Background The geographical expansion of the tick Ixodes ricinus in northern Europe is a serious concern for animal and human health. The pathogen Anaplasma phagocytophilum is transmitted by ticks and ...

Background The impressive adaptive radiation of notothenioid fishes in Antarctic waters is generally thought to have been facilitated by an evolutionary key innovation, antifreeze glycoproteins, permitting ...

Y. ruckeri is the causative agent of enteric redmouth disease (ERM), a serious infection of marine and freshwater fish. ERM is a global problem affecting aquaculture facilities worldwide. Losses caused by ERM can reach up ...

Background The concept of pioneer transcription factors is emerging as an essential part of the epigenetic regulation, taking place during cell development and differentiation. However, the precise molecular ...

Cryptic species could represent a substantial fraction of biodiversity. However, inconsistent definitions and taxonomic treatment of cryptic species prevent informed estimates of their contribution to biodiversity and ...

Objective The objective of this study was to analyse intraspecific sequence variation of Atlantic cod mitochondrial DNA, based on a comprehensive collection of completely sequenced mitochondrial genomes. ...

Over the past ten years the massive use of genomic and transcriptomic technologies has revealed groundbreaking information about the genetic drivers of cancer in general. The knowledge of these drivers is not only fundamental ...

Background Increased availability of genome assemblies for non-model organisms has resulted in invaluable biological and genomic insight into numerous vertebrates, including teleosts. Sequencing of the ...

Transmembrane proteins in the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria are almost exclusively β-barrels. They are inserted into the outer membrane by a conserved and essential protein complex called the BAM (for β-barrel ...

Comparative genomics of non-model organisms has resurrected whole genome duplication (WGD) from being viewed as a somewhat obscure process that happens in plants to a primary driver of eukaryotic diversification. The shadow ...

Many bacteria, both environmental and pathogenic, exhibit the property of autoaggregation. In autoaggregation (sometimes also called autoagglutination or flocculation), bacteria of the same type form multicellular clumps ...

Concentrations of dissolved organic matter (DOM) are increasing in a large number of lakes across the Northern hemisphere. This browning serves a dual role for biota by protecting against harmful ultraviolet radiation, ...

Background Marine threespine sticklebacks colonized and adapted to brackish and freshwater environments since the last Pleistocene glacial. Throughout the Holarctic, three lateral plate morphs are observed; ...

Background Understanding the effects of habitat modification on the feeding strategies of threatened species is essential to designing effective conservation management plans. Bale monkeys (Chlorocebus ...

The genomic landscape of a hybrid species is marked by alternating regions of parental inheritance and areas of genomic constraint which form reproductive barriers. A PhD candidate at the University of Oslo has explored ...

Background The ballan wrasse (Labrus bergylta) belongs to a large teleost family containing more than 600 species showing several unique evolutionary traits such as lack of stomach and hermaphroditism. ...

Skeletal muscle is a heterogeneous tissue comprised of a variety of different cell types, including the multinucleated skeletal myofiber. Although myofibers are post-mitotic, they hold a remarkable ability to adapt new ...

Background The class Diphyllatea belongs to a group of enigmatic unicellular eukaryotes that play a key role in reconstructing the morphological innovation and diversification of early eukaryotic evolution. ...

Genome-wide association studies have helped us identify a wealth of genetic variants associated with complex human phenotypes. Because most variants explain a small portion of the total phenotypic variation, however, ...

We have previously shown that aberrant promoter methylation of ZNF331 is a potential biomarker for colorectal cancer detection with high sensitivity (71%) and specificity (98%). This finding was recently confirmed by others, ...

In this thesis, a general phosphoproteomics workflow was established by careful evaluation of the different steps for phosphopeptide enrichment. In addition, the application of two different collision energies for MS2 ...

Objectives The aetiology of several human diarrhoeas has been increasingly associated with the presence of virulence factors rather than with the bacterial species hosting the virulence genes, exemplified ...

Albumin and IgG have remarkably long serum half-lives due to pH-dependent FcRn-mediated cellular recycling that rescues both ligands from intracellular degradation. Furthermore, increase in half-lives of IgG and albumin-based ...

Background Emergence of tick-borne diseases is impacting humans and livestock across the Northern Hemisphere. There are, however, large regional variations in number of cases of tick-borne diseases. Some ...

Background Environmental DNA (eDNA) monitoring is growing increasingly popular in aquatic systems as a valuable complementary method to conventional monitoring. However, such tools have not yet been ...

Background The gelada monkey (Theropithecus gelada), endemic to the Ethiopian highlands, is the only graminivorous primate, i.e., it feeds mainly on grasses and sedges. In spite of known dental, manual, ...

Background The expansion of offshore oil exploration increases the risk of marine species being exposed to oil pollution in currently pristine areas. The adverse effects of oil exposure through toxic ...

A new PhD-thesis at the University of Oslo have investigated how certain parasites of the genus Gyrodactylus have spread after the last ice age in Norwegian freshwater systems and how humans have affected the spread. ...

Silicon is often regarded as a likely candidate to replace graphite as the main active anode material in next-generation lithium ion batteries; however, a number of problems impacting its cycle stability have limited its ...

In the last decades, limnic water bodies in the Northern hemisphere have experienced a noticeable browning, i.e., increasing levels of dissolved organic matter (DOM). While the effects on primary producers is usually ...

Background Species with a restricted geographic distribution, and highly specialized habitat and dietary requirements, are particularly vulnerable to extinction. The Bale monkey (Chlorocebus djamdjamensis) ...

Adaptive radiation is the evolution of ecological and phenotypical diversity. It arises via ecological opportunity that promotes the exploration of underutilized or novel niches mediating specialization and reproductive ...

The last few years have seen the arrival of new effective cancer therapies which is directed at the immune system rather than the cancer cells directly. One type of cancer immunotherapies is the so-called checkpoint ...

Species occurrence data records the location and time of an encounter with a species, and is valuable for many aspects of ecological and evolutionary analyses. A key distinction within species occurrence data is between ...

Storage of human retinal pigment epithelium (hRPE) can contribute to the advancement of cell-based RPE replacement therapies. The present study aimed to improve the quality of stored hRPE cultures by identifying storage ...

Male birdsongs function as territory defence and/or mate attraction. Females may use different song characteristics in choosing a male, such as a song’s complexity. Such is the case for the open-ended learning pied flycatcher ...

In this doctoral work, Ingvild Gudim and co-workers have studied a network of proteins that transfer electrons to each other. They have shown that even if these proteins are structurally similar and have the same function, ...

Fish in aquaculture is known to ingest less feed after exposure to stressors such as handling, crowding, vaccination and transportation. In scientific studies, this phenomenon has been ascribed to an appetite-reducing ...

The primary cilium is a signaling organelle present on the cell surface of most eukaryotic cells. The organelle integrates several signaling pathways important for biological processes such as tissue homeostasis and embryonic ...

Aim: Skeletal muscle is a heterogeneous tissue containing several different cell types, and only about 40%‐50% of the cell nuclei within the tissue belong to myofibres. Existing technology, attempting to distinguish myonuclei ...

Interactions between birds and fish are often overlooked in aquatic ecosystems. We studied the influence of Atlantic salmon and brown trout on the breeding population size and reproductive output of the white-throated ...

Studying the ecology and measuring levels of population genetic diversity are important steps for assessing the conservation status and implementing appropriate conservation strategies for rare or endangered plant species. ...

Objective: A major goal in systems neuroscience is to determine the causal relationship between neural activity and behavior. To this end, methods that combine monitoring neural activity, behavioral tracking, and targeted ...

The astonishing diversity of life we see around us is shaped by the interactions between organisms and the environment. How this happen over long time has been a lasting interest of evolutionary biology, and is even more ...

There is a quest for production of soluble protein of high quality for the study of T-cell receptors (TCRs), but expression often results in low yields of functional molecules. In this study, we used an E. coli chaperone-assisted ...

Removing individuals from a wild population can affect the availability of prospective mates and the outcome of competitive interactions, with subsequent effects on mating patterns and sexual selection. Consequently, the ...

The integrated stress response (ISR) has been associated with malignancy in cancer cells, with evidence for the eIF2α kinases PERK and GCN2 having important roles in tumor survival. For GCN2, this association has been ...

The algae Hydrurus foetidus (Villars) Trevisan is native to polar and peri-glacial freshwater rivers in Norway and similar regions around the world, where it plays a crucial role as a primary producer of energy whilst ...

The genetic impact of farmed fish escaping aquaculture is a highly debated issue. However, non-target species, such as cleaner fish used to remove sea lice from farmed fish, are rarely considered. Here, we report that wild ...

The effect of poly(2-ethyl-butyl cyanoacrylate) nanoparticles containing the cytotoxic drug cabazitaxel was studied in three breast cancer cell lines and one basal-like patient-derived xenograft model grown in the mammary ...

Despite half-a-century of research since the seminal work of Hubel and Wiesel, the role of the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) in shaping the visual signals is not properly understood. Placed on route from retina ...

Sensitivity to environmental stressors largely depend on the genetic complement of the organism. Recent sequencing and assembly of teleost fish genomes enable us to trace the evolution of defense genes in the largest and ...

Visually evoked signals in the retina pass through the dorsal geniculate nucleus (dLGN) on the way to the visual cortex. This is however not a simple feedforward flow of information: there is a significant feedback from ...

Coexistence in the same habitat of closely related yet genetically different populations is a phenomenon that challenges our understanding of local population structure and adaptation. Identifying the underlying mechanisms ...

Enteric redmouth disease caused by the pathogen Yersinia ruckeri is a significant problem for fish farming around the world. Despite its importance, only a few virulence factors of Y. ruckeri have been identified and studied ...

1. Decomposer communities perform an essential ecosystem function by recycling nutrients. However, the effect of higher trophic levels on microbial decomposer communities and rate of decomposition is poorly understood. We ...

Albumin has a long serum half-life due to its unique ability to bind the cellular neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn), which provides protection from intracellular degradation. The interaction can be capitalized to improve the ...

1. Surveillance of wildlife diseases is logistically difficult, and imperfect detection is a recurrent challenge for disease estimation. Using citizen science can increase sample sizes, but it is associated with a cost in ...

Many cellular proteins are methylated on lysine residues and this has been most intensively studied for histone proteins. Lysine methylations on non-histone proteins are also frequent, but in most cases the functional ...

Studying herbal products derived from local and traditional knowledge and their value chains is one of the main challenges in ethnopharmacology. The majority of these products have a long history of use, but non-harmonized ...

Zoonoses are increasingly recognized as an important burden on global public health in the 21st century. High-resolution, long-term field studies are critical for assessing both the baseline and future risk scenarios in a ...

Computers are now essential in all branches of science, but most researchers are never taught the equivalent of basic lab skills for research computing. As a result, data can get lost, analyses can take much longer than ...

A number of lysine-specific methyltransferases (KMTs) are responsible for the post-translational modification of cellular proteins on lysine residues. Most KMTs typically recognize specific motifs in unstructured, short ...

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common non-cutaneous cancer in men. The androgen receptor (AR), a ligand-activated transcription factor, constitutes the main drug target for advanced cases of the disease. However, a ...

Ameloblastin (AMBN), an important component of the self-assembled enamel extra cellular matrix, contains several in silico predicted phosphorylation sites. However, to what extent these sites actually are phosphorylated ...

Shiga toxins consist of an A-moiety and five B-moieties able to bind the neutral glycosphingolipid globotriaosylceramide (Gb3) on the cell surface. To intoxicate cells efficiently, the toxin A-moiety has to be cleaved by ...

The neonatal crystallizable fragment receptor (FcRn) is responsible for maintaining the long half-life and high levels of the two most abundant circulating proteins, albumin and IgG. In the latter case, the protective ...

Throughout life animals learn to recognize cues that signal danger and instantaneously initiate an adequate threat response. Memories of such associations may last a lifetime and far outlast the intracellular molecules ...

An international workshop on marine integrated contaminant monitoring (ICON) was organised to test a framework on integrated environmental assessment and simultaneously assess the status of selected European marine areas. ...

Most suids (Mammalia: Suidae, pigs) worldwide are omnivores living in closed environments, but the African warthog (Phacochoerus) has special adaptations for grazing in open environments. Similar specializations have been ...

Biological effects measurements in fish and blue mussel are fundamental in marine environmental monitoring. Nevertheless, currently used biomarkers may be confounded by basic physiological phenomena, such as growth, ...

Dab (Limanda limanda) and haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) were collected from coastal and offshore locations in the Baltic (dab only), North Sea (haddock from one location only) and Iceland. Blood was analysed for DNA ...

This paper reports a full assessment of results from ICON, an international workshop on marine integrated contaminant monitoring, encompassing different matrices (sediment, fish, mussels, gastropods), areas (Iceland, North ...

Many herbal products have a long history of use, but there are increasing concerns over product efficacy, safety and quality in the wake of recent cases exposing discrepancies between labeling and constituents. When it ...

PSL1a is a lectin from the mushroom Polyporus squamosus that binds to sialylated glycans and glycoconjugates with high specificity and selectivity. In addition to its N-terminal carbohydrate-binding domain, PSL1a possesses ...

1. Many northern freshwaters are currently experiencing a pronounced ‘browning’, that is an increase in terrestrially derived dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Chromophoric DOC offers protection against photodamage by absorbing ...

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 ...

Understanding the genetic basis of adaptation is one of the main enigmas of evolutionary biology. Among vertebrates, hemoglobin has been well documented as a key trait for adaptation to different environments. Here, we ...

Background: Recent large-scale undertakings such as ENCODE and Roadmap Epigenomics have generated experimental data mapped to the human reference genome (as genomic tracks) representing a variety of functional elements ...

Caspases are key enzymes responsible for mediating apoptotic cell death. Across species, caspase‐2 is the most conserved caspase and stands out due to unique features. Apart from cell death, caspase‐2 also regulates ...

Heightened inflammation, including expression of COX-2, is associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) pathogenesis. The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is a ligand-activated transcription factor that is ...

We construct a detailed bioeconomic model of the Norwegian coastal cod fishery. This fishery has been open access up to the policy change during the “cod crisis” of 1989/1990. To answer to what extent the subsequent increase ...

As ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) plays a crucial role in nucleic acid metabolism, it is an important target for anticancer therapy. The thiosemicarbazone Triapine is an efficient R2-inhibitor, which has entered about 20 ...

Recent developments in the field of genomics have provided new and powerful insights into population structure and dynamics that are essential for the conservation of biological diversity. As a commercially highly valuable ...

Activation of EGF-R and PDGF-R triggers autophosphorylation and the recruitment of Eps15 and Hrs. These two endosomal proteins are important for specific receptor sorting. Hrs is recruiting ubiquitinated receptors to early ...

Sister group relations of Ethiopian species of Anthericum and Chlorophytum and variation patterns in the C. gallabatense and C. comosum complexes are studied using molecular phylogenetic analyses, morphometrics, and scanning ...

Chromosomal rearrangements such as inversions can play a crucial role in maintaining polymorphism underlying complex traits and contribute to the process of speciation. In Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), inversions of several ...

Wild caught North Sea saithe Pollachius virens were monitored for growth, sex steroid profiles and oocyte development pre‐spawning and measured for egg size and group fecundity during the spawning season in the laboratory. ...