“
“Behaviour is typically regarded as among the most flexible of animal phenotypic traits. In particular, expression of cooperative behaviour is often assumed to be conditional upon the behaviours of others. This flexibility is a key component of many hypothesized mechanisms favouring the evolution of cooperative behaviour. However, evidence

shows that cooperative behaviours are often less flexible than expected and that, in many species, individuals show this website consistent differences in the amount and type of cooperative and non-cooperative behaviours displayed. This phenomenon is known as ‘animal personality’ or a ‘behavioural syndrome’. Animal personality is evolutionarily relevant, as it typically shows heritable variation and can entail fitness consequences, and hence, is subject to evolutionary change. Here, we review the empirical evidence for individual variation

in cooperative behaviour across taxa, we examine the evolutionary processes that have been invoked to explain the existence of individual variation in cooperative behaviour and we discuss the consequences of consistent individual differences on the evolutionary stability of cooperation. We highlight that consistent individual variation in cooperativeness can both stabilize or disrupt cooperation in populations. We conclude that recognizing the existence of consistent Dinaciclib concentration individual differences in cooperativeness is essential for an understanding of the evolution and prevalence of cooperation.”
“To investigate dopamine transporter in major depressive disorder and Parkinson’s disease, the authors obtained single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) brain images from 13 patients with major depression, 17 Parkinson’s disease patients, and 10 healthy volunteers by using 99mTc-TRODAT-1. The authors found the 99mTc-TRODAT-1 radio signal in the striatum was reduced in the majority of patients with major depressive disorder, and this decrease was even more severe in patients with Parkinson’s disease. The results support the hypothesis of dopamine hypofunction in major depressive disorder and suggest that deficient dopamine transporter may be involved in the etiology of

severe major depressive disorder. (The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences 2011; 23:63-67)”
“Rice plants grown in paddy PF-562271 fields preferentially use ammonium as a source of inorganic nitrogen. Glutamine synthetase (GS) catalyses the conversion of ammonium to glutamine. Of the three genes encoding cytosolic GS in rice, OsGS1;1 is critical for normal growth and grain filling. However, the basis of its physiological function that may alter the rate of nitrogen assimilation and carbon metabolism within the context of metabolic networks remains unclear. To address this issue, we carried out quantitative comparative analyses between the metabolite profiles of a rice mutant lacking OsGS1;1 and its background wild type (WT).