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Copyright of Journal of Plant Protection & Pathology is the property of Egyptian National Agricultural Library (ENAL) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Following an introduction, non-native species are exposed to environments that differ from those found in their native range; further, as these non-native species expand beyond the site of introduction, they must constantly adapt to novel environments. Although introduced species are present across most ecosystems, few species have successfully established themselves on a truly global scale. One such species, the house sparrow Passer domesticus, is now one of the world's most broadly distributed vertebrate species and has been introduced to a great part of its current range. To date, work on four continents suggests both genetic and phenotypic variation exists between native and introduced ranges. As such, house sparrows represent an excellent opportunity to study adaptations to novel environments and how these adaptations are derived. The global distribution of this species and the multiple independent introductions to geographically isolated sites allow researchers to ask questions regarding genetic variation and adaptation on a global scale. Here, we summarize the molecular studies of invasive house sparrows from the earliest work using allozymes through more recent work on epigenetics; using these studies, we discuss patterns of dispersal of this species. We then discuss future directions in techniques (e.g. next generation sequencing) and how they will provide new insight into questions that are fundamental to invasion biology. Finally, we discuss how continued research on the house sparrow in light of these genetic changes and adaptations will elucidate answers of adaptation, invasion biology, range expansion, and resilience in vertebrate systems generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was conducted on the campus of the regional department of the forestry service, encompassing 2.25 ha in Antalya city center. The area has gardens and is surrounded by trees, providing nesting and feeding opportunities for many songbird species. The study aimed to determine clutch and egg size variation, breeding success, and productivity of the House Sparrow (Passer domesticus), in terms of clutch size and breeding attempts, and to evaluate variation in temperature, rainfall, and humidity in terms of breeding attempts and years, and their possible effects on given parameters of the species. In total, 2016 eggs were laid in 393 clutches and clutch size varied from 1 to 11 eggs; the clutches most commonly contained 4-6 egg in the 3 consecutive years. Mean egg length, width, weight, volume, and sphericity index were 21.16 ± 0.03 mm, 14.99 ± 0.01 mm, 2.02 ± 0.01 g, 2.38 ± 0.01 cm3, and 71.01 ± 0.09, respectively. Breeding attempts were affected by temperature (r = 0.97 P < 0.0001) and rainfall (r = -0.84 P < 0.001). Egg length was affected by rainfall (r = 0.60 P < 0.041), humidity (r = 0.59 P < 0.044), and temperature (r = -0.81 P < 0.002), and egg volume was affected by temperature (r = -0.68 P < 0.015). This study shows that the House Sparrow population in the study area exhibited important variation in clutch and egg size, which was affected by changes in temperature, rainfall, and humidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fluffy brown sparrows are 15cm in length and distributed all over India up to 4000m in the Himalayas. The disappearance of sparrows has been widely reported in India. The sparrow population in Andhra Pradesh alone had dropped by 80 per cent, and in other states like Kerala, Gujarat and Rajasthan, it had dipped by 20 per cent, while the decline in coastal areas was as sharp as 70 to 80 per cent. But reliable information on sparrow populations is not available. No one is actually counting and keeping a record of the sparrows. The spread of diseases due to decline in sparrow population is an alarming danger. Introduction of unleaded petrol, use of chemically treated seeds, flow of electromagnetic waves from cellphone towers, reducing areas of free growing weeds or reducing numbers of badly maintained buildings, competition for food by other species etc. are possible reasons for this disappearance. The BirdLife International, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), a UK-based organisation and the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) have taken plan for the protection of sparrow population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brood parasitism could be a selective pressure on each female to have a type of egg that permits recognition. House sparrows ( Passer domesticus) undergo conspecific brood parasitism and can recognise parasitic eggs. In this study, we analyse the effect of relative size in experimental parasitic eggs compared to the host eggs. We modified egg colour and the spot pattern to determine the influence of these characteristics on egg rejection. Furthermore, we examine whether egg rejection increases with “stimulus summation”. Our results show that egg rejection is not affected by relative egg size. However, changes in the spot pattern proved to exert the highest influence on egg rejection (32.4% of trials), significantly higher than when only egg colour is changed (3.8%). Therefore, our results suggest that parasitism may be a pressure favouring the maintenance of spotted eggs in house sparrow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We derive formulas that can be applied to estimate the effective population size Ne for organisms with two sexes reproducing once a year and having constant adult mean vital rates independent of age. Temporal fluctuations in population size are generated by demographic and environmental stochasticity. For populations with even sex ratio at birth, no deterministic population growth and identical mean vital rates for both sexes, the key parameter determining Ne is simply the mean value of the demographic variance for males and females considered separately. In this case Crow and Kimura's generalization of Wright's formula for Ne with two sexes, in terms of the effective population sizes for each sex, is applicable even for fluctuating populations with different stochasticity in vital rates for males and females. If the mean vital rates are different for the sexes then a simple linear combination of the demographic variances determines Ne, further extending Wright's formula. For long‐lived species an expression is derived for Ne involving the generation times for both sexes. In the general case with nonzero population growth and uneven sex ratio of newborns, we use the model to investigate numerically the effects of different population parameters on Ne. We also estimate the ratio of effective to actual population size in six populations of house sparrows on islands off the coast of northern Norway. This ratio showed large interisland variation because of demographic differences among the populations. Finally, we calculate how Ne in a growing house sparrow population will change over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the great majority of animal taxa, males do not participate in parental care, but substantial paternal care is common across avian species. We examined male and female incubation contributions in House Sparrows (Passer domesticus), quantifying the incubation behavior of free-living, individually color-banded parents during 47 nesting cycles. We also measured the relative warmth of male and female incubation surfaces. Females spent more time incubating than their male partners, and female time incubating served as the best single predictor for hatching success. Considered alone, male time incubating correlated negatively with hatching success, but that effect was nullified when female incubation was taken into account. Females had warmer abdomens than males, a difference that may reflect greater development of brood patch and effectiveness of incubation in that sex. Here, male badge size was not demonstrably associated with either male or female incubation patterns or hatching success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the hypothesis that most glucose absorption occurs passively across intestinal tight junctions (paracellular absorption), one would predict fairly similar rates of in vivo absorption of L-glucose, the stereoisomer of D-glucose that is absorbed only passively and is not catabolized, and of 3-O-methyl-D-glucose (3OMD-glucose), the D-glucose analogue that is actively and passively transported and not catabolized. In house sparrows Passer domesticus, we applied a pharmacokinetic method to measure simultaneous in vivo absorption of [14C]L-glucose and [³H]3OMD-glucose in a situation in which intestinal glucose transporters were relatively saturated (gavage solution contained 200 mmol l-1 3OMDglucose). Fractional absorptions (F) were not significantly different between [³H]3OMD- and [14C]L-glucose (0.80 vs 0.79), and the apparent rates of absorption did not differ significantly. When we performed the same experiment on other sparrows in a situation in which intestinal glucose transporters were relatively unsaturated (200 mmol l-1 mannitol replaced 3OMb-glucose in the gavage solution), the apparent rate of absorption was significantly reduced for [14C]L-glucose by 39% and for [³H]3OMD-glucose by 26%. A simulation model showed that a reduction is not predicted if most of the [³H]3OMDglucose is actively absorbed, because the absorption rate of the tracer should increase when competitive inhibitor (unlabeled 3OMb-glucose) is removed. The similar extent and rates of absorption of [³H]3OMD- and [14C]L-glucose, and the acceleration of their rates of absorption in the presence of luminal 3OMD-glucose, are most consistent with Pappenheimer's hypothesis that the majority of dietary D-glucose is absorbed passively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We developed 13 new polymorphic microsatellite loci in the house sparrow ( Passer domesticus), which exhibited from 2 to 15 alleles. Observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.17 to 0.77 and from 0.35 to 0.85, respectively. We detected no linkage disequilibrium between loci. Allele frequencies supported Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium for 8 loci out of 13 after Bonferroni correction. Combined with loci previously isolated in the house sparrow, these new microsatellite markers provide valuable tools to study population genetics of this species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]