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Catalonia elections prompt crackdown on colour yellow? As campaigning for Catalonia's regional election begins, yellow lights and even yellow fountains are not allowed. https://lnkd.in/dyXQpU4 View in LinkedIn

CASE STUDY 1. HERMAPHRODITE MANGROVE FISH follows. This case study investigates a fish with considerable reproductive flexibility, leading to a deeper understanding of the cost tradeoffs of each choice. View in LinkedIn

MANGROVE FISH FEMALE COSTS. "We suspect that the cost of maintaining ovarian tissue is a key factor underlying the transition between hermaphrodite and secondary male. We predict that when the benefit of possessing ovarian tissue is reduced by energetic demand (resource limitation, competition) or when age/senescence increases the costs of maintaining ovarian tissue, transitioning into male should be favored." https://lnkd.in/dfG4sX2 View in LinkedIn

"PLASTIC SEX allocation in response to variable resources represents a flexible allocation strategy for coping with environmental heterogeneity, and can evolve by natural selection given genetic variation for plasticity." https://lnkd.in/dPykU22 View in LinkedIn

LOWER MALE MANGROVE FISH COSTS. "Males are liberated from the costs of maintaining energetically expensive ovarian tissue, exhibit lower maximum metabolic rates, and allocate more resources towards growth and energy storage in the form of visceral fat reserves and larger liver mass." https://lnkd.in/dfG4sX2 View in LinkedIn

THEORETICAL PREDICTIONS. "Sex allocation theory predicts that individuals with fewer resources will be more male-biased while individuals with more resources will be more female-biased, based on the differential fitness gain curves of allocation to male and female functions." https://lnkd.in/dPykU22 View in LinkedIn

MANGROVE FISH PATH ENERGETICALLY CHOSEN. "Hermaphroditic rivulus must maintain both ovarian and testicular tissues while males only need to maintain testicular tissue...hermaphrodites appear to be allocating more energy towards gonad maintenance and function and less towards somatic growth – a classic life history trade-off." https://lnkd.in/dfG4sX2 View in LinkedIn

SIGNIFICANT UNKNOWNS. "Sex allocation in plants is often plastic, enabling individuals to adjust to variable environments. However, the predicted male-biased sex allocation in response to low resource conditions has rarely been experimentally tested in hermaphroditic plants." https://lnkd.in/dPykU22 View in LinkedIn

MANGROVE FISH SELFING CONSEQUENCES. "Because sex change is environmentally driven and because rivulus produces isogenic lineages via selfing, hermaphrodites and secondary males with identical genotypes can be produced." https://lnkd.in/dfG4sX2 View in LinkedIn

MANGROVE FISH SELFING PREFERRED. "Outcrossing can be quite prevalent and can drive substantial levels of heterozygosity in some populations, but the most common mode of reproduction for mangrove rivulus is self-fertilization or ‘selfing’. Repeated bouts of selfing can result in completely homozygous individuals capable of producing offspring that are genetically identical to the parent and all siblings." https://lnkd.in/dfG4sX2 View in LinkedIn