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Calls for a common environmental education (EE) vision imply imposing certain values as universal. Nevertheless, there is a lack of knowledge on the extent to which EE reflects universalities versus diverse sociocultural realities. We explored practitioners' perspectives on the purpose of EE by interviewing practitioners in Finland and Madagascar using a theory of change approach. We classified EE goals into eight categories following the framework of Clark et al. (2020). We found signs of universal patterns, with commonalities such as the importance of the cognitive domain and de-emphasis of sociocultural aspects. Yet, differences arise: the connection to nature was central in Finland, whereas economic and bridging strategies were more common in Madagascar. Our results reflect the tradition of EE in post-industrial countries and suggest the influence of the colonial legacy and Western epistemologies in Madagascar. Questions remain about the extent to which those differences are culturally grounded.

Environmental conditions change rapidly along elevational gradients and have been found to affect community composition in macroscopic taxa, with lower diversity typically observed at higher elevations. In contrast, microbial community responses to elevation are still poorly understood. Specifically, the effects of elevation on vector-associated microbiota have not been studied to date, even though the within-vector microbial community is known to influence vector competence for a range of zoonotic pathogens. Here we characterize the structure and diversity of the bacterial microbiota in an important zoonotic disease vector, the sheep tick Ixodes ricinus, along replicated elevational gradient (630 - 1673 masl) in the Swiss Alps. 16S rRNA sequencing of the whole within-tick bacterial microbiota of questing nymphs and adults revealed a decrease in Faith’s phylogenetic microbial alpha diversity with increasing elevation, while beta diversity analyses revealed a lower variation in microbial community composition at higher elevations. We also found a higher microbial diversity later in the season and significant differences in microbial diversity among tick life stages and sexes, with lowest microbial alpha diversity observed in adult females. No associations between tick genetic diversity and bacterial diversity were observed. Our study demonstrates systematic changes in tick bacterial microbiota diversity along elevational gradients. The observed patterns mirror diversity changes along elevational gradients typically observed in macroscopic taxa, and they highlight the key role of environmental factors in shaping within-host microbial communities in ectotherms.

Rotta (Rattus norvegicus) on yleinen ihmisen seuralaislaji Suomessa. Kuntien tehtävänä on turvata asukkailleen terveellinen elinympäristö, ja rottien katsotaan aiheuttavan ihmisille monenlaista haittaa. Rottienhallintaa kunnissa ei ole juurikaan ennen tutkittu, varsinkaan Suomessa. Järjestimme kyselyn kuntien rotanhallinnan kanssa tekemisissä oleville henkilöille selvittääksemme rottien hallinnan yleiskuvaa suomalaisessa kuntahallinnossa. Tulosten mukaan rotanhallinta jakautuu monelle eri kunnan toimintasektorille ja rottien esiintymisen koettiin liittyvän ennen kaikkea lintujen ruokintaan ja jätehuoltoon. Rottien sopuisaan yhteiseloon ihmisen kanssa ei uskottu ja nykyisiä torjuntakeinoja pidetään tehottomina. Kokonaisuudessaan rotanhallinta kuitenkin koettiin toimivana: rottien määrän ei uskottu juuri kasvavan ja sekä kunnan sisäistä että muiden kanssa tehtävää yhteistyötä pidettiin toimivana. Norwegian rat (Rattus norvegicus) is a common synanthropic species in Finland. Rats are categorised as pests, and municipalities have an important role in controlling them, since municipalities are responsible for providing a healthy living environment for their inhabitants. Municipal rat management has not been studied much before, especially in Finland. We conducted a survey to municipal actors involved in rat management to capture a general view of rat management in Finnish municipalities. Rat management spreads out to several municipal sectors, citizens and private companies, and the rat problem was seen to be connected especially to bird feeding and waste management. The respondents did not believe in peaceful coexistence with rats and many thought that current management methods are not efficient enough. However, respondents were happy with current rat management practices. Most did not anticipate that the number of rats would grow, and both the municipal collaboration and the collaboration with others was considered to function well.

1: Citizen science is increasingly used to collect ecological data. Specifically, participation of school students in authentic research has been suggested as having a multitude of benefits from data collection to science education. Nevertheless, the overall quality and quantity of data concerns ecologists who are using data for further analysis.2: I coordinate a citizen science project, the Helsinki Urban Rat Project where lower and upper secondary school students collect data on urban rat occurrence through the use of track plates that record rat footprints. Within the project, both the success and accuracy of participating young citizen scientists can be assessed by comparing their results by professional researchers’ results and due to the use of an additional questionnaire relate this to the background variables (i.e., age, gender, available support, attitudes and sensitivity to disgust).3: I found out that, in contrast to results from previous studies, age was not a significant variable, but rather available support and voluntary participation with rewards increased data quality. Additionally, higher liking of biology as a school subject was associated with the lower accuracy, whereas a higher interest in environment with higher accuracy.4: The young citizen scientists provided reliable data with the exception of overrepresented false positive observations. My results suggest that the quality and quantity of citizen-generated data are not straightforwardly dependent on the selected target groups. Citizen science activities should be planned by careful consideration of the context, for example the school strongly shapes the participatory activities.

Most of biodiversity is not considered charismatic and from human’s perspective it can be indifferent, problematic, harmful, disgusting, or dangerous. Secondary school students’ attitudes towards an unloved species and how it relates to their feelings of disgust in the context of a biology course were studied during a citizen science project where Finnish lower and upper-secondary school students surveyed the occurrence of urban rats. Questionnaire data was collected including items on four scales: attitude towards rats, interest in learning about environment, disgust, and liking biology as a school subject. It was modelled with an item response theory approach by including respondents’ age and gender as fixed variables and school as a random factor. Higher age correlated with a more positive attitude towards the environment and lower level of disgust. There was an interaction between age and gender that male students had more negative attitude towards rats and lower general levels of disgust. Surprisingly, the students with more positive attitude towards rats also not only had a higher liking biology as a school subject and positive attitude towards the environment, but also a higher level of general disgust. The results suggest that disgust in general is not detrimental in learning and appreciating unloved others as parts of biodiversity. The results also raise questions on how personal attitudes towards the individual species relate to attitudes toward more abstract concept of biodiversity or the environment. Most of biodiversity is not considered charismatic and from human's perspective it can be indifferent, problematic, harmful, disgusting, or dangerous. Secondary school students' attitudes towards an unloved species and how it relates to their feelings of disgust in the context of a biology course were studied during a citizen science project where Finnish secondary school students surveyed the occurrence of urban rats. Questionnaire data were collected on four scales: attitude towards rats, interest in learning about environment, disgust, and liking biology as a school subject. It was modeled with an item response theory approach by including respondents' age and gender. Higher age correlated with a more positive attitude towards the environment and lower level of disgust. Surprisingly, the students with more positive attitude towards rats also not only had a higher liking biology as a school subject and positive attitude towards the environment, but also a higher level of general disgust. The results suggest that disgust in general is not detrimental in learning and appreciating unloved others as parts of biodiversity. The results also raise questions on how personal attitudes towards the individual species relate to attitudes toward more abstract concept of biodiversity or the environment.

Uncertainty is endemic to scientific research practices; therefore, it is also an important element in learning about science. Studies have shown how experiences and management of uncertainty regarding the epistemic practices of science can support learning. Whereas the common strategies of supporting students in handling uncertainty rely on the teacher knowing the preferred outcomes and answers, few studies have explored settings in which no one can give the right answers to students. In this study, we explore how secondary school students (aged 13–14 years) manage epistemic uncertainty during an ecological citizen science inquiry, in which the aim is to produce new scientific knowledge yet unknown to anyone. Drawing from qualitative analysis of video and interview data, we articulate three ways in which students manage uncertainty that arises when they are try to make the optimal choices during the inquiry: (a) envisioning alternative narrative scenarios and hypothesis; (b) accepting and maintaining it as part of their argumentation practices, and (c) flexibly reframing their research activities and goals. The findings indicate that the citizen science setting can allow students to reframe epistemic uncertainty in ways that are typical of scientific practices even without deliberate scaffolding by the teacher. We suggest that incorporating experiences of uncertainty that are shared by students and teachers in pedagogical design can support doing and learning science in different settings.

This paper is a search for common ground between two natural scientists, two childhood studies and education scholars and two human–animal studies or critical animal studies scholars all working within a shared citizen science project. The search takes the form of a thematic mapping of existing literature on ecological citizen science, with two questions: “Participation on whose terms?”, and “Participation for whose benefit?”. First, we draw from the field of childhood studies to show how the concept of participation can be theorized further. Second, we recontextualize ecological citizen science research from a multispecies perspective, following the non-anthropocentric turn in human and social sciences which has so far drawn limited attention both in educational research and in citizen science projects. We proceed by critically treading the blurry line between predetermined or science-led participation and emergent or participant-led research, forming a fruitful space for examining and reconceptualizing the prevailing human/nature distinction in science and pedagogy. What we end up proposing is not so much a solution to the issues we have located, but rather an invitation to consider participation as a possibility for engaging with the ongoing tensions regarding the apparatuses of power that guide the research practices, researchers’ thinking and ethics. For the democratic ethos of citizen science projects, these observations can result in an ongoing process of asking how would it be possible to make space for various knowledges to be regarded as such: How could different kinds of knowledge co-exist, potentially generating more just worlds?

Understanding how teaching affects students' attitudes and beliefs is notoriously difficult, specifically in a quickly evolving and societally relevant field such as genetics. The aim of this survey study is to capitalize our previous research and examine how teaching relates to Finnish secondary school students’ liking of, self-concept in and experienced utility of genetics, attitude towards gene technology and belief in genetic determinism. In this unique setting, we used as explanatory variables their teachers’ teaching emphases and learning materials, and as student-related factors, we used gender and the number of biology courses attended. Item-response theory with exploratory, confirmatory, and explanatory analyses were carried out to model the data. Teaching explained students’ attitudes and beliefs: if the teacher’s emphasis was Hereditary or the textbook with stronger Mendelian emphasis was used, students tended to havemore negative attitudes towards learning genetics and stronger belief in genetic determinism . Our results also suggest gender differences: male students had more positive attitude towards gene technology, higher self-concept, whereas as utility of genetics and belief in genetic determinism were higher in females. The results suggest that teaching’ approaches as well as learning materials need updates to fulfil the needs for genetics literacy. Understanding how teaching affects students' attitudes and beliefs is notoriously difficult, specifically in a quickly evolving and societally relevant field such as genetics. The aim of this survey study is to capitalize our previous research and examine how teaching relates to Finnish secondary school students' liking of, self-concept in and experienced utility of genetics, attitude towards gene technology and belief in genetic determinism. In this unique setting, we used as explanatory variables their teachers' teaching emphases and learning materials, and as student-related factors, we used gender and the number of biology courses attended. Item-response theory with exploratory, confirmatory, and explanatory analyses were carried out to model the data. Teaching explained students' attitudes and beliefs: if the teacher's emphasis was Hereditary or the textbook with stronger Mendelian emphasis was used, students tended to havemore negative attitudes towards learning genetics and stronger belief in genetic determinism . Our results also suggest gender differences: male students had more positive attitude towards gene technology, higher self-concept, whereas as utility of genetics and belief in genetic determinism were higher in females. The results suggest that teaching' approaches as well as learning materials need updates to fulfil the needs for genetics literacy

SUMMARYLyme disease is a tick-borne disease caused by bacteria of the genus Borrelia. The disease can initially manifest as an erythema migrans rash and, if able to evade the host immune defenses, can progress into a secondary stage chronic disease with debilitating physical or neurological manifestations1,2. The host factors that modulate susceptibility for Lyme disease have remained mostly unknown. Here we show a novel host defense mechanism against Lyme disease in humans. Using epidemiological and genetic data from FinnGen, we identify a common missense variant at the gene encoding for Secretoglobin family 1D member 2 (SCGB1D2) protein that increases the susceptibility for Lyme disease. The genetic variant changes proline at position 53 to leucine and is predicted as deleterious. Consequently, we validate the dysfunction of this protein variant using live Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb). Recombinant reference SCGB1D2 protein inhibits the growth of Bb twice as effectively as the recombinant SCGB1D2 P53L deleterious missense variant. Together, these data suggest that SCGB1D2 is a host defense factor present in the skin, sweat, and other secretions which protects against Bb infection. This finding provides a novel therapeutic avenue for drug development to prevent and treat Lyme disease.

Science education strives to increase interest in science and facilitate active citizenship. Thus, the aspects of personal and societal relevance are increasingly emphasised in science curricula. Still, little is known about how teachers choose content for their teaching, although their choices translate curricula to teaching practice. We explored how teachers choose genetics content and contexts for biology courses on cells, heredity and biotechnology by interviewing ten Finnish upper-secondary school teachers. We studied how the teachers described teaching on three themes in which they have varying freedom afforded by curricula: genetically modified organisms, hereditary disorders, and complex human traits. We analysed interviews with theory-guiding content analysis and found consistent patterns in teachers' perceptions of the themes in genetics teaching and teacher inclinations towards teaching genetics in human context. These patterns, which we call emphasis of content in genetics teaching were Developmental, Structural and Hereditary. Teachers with Developmental emphasis embraced teaching genetics in a human context, while teachers with a Structural emphasis avoided them. In general, teachers justified their choices by national, local school, and personal factors. While teachers mentioned that societal and personal contexts are important, at the same time teachers never framed the main themes in genetics with these contexts.

It is important to know how current education affects students’ attitudes towards learning, specifically in a quickly evolving and societally relevant field of biology such as genetics. The aim of this study is to examine how teacher and student-related factors explain secondary school students’ attitudes towards the applications of genetics and learning in genetics. In total 421 students aged between 17 and 20 from ten schools participated in the study. We measured students’ liking of, self-concept in and experienced utility of genetics and students’ attitude towards gene technology and belief in genetic determinism. We carried out item response theory based modelling by including teachers’ teaching emphases, learning materials, student gender and the number of attended biology courses as explanatory variables. The attitude towards gene technology and belief in genetic determinism correlated with all independent factors. Male students’ attitude towards gene technology was more liberal; they had higher self-concept, but experienced less utility in genetics and their belief in genetic determinism was weaker than in women. If the teacher’s emphasis was on Heredity or if the textbook with stronger Mendelian emphasis was used in teaching, students had more negative attitudes towards learning in genetics, but the belief in genetic determinism was stronger. In comparison, teacher’s Developmental emphasis explained students’ lower belief in genetic determinism, whereas Structural emphasis correlated with students’ liking of genetics. The results suggest that teachers’ approaches in genetics teaching as well as learning materials need updates to fulfil the needs for genetics literacy in current science education.

Citizen science is a valuable tool in environmental and formal education in creating scientific knowledge for the researchers and facilitating learning and fostering a positive relationship toward the environment and study species. We present a case study on the Helsinki Urban Rat Project in which students surveyed rat occurrence in their own near environments. According to our results, experientiality, involvement, meaningfulness, freedom to choose, ease of participation, and the rats themselves contributed to students’ increased interest in participation. Furthermore, students described diverse factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive knowledge that they acquired during their participation. In general, students described negative attitudes toward rats, but they described fewer negative views on rats after participation. We reflect on the success of the citizen science project and implications of planning a future citizen science project and incorporating citizen science in formal education.

Ecological factors, host characteristics and/or interactions among microbes may all shape the occurrence of microbes and the structure of microbial communities within organisms. In the past, disentangling these factors and determining their relative importance in shaping within-host microbiota communities has been hampered by analytical limitations to account for (dis)similar environmental preferences (‘environmental filtering’). Here we used a joint species distribution modelling (JSDM) approach to characterize the bacterial microbiota of one of the most important disease vectors in Europe, the sheep tick Ixodes ricinus, along ecological gradients in the Swiss Alps. Although our study captured extensive environmental variation along elevational clines, the explanatory power of such large-scale ecological factors was comparably weak, suggesting that tick-specific traits and behaviours, microhabitat and -climate experienced by ticks, and interactions among microbes play an important role in shaping tick microbial communities. Indeed, when accounting for shared environmental preferences, evidence for significant patterns of positive or negative co-occurrence among microbes was found, which is indicative of competition or facilitation processes. Signals of facilitation were observed primarily among human pathogens, leading to co-infection within ticks, whereas signals of competition were observed between the tick endosymbiont Spiroplasma and human pathogens. These findings highlight the important role of small-scale ecological variation and microbe-microbe interactions in shaping tick microbial communities and the dynamics of tick-borne disease.

The diversity of Anuran parasites is poorly surveyed, despite arguably being one of the most important threats to anuran populations worldwide. Additionally, parasites also interact with a number of other stressors, such as invasive species, pollution, sedimentation and changing light conditions, caused by anthropogenic disturbance in natural habitats. We aimed to explore the use of metabarcoding, a new, non-invasive tool to survey the parasite assemblages in frogs in different environments facing different levels of anthropogenic pressure. We collected fecal samples from frogs across three different transects in Ranomafana National Park, located in southeastern Madagascar, and then used the 18S metabarcoding technique to identify nematode species from the collected fecal samples. We were able to find four different putative species, which were all identified to the genus level. In comparison to the literature on previous surveys done with traditional methods, the metabarcoding approach seems to provide similar diversity estimates and taxonomical accuracy. Our results suggest that non-invasive sampling and metabarcoding can provide a suitable tool for intestinal parasite surveys in anuran host populations.

Sympatric species are known to host the same parasites species. Nevertheless, surveys examining parasite assemblages in sympatric species are rare. To understand how parasite assemblages in sympatric host species differ in a given locality, we used a noninvasive identification method based on high-throughput sequencing. We collected fecal samples from sympatric species in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar, from September to December in 2010, 2011, and 2012 and identified their parasites by metabarcoding, sequencing a region of the small ribosomal subunit (18S) gene. Our survey included 11 host species, including endemic primates, rodents, frogs, gastropods, and nonendemic rats and dogs. We collected 872 samples, of which 571 contained nematodes and 249 were successfully sequenced. We identified nine putative species of parasites, although their correspondence to actual parasite species is not clear as the resolution of the marker gene differs between nematode clades. For the host species that we successfully sampled with 10 or more positive occurrences of nematodes, i.e., mouse lemurs (Microcebus rufus), black rats (Rattus rattus), and frogs (Anura), the parasite assemblage compositions differed significantly among host species, sampling sites, and sampling years. Our metabarcoding method shows promise in interrogating parasite assemblages in sympatric host species and our results emphasize the importance of choosing marker regions for parasite identification accuracy.

Ecological factors, host characteristics and / or interactions among microbes may all shape the occurrence of microbes and the structure of microbial communities within organisms. In the past, disentangling these factors and determining their relative importance in shaping within-host microbiota communities has been hampered by analytical limitations to account for (dis)similar environmental preferences (‘environmental filtering’). Here we used a joint species distribution modelling (JSDM) approach to characterize the bacterial microbiome of one of the most important disease vectors in Europe, the sheep tick Ixodes ricinus, along ecological gradients in the Swiss Alps. Although our study captured extensive environmental variation along elevational clines, the explanatory power of such large-scale ecological factors was comparably weak, suggesting that tick-specific traits and behaviours, microhabitat and -climate experienced by ticks, and interactions among microbes play an important role in shaping tick microbial communities. Indeed, when accounting for shared environmental preferences, evidence for significant patterns of positive or negative co-occurrence among microbes was found, which is indicative of competition or facilitation processes. Facilitation occurred primarily among human pathogens, leading to co-infection within ticks, whereas competition was observed between the tick endosymbiont Spiroplasma and human pathogens. These findings highlight the important role of small-scale ecological variation and microbe-microbe interactions in shaping tick microbial communities and the dynamics of tick-borne disease.

Games have been used for a long time in teaching and learning. The increasing use of mobile phones makes it possible to link learning outside the classroom with augmented reality (AR). We tested how well the learning of conceptual models can be facilitated by AR games. We present a game designed for the in-service teacher-training workshop to model evolutionary and ecological relationships explicitly. The game, Parasite Race, models the life cycles of three different parasites and allows player to choose between two evolutionary strategies. We tested the game with experienced teachers and revealed a wide range of different gaming strategies: some of the teachers were able to reflect their game strategy and choose appropriate actions right away whereas some of the teachers did not and lost their motivation quickly. We reflect on the experience of programming a simple AR location-based game and on the usability of simple games in the educational context.

The skills required to understand genetic phenomena and transfer knowledge to real world situations are an important part of 21st century scientific literacy. While socio-scientific issues (SSI) are increasingly emphasised in science curricula, teachers have low interest in adopting SSI in teaching. Little is known about how teachers choose content for their teaching, although this process translates curricula to teaching practice. We explored how teachers choose content and contexts for biology courses on cells, heredity, and biotechnology by interviewing ten Finnish upper-secondary school teachers. We studied how the teachers described teaching on genetically modified organisms, hereditary disorders, and human traits. Teachers’ perceptions on genetics teaching were classified to Developmental, Structural and Hereditary approaches. The approaches were connected not only to the teachers’ perceptions of the more important content, but also teacher inclinations towards teaching genetics in the human context and perceptions of students’ interest in different topics. Teachers’ justified their choices by national, local school, and teacher’s personal-level factors. While teachers mentioned that SSI are important, they were never mentioned among the important contexts. Nevertheless, some teachers embraced teaching genetics in the human context while others avoided them. Teachers justified their avoidance for personal and pedagogical factors, such as their competence in dealing with these contexts. Experience played a part in the approach that teachers had, and contrary to the results of previous research, the less experienced teachers were more open to discussing human genetics. We conclude that curriculum development is important to encourage teachers to adopt more SSI-oriented teaching.Disclosure statementTuomas Aivelo has participated in writing biology textbooks for upper-secondary school biology for eOppi Oy. None of the teachers involved in this study used biology textbooks from eOppi Oy.

SummaryDetecting interaction between species is notoriously difficult, and disentangling species associations in host-related gut communities is especially challenging. Nevertheless, due to contemporary methods, including metabarcoding and 16S sequencing, collecting observational data on community composition has become easier and much more common. We studied the previously collected data sets of intestinal microbiota and parasite compositions within longitudinally followed mouse lemurs by analysing the potential interactions with diversity metrics and novel joint species distribution modelling. Both methods showed consistent statistical association between certain parasite species and microbiotal composition. Both unicellular Eimeria sp. and cestode Hymenolepis diminuta had an effect on diversity of gut microbiota. These parasite species also had negative associations with several bacterial orders. In comparison, closely related species H. nana did not have an effect on diversity, and it had positive associations with several bacterial orders. Our results reveal potential interactions between some, but not all, intestinal parasites and gut microbiota. While environmental variables explained almost half of the total variation, of which almost half could be explained by traits of parasites and microbiota, there were no clear patterns regarding mouse lemur individual variables explaining variation in the occurrence patterns of parasite and microbiota significantly. Our results provide new hypothesis for interactions between and among parasites and microbiota to be tested further with experimental studies.

Longitudinal sampling for intestinal microbiota in wild animals is difficult, leading to a lack of information on bacterial dynamics occurring in nature. We studied how the composition of microbiota communities changed temporally in free-ranging small primates, rufous mouse lemurs ( Microcebus rufus ). We marked and recaptured mouse lemurs during their mating season in Ranomafana National Park in southeastern mountainous rainforests of Madagascar for 2 years and determined the fecal microbiota compositions of these mouse lemurs with MiSeq sequencing. We collected 160 fecal samples from 71 animals and had two or more samples from 39 individuals. We found small, but statistically significant, effects of site and age on microbiota richness and diversity and effects of sex, year, and site on microbiota composition, while the within-year temporal trends were less clear. Within-host microbiota showed pervasive variation in intestinal bacterial community composition, especially during the second study year. We hypothesize that the biological properties of mouse lemurs, including their small body size and fast metabolism, may contribute to the temporal intraindividual-level variation, something that should be testable with more-extensive sampling regimes. IMPORTANCE While microbiome research has blossomed in recent years, there is a lack of longitudinal studies on microbiome dynamics on free-ranging hosts. To fill this gap, we followed mouse lemurs, which are small heterothermic primates, for 2 years. Most studied animals have shown microbiota to be stable over the life span of host individuals, but some previous research also found ample within-host variation in microbiota composition. Our study used a larger sample size than previous studies and a study setting well suited to track within-host variation in free-ranging mammals. Despite the overall microbiota stability at the population level, the microbiota of individual mouse lemurs can show large-scale changes in composition in time periods as short as 2 days, suggesting caution in inferring individual-level patterns from population-level data.

Parasite community dynamics is one of the central themes in contemporary parasitology. While between-host dynamics has been studied for a long time, within-host dynamics is less well studied. My aim was to identify which factors affect the parasite community during the lifetime of individual hosts by following longitudinally several individuals from a long-living species. Specifically, I was interested in how the dynamics of infra- and component communities differ from one another and which traits explain the variation in infracommunities. I studied rufous mouse lemur (Microcebus rufus), which is a primate living in the eastern montane rainforests of Madagascar. Mouse lemur is a well-suited study species as it can live for up to ten years in the wild. Due to its small size, the population density is high and trapping straightforward. Nematodes are the most common helminths found in mouse lemurs, but their identification is difficult. Typically, the nematodes are identified from adult specimens, but for longitudinal studies, this is not possible, as we cannot dissect the host individuals. In addition, morphological differences between species are small and we expected to encounter previously undescribed species. These difficulties led to the development of a new method, based on metabarcoding, to identify parasitic nematodes from fecal samples. The method I developed encompasses all steps from fieldwork to sequence analysis. Despite numerous confounding factors, the method managed to amplify and analyze half of the samples collected. Whilst there is room for further improvements, the main advantage is that the method works well for different host species, for example mouse lemurs and gastropods. In principle, this method works for all species of nematode, including free-living soil nematodes. Nevertheless, the resolution of identification do not allow for species-level identification. The variation in the parasite community inside individual hosts was extensive, but at the population level remained stable. Most of the parasites belonged to the putative species thought to be Strongyloides sp. The reason for this species success might be its lifecycle, the parasite can live in the intestine or as a free-living form in the soil. Due to the limited number of samples, the factors affecting the dynamics in individual mouse lemurs are difficult to analyze. It appears that sex and age do not have an effect on either parasite load or variation in parasite dynamics. Nevertheless, body condition appears to bear a consequence with the individuals in better condition having more parasite species in addition to higher fecal egg loads. The reason may be that those individuals are able to sustain larger populations of parasites, or that they are more tolerant to parasites. Hibernation could lead to the extinction of the nematode community, whereas higher precipitation appeared to lead to higher prevalences. This work gives insights into the dynamics of parasite communities both at the host individual and population level. It highlights the need for longitudinal studies as parasite community dynamics in host individual-level cannot be inferred from the host population-level The method I have developed can be used to perform more efficient and faster surveys of previously unknown parasite communities, though further development is necessary for better reliability. Loiset ovat maailmaa mullistava voima. On arvioitu, että yli puolet maailman lajeista on loisia ja että jokaisella lajilla on loisia. Siksi on olennaista tutkia, miten loiset leviävät ja lisääntyvät isäntäpopulaatioissaan. Vaikka loisten dynamiikkaa on tutkittu pitkään, yksittäisen isäntäyksilön loislajiston muuttuminen elinkaaren aikana tunnetaan heikosti. Tarkoitukseni olikin selvittää, kuinka paljon suolistoloislajisto muuttuu yhden isäntäyksilön elämän aikana seuraamalla loisia sukkulamatoja useissa pitkäikäisissä yksilöissä. Tutkin ruskohiirimakia (Microcebus rufus), joka on Madagaskarin itäosan vuoristosademetsissä asuva kädellinen. Kokoon nähden pitkä ikä tekee hiirimakista oivallisen tutkimuskohteen: hiirimakit voivat elää vapaana jopa kymmenen vuoden ikäisiksi. Pienen koon ansiosta hiirimakit elävät tiheässä ja näytteiden kerääminen on helppoa. Tyypillisesti suolistoloiset tunnistetaan aikuisista yksilöistä, mutta tämä ei ollut mahdollista pitkittäisseurannassa, sillä emme pääse käsiksi suolistossa asuviin matoihin. Lisäksi sukkulamatojen tunnistaminen on vaikeaa, sillä sukkulamatolajien väliset erot ovat pieniä ja tutkimiamme lajeja ei ole todennäköisesti aiemmin kuvattu. Kehitin uuden, geneettisen tunnistukseen perustuvan menetelmän loislajiston tunnistamiseksi ulostenäytteistä löytyvistä munista ja toukista. Kehittämäni menetelmä kattaa kaikki vaiheet kenttätyöstä loissekvenssien käsittelyyn. Erityinen tunnistusmenetelmän etu on, että sama menetelmä toimi hyvin erilaisille isäntälajeille, kuten hiirimakeille, rotille, sammakoille ja kotiloille. Tutkimukseni tulokset paljastivat lisäksi, että vaihtelu loislajistossa yhden yksilön sisällä oli suurta. Tästä huolimatta isäntäpopulaation tasolla loislajisto pysyi hyvin vakaana. Suurin osa loisista kuului yhteen lajiin, joka kuuluu todennäköisesti Strongyloides sukuun. Syynä tämän lajin menestykseen saattaa olla loisen elinkierto: loinen voi elää paitsi hiirimakien suolistossa, myös vapaana toukkamuotona maaperässä. Yksittäisen hiirimakin loislajistoon vaikuttavista tekijöistä on vaikea tehdä johtopäätöksiä: sukupuolella tai iällä ei vaikuta olevab merkitystä loisten määrään tai vaihteluun. Sen sijaan kunnolla on merkitystä: paremmassa kunnossa olevilla yksilöillä on enemmän loislajeja ja loiset munivat enemmän. Syynä tähän voi olla joko se että paremmassa kunnossa olevat yksilöt voivat elättää suurempia loismääriä tai sitten se, että paremmassa kunnossa olevat yksilöt sietävät paremmin loisia. Horrostaminen saattaa johtaa sukkulamatoyhteisöjen tuhoon, kun taas suuremmat sademäärät lisäävät loisten määriä. Tutkimukseni avaa uusia näkökulmia loislajiston muutokseen sekä yksittäisissä isäntäyksilöissä että isäntäpopulaatiossa. Erityisesti tutkimukseni alleviivaa pitkittäistutkimusten tärkeyttä: isäntäpopulaatiotason dynamiikasta ei pystytä päättelemään miten loisdynamiikka toimii yhden isäntäyksilön kohdalla. Kehittämäni menetelmällä voi suhteellisen helposti tunnistaa aiempaa nopeammin ja tehokkaammin aiemmin tuntemattoman suoliston sukkulamatojen yhteisön.

SUMMARYWhile it is known that intestinal parasite communities vary in their composition over time, there is a lack of studies addressing how variation in component communities (between-hosts) manifests in infracommunities (within-host) during the host lifespan. In this study, we investigate the changes in the intestinal parasite infracommunities in wild-living rufous mouse lemurs (Microcebus rufus) from Ranomafana National Park in southeastern Madagascar from 2010 to 2012. We used high-throughput barcoding of the 18S rRNA gene to interrogate parasite community structure. Our results show that in these nematode communities, there were two frequently occurring putative species and four rarer putative species. All putative species were randomly distributed over host individuals and they did not occur in clear temporal patterns. For the individuals caught in at least two different years, there was high turnover of putative species and high variation in fecal egg counts. Our study shows that while there was remarkable variation in infracommunities over time, the component community was relatively stable. Nevertheless, the patterns of prevalence varied substantially between years in each component community.

Background Marker gene studies often use short amplicons spanning one or more hypervariable regions from an rRNA gene to interrogate the community structure of uncultured environmental samples. Target regions are chosen for their discriminatory power, but the limited phylogenetic signal of short high-throughput sequencing reads precludes accurate phylogenetic analysis. This is particularly unfortunate in the study of microscopic eukaryotes where horizontal gene flow is limited and the rRNA gene is expected to accurately reflect the species phylogeny. A promising alternative to full phylogenetic analysis is phylogenetic placement, where a reference phylogeny is inferred using the complete marker gene and iteratively extended with the short sequences from a metagenetic sample under study. Results Based on the phylogenetic placement approach we built Séance, a community analysis pipeline focused on the analysis of 18S marker gene data. Séance combines the alignment extension and phylogenetic placement capabilities of the Pagan multiple sequence alignment program with a suite of tools to preprocess, cluster and visualise datasets composed of many samples. We showcase Séance by analysing 454 data from a longitudinal study of intestinal parasite communities in wild rufous mouse lemurs (Microcebus rufus) as well as in simulation. We demonstrate both improved OTU picking at higher levels of sequence similarity for 454 data and show the accuracy of phylogenetic placement to be comparable to maximum likelihood methods for lower numbers of taxa. Conclusions Séance is an open source community analysis pipeline that provides reference-based phylogenetic analysis for rRNA marker gene studies. Whilst in this article we focus on studying nematodes using the 18S marker gene, the concepts are generic and reference data for alternative marker genes can be easily created. Séance can be downloaded from http://wasabiapp.org/software/seance/. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12862-014-0235-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Body condition may be an important indicator for many infectious diseases and parasites, and may ultimately affect an individual’s fitness. Although some research has correlated body condition and parasite loads in other nonhuman primates, little information has been investigated in prosimian primates. In this study we compare parasitic infections and body condition in a member of the Cheirogaleidae family (Microcebus rufus: rufous mouse lemur) at Ranomafana National Park, southeast Madagascar. This species is characterized by seasonal fattening in preparation for the dry season followed by torpor, and it is important to understand the fluctuation between parasites and infections according to seasonal body condition. We trapped 72 individuals of the species inside Ranomafana National Park (RNP) after the dry season. These individuals were brought to the Centre Valbio Laboratory (CVB) and were subcutaneously micro-chipped with subdermal transponders for permanent identification. We recorded morphometric data, body condition, species richness and prevalence of ectoparasites and gastrointestinal parasites. We found that individuals that had both high number of parasite species as well as high prevalence of ectoparasites and gastrointestinal parasites had better body condition. There is some indication that being in good condition is important in controlling infections. La condition physique peut etre un indicateur important pour de nombreuses maladies infectieuses et pour les parasites, et peut finalement affecter l'aptitude d'un individu. Si certaines etudes ont montre la relation entre condition physique et charges parasitaires chez des primates non humains, peu d' informations etaient disponibles en ce qui concerne les prosimiens. Dans cette etude, les infections parasitaires et l'etat de sante du microcebe roux Microcebus rufus de la famille des Cheirogaleidae ont ete etudiees dans le Parc National de Ranomafana, Sud-est de Madagascar. Cette espece est caracterisee par sa capacite a accumuler des matieres grasses a la base de la queue afin de se preparer a la saison seche au cours de laquelle elle rentre en torpeure ; il est donc important de comprendre la fluctuation saisonniere entre les parasites et les infections selon l'etat de sante des individus. Soixante-douze animaux de cette espece ont ete captures a l' interieur du Parc National de Ranomafana apres la saison seche. Les individus captures ont ete rapportes au Centre Valbio ou ils ont ete marques avec une puce electronique sous-cutanee servant de transpondeur pour l' identification permanente. Nous avons collecte des donnees morphometriques pour documenter la condition physique, la richesse specifique et la prevalence des ectoparasites et des parasites gastro-intestinaux. Nous avons constate que les individus presentant a la fois un grand nombre d'especes de parasites ainsi qu’une forte prevalence d’ectoparasites et de parasites gastro-intestinaux avaient une meilleure condition physique. Les resultats semblent indiquer qu’un bon etat est important dans le controle des infections.

Genetics is a fast-developing field and it has been argued that genetics education is lagging behind. Genetics education has, for example, been suspected of indoctrinating strong genetic determinism. As the updating of the national upper secondary school curricula is about to start, we decided to study how the current curriculum manifests in Finnish biology textbooks. We studied the main four textbooks for historical gene models and definitions of genes using content analysis. Hybrid models were pervasive in textbooks. The textbooks expressed sometimes even strong genetic determinism, which might be linked to the dominance of older historical models in the textbooks. We also found instances of determinism which we call ‘weak determinism’: genes were depicted as more important factor than environment in relation to the expressed properties. Subsequently, there were no modern gene models found. We suggest gene models should be presented explicitly to reduce misconceptions about genes. We argue that genetics education needs to take more into account than environmental effects and there needs to be more emphasis on the temporal and developmental aspect of genotype-phenotype link. Specifically in Finland this could be done by a more explicit formulation of the national curriculum.