study are frequently also expressed during the formation of other lophotrochozoan hard structures, like chaetae (hes1, arx), spicules (gbx), and shells of mollusks (gbx, heph) and brachiopods (heph), suggesting gene co-option for hard structure formation. Finally, a Lophotrochozoa-specific chitin synthase with a myosin motor domain (CS-MD), which is expressed during mollusk and brachiopod shell formation, had radula-specific expression in our study. CS-MD potentially facilitated the construction of complex chitinous structures and points at the potential of molecular novelties to promote the evolution of different morphological innovations.
KW  - chitin synthase
KW  - novelty
KW  - radula
KW  - RNAseq
KW  - shell
KW  - Tylomelania sarasinorum
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msy052
SN  - 0737-4038
SN  - 1537-1719
VL  - 35
IS  - 7
SP  - 1638
EP  - 1652
PB  - Oxford Univ. Press
CY  - Oxford
ER  -