Biology subjects

Eros, T.

Publications and source records attributed to Eros, T..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Ambivalent roles of nonsense-mediated mRNA decay in heat stress tolerance

RNA homeostasis is essential for gene regulation and cellular survival; however, how RNA degradation pathways contribute to stress adaptation remains incompletely understood. Here, we investigated the role of the nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) in regulating heat stress (HS) memory in a long-term acquired thermotolerance assay. NMD-deficient Arabidopsis thaliana mutants upf1-5 and upf3-1 exhibited a biphasic phenotype: they displayed transiently elevated heat tolerance during early recovery but became more sensitive to heat during late recovery. Genetic analysis of upf3;hsfa2 and upf3;hsfa3 double mutants demonstrated that the early heat tolerance occurs independently of both HsfA2 and HsfA3 HS-memory transcription factors. Under non-treated conditions, the upf3-1 transcriptome exhibited baseline priming of heat-shock responsive transcripts, likely accounting for the initial heat tolerance. Further transcriptome profiling revealed that upf3-1 mutants exhibited reduced levels of the functional HsfA2 isoform (HsfA2-I) and attenuated expression of the HsfA2-dependent thermomemory regulon following the triggering stress. NMD deficiency also upregulated immune-response genes while repressing developmental and cell-wall-associated pathways. Together, impaired HsfA2-dependent thermomemory and a compromised growth defense balance underlies the late heat sensitivity of NMD deficient plants. Overall, NMD acts as a dual-action post-transcriptional regulator that coordinates the transition from stress response to growth resumption.

plant biology↗

bioRxiv2024

Effects of Turbidity and Habitat Complexity on the Foraging Behavior of the Black Bullhead (Ameiurus melas)

The role of vertebrate scavengers in nutrient flow of aquatic ecosystems has recently been emphasized. Evidence is accumulating that scavenging is an alternative tactic for certain predatory fish, but their foraging choices between scavenging and predation under varying environmental conditions have not been studied. In this experiment, we presented black bullheads, Ameiurus melas (Rafinesque, 1820), with both live and carcass prey of tubenose gobies, Proterorhinus semilunaris (Heckel, 1837), in aquaria with varying levels of turbidity and habitat complexity. Our findings revealed that black bullheads exhibit higher consumption of carcass prey in complex habitat and clear water condition. We also provide evidence of the active predatory behavior displayed by black bullheads, as a greater consumption of live prey was observed in simple habitat and turbid water. We did not find any relationship between individual exploratory behavior and the choice between carcass and live prey in black bullheads. Our results suggest that the choice between scavenging versus predatory foraging strategy under varying environmental conditions is influenced by the behavior of both consumer and prey. The ability of black bullheads to adapt their foraging strategy in different environments may contribute to their widespread success as an invasive species.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2021

Distance decay 2.0 - a global synthesis of taxonomic and functional turnover in ecological communities.

Understanding the variation in community composition and species abundances, i.e., {beta}-diversity, is at the heart of community ecology. A common approach to examine {beta}-diversity is to evaluate directional turnover in community composition by measuring the decay in the similarity among pairs of communities along spatial or environmental distances. We provide the first global synthesis of taxonomic and functional distance decay along spatial and environmental distance by analysing 149 datasets comprising different types of organisms and environments. We modelled an exponential distance decay for each dataset using generalized linear models and extracted r2 and slope to analyse the strength and the rate of the decay. We studied whether taxonomic or functional similarity has stronger decay across the spatial and environmental distances. We also unveiled the factors driving the rate of decay across the datasets, including latitude, spatial extent, realm, and organismal features. Taxonomic distance decay was stronger along spatial and environmental distances compared with functional distance decay. The rate of taxonomic spatial distance decay was the fastest in the datasets from mid-latitudes while the rate of functional decay increased with latitude. Overall, datasets covering larger spatial extents showed a lower rate of decay along spatial distances but a higher rate of decay along environmental distances. Marine ecosystems had the slowest rate of decay. This synthesis is an important step towards a more holistic understanding of patterns and drivers of taxonomic and functional {beta}-diversity.

ecology↗