Teleost fishes comprise more than half of all vertebrate species, yet genomic data are only available for 0.2% of their diversity. Here, we present whole genome sequencing data for 66 new species of teleosts, vastly expanding ...

During the last 20 years, genome sequencing and assembly projects have changed from requiring large international collaborations to a task that a handful of people can plan and conduct. This has been driven by improvements ...

Transition zones between mountain forests and treeless tundra, i.e. treeline ecotones, are characterized by great regional variety. In this paper, we discuss the biodiversity in various trophic levels in treeline ecotones ...

Background Natural transformation enables acquisition of adaptive traits and drives genome evolution in prokaryotes. Yet, the selective forces responsible for the evolution and maintenance of natural ...

The Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus L.) is listed as extinct in Finland, endangered in Sweden and critically endangered in Norway. Around 2000 there were only 40–60 adult individuals left, prompting the implementation of ...

Assessing the probability of extreme precipitation events is consequential in civil planning. This requires an understanding of how return values change with return periods, which is essentially described by the generalized ...

Selective harvesting, where some individuals are actively targeted or possess phenotypes rendering them more vulnerable to capture, is inevitably happening in all commercial and recreational fisheries. Selective harvesting ...

Background The African wolf, for which we herein recognise Canis lupaster Hemprich and Ehrenberg, 1832 (Symbolae Physicae quae ex Itinere Africam Borealem er Asoam Occidentalem Decas Secunda. Berlin, 1833) ...

Sprat Sprattus sprattus is a marine, forage fish of high ecological and economical value. This thesis addresses the ecology and behavior of sprat during overwintering, a phase that is poorly studied in marine pelagic ...

The core of this thesis has been to address the genomic basis that underlies adaptation to environmental differences in the marine environment. We use Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.) to enhance our understanding of several ...

The major virulence factor of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli is the heat-labile enterotoxin (LT), an AB5 toxin closely related to the cholera toxin. LT consists of six subunits, the catalytically active A-subunit and ...

Hybridization is widespread in nature and, in some instances, can result in the formation of a new hybrid species. We investigate the genetic foundation of this poorly understood process through whole-genome analysis of ...

Obligate herbivores dominate studies of the eff ects of climate change on mammals, however there is limited empirical evidence for how changes in the abundance or quality of plant food aff ect mammalian omnivores. Omnivores ...

Many animals perform long-distance migrations in order to maximize lifetime reproductive success. The European eel migrates several thousand kilometers between their feeding habitats in continental waters (fresh-,brackish, ...

Wildlife management systems face growing challenges to cope with increasingly complex interactions between wildlife populations, the environment and human activities. In this position statement, we address the most important ...

We tested the hypothesis that the coronate jellyfish Periphylla periphylla distributes vertically according to a preferential range of absolute light intensities. The study was carried out in Lurefjorden, Norway, a fjord ...

Background It has been proposed that future reference genomes should be graph structures in order to better represent the sequence diversity present in a species. However, there is currently no standard ...

A growing body of evidence suggests that processes of upward treeline expansion and shifts in vegetation zones may occur in response to climate change. However, such shifts can be limited by a variety of non-climatic ...

Faithful chromosome segregation during mitosis relies on a proofreading mechanism that monitors proper kinetochore-microtubule attachments. The spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) is based on the concerted action of numerous ...

Neisseria meningitidis is the leading cause of sepsis and bacterial meningitis worldwide. One of the things making N. meningitidis such an interesting and remarkable pathogen is the plasticity of the genome. A combination ...

Change in behaviour is usually the first response to human-induced environmental change and key for determining whether a species adapts to environmental change or becomes maladapted. Thus, understanding the behavioural ...

Background The first Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) genome assembly published in 2011 was one of the early genome assemblies exclusively based on high-throughput 454 pyrosequencing. Since then, rapid advances ...

Speciation encompasses a continuum over time from freely interbreeding populations to reproductively isolated species. Along this process, ecotypes – the result of local adaptation – may be on the road to new species. We ...

Background There is a long-lasting need for non-invasive, more accurate diagnostic techniques when evaluating primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) patients. Incorporation of additional diagnostics involving ...

Lysine methylation is abundant on histone proteins, representing a dynamic regulator of chromatin state and gene activity, but is also frequent on many nonhistone proteins, including eukaryotic elongation factor 1 alpha ...

We used a comparative approach investigating commercially fished species with contrasting life histories and trophic positions in an Arcto-boreal system, the Barents Sea. Our objective was to address the ecological ...

Background Comparing sets of sequences is a situation frequently encountered in bioinformatics, examples being comparing an assembly to a reference genome, or two genomes to each other. The purpose of the ...

Piscine orthoreovirus (PRV) is ubiquitous in farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and the cause of heart and skeletal muscle inflammation. Erythrocytes are important target cells for PRV. We have investigated the kinetics ...

Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) is an economically and culturally important species. Norway has more than 400 watercourses with Atlantic salmon and supports a large proportion of the world’s wild Atlantic salmon. Atlantic ...

Background Advances in sequencing technologies and bioinformatics have made the analysis of microbial communities almost routine. Nonetheless, the need remains to improve on the techniques used for gathering ...

High biodiversity is regarded as a barrier against biological invasions. We hypothesized that the invasion success of the pathogenic ascomycete Hymenoscyphus fraxineus threatening common ash in Europe relates to differences ...

Despite the major role of genome size for physiology, ecology, and evolution, there is still mixed evidence with regard to proximate and ultimate drivers. The main causes of large genome size are proliferation of noncoding ...

Teleost fishes constitute the most species-rich vertebrate clade and exhibit extensive genetic and phenotypic variation, including diverse immune defense strategies. The genomic basis of a particularly aberrant strategy ...

This study compares the structure of eelgrass (Zostera marina L.) meadows and associated food webs in two eelgrass habitats in Denmark, differing in exposure, connection to the open sea, nutrient enrichment and water ...

Phytoplankton acclimates to irradiance by regulating the cellular content of light-harvesting complexes, which are nitrogen (N) rich and phosphorus (P) poor. Irradiance is thus hypothesised to influence the cellular N : P ...

Background Many wingless ectoparasites have a limited capacity for active movement and are therefore primarily dependent on hitchhiking on their hosts for transportation. The distribution of the tick Ixodes ...

Background Mice lacking glycosylated lysosomal membrane protein (Glmp gt/gt mice) have liver fibrosis as the predominant phenotype due to chronic liver injury. The Glmp gt/gt mice grow and reproduce at the same rate as ...

Recent studies suggest that previous estimates of mesopelagic biomasses are severely biased, with the new, higher estimates underlining the need to unveil behaviourally mediated coupling between shallow and deep ocean ...

Background Bergmann’s rule proposes that animals in cold habitats will be larger than those in warm habitats. This prediction has been tested thoroughly at the intraspecific level, but few studies have ...

Background Postzygotic isolation in the form of reduced viability and/or fertility of hybrids may help maintain species boundaries in the face of interspecific gene flow. Past hybridization events between ...

Background Teleosts are exposed to a broad range of external stimuli, which may be either of acute or chronic nature. The larval phase of certain fish species offer a unique opportunity to study the ...

Increased concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), often labelled “browning”, is a current trend in northern, particularly boreal, freshwaters. The browning has been attributed to the recent reduction in sulphate ...

In this study we have focused on the role of lipids in intracellular transport, and how trafficking as well as the cell lipidome are regulated in response to various treatments. First, we have elucidated some of the changes ...

The tendency of ectotherms to get larger in the cold (Bergmann clines) has potentially great implications for individual performance and food web dynamics. The mechanistic drivers of this trend are not well understood, ...

Habitat fragmentation is a growing problem worldwide. Particularly in river systems, numerous dams and weirs hamper the movement of a wide variety of species. With the aim to preserve connectivity for fish, many barriers ...

Background The deer ked (Lipoptena cervi) is an ectoparasite on cervids that has invaded large parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland during recent decades. During their host-seeking flight activity, the adult ...

Background Translocation of native species and introduction of non-native species are potentially harmful to the existing biota by introducing e.g. diseases, parasites and organisms that may negatively ...

Recent studies have shown that crude oil exposure affects cardiac development in fish by disrupting excitation-contraction (EC) coupling. We previously found that eggs of Atlantic haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) bind ...

Studies in ecology are often describing observed variations in a certain ecological phenomenon by use of environmental explanatory variables. A common problem is that the numerical nature of the ecological phenomenon does ...

Infectious salmon anaemia virus (ISAV) is an orthomyxovirus infecting salmonid fish. The virus is adapted to low temperature and has a replication optimum between 10–15 °C. In this study the subcellular localization and ...

Signalling systems activated under stress are highly conserved, suggesting adaptive effects of their function. Pathologies arising from continued activation of such systems may represent a mismatch between evolutionary ...

In the threespine stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus model system, phenotypes are often classified into three morphs according to lateral plate number. Morph identity has been shown to be largely genetically determined, ...

Background Studying how trophic traits and niche use are related in natural populations is important in order to understand adaptation and specialization. Here, we describe trophic trait diversity in ...

Lactobacillus plantarum produces a number of antimicrobial peptides (bacteriocins) that mostly target closely related bacteria. Although bacteriocins are important for the ecology of these bacteria, very little is known ...

The climate is changing at an alarming rate with consequences such as species and population extinctions, changes in species distribution and phenology. However, mechanisms underlying these global trends are not well ...

Large herbivore consumption of forage is known to affect vegetation composition and thereby ecosystem functions. It is thus important to understand how diet composition arises as a mixture of individual variation in ...

Divergent sexual selection within allopatric populations may result in divergent sexual phenotypes, which can act as reproductive barriers between populations upon secondary contact. This hypothesis has been most tested ...

Background In marine fish species, where pelagic egg and larvae drift with ocean currents, population structure has been suggested to be maintained by larval retention due to hydrographic structuring and ...

Background The aim of the present study was to provide an overview of the literature addressing the role of genetic factors and biomarkers predicting pain recovery in newly diagnosed lumbar radicular pain ...

SMUG1 is DNA repair protein, and Dyskerin (DKC1) is involved in maintaining telomeres. A recent publication has shown that SMUG1 interacts with DKC1 and contribute and the complex can be involved in RNA quality control ...

Fransicella tularensis (F.t.) is a facultative intracellular pathogen that escapes from the phagosome into the host cell cytosol in order to survive and proliferate. F.t. subspecies tularensis and holartica are the causative ...

Understanding the genetic basis of traits involved in adaptive divergence and speciation is one of the most fundamental objectives in evolutionary biology. Toward that end, we look for signatures of extreme plate loss in ...

Repetitive microsatellite DNA forms a universal component of eukaryote genomes and specific biochemical properties of such repeat regions may influence the outcome of laboratory protocols. The Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) ...

Marine recreational fishing is a popular outdoor activity. However, knowledge about the magnitude of recreational catches relative to commercial catches in coastal fisheries is generally sparse. Coastal Atlantic cod (Gadus ...

Migratory connectivity by birds may mutually affect different ecosystems over large distances. Populations of geese overwintering in southern areas while breeding in high-latitude ecosystems have increased strongly over ...

Background: An important function of the innate immune system is immune surveillance of cancer which consists of detecting and eliminating transformed cells. Macrophages and dendritic cells (DCs) are two main types of ...

DNA assembly is a core methodological step in metagenomic pipelines used to study the structure and function within microbial communities. Here we investigate the utility of Pacific Biosciences long and high accuracy ...

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is an essential organelle that contributes to several key cellular functions, including lipogenesis, gluconeogenesis, calcium storage, and organelle biogenesis. The ER also serves as the major ...

Global environmental changes are causing Lyme disease to emerge in Europe. The life cycle of Ixodes ricinus, the tick vector of Lyme disease, involves an ontogenetic niche shift, from the larval and nymphal stages utilizing ...

It is unclear whether intertidal organisms are ‘preadapted’ to cope with the increase of temperature and temperature variability or if they are currently at their thermal tolerance limits. To address the dichotomy, we ...

Epidemiological studies have demonstrated that exposure to air pollution is associated with increased mortality and morbidity due to respiratory and cardiovascular disease. The majority of the effects have been related to ...

As global warming advances, there is a growing concern about the impact of extreme weather events on ecosystems. In the Arctic, more frequent unseasonal warm spells and rain-on- snow events in winter cause changes in ...

Changing climate is expected to alter precipitation patterns in the Arctic, with consequences for subsurface temperature and moisture conditions, community structure, and nutrient mobilization through microbial belowground ...

Spatial and temporal scales of phenotypic and genotypic variation in marine systems are fundamental to understand the ecological and evolutionary processes influencing the system. Until recently, local adaptation in marine ...

The Northeast Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus) stock has increased and expanded its summer feeding migration west- and northwards since 2006, entailing large geopolitical challenges for the countries harvesting this ...

Habitat fragmentation has been suggested to be responsible for major genetic differentiations in a range of marine organisms. In this study, we combined genetic data and environmental information to unravel the relative ...

Dispersal and gene flow are important mechanisms affecting the dynamics of vectors and their pathogens. Here, patterns of genetic diversity were analyzed in many North European populations of the tick, Ixodes ricinus. ...

Earlier studies suggest that lumbar radicular pain following disc herniation may be associated with a local or systemic inflammatory process. In the present study, we investigated the serum inflammatory protein profile of ...

Ongoing rapid domestication of Atlantic salmon implies that individuals are subjected to evolutionarily novel stressors encountered under conditions of artificial rearing, requiring new levels and directions of flexibility ...

Protein O‐GlcNAcylation has emerged as an important intracellular signaling system with both physiological and pathophysiological functions, but the role of protein O‐GlcNAcylation in skeletal muscle remains elusive. In ...

Colicins are ribosomally synthesized polypeptides produced by most E.coli strains. They exhibit a modular structure comprised of a receptor, translocator and cytotoxic domain, each with distinct function. Colicins exert ...

Hybridization is frequent in the large and ecologically significant genus Carex (Cyperaceae). In four important sections of the northern regions (Ceratocystis, Glareosae, Phacocystis and Vesicariae), the frequent occurrence ...

In several species genetic differentiation across environmental gradients or between geographically separate populations has been reported to center at “genomic islands of divergence,” resulting in heterogeneous differentiation ...

Identification of genome-wide patterns of divergence provides insight on how genomes are influenced by selection and can reveal the potential for local adaptation in spatially structured populations. In Atlantic cod – ...

In order to faithfully reproduce human tissues and cell types using pluripotent stem cells, it is essential to have an accurate understanding of the developmental pathways controlling cell fate from early development to ...