Sympatric speciation has been controversial since it was first proposed as a mode of speciation. Subterranean blind mole rats (Spalacidae) are considered to speciate allopatrically or peripatrically. Here, we report a possible incipient sympatric adaptive ecological speciation in Spalax galili (2n = 52). The study microsite (0.04 km 2 ) is sharply subdivided geologically, edaphically, and ecologically into abutting barrier-free ecologies divergent in rock, soil, and vegetation types. The Pleistocene Alma basalt abuts the Cretaceous Senonian Kerem Ben Zimra chalk. Only 28% of 112 plant species were shared between the soils. We examined mitochondrial DNA in the control region and ATP6 in 28 mole rats from basalt and in 14 from chalk habitats. We also sequenced the complete mtDNA (16,423 bp) of four animals, two from each soil type. Remarkably, the frequency of all major haplotype clusters (HC) was highly soil-biased. HCI and HCII are chalk biased. HC-III was abundant in basalt (36%) but absent in chalk; HC-IV was prevalent in basalt (46.5%) but was low (20%) in chalk. Up to 40% of the mtDNA diversity was edaphically dependent, suggesting constrained gene flow. We identified a homologous recombinant mtDNA in the basalt/chalk studied area. Phenotypically significant divergences differentiate the two populations, inhabiting different soils, in adaptive oxygen consumption and in the amount of outsidenest activity. This identification of a possible incipient sympatric adaptive ecological speciation caused by natural selection indirectly refutes the allopatric alternative. Sympatric ecological speciation may be more prevalent in nature because of abundant and sharply abutting divergent ecologies.adaptation | ecological stress | radio-tracking | metabolism | microscale T he origin and nature of species, the mystery of mysteries (1) and "the most important single event in Evolution" (2), have always been problematic in evolutionary studies (2-7). We adhere to the Biological Species Concept (2), recognizing its merits and demerits (2). The recent resurgence in speciation studies highlights many past obscurities (4), including sympatric speciation (7-18). Nevertheless, many basic questions related to adaptation and speciation, including sympatric speciation, still await resolution based primarily on the genomic sequence studies, such as in Drosophila (8), or even in species that presumably originated sympatrically, such as in the fly Rhagolites (9) or cichlid fishes in Africa and Neotropical America (10).The mode of species origin is still a major focus of heated debate. Does speciation occur primarily in allopatry, i.e., requiring complete geographic isolation, or can it occur in parapatry and peripatry, where limited gene exchange operates, or even in sympatry, where free gene exchange occurs, as suggested by Darwin (1)? Darwin envisaged allopatric, parapatric, and sympatric modes of speciation, but neither he nor his followers estimated their proportions in nature, which remain enigmatic and limited (4). Moreover, no spe...

Cerebral contusions are one the most frequent traumatic lesions and the most common indication for secondary surgical decompression. The purpose of this study was to investigate the physiology of perilesional secondary brain damage and evaluate the value of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) in the treatment of these lesions. Five groups of five Sprague-Dawley rats each were submitted to dynamic cortical deformation (DCD) induced by negative pressure applied to the cortex. Cerebral lesions produced by DCD at the vacuum site proved to be reproducible. The study protocol entailed the following: (1) DCD alone, (2) DCD and HBOT, (3) DCD and post-operative hypoxia and HBOT, (4) DCD, post-operative hypoxia and HBOT, and (5) DCD and normobaric hyperoxia. Animals were sacrificed after 4 days. Histological sections showed localized gross tissue loss in the cortex at injury site, along with hemorrhage. In all cases, the severity of secondary brain damage was assessed by counting the number of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) and caspase 3-positive cells in successive perilesional layers, each 0.5 mm thick. Perilesional TUNEL positive cells suggested the involvement of apoptosis in group 1 (12.24% of positive cells in layer 1). These findings were significantly enhanced by post-operative hypoxia (31.75%, p < 0.001). HBOT significantly reduced the severity and extent of secondary brain damage expressed by the number of TUNEL positive cells in each layer and the volume of the lesion (4.7% and 9% of TUNEL positive cells in layer 1 in groups 2 and 4 respectively, p < 0.0001 and p < 0.003). Normobaric hyperoxia also proved to be beneficial although in a lesser extent. This study demonstrates that the vacuum model of brain injury is a reproducible model of cerebral contusion. The current findings also suggest that HBOT may limit the growth of cerebral contusions and justify further experimental studies.

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The power expression for cumulative oxygen toxicity and the exponential recovery were successfully applied to various features of oxygen toxicity. From the basic equation, we derived expressions for a protocol in which PO(2) changes with time. The parameters of the power equation were solved by using nonlinear regression for the reduction in vital capacity (DeltaVC) in humans: %DeltaVC = 0.0082 x t(2)(PO(2)/101.3)(4.57), where t is the time in hours and PO(2) is expressed in kPa. The recovery of lung volume is DeltaVC(t) = DeltaVC(e) x e(-(-0.42 + 0.00379PO(2))t), where DeltaVC(t) is the value at time t of the recovery, DeltaVC(e) is the value at the end of the hyperoxic exposure, and PO(2) is the prerecovery oxygen pressure. Data from different experiments on central nervous system (CNS) oxygen toxicity in humans in the hyperbaric chamber (n = 661) were analyzed along with data from actual closed-circuit oxygen diving (n = 2,039) by using a maximum likelihood method. The parameters of the model were solved for the combined data, yielding the power equation for active diving: K = t(2) (PO(2)/101.3)(6.8), where t is in minutes. It is suggested that the risk of CNS oxygen toxicity in diving can be derived from the calculated parameter of the normal distribution: Z = [ln(t) - 9.63 +3.38 x ln(PO(2)/101.3)]/2.02. The recovery time constant for CNS oxygen toxicity was calculated from the value obtained for the rat, taking into account the effect of body mass, and yielded the recovery equation: K(t) = K(e) x e(-0.079t), where K(t) and K(e) are the values of K at time t of the recovery process and at the end of the hyperbaric oxygen exposure, respectively, and t is in minutes.

We have previously hypothesised that the number of bubbles evolving during decompression from a dive, and therefore the incidence of decompression sickness (DCS), might be reduced by pretreatment with hyperbaric oxygen (HBO). The inert gas in the gas micronuclei would be replaced by oxygen, which would subsequently be consumed by the mitochondria. This has been demonstrated in the transparent prawn. To investigate whether our hypothesis holds for mammals, we pretreated rats with HBO at 304, 405, or 507 kPa for 20 min, after which they were exposed to air at 1,013 kPa for 33 min and decompressed at 202 kPa/min. Twenty control rats were exposed to air at 1,013 kPa for 32 min, without HBO pretreatment. On reaching the surface, the rat was immediately placed in a rotating cage for 30 min. The animal's behaviour enabled us to make an early diagnosis of DCS according to accepted symptoms. Rats were examined again after 2 and 24 h. After 2 h, 65% of the control rats had suffered DCS (45% were dead), whereas 35% had no DCS. HBO pretreatment at 304, 405 and 507 kPa significantly reduced the incidence of DCS at 2 h to 40, 40 and 35%, respectively. Compared with the 45% mortality rate in the control group after 24 h, in all of the pretreated groups this was 15%. HBO pretreatment is equally effective at 304, 405 or 507 kPa, bringing about a significant reduction in the incidence of DCS in rats decompressed from 1,013 kPa.

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Hematocrit (HCT) and hemoglobin (Hb) concentration were measured in four chromosomal species and some peripherally semi-isolated and isolated populations of the mole rat superspecies Spalax ehrenbergi in Israel. HCT was 52.0, 51.4, 50.9, and 47.8%, and Hb was 16.0, 16.6, 16.3, and 14.7 g/100 ml for 2n = 52, 58, 54, and 60, respectively. The species 2n = 60, which lives in arid habitats, had lower HCT and Hb than the other three species. HCT decreased as aridity increased between the species and within the species 2n = 60. Changes in HCT probably reflect clinal changes in both soil permeability to gases and ambient temperature.