Biology subjects

Oro, D.

Publications and source records attributed to Oro, D..

8 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Social copying drives spatial allocation in gregarious herbivores

Resting patch selection in free-ranging social cattle (Bos taurus) inhabiting steep, rugged, mountain valleys is critical, because the recurrent use of flatter resting patches may reduce energetic costs and enhance fitness prospects. As these patches may constitute a limited resource, understanding their pattern of use dynamics may help explain resting patch selection. We therefore combine empirical data with a theoretical modelling framework to investigate the processes underlying resting patch selection. Using high-resolution GPS tracking data from 144 cows collected over three seasons, we identify several recurrently used resting patches located on significantly gentler slopes than expected in the valley. We then build a simple, memory-free agent-based model, which suggests that the dynamics of resting patch selection arise from social copying and, to a lesser extent, from individual heterogeneity. The model quantitatively reproduces three empirical observables: a slowing (sub-linear) discovery of new sites through time, heterogeneous occupancy across resting patches and similarity in patch use among individuals. These results suggest that collective dynamics in social species can emerge primarily from a simple social mechanism with weaker modulation from inter-individual heterogeneity, such as age, without explicitly incorporating individual memory to reproduce the aggregate patterns.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2026

Between specialization and flexibility: how tasks and space shape behavioral profiles in ant colonies

Task allocation in eusocial insects has long been studied under the framework of division of labor, implying a relatively rigid association between individuals and tasks. However, most eusocial species lack morphological specialization, and workers regularly switch tasks as colony demands change. This raises a fundamental question: do tasks shape the behavioral profiles of workers, or does individual behavioral variation cut across task boundaries? We addressed this in a controlled laboratory study of Aphaenogaster senilis ants, comparing the behavioral profiles of four task groups (scouts, recruits, nurses, and necrophores) spatially segregated by their location within the colony setup and subsequently tested individually in four ecologically relevant contexts. This multivariate profiling, still rarely applied in ants, revealed that some tasks impose clear behavioral specialization (scouting, brood care), whereas others do not (recruitment, necrophoresis). Critically, this specialization appears in foraging-related tasks, whereas sociality does not: it varies considerably among workers, even within a single task group. Behavioral specialization, therefore, exists, but not across every dimension of behavior, and it is not a fixed property of the task. These results suggest that workers may differ in their readiness to shift roles depending on the task at hand, and this variation may in turn shape how colonies adapt to environmental change. More broadly, our results speak to a question central to collective behavior research well beyond ants: how individual variability translates into functional structure at the group level.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2026

Ecological networks balance connectivity with flexibility to perturbations

The complexity-stability debate in ecology remains unresolved in part because its empirical basis is limited. Most evidence for the predicted decline of connectance with species richness comes from food webs, leaving unclear whether this pattern extends across the full spectrum of ecological interactions. Moreover, existing results remain conceptually unresolved: connectance decreases with diversity, yet both the total number of interactions and the number of interactions per species increase. Here, we analyze 1,500 ecological interaction networks spanning diverse habitats and interaction types. We show that these patterns are broadly shared across ecological interaction networks and can be interpreted through a recent theory of information dynamics in complex networks, in which sparsity is favored by a trade-off between signal propagation and response diversity. Our results suggest that the structural component of the debate may indeed reflect a general architectural regularity of ecological communities rather than a contradiction between theory and nature.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2026

A demographic framework for assessing population vulnerability to contrasting perturbation regimes

Environmental change affects demographic rates through perturbations that differ in magnitude, duration, and frequency, yet their consequences for population vulnerability, i.e., potential population reduction, remain only partly understood. Here, we develop a general demographic framework that unifies pulse and press perturbations to better understand how life-history strategy shapes population declines across the fast-slow continuum. Using matrix population models for 12 plant and animal species with diverse generation time and life history strategies, we simulated perturbations acting independently on adult survival, juvenile survival, and fecundity, and measured their demographic consequences over comparable life-history timescales. We then integrated impacts across perturbation regimes to derive a novel comparative vulnerability metric and related this metric to species life-history descriptors. Across taxa, perturbations to adult survival consistently produced the strongest demographic impacts, with vulnerability increasing markedly towards slower life histories. Juvenile survival emerged as the main axis of demographic differentiation among species, whereas the effects of perturbations on fecundity were weaker and comparatively homogeneous across the continuum. Generation time strongly predicted vulnerability to survival perturbations, but not to reproductive output. Consistent with previous theoretical and empirical work, our results show that vulnerability is not a fixed species property, but an emergent outcome of the interaction between the perturbed vital rate, the temporal structure of environmental forcing, and the underlying life-history strategy. Importantly, as the vulnerability metric can be compared both across populations under a given perturbation regime and within populations across perturbation types and demographic targets, the framework also provides a basis for stage-specific and regime-specific management.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2025

Foraging Ants as Liquid Brains: Movement Heterogeneity Shapes Collective Efficiency

Liquid brains conceptualize living systems operating without central control, where collective outcomes emerge from local but dynamic interactions. Therefore, movement is expected to shape the connectivity among individuals, allowing the system to optimize its efficiency. We empirically measured ant movement behavior across large spatiotemporal scales, closely reflecting the ecology of our model species, Aphaenogaster senilis. We then incorporated this into a liquid brain framework, enabling a quantitative replication of ant foraging efficiency and their spatiotemporal dynamics. Our results highlight that a simple feedback mechanism explains the foraging patterns of this species. Indeed, such feedback is modulated by adjusting the proportion of two coexisting movement behaviors: while the recruits facilitated information transfer and food exploitation by aggregating closely to the nest, the scouts mostly bypassed this feedback, enabling the discovery of alternative food sources. These findings underscore how complex systems frameworks can benefit from empirical insights, enhancing our understanding of the mechanisms underlying collective intelligence in biological systems.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2024

FGF21 deletion mildly exacerbates hepatic dysfunction in MASH diet and alcohol fed rats

ObjectiveFibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is a hepatokine that improves dyslipidemia, steatosis, inflammation, and fibrosis. FGF21 analogues are in clinical development as treatments for metabolic and alcohol-associated liver disease, creating a need for new models to help understand FGF21 physiology and drug mechanisms of action. The aim of this study was to create and initially characterize the first FGF21 knockout (KO) rat line to validate its utility as a translational animal model that recapitulates human MASH and ALD, and to provide a resource for examining FGF21-related phenotypes that are more appropriate for the rat. MethodsWe generated an FGF21 KO rat model using CRISPR/Cas9 to insert an artificial STOP codon in exon 1 and exposed 6-month-old WT and KO rats to either chow (n=8 per genotype) or the GAN (Gubra Amylin NASH) diet (n=16 per genotype) for 12 weeks. We further evaluated alcohol drinking behavior and biochemistry in FGF21 KO and WT rats. In the diet model, we further analysed liver and blood biochemistry in addition to histopathological scoring of NAFLD activity score (NAS), fibrosis stage and the liver transcriptome for in-depth characterization of the model. ResultsLack of endogenous FGF21 increased plasma transaminases, liver weight, and total levels of liver TG in GAN-fed FGF21 KO rats. FGF21 deletion also increased ALT in alcohol-fed FGF21 KO rats. However, in the GAN diet model, FGF21 KO had no impact on body weight, fat mass, glycaemic traits, MASH histological endpoints including hepatic steatosis, NAS score, lobular inflammation, ballooning degeneration or fibrosis stage after 12 weeks. Similarly, there was no effect of the loss of endogenous FGF21 on the liver transcriptome in response to GAN diet feeding. Finally, we demonstrate that endogenous FGF21 does not regulate drinking behaviour in rats. ConclusionFGF21 deficiency accelerates hepatic dysfunction in diet and alcohol-induced liver disease models in rats, providing support from a new species that FGF21 might be a hepatoprotective factor.

physiology↗

bioRxiv2021

Deep Learning Shows Cellular Senescence Is a Barrier to Cancer Development

Cellular senescence is a critical component of aging and many age-related diseases, but understanding its role in human health is challenging in part due to the lack of exclusive or universal markers. Using neural networks, we achieve high accuracy in predicting senescence state and type from the nuclear morphology of DAPI-stained human fibroblasts, murine astrocytes and fibroblasts derived from premature aging diseases in vitro. After generalizing this approach, the predictor recognizes an increasing rate of senescent cells with age in H&E-stained murine liver tissue and human dermal biopsies. Evaluating corresponding medical records reveals that individuals with increased senescent cells have a significantly decreased rate of malignant neoplasms, lending support for the protective role of senescence in limiting cancer development. In sum, we introduce a novel predictor of cellular senescence and apply it to diagnostic medical images, indicating cancer occurs more frequently for those with a lower rate of senescence.

cell biology↗

bioRxiv2019

Changes in social cohesion in a long-lived species under a perturbation regime

O_LIUnderstanding the behaviour of a population under perturbations is crucial and can help to mitigate the effects of global change. Sociality can influence the dynamics of behavioural processes and plays an important role on populations resilience. However little is known about the effects of perturbations on the social cohesion of group-living animals.\nC_LIO_LITo explore the strength of social cohesion and its dynamics under perturbations, we studied an ecological system involving a colonial, long-lived species living in a site experiencing a shift to a perturbed regime. This regime, caused by the invasion of predators, led this colony to hold from 70% to only 3% of the total world population in only one decade. Because birds breed aggregated in discrete and annually changing patches within large colonies, we could disentangle whether annual aggregation was random or resulted from social bonding among individuals. Our goals were 1) to uncover if there was any long-term social bonding between individuals and 2) to examine whether the perturbation regime affected social cohesion.\nC_LIO_LIWe explored social cohesion by means of contingency tables and, within the Social Network Analysis framework, by modeling interdependencies among observations using additive and multiplicative effects (AME) and accounted for missing data. We analysed 25 years of monitoring with an individual capture-recapture database of more than 3,500 individuals.\nC_LIO_LIWe showed that social bonding occurs over years in this species. We additionally show that social bonding strongly decreased after the perturbation regime. We propose that sociality and individual behavioural heterogeneity have been playing a major role driving dispersal and thus population dynamics over the study period.\nC_LIO_LIPerturbations may lead not only to changes in individuals behaviours and fitness but also to a change in populations social cohesion. The demographic consequences of the breaking down of social bonds are still not well understood, but they can be critical for population dynamics of social species. Further studies considering individual heterogeneity, sociality and different types of perturbations should be carried out to improve our understanding on the resilience of social species.\nC_LI

ecology↗