The genetic constitution of populations is affected by myriad factors, including both natural and anthropogenic habitat transformations. Previous work on the population structure of Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalis has suggested that supplemental stocking for fishery enhancement has transformed natural genetic diversity. We utilized microsatellite analysis of 11 loci to examine the genetic structure of over 950 Brook Trout sampled across 50 locations, including hatcheries; holding ponds; wild, unstocked waters; and repeatedly stocked waterbodies across Adirondack lakes and ponds in New York State, USA. From these data, we estimated the degree of introgressive hybridization, tested for associations with landscape and stocking variables, and tested predicted patterns of genetic diversity, effective population size, and genetic population structure. Widespread repeated stocking of a single hybrid strain has led to the dramatic genetic homogenization of Brook Trout across the sampled lakes and ponds. Model selection indicated that environmental factors were more important than stocking intensity for determining the extent of stocked‐fish introgression, and certain environmental circumstances may make some populations relatively resilient to repeated stocking activities. Known, protected heritage strains were confirmed as mostly unadmixed, but holding ponds with heritage brood populations used for supplemental stocking had become differentiated from the natal strains in two of the three cases tested. In addition to the importance of these results for understanding the effects of stocking activities on the genetic integrity of Brook Trout populations, our findings illustrate how current genetic techniques can aid in the development of management practices that are related to the conservation of species supporting economically important freshwater fisheries.

Bowel sound (BS) is receiving more attention as an indicator of gut health since it can be acquired non-invasively. Current gut health diagnostic tests require special devices that are limited to hospital settings. This study aimed to develop a prototype smartphone application that can record BS using built-in microphones and automatically analyze the sounds. Using smartphones, we collected BSs from 100 participants (age 37.6 ± 9.7). During screening and annotation, we obtained 5929 BS segments. Based on the annotated recordings, we developed and compared two BS recognition models: CNN and LSTM. Our CNN model could detect BSs with an accuracy of 88.9% andan F measure of 72.3% using cross evaluation, thus displaying better performance than the LSTM model (82.4% accuracy and 65.8% F measure using cross validation). Furthermore, the BS to sound interval, which indicates a bowel motility, predicted by the CNN model correlated to over 98% with manual labels. Using built-in smartphone microphones, we constructed a CNN model that can recognize BSs with moderate accuracy, thus providing a putative non-invasive tool for conveniently determining gut health and demonstrating the potential of automated BS research.

Recent genomic studies of parasitic plants have revealed that there are numerous footprints indicative of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) to the parasites from their host plants. However, the molecular mechanisms and biological impacts of this phenomenon have remained largely unknown. Here, we made the striking observation that two parasitic dodders, Cuscuta campestris and C. australis, have functional homologues of Si_CYP81Q1, which encodes piperitol/sesamin synthase (PSS) in the phylogenetically remote plant Sesamum indicum (sesame). The apparent lack of sequence similarity between the regions flanking PSS in Sesamum and Cuscuta spp. suggests the occurrence of HGT tightly associated with the PSS gene. Upon parasitism, C. campestris induced expression of the host Si_CYP81Q1 at the parasitic interface and mature and intron-retained Si_CYP81Q1 mRNA was transferred to C. campestris, suggesting that CYP81Q1 was translocated via RNA-mediated HGT. Thus, parasitism-evoked HGT might have had an unexpected role in the metabolic evolution of plants.