Biology subjects

Wilson, R. J.

Publications and source records attributed to Wilson, R. J..

6 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Temperature and Ultraviolet Radiation Drive Divergent Visible and Near-Infrared Reflectance Patterns in Butterflies

O_LIClimate change poses extreme risks to biodiversity, threatening the ecosystems upon which humanity depends. Understanding the traits that mediate how organisms respond to climatic gradients in space and time will enable better predictions of the taxa and ecological communities most at risk from warming. C_LIO_LIIn insects, colouration influences thermoregulation, but warming responses must be traded off against other selective pressures. We hypothesise that butterfly wing reflectance in visible and near-infrared (NIR) spectra respond differently to temperature and ultraviolet radiation over space and time. We combined existing reflectance data of 97 butterfly species in both NIR and visible wavelengths, with long-term abundance monitoring data of 120 butterfly communities sampled across 1650 m altitude gradients from May to August in two time periods (2004/5 and 2017). C_LIO_LIThe visible and NIR reflectances of butterfly communities showed a non-linear relationship with altitude, with the lowest reflectance (darkest butterflies) at the coolest, highest sites. In contrast, community visible reflectance decreased through the year as temperatures warmed over spring-summer, whereas community NIR reflectance remained constant, revealing divergent responses of reflectance types to seasonal changes. Temperature had opposing effects on visible and NIR reflectance of butterfly communities, where increasing temperature reduced community visible reflectance strongly while increasing community NIR reflectance slightly. C_LIO_LIConsidering the effects on reflectance of shared evolutionary history in a Bayesian hierarchical model for individual species, lighter-coloured (more reflective) species were associated with warmer temperatures - flying later in spring-summer or at lower altitudes. However, instead of decreasing in reflectance through the year and across temperature gradients, species instead became lighter, we expect as a result of a Simpsons paradox. C_LIO_LIThese results emphasise how visible and NIR reflectance wavelength bands mediate butterflies responses to environmental gradients in distinct ways, despite being highly correlated across species. We also show that incorporating phylogeny into trait-environment models is essential; relying on traits alone would lead to incorrect inferences and predictions of taxa most at risk from warming climates. C_LI

ecology↗

bioRxiv2023

Biosurfactant stabilized nanoemulsions as multifunctional magnetically targeted delivery vehicles

Nanoemulsions have been widely used for pharmaceutic applications. However, there remains a significant challenge to functionalize available pharmaceutical surfactants with targeting or reporter moieties to generate next-generation drug delivery systems. Herein, a designed biosurfactant platform technology, based on our library of -helical peptide AM1 derivatives, was used to prepare multifunctional magnetic nanoemulsion drug delivery systems. Key factors such as electrostatic and steric stabilization of the nanoemulsions were determined using this peptide library. Stabilization of the nanoemulsion was achieved by controlled and tunable loading of PEG-functionalized biosurfactant at the oil-water interface. A model drug and iron oxide nanoparticles were incorporated into the oil core to prepare multifunctional nanoemulsions. In vitro cell uptake experiments using an external magnetic field demonstrated controlled rapid uptake of iron oxide loaded nanoemulsions by SKOV3 cancer and RAW 264.7 macrophage cells. SKOV3 cells demonstrated a slower rate of uptake under a magnetic field when compared to RAW 264.7 cells. This work demonstrates a highly adaptable hierarchical nanoemulsion system that can provide a platform to develop effective multifunctional nanomedicines and tools for biomedical insights. Graphical Abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=143 SRC="FIGDIR/small/568750v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (24K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@31c3f2org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1376aecorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@14cb0aeorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1e37a6e_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2021

Applying computer vision to digitised natural history collections for climate change research: temperature-size responses in British butterflies

O_LINatural history collections (NHCs) are invaluable resources for understanding biotic response to global change. Museums around the world are currently imaging specimens, capturing specimen data, and making them freely available online. In parallel to the digitisation effort, there have been great advancements in computer vision (CV): the computer trained automated recognition/detection, and measurement of features in digital images. Applying CV to digitised NHCs has the potential to greatly accelerate the use of NHCs for biotic response to global change research. In this paper, we apply CV to a very large, digitised collection to test hypotheses in an established area of biotic response to climate change research: temperature-size responses. C_LIO_LIWe develop a CV pipeline (Mothra) and apply it to the NHM iCollections of British butterflies (>180,000 specimens). Mothra automatically detects the specimen in the image, sets the scale, measures wing features (e.g., forewing length), determines the orientation of the specimen (pinned ventrally or dorsally), and identifies the sex. We pair these measurements and meta-data with temperature records to test how adult size varies with temperature during the immature stages of species and to assess patterns of sexual-size dimorphism across species and families. C_LIO_LIMothra accurately measures the forewing lengths of butterfly specimens and compared to manual baseline measurements, Mothra accurately determines sex and forewing lengths of butterfly specimens. Females are the larger sex in most species and an increase in adult body size with warm monthly temperatures during the late larval stages is the most common temperature size response. These results confirm suspected patterns and support hypotheses based on recent studies using a smaller dataset of manually measured specimens. C_LIO_LIWe show that CV can be a powerful tool to efficiently and accurately extract phenotypic data from a very large collection of digital NHCs. In the future, CV will become widely applied to digital NHC collections to advance ecological and evolutionary research and to accelerate the use of NHCs for biotic response to global change research. C_LI

ecology↗

bioRxiv2021

Climate-driven variation in biotic interactions provides a narrow and variable window of opportunity for an insect herbivore at its ecological margin

Climate-driven geographic range shifts have been associated with transitions between dietary specialism and generalism at range margins. The mechanisms underpinning these often transient niche breadth modifications are poorly known, but utilisation of novel resources likely depends on phenological synchrony between the consumer and resource. We use a climate-driven range and host shift by the butterfly Aricia agestis to test how climate-driven changes in host phenology and condition affect phenological synchrony, and consider implications for host use. Our data suggest that the perennial plant which was the primary host before range expansion is a more reliable resource than the annual Geraniaceae upon which the butterfly has become specialised in newly colonised parts of its range. In particular, climate-driven phenological variation in the novel host Geranium dissectum generates a narrow and variable window of opportunity for larval productivity in summer. Therefore, although climatic change may allow species to shift hosts and colonise novel environments, specialisation on phenologically-limited hosts may not persist at ecological margins as climate change continues. We highlight the potential role for phenological (a)synchrony in determining lability of consumer-resource associations at range margins, and the importance of considering causes of synchrony in biotic interactions when predicting range shifts.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2021

A mitochondrial electron transport chain with atypical subunit composition confers oxygen sensitivity to a mammalian chemoreceptor

The carotid body (CB) is the major chemoreceptor for blood oxygen in the control of ventilation in mammals, contributing to physiological adaptation to high altitude, pregnancy, and exercise, and its hyperactivity is linked to chronic conditions such as sleep-disorder breathing, hypertension, chronic heart failure, airway constriction, and metabolic syndrome (1-3). Upon acute hypoxia (PO2=100 mmHg to <80 mmHg), K+ channels on CB glomus cells are inhibited, causing membrane depolarization to trigger Ca+2 influx and neurotransmitter release that stimulates afferent nerves (1-3). A longstanding model proposes that the CB senses hypoxia through atypical mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) metabolism that is more sensitive to decreases in oxygen than other tissues. This model is supported by observations that ETC inhibition by pharmacology and gene knockout activates CB sensory activity and that smaller decreases in oxygen concentration inhibit ETC activity in CB cells compared to other cells (1-5). Determining the composition of atypical ETC subunits in the CB and their specific activities is essential to delineate molecular mechanisms underlying the mitochondrial hypothesis of oxygen sensing. Here, we identify HIGD1C, a novel hypoxia inducible gene domain factor isoform, as an ETC Complex IV (CIV) protein highly and selectively expressed in glomus cells that mediates acute oxygen sensing by the CB. We demonstrate that HIGD1C negatively regulates oxygen consumption by CIV and acts with the hypoxia-induced CIV subunit COX4I2 to enhance the sensitivity of CIV to hypoxia, constituting an important component of mitochondrial oxygen sensing in the CB. Determining how HIGD1C and other atypical CIV proteins expressed in the CB work together to confer exquisite oxygen sensing to the ETC will help us better understand how tissue- and condition-specific CIV subunits contribute to physiological function and disease (6) and allow us to potentially target these proteins to treat chronic diseases characterized by CB dysfunction (7).

physiology↗

bioRxiv2019

Contribution of fungal microbiome to intestinal physiology, early-life immune development and mucosal inflammation in mice

Gut microbiomes make major contributions to the physiological and immunological development of the host, but the relative importance of their bacterial and fungal components, and how they interact, remain largely unknown. We applied carefully controlled experiments in gnotobiotic mice colonized with defined communities of bacteria, fungi, or both to differentiate the direct role of fungi on microbiome assembly, host development, and susceptibility to colitis and airway inflammation. Our results revealed that fungal colonization alone was insufficient to promote the intestinal anatomic and physiological changes seen in mice colonized by bacteria, and had limited impact on the fecal metabolome. However, fungal colonization promoted major shifts in bacterial microbiome ecology, and had an independent effect on the innate and adaptive immune development in young mice. Fungi further exacerbated some aspects of the inflammatory effects of the bacterial community during OVA-induced airway inflammation by promoting macrophage infiltration in the airway. Our results demonstrate a dominant ecological and physiological role of bacteria in gut microbiomes, but highlight fungi as an ecological factor shaping the assembly of the bacterial community and a direct capacity to impact immune system and modulate disease susceptibility. These findings demonstrate that studies focused on bacteria alone provide an incomplete portrayal on microbiome ecology and functionality, and prompt for the inclusion of fungi in human microbiome studies.

microbiology↗