Biology subjects

Zhang, Z.-Q.

Publications and source records attributed to Zhang, Z.-Q..

7 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Mating behaviour, mate choice, and reproduction in Tyrophagus curvipenis (Acari: Acaridae)

Mating behaviour and mate choice can influence reproductive output, but these aspects remain insufficiently studied in many mite species. This study investigated mating behaviour, mate choice, and the reproductive consequences of repeated mating in Tyrophagus curvipenis (Acari: Acaridae). First, we described the mating sequence and quantified the duration of pre-copulation latency and copulation duration. Mating involved initial contact, dorsal mounting, repositioning into a tail-to-tail copulatory position, and sperm transfer. Copulation lasted substantially longer than the pre-copulation latency. Second, we examined mate choice in relation to kinship. Neither males nor females showed a significant preference for siblings or unrelated partners. Third, we examined mate choice in relation to mating status. Males preferred virgin partners, whereas females showed no significant preference between virgin and previously mated partners. Copulation duration was shorter with previously mated partners, although the underlying cause remains unclear. Finally, we examined female reproductive performance under three mating-frequency treatments: one mate, two mates, and unlimited access to mates. Mating frequency did not affect the pre-oviposition period but significantly affected the oviposition period, daily oviposition rate, and total fecundity. Females with unlimited mating opportunities had the longest oviposition period and produced the most eggs. Among females that mated once, longer copulation was positively associated with both oviposition period and total fecundity. These findings characterise mating behaviour in T. curvipenis and show that mate choice and mating frequency are associated with different aspects of reproduction. Further work is needed to determine whether these patterns reflect differences in sperm transfer, fertilisation, or other effects of mating.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2026

Maternal age at reproduction drives multigenerational variation in life-history traits

Offspring phenotypes are often influenced by maternal age at reproduction. However, the persistence of such effects across multiple generations remains poorly understood, especially in rare cases where offspring of older mothers exhibit enhanced performance. Using the predatory mite Amblyseius herbicolus, we experimentally tested whether maternal age at reproduction influences offspring life history across two generations under contrasting dietary conditions. We found that grandmaternal (F0) and maternal (F1) age affected offspring (F2) developmental time and body size, but not hatching success, survival, or oviposition. The effect of maternal age on body size depended on grandmaternal age, suggesting that grandmaternal age mediates how mothers adjust offspring provisioning. Diet strongly influenced offspring traits but showed limited interaction with age effects. To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate the persistence of an inverse Lansing effect across generations, whereby enhanced immature development is maintained without detectable trade-offs in reproduction or adult survival. These results identify maternal age as a key driver of transgenerational phenotypic variation, with important implications for population dynamics and responses to environmental change at the population level.

zoology↗

bioRxiv2025

An inverse Lansing effect: Older mothers produce offspring with improved development and growth efficiency

The Lansing effect predicts a decline in offspring performance with increasing maternal age. Maternal age and diet can influence offspring development and fitness via maternal effects, but how these two factors interact remains poorly understood. We examined how maternal age at oviposition and dietary conditions affect offspring developmental plasticity in a thelytokous predatory mite (Amblyseius herbicolus). Mothers were provided either a restricted or abundant prey diet, and their offspring were exposed to varying prey availability and monitored for hatching success, survival to adulthood, developmental time, size at maturity, and prey consumption. We addressed two main questions: How does maternal age affect offspring developmental time and size at maturity and does maternal diet modify the effect of maternal age on offspring? Our results suggest an inverse Lansing effect. Offspring of older mothers showed increased survival and reduced prey consumption without any compromise in terms of size at maturity. Interactions were found between maternal diet and age on offspring prey consumption and developmental plasticity. Notably, offspring from older, diet-restricted mothers achieved the best overall performance during development. Our study demonstrates that maternal age and diet jointly shape offspring development, and highlights the importance of incorporating maternal age into studies of maternal effects and phenotypic plasticity.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2025

The role of mating systems in postzygotic reproductive isolation between two recently divergent Aquilegia Species

Mating systems play a crucial role in plant speciation. In particular, hybrid seed inviability is prevalent among species with different mating systems due to parental conflict for resource allocation to offspring. However, whether such a postzygotic barrier can be rapidly established in recently diverged species remains poorly understood. In this study, we integrate population genomic and ecological approaches to address this question using recently diverged species pairs Aquilegia kansuensis and A. ecalcarata, which diverged approximately 0.256 Ma, in a sympatric population from Qinghai, China. Population structure and demographic history results reveal clear genetic differentiation between the two species, corroborating their recent divergence. The results of outcrossing rate estimation based on microsatellite markers indicated that A. kansuensis and A. ecalcarata exhibit high selfing and mixed mating systems, respectively. We performed reciprocal crosses between A. kansuensis and A. ecalcarata and found that A. ecalcarata yielded a very small number of small-sized seeds when selfed A. kansuensis was used as pollen donors, resulting in strong asymmetric reproductive isolation. An approximate Bayesian computation framework identified that approximately 4.6% of genomic loci are associated with reproductive isolation, and gene ontology analyses of these loci highlighted key pathways involved in seed maturation and post-embryonic development. Therefore, our findings provide evidence that A. ecalcarata and A. kansuensis represent a novel case of parental conflict and postzygotic isolation driven by divergent mating systems, suggesting mating systems can play a critical role in rapid plant speciation.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2025

Mutations of short tandem repeats explain abundant trait heritability in Arabidopsis

Short tandem repeats (STRs) mutations are one of the most important fuels of evolution, but are often largely ignored despite their huge effects on phenotypic variations. Here, we leveraged seven Arabidopsis mutation accumulation lines to assess the STR mutation rate, which ranged from 1.93x10-2 to 4.40x10-3 per STR locus per generation and was much higher than the common SNP mutation rate at the level of 10-9-10-8. Interspecific comparison revealed rapid STR turnover, with a large proportion (71.8%) only present in Arabidopsis. In addition, intraspecific comparison of the ten assembled Arabidopsis genomes revealed that 29.3% of STRs were presence/absence variation (PAV), 36.5% of STRs were length variation (LV), 13.0% of STRs were no variation (NV) and the 21.1% STR loci with both LV and PAV. Based on 413 RNA-seq datasets, we identified that length variation of 3,871 STR loci (eSTRs) was associated with gene expression and 651 STR loci (sSTRs) were associated with splicing variation, and over one thousand eSTRs or sSTRs were linked with published genome-wide association study signals. In addition, a direct association between STR length variation and phenotypic variation uncovered a series of STR-trait associations. More notably, using the expression levels of 24,175 genes, the splice strength values of 12,784 splice sites, and 16 phenotypes of natural Arabidopsis populations, we revealed that the STR heritability is 0.111, 0.143 and 0.101, respectively. Overall, our results not only revealed the evolutionary dynamics of STRs, but highlighted the importance of STR variations as an important contributor to missing heritability in the regulation of complex traits.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2022

Forces driving transposable element load variation during Arabidopsis range expansion

Genetic load refers to the accumulated and potentially life-threatening deleterious mutations in populations. Understanding the mechanisms underlying genetic load variation of transposable elements (TEs), one major large-effect mutations, during range expansion is an intriguing question in biology. Here, we used 1,115 globally natural accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana, to study the driving forces of TE load variation during its range expansion. The TE load increased with range expansion, especially in the recently established Yangtze River basin population. The effective population size explained 62.0% of the variance in TE load, and high transposition rate and positive selection or hitch-hiking effect contributed to the accumulation of TEs in the expanded populations. We genetically mapped the candidate causal genes or TEs and revealed the genetic architecture of TE load. Overall, this study reveals the variation in the genetic load of TEs during Arabidopsis expansion and highlights the causes of TE load variation.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2022

Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of bHLH transcription factors reveal their putative regulatory effects on petal nectar spur development in Aquilegia

The basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors (TFs) control a diversity of organ morphogenesis involved in cell division and cell expansion processes. The development of petal nectar spur, which plays important roles in plant-pollinator interaction and adaptive radiation, comprised cell division and cell expansion phases in Aquilegia. Here, we conducted a genome-wide identification of the bHLH gene family in Aquilegia to determine the characteristics and the expression profiles of this gene family during the development of petal nectar spur. A total of 120 AqbHLH proteins were identified from the Aquilegia coerulea genome. The phylogenetic tree showed that AqbHLH members were divided into 15 subfamilies, among which S7 and S8 subfamilies occurred marked expansion. Nineteen residues with conservation of more than 50% were found in the four conserved regions. The publicly RNA-Seq data and qRT-PCR results showed that AqbHLH027, AqbHLH083, AqbHLH046, and AqbHLH092 would be associated with the development of petal nectar spur by regulating cell division and cell cycle in phase I. While AqbHLH036 might participate the spur cell elongation and cell expansion in phase . This study provides useful insights for further probing on the function of AqbHLH TFs in the regulation of petal nectar spur development.

plant biology↗