Evolutionary studies have revealed that reproductive proteins in animals and plants often evolve more rapidly than the genome-wide average. The causes of this pattern, which may include relaxed purifying selection, sexual selection, sexual conflict, pathogen resistance, reinforcement, or gene duplication, remain elusive. Investigative expansions to additional taxa and reproductive tissues have ...

Globally, habitat loss in coastal marine systems is a major driver of species decline, and estuaries are particularly susceptible to loss. Along the United States Pacific coast, monospecific eelgrass (Zostera marina) beds form estuarine vegetated habitat. In Morro Bay, California, experienced an unprecedented decline > 95%, from 139 ha 2007 < 6 by 2017. Fish populations were compared before aft...

In this paper, we propose a new region extraction method with a chromakey technique using a two-tone striped background. A chromakey compositing is a technique for separating actors or actresses from a background, and then compositing a different background. The conventional chromakey technique usually uses an unicolored blue or green background, and has a problem that one’s clothes are regarde...

Bi-sensory striped arrays are described in owl and platypus that share some similarities with the other variant of bi-sensory striped array found in primate and carnivore striate cortex: ocular dominance columns. Like ocular dominance columns, the owl and platypus striped systems each involve two different topographic arrays that are cut into parallel stripes, and interdigitated, so that higher...

In the polymorphic white-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis), tan-striped males provision nestlings at higher rates than do white-striped males. In a previous study, we found that tan-striped males had lower baseline corticosterone levels than white-striped males during the nestling stage. To determine if this variation in corticosterone influences morph-specific differences in nestling p...

The striped bass (Morone saxatilis) is an economically and ecologically important finfish species along the Atlantic seaboard of the United States. Recent stock assessments in Chesapeake Bay (U.S.A.) indicate that non-fishing mortality in striped bass has increased since 1999, concomitant with very high (>50%) prevalence of visceral and dermal disease caused by Mycobacterium spp. Current fisher...

In species with discrete morphs exhibiting alternative behavioral strategies, individuals may vary their aggressive behavior in competitive encounters according to the phenotype of their opponent. Such aggression bias has been documented in multiple polymorphic species evolving under negative frequency-dependent selection, but it has not been well-studied under other selection regimes. We inves...

The four-striped mouse has a grey to brown coloured coat with four characteristic dark stripes interspersed with three lighter stripes running along its back. The histological differences in the skin of the juvenile and adult mouse were investigated by Haematoxylin and Eosin and Masson Trichrome staining, while melanocytes in the skin were studied through melanin-specific Ferro-ferricyanide sta...

The characteristic striped appearance of zebras has provoked much speculation about its function and why the pattern has evolved, but experimental evidence is scarce. Here, we demonstrate that a zebra-striped horse model attracts far fewer horseflies (tabanids) than either homogeneous black, brown, grey or white equivalents. Such biting flies are prevalent across Africa and have considerable fi...

The differential allocation hypothesis assumes that animals should weigh costs and benefits of investing into reproduction with a current mate against the expected quality of future mates, and predicts that they should invest more into reproduction when pairing with a high-quality mate. In the broad-nosed pipefish (Syngnathus typhle), males care for the embryos in a brood pouch and females comp...