Insectivorous Palaearctic bird species associated with open habitats rely on high prey abundances,which are currently declining due to habitat loss and intensive agricultural practices.The European Bee-eater(Merops ap...Insectivorous Palaearctic bird species associated with open habitats rely on high prey abundances,which are currently declining due to habitat loss and intensive agricultural practices.The European Bee-eater(Merops apiaster)is an opportunistic insectivore of open habitats,preying mainly on medium to large-sized flying insects.Its diet composition received some attention in the past,but the current variation in diet composition of birds breeding across different habitats,and between adults and chicks remains poorly known.In this study,we determine variation in bee-eaters’diet in colonies located in five common habitats at the Iberian Peninsula.We also assess differences in the diet composition of chicks and adults and investigate seasonal diet selectivity of adults.Finally,we explore the variability in the size of prey provided to chicks throughout their growth period.Hymenoptera and Coleoptera were the most important groups for bee-eaters,with adults and chicks consuming 58.8%and 64.1%of hymenopterans and 37.6%and 28.6%of coleopterans,respectively.The proportion of Hymenoptera(42.3–55.7%)and Coleoptera(43.3–53.5%)in the diet was similar in colonies in pasture and oak habitats,but Hymenoptera dominated(83.8%and 95.7%)in meadow and mixed forest colonies.Despite being a generally opportunistic predator,adult bee-eaters provide their progeny with an increasing proportion of larger insects through chick development.Moreover,they equally take Hymenoptera and Coleoptera for themselves and their chicks,even when the abundance of these insects decreases seasonally.Overall,these results suggest that local prey availability associated with specific habitats influences diet composition and that regional declines in certain groups may,therefore,affect insectivore species differently according to their dietary and habitat preferences.展开更多
Peptidases are essential for intracellular protein processing,signaling and homeostasis,physiological processes and for digestion of food.Moreover,peptidases are important biotechnological enzymes used in processes su...Peptidases are essential for intracellular protein processing,signaling and homeostasis,physiological processes and for digestion of food.Moreover,peptidases are important biotechnological enzymes used in processes such as industrial food processing,leather manufacturing and the washing industry.Identification of peptidases is a crucial step in their characterization but peptidase annotation is not a trivial task due to their large sequence diversity.In the present study short,conserved sequence profiles were generated for all peptidase families with more than four members in the comprehensive Merops peptidase database.The sequence profiles were combined with the Homology to Peptide Pattern(Hotpep)method for automatic annotation of peptidases.This method is a standalone software that annotates protease sequences to Merops family and subgroup and is suitable for large-scale sequence analysis.Compared to the Mammalian Degradome Database Hotpep-protease had an accuracy of 92%and a sensitivity of 96%for annotation of the human degradome.Annotation by commonly used methods(Blast and conserved domains)had an accuracy of 69%and a sensitivity of 78%.For fungal genomes,there were large differences between annotation with Hotpep-protease,Blast-and Hidden Markov Model-based annotation and the Merops annotation,which confirms the difficulty of large-scale peptidase annotation.Manual annotation indicated that Hotpep-protease had a positive prediction rate of 0.90 compared to a positive prediction rate of 0.67 for Blast search.Hence,Hotpep-protease is highly accurate method for fast and accurate annotation of peptidases.展开更多
基金funded by FCT with grants to JSC(SFRH/BD/113580/2015)JAA(SFRH/BPD/91527/2012)+1 种基金also benefited from financial support to CESAM(UIDP/50017/2020+UIDB/50017/2020+LA/P/0094/2020)through national funds(FCT/MCTES).
文摘Insectivorous Palaearctic bird species associated with open habitats rely on high prey abundances,which are currently declining due to habitat loss and intensive agricultural practices.The European Bee-eater(Merops apiaster)is an opportunistic insectivore of open habitats,preying mainly on medium to large-sized flying insects.Its diet composition received some attention in the past,but the current variation in diet composition of birds breeding across different habitats,and between adults and chicks remains poorly known.In this study,we determine variation in bee-eaters’diet in colonies located in five common habitats at the Iberian Peninsula.We also assess differences in the diet composition of chicks and adults and investigate seasonal diet selectivity of adults.Finally,we explore the variability in the size of prey provided to chicks throughout their growth period.Hymenoptera and Coleoptera were the most important groups for bee-eaters,with adults and chicks consuming 58.8%and 64.1%of hymenopterans and 37.6%and 28.6%of coleopterans,respectively.The proportion of Hymenoptera(42.3–55.7%)and Coleoptera(43.3–53.5%)in the diet was similar in colonies in pasture and oak habitats,but Hymenoptera dominated(83.8%and 95.7%)in meadow and mixed forest colonies.Despite being a generally opportunistic predator,adult bee-eaters provide their progeny with an increasing proportion of larger insects through chick development.Moreover,they equally take Hymenoptera and Coleoptera for themselves and their chicks,even when the abundance of these insects decreases seasonally.Overall,these results suggest that local prey availability associated with specific habitats influences diet composition and that regional declines in certain groups may,therefore,affect insectivore species differently according to their dietary and habitat preferences.
文摘Peptidases are essential for intracellular protein processing,signaling and homeostasis,physiological processes and for digestion of food.Moreover,peptidases are important biotechnological enzymes used in processes such as industrial food processing,leather manufacturing and the washing industry.Identification of peptidases is a crucial step in their characterization but peptidase annotation is not a trivial task due to their large sequence diversity.In the present study short,conserved sequence profiles were generated for all peptidase families with more than four members in the comprehensive Merops peptidase database.The sequence profiles were combined with the Homology to Peptide Pattern(Hotpep)method for automatic annotation of peptidases.This method is a standalone software that annotates protease sequences to Merops family and subgroup and is suitable for large-scale sequence analysis.Compared to the Mammalian Degradome Database Hotpep-protease had an accuracy of 92%and a sensitivity of 96%for annotation of the human degradome.Annotation by commonly used methods(Blast and conserved domains)had an accuracy of 69%and a sensitivity of 78%.For fungal genomes,there were large differences between annotation with Hotpep-protease,Blast-and Hidden Markov Model-based annotation and the Merops annotation,which confirms the difficulty of large-scale peptidase annotation.Manual annotation indicated that Hotpep-protease had a positive prediction rate of 0.90 compared to a positive prediction rate of 0.67 for Blast search.Hence,Hotpep-protease is highly accurate method for fast and accurate annotation of peptidases.
