Biology subjects

Montague, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Montague, M..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Differential Transcription of Escherichia Coli K-12 Genes Under Hypomagnetic and Geomagnetic Conditions

The transcriptomic response of Escherichia coli to hypomagnetic versus geomagnetic exposure was examined using RNA sequencing across seven pairwise comparisons of differently conditioned cultures. Eighty-one genes were reproducibly differentially expressed, meeting significance and fold-change criteria in at least four of seven comparisons. The direction of differential expression tracked the 90-minute magnetic field exposure condition rather than the magnetic field conditions to which the seed cultures were exposed, indicating that the response is driven by acute field exposure rather than culture history. The affected genes point to a distinct metabolic state layered on top of lag phase, marked by atypical iron stress, downregulation of the flagellar regulon, and a phosphotransferase-mediated carbon-metabolism program favoring rapid energy acquisition over growth.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2026

Escherichia coli K12 exhibits a ~50% longer lag phase, but no difference in log phase growth rate, under hypomagnetic conditions (19 nT)

Previous investigations have explored the effects of hypermagnetic fields, that is, fields in excess of the Earths background geomagnetic field strength of approximately 50 {micro}T, on Escherichia coli (E. coli). Conversely, this study investigates the effects of hypomagnetic field conditions, that is, fields below the geomagnetic background intensity, on the growth of E. coli K12 by using a hypomagnetic chamber to shield cultures, with a measured residual magnetic field inside the chamber of 19 nT. When grown in rich media from a semi-anaerobic, stationary-phase starting culture under geomagnetic and hypomagnetic conditions, the lag phases of E. coli were approximately 86 minutes and 132 minutes, respectively. Despite this increase in lag phase, exceeding two E. coli doubling times, the log-phase growth rate of E. coli was identical under both geomagnetic and hypomagnetic conditions. In addition to demonstrating a biologically relevant sensitivity to magnetic field parameters in the hypomagnetic direction, this represents a much greater absolute magnetosensitivity, with a deviation of only 50 {micro}T between the hypomagnetic and geomagnetic conditions, than has previously been demonstrated for E. coli.

biophysics↗

bioRxiv2023

Natural disaster alters the adaptive benefits of sociality

Weather-related disasters can radically alter ecosystems. When disaster-driven ecological damage persists, the selective pressures exerted on individuals can change, eventually leading to phenotypic adjustments. For group-living animals, social relationships are believed to help individuals cope with environmental challenges and may be a critical mechanism enabling adaptation to ecosystems degraded by disasters. Yet, whether natural disasters alter selective pressures on patterns of social interactions and whether group-living animals can, as a result, adaptively change their social relationships remains untested. Here, we leveraged unique data collected on rhesus macaques from 5 years before to 5 years after a category 4 hurricane, leading to persistent deforestation which exacerbated monkeys exposure to intense heat. In response, macaques increased tolerance for and decreased aggression toward other monkeys, facilitating access to scarce shade critical for thermoregulation. Social tolerance predicted individual survival for 5 years after the hurricane, but not before it, revealing a clear shift in the adaptive function of social relationships in this population. We demonstrate that an extreme climatic event altered selection on sociality and triggered substantial and persistent changes in the social structure of a primate species. Our findings unveil the function and adaptive flexibility of social relationships in degraded ecosystems and identify natural disasters as potential evolutionary drivers of sociality. One-Sentence SummaryTestard et al. show that a natural disaster altered selection on sociality in group-living primates triggering persistent changes in their social structure.

animal behavior and cognition↗