Untangling the effect of selection from other factors, such as specific responses to environmental fluctuations, poses a significant problem both in microbiology and in other fields, including cancer biology and immunology, where selection occurs within phenotypically heterogeneous populations of cells. Using “individual histories”-temporal sequences of all reproduction events and phenotypic changes of individuals and their ancestors-we present an alternative approach to quantifying selection in diverse experimental settings. Selection is viewed as a process that acts on histories, and a measure of selection that employs the distribution selleck chemical of

histories is introduced. We apply this measure to phenotypically structured populations in fluctuating environments across different evolutionary regimes. Additionally, we show that reproduction events alone, recorded in the population’s tree of cell divisions, may be sufficient to accurately measure selection. The measure is thus applicable in a wide range of biological systems, from microorganisms-including species for which genetic tools do not yet exist-to cellular populations, such as tumors and stem cells, where detailed temporal data are becoming available.”
“Organic cotton production in Paraguay. Sapitinib clinical trial 2. Agronomic

limitations for a novel industry. Two main limiting factors to organic cotton production are soil fertility and pest (arthropods and diseases) management. BB-94 research buy Paraguay has begun to produce organic cotton since 2003. An exploratory study was carried out in order to have a better knowledge of the way the organic cotton production has developed and to identify economic (first paper) and agronomic limitations (this paper). In addition, this paper provides an analysis of the production of cotton-seed. The study was achieved in 2008 during the cotton harvest period by interviewing the actors from the farm to the industrial level. With more than 200 tons of cotton-seed produced

since 2006-2007, Paraguay has reached the second position of South-American producers of organic cotton, behind Peru. In 20072008, the recorded average yield of 492 kg.ha(-1) of cotton-seed has been underestimated because of sales of organic cotton to the conventional industry. Fertilization and insect pest management, especially for the boll weevil Anthonomus grandis, were based on biological approaches at the whole cropping system level. Management practices included the use of made-in-farm inputs with, according to users, a fair level of efficacy but whose actual effects are mostly poorly known. We recommend in-depth studies firstly to identify the biological pathways involved when necessary, secondly to assess the qualitative and quantitative diversity of farmers practices, and thirdly to integrate their impacts at different space and time scales.