Obligatory ant-plant symbioses often appear to be single evolutionary shifts within particular ant lineages; however, convergence can be revealed once natural history observations are complemented with molecular phylogenetics. Here, we describe a remarkable example of convergent evolution in an ant-plant symbiotic system. Exclusively arboreal, Myrmelachista species can be generalized opportunists nesting in several plant species or obligately symbiotic, live-stem nesters of a narrow set of plant species. Instances of specialization within Myrmelachista are known from northern South America and throughout Middle America. In Middle America, a diverse radiation of specialists occupies understory treelets of lowland rainforests. The morphological and behavioural uniformity of specialists suggests that they form a monophyletic assemblage, diversifying after a single origin of specialization. Using ultraconserved element phylogenomics and ancestral state reconstructions, we show that shifts from opportunistic to obligately symbiotic evolved independently in South and Middle America. Furthermore, our analyses support a remarkable case of convergence within the Middle American radiation, with two independently evolved specialist clades, arising nearly simultaneously from putative opportunistic ancestors during the late Pliocene. This repeated evolution of a complex phenotype suggests similar mechanisms behind trait shifts from opportunists to specialists, generating further questions about the selective forces driving specialization.

In the digital innovation ecosystem, the symbiosis mode formed between ecosystem members not only relates to their survival and development but also affects the ecosystem\'s symbiosis evolution mechanism. Based on symbiosis theory, this study first explores the evolutionary equilibrium strategy and its stability for three types of populations-core enterprises, digital platforms, and university research institutes-and then uses numerical simulation and a case study to explore the symbiotic evolution mechanism of the digital innovation ecosystem. The results show that: First, the digital innovation ecosystem is a complex adaptive system in which the three types of populations form different symbiotic relationships under different symbiotic modes and conduct symbiotic activities, such as value co-creation, to characterize the unique symbiotic evolutionary structure. Second, in this ecosystem, the symbiotic relationship formed by the combined values of different symbiotic coefficients between populations determines the outcome of symbiotic evolution. Third, the ideal direction of the evolution of the digital innovation ecosystem is a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship. Thus, the symbiotic relationship between populations should be transformed into a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationships as much as possible. This study makes theoretical contributions by shedding light on the symbiotic evolution mechanism of the digital innovation ecosystem. It also offers countermeasures for the digital innovation cooperation of various stakeholders in China\'s digital innovation ecosystem.

Mutualism is thought to be more prevalent in the tropics than temperate zones and may therefore play an important role in generating and maintaining high species richness found at lower latitudes. However, results on the impact of mutualism on latitudinal diversity gradients are mixed, and few empirical studies sample both temperate and tropical regions. We investigated whether a latitudinal diversity gradient exists in the symbiotic microbial community associated with the legume Chamaecrista nictitans. We sampled bacteria DNA from nodules and the surrounding soil of plant roots across a latitudinal gradient (38.64-8.68 °N). Using 16S rRNA sequence data, we identified many non-rhizobial species within C. nictitans nodules that cannot form nodules or fix nitrogen. Species richness increased towards lower latitudes in the non-rhizobial portion of the nodule community but not in the rhizobial community. The microbe community in the soil did not effectively predict the non-rhizobia community inside nodules, indicating that host selection is important for structuring non-rhizobia communities in nodules. We next factorially manipulated the presence of three non-rhizobia strains in greenhouse experiments and found that co-inoculations of non-rhizobia strains with rhizobia had a marginal effect on nodule number and no effect on plant growth. Our results suggest that these non-rhizobia bacteria are likely commensals-species that benefit from associating with a host but are neutral for host fitness. Overall, our study suggests that temperate C. nictitans plants are more selective in their associations with the non-rhizobia community, potentially due to differences in soil nitrogen across latitude.

Acacia longifolia is one of the most aggressive invaders worldwide whose invasion is potentiated after a fire, a common perturbation in Mediterranean climates. As a legume, this species establishes symbioses with nitrogen-fixing bacteria inside root nodules; however, the overall microbial diversity is still unclear. In this study, we addressed root nodules\' structure and biodiversity through histology and Next-Generation Sequencing, targeting 16S and 25S-28S rDNA genes for bacteria and fungi, respectively. We wanted to evaluate the effect of fire in root nodules from 1-year-old saplings, by comparing unburnt and burnt sites. We found that although having the same general structure, after a fire event, nodules had a higher number of infected cells and greater starch accumulation. Starch accumulated in uninfected cells can be a possible carbon source for the microbiota. Regarding diversity, Bradyrhizobium was dominant in both sites (ca. 77%), suggesting it is the preferential partner, followed by Tardiphaga (ca. 9%), a non-rhizobial Alphaproteobacteria, and Synechococcus, a cyanobacteria (ca. 5%). However, at the burnt site, additional N-fixing bacteria were included in the top 10 genera, highlighting the importance of this process. Major differences were found in the mycobiome, which was diverse in both sites and included genera mostly described as plant endophytes. Coniochaeta was dominant in nodules from the burnt site (69%), suggesting its role as a facilitator of symbiotic associations. We highlight the presence of a large bacterial and fungal community in nodules, suggesting nodulation is not restricted to nitrogen fixation. Thus, this microbiome can be involved in facilitating A. longifolia invasive success.

Biotic and abiotic factors influence the formation of fungal-algal pairings in lichen symbiosis. However, the specific determinants of these associations, particularly when distantly related fungi are involved, remain poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the impact of different drivers on the association patterns between taxonomically diverse lichenized fungi and their trebouxioid symbiotic partners. We collected 200 samples from four biomes and identified 41 species of lichenized fungi, associating them with 16 species of trebouxioid green algae, of which 62% were previously unreported. The species identity of both the fungal and algal partners had the most significant effect on the outcome of the symbiosis, compared to abiotic factors like climatic variables and geographic distance. Some obviously specific associations were observed in the temperate zone; however, the nestedness value was lower in arid regions than in cold, polar, and temperate regions according to interaction network analysis. Cophylogenetic analyses revealed congruent phylogenies between trebouxioid algae and associated fungi, indicating a tendency to reject random associations. The main evolutionary mechanisms contributing to the observed phylogenetic patterns were \"loss\" and \"failure to diverge\" of the algal partners. This study broadens our knowledge of fungal-algal symbiotic patterns in view of Trebouxia-associated fungi.

BACKGROUND: The symbiosis between the Hawaiian bobtail squid Euprymna scolopes and bacterium Vibrio fischeri serves as a model for investigating the molecular mechanisms that promote the initial formation of animal-bacterial symbioses. Research with this system frequently depends on freshly hatched E. scolopes, but the husbandry factors that promote hatchling production in a mariculture facility remain underreported. Here we report on the reproductive performance of E. scolopes in response to decreased mating frequency.
RESULTS: One animal cohort was maintained in a mariculture facility for 107 days, with females assigned to either a control group (mating once every 14 days) or an experimental group (mating once every 21 days). No differences between the groups were observed in survival, the number of egg clutches laid, or hatchling counts. Each group featured multiple females that were hyper-reproductive, i.e., they generated more than 8 egg clutches while in captivity. Examination of the distributions for daily hatchling counts of individual egg clutches revealed significant variation in the hatching patterns among clutches that was independent of mating frequency. Finally, an assessment of hatchling production showed that 93.5% of total hatchlings produced by the cohort were derived from egg clutches laid within the first 70 days.
CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest a lower mating frequency does not impede hatchling production. Furthermore, the variation in hatchling production among egg clutches provides new insight into the reproductive performance of E. scolopes as a lab animal for microbiology research.

Difficulty in accessing resources and increasing environmental concerns encourage industrial manufacturing enterprises to establish a symbiosis network. The identification of symbiotic relationships contributes to the more sustainable development of industrial activities. However, businesses operating in industrial parks are diversified by sector. In order to establish a sustainable symbiosis network in industrial parks, the symbiotic relations of each sector in industrial parks should be evaluated separately. Thus, the installation process of the symbiosis network will be easier and more sustainable. In this context, this study aims to prioritize the sector in which a symbiosis network will be established by presenting an innovative approach for the evaluation of symbiosis potentials. For this purpose, criteria for the implementation process affecting the establishment of the symbiosis network were determined. Multi-criteria decision-making methods were used to solve the problem. Considering the uncertainties in the process, fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making methods were used. As a result, a decision-making model has been proposed to determine the priority sector in order to establish a symbiosis network in industrial parks. According to the results obtained with the multi-criteria decision-making methods, the number of enterprises that will evaluate the waste, that is, the number of customers with waste, has been determined as the criterion with the highest level of importance. While evaluating the alternatives, the casting sector was chosen as a priority. This sector is followed by the petro and chemical sector as the second alternative.

This study presents the developing process of the Śmiłowo Eco-Park, located in the Noteć valley region (Poland), is a part of the biggest Polish agri-food consortium, from its initial small waste management company to its final structure as an eco-industrial park using industrial symbiosis methods. The industrial symbiosis applied in the Eco-park promotes a business model which covers the whole life cycle of the products starting from the plant growing by animal feed preparation, livestock breeding, meat preparations, meat-bone meal production from animal waste, and the use of pig slurry as a fertilizer. The Eco-park model is presented in the form of a system of connected stream flows of materials and energy covering the full lifecycle of products, from cereal cultivation, through the production of industrial feed, and poultry and pig breeding for the production of meat products. The solutions used include the prevention of environmental pollution through the modernization of existing processes, implementation of new technologies, reduction of waste and its reuse, recycling, and recovery of materials and energy, the substitution of raw materials with waste, and thermal treatment of waste and its use as biofuel. This case study allows for analyses of the organizational and technical key strategic activities which enable waste, including hazardous waste, to be transformed into valuable materials and energy. These activities have modified the system of material and energy flows through the value chain to realize the goal of allowing profitable management of waste according to circular economy methods and also indicates methods of supporting modifications of supply chains in terms of implementation of the industrial symbiosis business model according to its relationship with sustainable development, cleaner production, and circular economy models. EIP Śmiłowo annually utilizes 300,000 t meat waste, produces 110,000 t meat bone meal biofuel, uses 120,000 t of pig manure as fertilizers, produces 460,000 GJ bioenergy, eliminates 92,000 t CO2 emissions.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious mental illness characterized by instability in affective, cognitive, and interpersonal domains. BPD co-occurs with several mental disorders and has robust, positive associations with the general factors of psychopathology (p-factor) and personality disorders (g-PD). Consequently, some researchers have purported BPD to be a marker of p, such that the core features of BPD reflect a generalized liability to psychopathology. This assertion has largely stemmed from cross-sectional evidence and no research to date has explicated the developmental relationships between BPD and p. The present study aimed to investigate the development of BPD traits and the p-factor by examining predictions of two opposing frameworks: dynamic mutualism theory and the common cause theory. Competing theories were evaluated to determine which perspective best accounted for the relationship of BPD and p from adolescence into young adulthood. Data were drawn from the Pittsburgh Girls Study (PGS; N = 2,450) and included yearly self-assessments of BPD and other internalizing and externalizing indices from ages 14 to 21. Theories were examined using random-intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPMs) and network models. Results indicated that neither dynamic mutualism nor the common cause theory could fully explain the developmental relations between BPD and p. Instead, both frameworks were partially supported, with p found to strongly predict within-person change in BPD at several ages. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

With the ongoing urbanization in developing regions, integrating regional waste disposal capability is challenging due to unbalanced economic development and rising environmental issues. This research proposed a multi-dimensional symbiotic integration of waste disposal capability. Applying data from the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) in China, we first explore the waste flows and interactions between cities to identify the possibility of inter-municipal collaboration based on the augmented gravity model. We then employ social network analysis to categorize the cities in the collaborative network of waste disposal into subgroups by functionalities. Finally, we proposed the top-down framework of symbiotic networks for waste disposal. Our findings indicate that YRD cities can be classified into four types according to their waste density and disposal efficiency: High-High, Low-High, Low-Low, and High-Low. We also identify three types of inter-municipal collaborative relationships: between high-density and high-efficiency cities, between high-density cities, and between high-efficiency cities. The city subgroups can be categorized into \"high-efficiency clusters,\" \"high-density clusters,\" and \"hub clusters,\" which pave the way for a shared or complementary urban symbiosis in the waste recycling industry. The division of roles among subgroups enables symbiotic activities within the city cluster. This paper extends the spatial scope of industrial symbiosis literature and has practical implications for transitioning to a circular economy in waste management of developing countries.