Sex, Color, and Mate Choice in Guppies

The postdoctoral community is an essential component of the academic and scientific workforce, but a lack of data about this community has made it difficult to develop policies to address concerns about salaries, working conditions, diversity and career development, and to evaluate the impact of existing policies. Here we present comprehensive survey results from 7,603 postdocs based at 351 US academic and non-academic (e.g. hospital, industry and government lab) institutions in 2016. In addition to demographic and salary information, we present multivariate analyses on factors influencing postdoc career plans and satisfaction with mentorship. We further analyze gender dynamics and expose wage disparities. Academic research positions remain the predominant career choice, although women and US citizens are less likely than their male and non-US citizen counterparts to choose academic research positions. Receiving mentorship training has a significant positive effect on postdoc satisfaction with mentorship. Quality of and satisfaction with postdoc mentorship also appear to heavily influence career choice.

United States National Postdoc Survey results and the interaction of gender, career choice and mentor impact.

Biomedical research training has undergone considerable change over the past several years. At its core, the goal of graduate and postdoctoral training is to provide individuals with the skills and knowledge to become outstanding scientists and expand knowledge through the scientific method. Historically, graduate school training has focused on preparation for academic positions. Increasingly, however, a shift toward preparation for a wider range of career options has emerged. This is largely because most biomedical PhD graduates do not become Principal Investigators in academic laboratories. Here we describe an National Institutes of Health Common Fund program with the major goal of culture change for biomedical research training and training that prepares individuals for a broader expanse of careers in the biomedical research enterprise. These "Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training" (BEST) awards, issued in 2012 and 2013, provided support to institutions to develop innovative approaches to achieving these goals, as a complement to traditional training. Awardees were tasked with catalyzing change at their institutions and sharing best practices across the training community. Awardees were required to participate in a cross-site evaluation that assessed the impact of BEST activities on three main areas: (a) trainee confidence and knowledge to make career decisions, (b) influence of this added activity on time in training, and (c) ability of the institutions to sustain activities deemed to be beneficial. Here we present the fundamental approach to the BEST program and early evaluative data.

https://faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1096/fj.201902064

The NIH "BEST" programs: Institutional programs, the program evaluation, and early data.

Although numerous imprinted genes have been described in several lineages, the phenomenon of genomic imprinting presents a peculiar evolutionary problem. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain gene imprinting, the most supported being Haig's kinship theory. This theory explains the observed pattern of imprinting and the resulting phenotypes as a competition for resources between related individuals, but despite its relevance it has not been independently tested. Haig's theory predicts that gene imprinting should be present in eusocial insects in many social scenarios. These lineages are therefore ideal for testing both the theory's predictions and the mechanism of gene imprinting. Here we review the behavioral evidence of genomic imprinting in eusocial insects, the evidence of a mechanism for genomic imprinting and finally we evaluate recent results showing parent of origin allele specific expression in honeybees in the light of Haig's theory.

https://tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15592294.2017.1348445

Do social insects support Haig's kin theory for the evolution of genomic imprinting?

The postdoctoral research position is an essential step on the academic career track, and the biomedical research enterprise has become heavily dependent on postdoctoral scholars to conduct experimental research. Monitoring the employment trends in the postdoc population is important for crafting and evaluating policies that affect this critical population. The primary survey for understanding the trends of the biological sciences postdoc population is the Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering (GSS) administered by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. Here, we analyzed the yearly changes in the biological sciences postdoc population at institutions surveyed by the GSS. We find that institutional variability in reporting their biological sciences postdoc populations, which sometimes varies by more than 2-fold over consecutive years, masks larger trends in the employment of biological sciences postdocs. Universities indicated the most common cause for the changes was improving institutional policy and tracking of postdocs. We propose the adoption of a unified definition of a postdoc, consolidation of postdoc titles and the creation of an index to better assess biological sciences postdoc trends.

/pdf/the-gss-is-an-unreliable-indicator-of-biological-sciences-1141m2zxmq.pdf

The GSS is an unreliable indicator of biological sciences postdoc population trends

Numerous concerns have been raised about the sustainability of the biomedical research enterprise in the United States. Improving the postdoctoral training experience is seen as a priority in addressing these concerns, but even identifying who the postdocs are is made difficult by the multitude of different job titles they can carry. Here, we summarize the detrimental effects that current employment structures have on training, compensation and benefits for postdocs, and argue that academic research institutions should standardize the categorization and treatment of postdocs. We also present brief case studies of two institutions that have addressed these challenges and can provide models for other institutions attempting to enhance their postdoctoral workforces and improve the sustainability of the biomedical research enterprise.

Point of View: What’s in a name?

Genetic imprinting: the parent of origin‐specific biased expression of alleles is an important type of epigenetic gene regulation in flowering plants and mammals. All imprinted genes show either maternal ‐ or paternal‐specific mono‐allelic expression. Considering that plants and mammals shared a common ancestor more than one billion years ago, significant overlap and potentially equally significant differences in the genomic imprinting mechanisms in these two taxa are emerging. In plants, the imprinted genes are primarily imprinted in the ephemeral endosperm tissues of the seeds which do not contribute any genome to future generations, while in mammals, the imprinted genes are located in embryo, placenta, and the adult body. Though both kingdoms silence imprinted genes using DNA methylation, imprinted alleles in mammals are targeted for silencing while in plants preexisting methylation is specifically removed from the allele destined to be active in maternally expressed genes in the endosperm. It is now accepted that imprinting evolved in both taxa due to competition between parental genomes over resource allocation to offspring. Moreover, the distinct life cycle stages between the taxa may account for the different strategies used by plants and mammals to regulate parent‐specific gene expression. The elucidation of the genetic basis and molecular mechanisms responsible for genetic imprinting have provided answers to various crucial questions arising in biological sciences Plant Tissue Cult. & Biotech. 26(2): 267-284, 2016 (December)

/pdf/genetic-imprinting-comparative-analysis-between-plants-and-2mwpdpa94y.pdf

Genetic Imprinting: Comparative Analysis Between Plants and Mammals

Heterogeneity within a population enhances its long-term survival. A fundamental method of maintaining population heterogeneity is the retention of rare or uncommon phenotypes by selective mating strategies. Employing two color morphs, red tuxedo and red, of the guppy (Poecilia reticulata, Poeciliidae), this study was designed to investigate whether P. reticulata females would preferentially seek out heterogeneous groupings of males exhibiting two color morphs. Adult female guppies were exposed simultaneously to two groups of males (n=10); one comprised of only the tuxedo color morph (n=5) and the other of both color morphs (n=5). For the latter group, the ratio of males exhibiting the two colorations was changed incrementally over multiple trials, beginning and ending with homogeneous groupings (5:0, 4:1, 3:2, 2:3, 1:4, 0:5). Experiments were conducted employing a 76 L aquarium partitioned at both ends to house the male groups. Individual females were placed into an acclimation, holding column located in the center compartment of the experimental aquarium. Subsequent to a five minute acclimation period in the holding column, each female was released. Courting behaviors and population affinities (i.e. female location rela tive to the male compartments) were recorded every five sec onds over a five minute observation period. Females did not show a preference for male groupings exhibiting either the 4:1 or 1:4 color ratios. However, females clearly showed affinity for the male groupings of 3:2 and 2:3 (p <0.05). This investigation on female mate choice in P. reticulata clearly reveals that a mating strategy is occurring in this species and that it is frequency-dependent.

/pdf/frequency-dependent-mate-selection-in-the-guppy-poeciliidae-3nuqbgikbc.pdf

Frequency-Dependent Mate Selection in the Guppy (Poeciliidae: Poecilia reticulata)

The croaking gourami (Trichopsis vittatus) exhibits two phenotypes associated with humeral spotting. Fish possess a prominent, dark humeral patch or spot located behind the operculum or lack this spotting pattern. Segregation patterns observed from the progenies of eleven different crosses support the hypothesis that the inheritance of humeral spotting in T. vittatus is controlled by the action of a single autosomal locus, with complete dominance of the allele controlling the spotted phenotype.

/pdf/inheritance-of-humeral-spotting-in-the-croaking-gourami-2k2z2khiox.pdf

Inheritance of Humeral Spotting in the Croaking Gourami (Osphronemidae: Trichopsis vittatus)

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Point of View: What’s in a name?

Genetic Imprinting: Comparative Analysis Between Plants and Mammals

Frequency-Dependent Mate Selection in the Guppy (Poeciliidae: Poecilia reticulata)

Inheritance of Humeral Spotting in the Croaking Gourami (Osphronemidae: Trichopsis vittatus)