Defining biogeographic provinces to understand the history and evolution of communities associated with a given kind of ecosystem is challenging and usually requires a priori assumptions to be made. We applied network theory, a holistic and exploratory method, to the most complete database of faunal distribution available on oceanic hydrothermal vents, environments which support fragmented and unstable ecosystems, to infer the processes driving their worldwide biogeography. Besides the identification of robust provinces, the network topology allowed us to identify preferential pathways that had hitherto been overlooked. These pathways are consistent with the previously proposed hypothesis of a role of plate tectonics in the biogeographical history of hydrothermal vent communities. A possible ancestral position of the Western Pacific is also suggested for the first time. Finally, this work provides an innovative example of the potential of network tools to unravel the biogeographic history of faunal assemblages and to supply comprehensive information for the conservation and management of biodiversity.

Seagrasses structure some of the world's key coastal ecosystems presently in decline due to human activities and global change. The ability to cope with environmental changes and the possibilities for shifts in distribution range depend largely on their evolvability and dispersal potential. As large-scale data usually show strong genetic structure for seagrasses, finer-grained work is needed to understand the local processes of dispersal, recruitment and colonization that could explain the apparent lack of exchange across large distances. We aimed to assess the fine-grained genetic structure of one of the most important and widely distributed seagrasses, Zostera marina, from seven meadows in Brittany, France. Both classic population genetics and network analysis confirmed a pattern of spatial segregation of polymorphism at both regional and local scales. One location exhibiting exclusively the variety 'angustifolia' did not appear more differentiated than the others, but instead showed a central position in the network analysis, confirming the status of this variety as an ecotype. This phenotypic diversity and the high allelic richness at nine microsatellites (2.33-9.67 alleles/locus) compared to levels previously reported across the distribution range, points to Brittany as a centre of diversity for Z. marina at both genetic and phenotypic levels. Despite dispersal potential of several 100 m, a significant pattern of genetic differentiation, even at fine-grained scale, revealed 'genetic patchiness'. Meadows seem to be composed of a mosaic of clones with distinct origins in space and time, a result that calls into question the accuracy of the concept of populations for such partially clonal species.

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Theoretically, the dynamics of clonal and genetic diversities of clonal plant populations are strongly influenced by the competition among clones and rate of seedling recruitment, but little empirical assessment has been made of such dynamics through temporal genetic surveys. We aimed to quantify 3 years of evolution in the clonal and genetic composition of Zostera marina meadows, comparing parameters describing clonal architecture and genetic diversity at nine microsatellite markers. Variations in clonal structure revealed a decrease in the evenness of ramet distribution among genets. This illustrates the increasing dominance of some clonal lineages (multilocus lineages, MLLs) in populations. Despite the persistence of these MLLs over time, genetic differentiation was much stronger in time than in space, at the local scale. Contrastingly with the short-term evolution of clonal architecture, the patterns of genetic structure and genetic diversity sensu stricto (that is, heterozygosity and allelic richness) were stable in time. These results suggest the coexistence of (i) a fine grained (at the scale of a 20 Â 30 m quadrat) stable core of persistent genets originating from an initial seedling recruitment and developing spatial dominance through clonal elongation; and (ii) a local (at the scale of the meadow) pool of transient genets subjected to annual turnover. This simultaneous occurrence of initial and repeated recruitment strategies highlights the different spatial scales at which distinct evolutionary drivers and mating systems (clonal competition, clonal growth, propagule dispersal and so on) operate to shape the dynamics of populations and the evolution of polymorphism in space and time. Keywords: clonality; seagrass; spatio-temporal genetic structure; Zostera marina INTRODUCTION Clonality is a life history trait widely distributed among taxa and habitats, particularly in photosynthetic organisms. Partially clonal organisms are characterized by a mixed system allowing the combination of two reproductive strategies: the production of new genetically identical modules through vegetative growth or fragmentation and the production of new genetic individuals through sexual recombination. As a consequence, their population dynamics and evolutionary trajectories are profoundly affected by their rate and mode of clonal reproduction. Populations of clonal plants are composed of genetic individuals, or genets occupying space and dispersing locally through the production of modular shoots, or ramets (Harper, 1977). As genets are able to persist through time and space, the composition and evolution of populations of clonal plants is largely affected by the level of intraspecific competition (Eriksson, 1989(Eriksson, , 1993Pan and Price, 2001;Travis and Hester, 2005).Depending on the turnover of genets and intensity of inter-genet competition for space, two extreme recruitment strategies have been defined (Eriksson, 1993): (i) the 'Initial Seedling Recruitment' (ISR) strategy, characterizing populations originating fro...

Porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERV) are a major concern when porcine tissues and organs are used for xenotransplantation. PERV has been shown to infect human cells in vitro, highlighting a potential zoonotic risk. No pathology is associated with PERV in its natural host, but the pathogenic potential might differ in the case of cross-species transmission and can only be inferred from knowledge of related gammaretroviruses. We therefore investigated the integration features of the PERV DNA in the human genome in vitro in order to further characterize the risk associated with PERV transmission. In this study, we characterized 189 PERV integration site sequences from human HEK-293 cells. Data showed that PERV integration was strongly enhanced at transcriptional start sites and CpG islands and that the frequencies of integration events increased with the expression levels of the genes, except for the genes with the highest levels of expression, which were disfavored for integration. Finally, we extracted genomic sequences directly flanking the integration sites and found an original 8-base statistical palindromic consensus sequence [TG(int)GTACCAGC]. All these results show similarities between PERV and murine leukemia virus integration site selection, suggesting that gammaretroviruses have a common pattern of integration and that the mechanisms of target site selection within a retrovirus genus might be similar.

The siphonous algae of the Caulerpa genus harbor internal microbial communities hypothesized to play important roles in development, defense and metabolic activities of the host. Here, we characterize the endophytic bacterial community of four Caulerpa taxa in the Mediterranean Sea, through 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Results reveal a striking alpha diversity of the bacterial communities, similar to levels found in sponges and coral holobionts. These comprise (1) a very small core community shared across all hosts (< 1% of the total community), (2) a variable portion (ca. 25%) shared by some Caulerpa taxa but not by all, which might represent environmentally acquired bacteria and (3) a large (>70%) species-specific fraction of the community, forming very specific clusters revealed by modularity in networks of cooccurrence, even in areas where distinct Caulerpa taxa occurred in sympatry. Indirect inferences based on sequence homology suggest that these communities may play an important role in the metabolism of their host, in particular on their ability to grow on anoxic sediment. These findings support the hologenome theory and the need for a holistic framework in ecological and evolutionary studies of these holobionts that frequently become invasive.

BackgroundHybridization or divergence between sympatric sister species provides a natural laboratory to study speciation processes. The shared polymorphism in sister species may either be ancestral or derive from hybridization, and the accuracy of analytic methods used thus far to derive convincing evidence for the occurrence of present day hybridization is largely debated.ResultsHere we propose the application of network analysis to test for the occurrence of present day hybridization between the two species of brown algae Fucus spiralis and F. vesiculosus. Individual-centered networks were analyzed on the basis of microsatellite genotypes from North Africa to the Pacific American coast, through the North Atlantic. Two genetic distances integrating different time steps were used, the Rozenfeld (RD; based on alleles divergence) and the Shared Allele (SAD; based on alleles identity) distances. A diagnostic level of genotype divergence and clustering of individuals from each species was obtained through RD while screening for exchanges through putative hybridization was facilitated using SAD. Intermediate individuals linking both clusters on the RD network were those sampled at the limits of the sympatric zone in Northwest Iberia.ConclusionThese results suggesting rare hybridization were confirmed by simulation of hybrids and F2 with directed backcrosses. Comparison with the Bayesian method STRUCTURE confirmed the usefulness of both approaches and emphasized the reliability of network analysis to unravel and study hybridization

In this study, we developed a gene disruption system for Thermococcus barophilus using simvastatin for positive selection and 5-fluoroorotic acid (5-FOA) for negative selection or counterselection to obtain markerless deletion mutants using single-and double-crossover events. Disruption plasmids carrying flanking regions of each targeted gene were constructed and introduced by transformation into wild-type T. barophilus MP cells. Initially, a pyrF deletion mutant was obtained as a starting point for the construction of further markerless mutants. A deletion of the hisB gene was also constructed in the UBOCC-3256 (⌬pyrF) background, generating a strain (UBOCC-3260) that was auxotrophic for histidine. A functional pyrF or hisB allele from T. barophilus was inserted into the chromosome of UBOCC-3256 (⌬pyrF) or UBOCC-3260 (⌬pyrF ⌬hisB), allowing homologous complementation of these mutants. The piezophilic genetic tools developed in this study provide a way to construct strains with multiple genetic backgrounds that will allow further genetic studies for hyperthermophilic piezophilic archaea.