Richard H. Madden

Aging and death in an organism that reproduces by morphologically symmetric division.

In macroscopic organisms, aging is often obvious; in single-celled organisms, where there is the greatest potential to identify the molecular mechanisms involved, identifying and quantifying aging is harder. The primary results in this area have come from organisms that share the traits of a visibly asymmetric division and an identifiable juvenile phase. As reproductive aging must require a differential distribution of aged and young components between parent and offspring, it has been postulated that organisms without these traits do not age, thus exhibiting functional immortality. Through automated time-lapse microscopy, we followed repeated cycles of reproduction by individual cells of the model organism Escherichia coli, which reproduces without a juvenile phase and with an apparently symmetric division. We show that the cell that inherits the old pole exhibits a diminished growth rate, decreased offspring production, and an increased incidence of death. We conclude that the two supposedly identical cells produced during cell division are functionally asymmetric; the old pole cell should be considered an aging parent repeatedly producing rejuvenated offspring. These results suggest that no life strategy is immune to the effects of aging, and therefore immortality may be either too costly or mechanistically impossible in natural organisms.

Asymmetric segregation of protein aggregates is associated with cellular aging and rejuvenation

Aging, defined as a decrease in reproduction rate with age, is a fundamental characteristic of all living organisms down to bacteria. Yet we know little about the causal molecular mechanisms of aging within the in vivo context of a wild-type organism. One of the prominent markers of aging is protein aggregation, associated with cellular degeneracy in many age-related diseases, although its in vivo dynamics and effect are poorly understood. We followed the appearance and inheritance of spontaneous protein aggregation within lineages of Escherichia coli grown under nonstressed conditions using time-lapse microscopy and a fluorescently tagged chaperone (IbpA) involved in aggregate processing. The fluorescent marker is shown to faithfully identify in vivo the localization of aggregated proteins, revealing their accumulation upon cell division in cells with older poles. This accretion is associated with >30% of the loss of reproductive ability (aging) in these cells relative to the new-pole progeny, devoid of parental inclusion bodies, that exhibit rejuvenation. This suggests an asymmetric strategy whereby dividing cells segregate damage at the expense of aging individuals, resulting in the perpetuation of the population.

Revised age of the Salla beds, Bolivia, and its bearing on the age of the Deseadan South American Land Mammal “Age”

ABSTRACT The Salla beds of Bolivia contain a mammalian faunal assemblage assigned to the Deseadan South American Land Mammal “Age” (SALMA), known elsewhere principally in Patagonia. The earliest platyrrhine monkey Branisella comes from a single stratigraphie level in these beds. The age of the Salla beds is debated; new radiometrie dates constrain the age of the Deseadan SALMA in Bolivia and clarify the timing of the first record of platyrrhines in South America. The oldest vertebrate fossils from the Salla beds are contained within the magnetic polarity interval ClOr, between 28.8 and 29.4 Ma. The youngest fossils occur above the 275 m ash in Chron C7Ar, between 25.65 to 25.82 Ma. The best known faunas, including those of the Branisella level, come from several localities within Chron C8 (25.82 to 27.02 Ma). If the recent suggestion by Flynn and S wisher (1995) that redating indicates that the Deseadan in Patagonia spans only about 27 to 29 Ma, then the bulk of the Salla fauna is younger than that of Pat...

Decoupling the spread of grasslands from the evolution of grazer-type herbivores in South America

The evolution of high-crowned cheek teeth (hypsodonty) in herbivorous mammals during the late Cenozoic is classically regarded as an adaptive response to the near-global spread of grass-dominated habitats. Precocious hypsodonty in middle Eocene (∼38 million years (Myr) ago) faunas from Patagonia, South America, is therefore thought to signal Earths first grasslands, 20 million years earlier than elsewhere. Here, using a high-resolution, 43-18 million-year record of plant silica (phytoliths) from Patagonia, we show that although open-habitat grasses existed in southern South America since the middle Eocene (∼40 Myr ago), they were minor floral components in overall forested habitats between 40 and 18 Myr ago. Thus, distinctly different, continent-specific environmental conditions (arid grasslands versus ash-laden forests) triggered convergent cheek-tooth evolution in Cenozoic herbivores. Hypsodonty evolution is an important example where the present is an insufficient key to the past, and contextual information from fossils is vital for understanding processes of adaptation.

The Feeding Biomechanics and Dietary Ecology of Paranthropus boisei

The African Plio‐Pleistocene hominins known as australopiths evolved derived craniodental features frequently interpreted as adaptations for feeding on either hard, or compliant/tough foods. Among australopiths, Paranthropus boisei is the most robust form, exhibiting traits traditionally hypothesized to produce high bite forces efficiently and strengthen the face against feeding stresses. However, recent mechanical analyses imply that P. boisei may not have been an efficient producer of bite force and that robust morphology in primates is not necessarily strong. Here we use an engineering method, finite element analysis, to show that the facial skeleton of P. boisei is structurally strong, exhibits a strain pattern different from that in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and Australopithecus africanus, and efficiently produces high bite force. It has been suggested that P. boisei consumed a diet of compliant/tough foods like grass blades and sedge pith. However, the blunt occlusal topography of this and other species suggests that australopiths are adapted to consume hard foods, perhaps including grass and sedge seeds. A consideration of evolutionary trends in morphology relating to feeding mechanics suggests that food processing behaviors in gracile australopiths evidently were disrupted by environmental change, perhaps contributing to the eventual evolution of Homo and Paranthropus. Anat Rec, 298:145–167, 2015.

Climate stability across the Eocene-Oligocene transition, southern Argentina

Fossil mammal teeth from mid-latitude southern Argentina (∼46°S) that closely bracket the Eocene-Oligocene transition show no resolvable change in oxygen isotope compositions. In combination with paleofloral observations and geographic considerations, this finding implies not only that climate was essentially constant, despite interpretations elsewhere for major mid- and high-latitude cooling, but also that evolution of hypsodonty did not coincide with climate change during the Eocene-Oligocene transition. One possible explanation for Eocene-Oligocene transition climatic stability is that southern high-latitude cooling increased latitudinal temperature gradients and strengthened ocean circulation gyres, including the southward-flowing Brazil Current in the western South Atlantic. Regionally increased heat transport in the western Atlantic offset global cooling, producing a nearly constant temperature in southern South America. A more radical interpretation, supported by some marine data, is that the paradigm of major global cooling at the Eocene-Oligocene transition is largely false, in that mean sea-surface temperatures changed very little.

Linked canopy, climate, and faunal change in the Cenozoic of Patagonia

Fluctuations revealed in fossil forests The reconstruction of past vegetation unlocks the door to understanding ecological changes associated with climatic change. But it is also difficult. Dunn et al. developed a method for assessing changes in vegetation openness based on epidermal cell morphology from conserved plant tissue. Applying this method to fossil assemblages from Patagonia, they show how vegetation structure changed over the Cenozoic era (49 to 11 million years ago). These changes map onto the known climate changes over this period and can also be used to track how the evolution of herbivorous mammals responded to vegetation structure. Science, this issue p. 258 A reconstruction of leaf area index from plant microfossils reveals a 38-million-year record of habitat change. Vegetation structure is a key determinant of ecosystems and ecosystem function, but paleoecological techniques to quantify it are lacking. We present a method for reconstructing leaf area index (LAI) based on light-dependent morphology of leaf epidermal cells and phytoliths derived from them. Using this proxy, we reconstruct LAI for the Cenozoic (49 million to 11 million years ago) of middle-latitude Patagonia. Our record shows that dense forests opened up by the late Eocene; open forests and shrubland habitats then fluctuated, with a brief middle-Miocene regreening period. Furthermore, endemic herbivorous mammals show accelerated tooth crown height evolution during open, yet relatively grass-free, shrubland habitat intervals. Our Patagonian LAI record provides a high-resolution, sensitive tool with which to dissect terrestrial ecosystem response to changing Southern Ocean conditions during the Cenozoic.

Modern origin of numerous alternatively spliced human introns from tandem arrays

Despite the widespread occurrence of spliceosomal introns in the genomes of higher eukaryotes, their origin remains controversial. One model proposes that the duplication of small genomic portions could have provided the boundaries for new introns. If this mechanism has occurred recently, the 5′ and 3′ boundaries of each resulting intron should display distinctive sequence similarity. Here, we report that the human genome contains an excess of introns with perfect matching sequences at boundaries. One-third of these introns interrupt the protein-coding sequences of known genes. Introns with the best-matching boundaries are invariably found in tandem arrays of direct repeats. Sequence analysis of the arrays indicates that many intron-breeding repeats have disseminated in several genes at different times during human evolution. A comparison with orthologous regions in mouse and chimpanzee suggests a young age for the human introns with the most-similar boundaries. Finally, we show that these human introns are alternatively spliced with exceptionally high frequency. Our study indicates that genomic duplication has been an important mode of intron gain in mammals. The alternative splicing of transcripts containing these intron-breeding repeats may provide the plasticity required for the rapid evolution of new human proteins.

Stirtonia victoriae, a new species of Miocene Colombian primate

Abstract Upper jaws and other cranial material of a large primate from the Perico Member of the La Dorada Formation, Honda Group (Miocene) were discovered in 1985 and 1986. The specimens are of a new species of Stirtonia . Based on stratigraphic position, more than 300 meters below the Stirtonia tatacoensis type locality, this is the oldest primate material yet known from Colombia. Limited current evidence suggests a Santacrucian age but further geochronologic and paleontologic studies are needed to confirm this. One specimen is a nearly complete but crushed palate and lower face of a young animal. This specimen also has part of the left maxillary orbital margin and a partial left frontal with the dorsal orbital margin. A right maxilla of an old adult of the same species was found at the same locality and stratigraphic horizon. The new material resembles Stirtonia in the strong development of molar crests and stylar cusps and in many details of molar structure. We regard it as a new species because of its larger size, better developed molar crests, and because it has three-rooted rather than two-rooted P 3 and P 4 . Two isolated molars from the Honda Group, previously the hypodigm of Kondous laventicus , are referred to Stirtonia talacoensis . The dental structure of Stirtonia suggests it was a leaf-eating species. A phyletic study of all Stirtonia material indicates that it is closely related to Alouatta , as R. A. Stirton first suggested and most authorities affirm.

Testing a developmental model in the fossil record: molar proportions in South American ungulates

Abstract A developmental model, based upon murine rodents, has been proposed by Kavanagh et al. (2007) to explain lower molar proportions in mammals. We produce a clade-wide macroevolutionary test of the model using the dental evolutionary trends in a unique radiation of extinct mammals endemic to South America (“Meridiungulata”) that comprise a diverse array of molar morphologies. All of the South American ungulate groups examined follow the inhibitory cascade model with the exception of two groups: Interatheriidae (Notoungulata) and Astrapotheria. For most taxa studied, ratios between lower molar areas are greater than 1.0, indicating a weak inhibition by m1 on the subsequent molars in the tooth row, and a trend to greater absolute size of the posterior molars. Comparisons of mean ratios between clades indicate that a significant phylogenetic signal can be detected, particularly between the two groups within Notoungulata— Typotheria and Toxodontia. Body mass estimates were found to be significantly correlated with both m3/m1 and m2/m1 ratios, suggesting that the larger body size achieved the weaker inhibition between the lower molars. Molar ratio patterns are examined and discussed in relation to the independent and numerous acquisitions of hypsodonty that are characteristic of dental evolution in “Meridiungulata.”