Genetically Encoded Lizard Color Divergence for Camouflage and Thermoregulation

The Semi-Natural Climate Chambers across Latitudes: A Broadly Applicable Husbandry and Experimental System for Terrestrial Ectotherms under Climate Change

With limited resources and efforts, assessing species' vulnerabilities across various geographic regions before the conservation practice is essential for biodiversity conservation in the context of climate change. One pressing challenge has been establishing natural temperature-manipulated research systems across latitudes. To address this challenge, an innovative infrastructure is developed named the semi-natural climate chambers across latitudes (SCCAL), consisting of semi-natural climate chambers at three latitudes, spanning 27° and 3393 km from tropical to temperate regions. Each latitude features eight medium-sized patches for temperature manipulation, organisms rearing, and ecological experiments. Independent of external water and electricity supplies, the SCCAL allows to simulate thermal environments under different climate change scenarios with natural soil moisture. Ecological experiments with Grass lizards successfully are conducted, demonstrating that the SCCAL effectively supports species rearing, responses determining, and the vulnerability assessing. The widespread adoption or development of similar infrastructures is encouraged, which can facilitate the assessment of latitudinal animal vulnerabilities under climate change.

Disentangling the molecular mechanisms underlying yellow body coloration in a soft-shelled turtle

While the functions of body coloration have been well characterized in many animal taxa, the molecular mechanisms governing its production remain poorly understood. This study investigated the genetic and biochemical basis of yellow body coloration in a mutant form of the Yongzhang golden soft-shelled turtle (YGT, Pelodiscus sinensis), which exhibit a striking yellow phenotype. Comparative pigment analysis revealed that YGTs have significantly lower melanin and higher carotenoid pigmentation compared to atrovirens wild-type turtles (AWTs), while pterin concentrations did not differ between the two groups. Functional validation experiments demonstrated that a single amino acid substitution (I481R) in tyrosinase-related protein 1 ( tyrp1) plays a pivotal role in the reduction of melanin production in YGTs. Expression of tyrp1 from YGTs and AWTs in A375 cells, in which human tyrp1 (h tyrp1) function was depleted by CRISPR-Cas9, led to a specific reduction in melanin production in cells expressing the YGT- tyrp1 variant. Moreover, bco1 and bco2, genes negatively associated with carotenoid content, showed reduced expression in YGTs, suggesting that yellow coloration is achieved through a reduction in melanin pigmentation combined with an accumulation of carotenoids. These findings elucidate the molecular basis of yellow body coloration in turtles and enhance our understanding of pigment regulation in vertebrates.

Faunal Responses to Habitat Disturbance: Do the Principles Explaining Responses of Ant Communities Also Apply to Terrestrial Reptiles?

Disturbance is fundamental to the state and dynamics of biological communities, and understanding biotic responses to disturbance is critical to effective biodiversity conservation. However, a predictive understanding of how faunal communities respond to habitat disturbance remains elusive. Recently, a conceptual framework centred on habitat openness was developed for understanding ant responses to disturbance. It proposes that habitat openness is a fundamental driver of variation among ant communities, and that the primary impacts of disturbance are mediated through ant functional responses to changes in openness. Like ants, terrestrial reptiles are ectotherms and are therefore especially sensitive to disturbance-induced increases in habitat openness because of changes in the thermal environment. Therefore, reptiles might also be expected to conform to a disturbance framework based on habitat openness. Here we assess the extent to which this occurs by combining a quantitative analysis of recent publications with a broader synthesis of the literature. We found strong support for the framework applying to terrestrial reptiles. We suggest that the framework can be strengthened by a mechanistic understanding of functional traits in relation to habitat openness. For ectotherms, ecophysiological traits could be particularly important for responding to disturbance-mediated changes in microclimate, but habitat openness also influences other important factors such as food availability and predation. Finally, the framework appears to be highly applicable to a wider range of faunal groups beyond ants and reptiles.

Sexual color ornamentation, microhabitat choice, and thermal physiology in the common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis)

Common wall lizards (Podarcis muralis) in Italy show a striking variation in body coloration across the landscape, with highly exaggerated black and green colors in hot and dry climates and brown and white colors in cool and wet climates. Males are more intensely colored than females, and previous work has suggested that the maintenance of variation in coloration across the landscape reflects climatic effects on the strength of male-male competition, and through this sexual selection. However climatic effects on the intensity of male-male competition would need to be exceptionally strong to fully explain the geographic patterns of color variation. Thus, additional processes may contribute to the maintenance of color variation. Here we test the hypothesis that selection for green and black ornamentation in the context of male-male competition is opposed by selection against ornamentation because the genes involved in the regulation of coloration have pleiotropic effects on thermal physiology, such that ornamentation is selected against in cool climates. Field observations revealed no association between body coloration and microhabitat use or field active body temperatures. Consistent with these field data, lizards at the extreme ends of the phenotypic distribution for body coloration did not show any differences in critical minimum temperature, preferred body temperature, temperature-dependent metabolic rate, or evaporative water loss when tested in the laboratory. Combined, these results provide no evidence that genes that underlie sexual ornamentation are selected against in cool climate because of pleiotropic effects on thermal biology.

First report of albinism for Achalinussheni (Serpentes, Xenodermidae), with extended diagnosis of the species

Albinism is an uncommon phenomenon and inherited condition in animals characterized by a partial or complete lack of melanin. The family Xenodermidae Gray, 1849, is a group of caenophidian snakes widely distributed in South, East, and Southeast Asia, including five recognized genera and 36 species. However, there are currently no reports of albinism in any species in Xenodermidae. Achalinussheni Ma, Xu, Qi, Wang, Tang, Huang & Jiang, 2023 was first described based on five male specimens from Loudi City and Nanyue District, Hunan Province, China. At the time, there were no descriptions on female individuals. In this study, we report in detail a collected albinistic specimen of A.sheni, which is the first discovery of wild albinism in the family Xenodermidae. We also provide photographs and descriptions of the first three female specimens of A.sheni and extend the diagnosis of this species.