Biology subjects

Radai, Z.

Publications and source records attributed to Radai, Z..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2022

Heritage of ancient cultures supports conservation: a continent-wide perspective from the Eurasian steppes

Civilisations including ancient ones, have shaped the global ecosystems in many ways through a co-evolution of landscapes and humans. However, the cultural legacies of ancient and lost civilisations are seldom considered in conservation. Here using a continental-scale dataset containing over 1,000 data records on the localities, land cover, protection status and cultural values related to ancient steppic burial mounds (so-called kurgans), we evaluated how these iconic and widespread landmarks can contribute to grassland conservation in the Eurasian steppes, which is one of the most endangered biomes on Earth. By using Bayesian logistic generalized regressions and proportional odds logistic regressions, we aimed to reveal the potential of mounds in preserving grasslands considering landscapes with different levels of land use transformation. We also compared the conservation potential of mounds situated inside and outside protected areas and assessed whether the presence of cultural, historical or spiritual values support the maintenance of grasslands on them. We revealed that kurgans have enormous importance in preserving grasslands in transformed landscapes outside protected areas, where they can act as habitat islands, and provide an additional pillar for conservation by contributing to habitat conservation and improvement of habitat connectivity. We found that besides their steep slopes hindering ploughing, the existence of cultural, historical or religious values could almost double the chance for grassland occurrence on kurgans due to the related extensive land use and the respect of local communities. As the estimated number of steppic mounds is about 600,000 and also similar historical features exist in all continents, our results can be upscaled to a global level. Our results also suggest that an integrative socio-ecological approach in conservation might support the positive synergistic effects of conservational, landscape and cultural values.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2021

Overall performance and taxonomic bias of antimicrobial peptide prediction tools in invertebrates

Invertebrate antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are at the forefront in the search for agents of therapeutic utility against multi-resistant microbial pathogens, and in recent years substantial advances took place in the in silico prediction of antimicrobial function of amino acid sequences. A yet neglected aspect is taxonomic bias in the performance of these tools. Owing to differences in the prediction algorithms and used training data sets between tools, and phylogenetic differences in sequence diversity, physicochemical properties and evolved biological functions of AMPs between taxa, notable discrepancies may exist in performance between the currently available prediction tools. Here we tested if there is taxonomic bias in the prediction power in 10 tools with a total of 20 prediction algorithms in 19 invertebrate taxa, using a data set containing 1525 AMP and 3050 non-AMP sequences. We found that most of the tools exhibited considerable variation in performance between tested invertebrate groups. Based on the per-taxa performances and on the variation in performances across taxa we provide guidance in choosing the best-performing prediction tool for all assessed taxa, by listing the highest scoring tool for each of them.

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2020

How to characterize a strain? The neglected influence of clonal heterogeneity on the phenotypes of industrial Saccharomyces

Populations of microbes are constantly evolving heterogeneity that selection acts upon, yet heterogeneity is non-trivial to assess methodologically. The practice of isolating single cell colonies for establishing, transferring, and using a strain results in single-cell bottlenecks with a generally neglected effect on the characteristics of the strain. We used six industrial yeasts to assess the level of heterogeneity in clonal populations, especially in terms of stress tolerance. First, we uncovered the existence of genome structure variants in available sequenced genomes of clonal lineages of thes strains. Subsequent phenotyping of strains and their newly isolated subclones showed that single-cell bottlenecks during isolation can considerably influence the observable phenotype. Next, we decoupled fitness distributions on the level of individual cells from clonal interference by plating single cell colonies. We used the obtained data on colony area for statistical modeling of the heterogeneity in phenotypes. One strain was further used to show how individual subclonal lineages are remarkably different not just in phenotype, but also in the level of heterogeneity. Thereby we call attention to the fact that choosing an initial clonal lineage from an industrial yeast strain may vastly influence downstream performances and observations on geno- and phenotype, and also on heterogeneity.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2019

Learning to find the center of symmetric and asymmetric spatial layouts by the house cricket, Acheta domesticus

The capacity to navigate by layout geometry has been widely recognized as a robust navigational strategy. It was reported in various species, albeit most studies were performed with vision-based paradigms. In the presented study, we aimed to investigate layout symmetry-based navigation in the house cricket, Acheta domesticus, in the absence of visual cues. For this purpose, we used a non-visual paradigm modeled on the Tennessee Williams setup. We also verified the inaccessibility of visual cues for tested insects using antennal positioning reflex towards looming stimulus and by testing the performance of blinded crickets. In the main experiment, we tested the crickets capacity to learn to find a cool spot positioned centrally in heated arenas of different shapes (i.e., circular, square, triangular, and asymmetric quadrilateral). We found that the symmetry of the arena significantly facilitates crickets learning to find the cool spot, indicated by the increase of time spent on the cool spot and decrease of the latency of locating it in subsequent trials. To investigate possible mechanisms utilized by crickets during the experiment, we analyzed insects approach paths to the spot. The trajectories were grouped in four distinct clusters corresponding to both heuristic and directed strategies of approaching the target, with the dominance of a semi-directed strategy (thigmotactic phase preceding direct navigation to the target). Against these results, we discuss the possibility of insects navigation by using a non-visual space representation and possible limitations of navigation capacities in such conditions in relation to multimodally-guided navigation.

animal behavior and cognition↗