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Università della Svizzera italiana

Managing the trade-off between groundwater resources and large-scale agriculture : the case of pistachio production in Iran

Akhavan, Ali ; Gonçalves, Paulo

In: System dynamics review, 2021, vol. 37, no. 2-3, p. 155-196

Benefiting from historically favorable conditions (e.g. low costs, fertile land, and abundant water), pistachio producers in Rafsanjan, Iran, have flourished, with pistachio orchards and production growing dramatically since the 1970s. Today, however, the enormous increase in water consumption associated with pistachio production has severely depleted groundwater aquifers, causing widespread...

Université de Fribourg

Life-history evolution and the genetics of fitness components in drosophila melanogaster

Flatt, Thomas

In: Genetics, 2020, vol. 214, no. 1, p. 3–48

Life-history traits or “fitness components”—such as age and size at maturity, fecundity and fertility, age-specific rates of survival, and life span—are the major phenotypic determinants of Darwinian fitness. Analyzing the evolution and genetics of these phenotypic targets of selection is central to our understanding of adaptation. Due to its simple and rapid life cycle, cosmopolitan...

Université de Fribourg

Mechanisms of vision in the fruit fly

Andres-Bragado, Lucia de ; Sprecher, Simon G.

In: Current Opinion in Insect Science, 2019, vol. 36, p. 25–32

Vision is essential to maximize the efficiency of daily tasks such as feeding, avoiding predators or finding mating partners. An advantageous model is Drosophila melanogaster, since it offers tools that allow genetic and neuronal manipulation with high spatial and temporal resolution, which can be combined with behavioral, anatomical and physiological assays. Recent advances have expanded our...

Université de Fribourg

Altering the temporal regulation of one transcription factor drives evolutionary trade-offs between head sensory organs

Ramaekers, Ariane ; Claeys, Annelies ; Kapun, Martin ; Mouchel-Vielh, Emmanuèle ; Potier, Delphine ; Weinberger, Simon ; Grillenzoni, Nicola ; Dardalhon-Cuménal, Delphine ; Yan, Jiekun ; Wolf, Reinhard ; Flatt, Thomas ; Buchner, Erich ; Hassan, Bassem A.

In: Developmental Cell, 2019, vol. 50, no. 6, p. 780-792.e7

Size trade-offs of visual versus olfactory organs is a pervasive feature of animal evolution. This could result from genetic or functional constraints. We demonstrate that head sensory organ size trade-offs in Drosophila are genetically encoded and arise through differential subdivision of the head primordium into visual versus non- visual fields. We discover that changes in the temporal...