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 ...

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. ...

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, ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 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 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 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 ...

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 ...

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

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Breast cancers exhibit genome-wide aberrant DNA methylation patterns. To investigate how these affect the transcriptome and which changes are linked to transformation or progression, we apply genome-wide expression–methylation ...

By whole-genome sequencing of resistant mutants, a putative receptor for plantaricin JK, a two-peptide bacteriocin produced by some Lactobacillus plantarum strains, was identified in Lactobacillus plantarum NCFB 965 and ...

Crucian carp (Carassius carassius) survive without oxygen for several months, but it is unknown whether they are able to protect themselves from cell death normally caused by the absence, and particularly return, of oxygen. ...

When a fish stock shifts from one nation to another nation, e.g., due to climate change, the nation that loses the resource has incentives to deplete it, while the other nation, receiving the resource, has incentives to ...

Tumor-associated macrophages may either promote or suppress tumor growth depending on their activation status. Interferon-γ (IFN-γ) has been identified as a key factor for inducing tumoricidal M1 phenotype in macrophages. ...

Dengue, a viral infection transmitted between people by mosquitoes, is today one of the most rapidly spreading diseases in the world. Here, we report the analyses covering 11 years (2005–2015) from the city of Guangzhou ...

Rab7a, a small GTPase of the Rab family, is localized to late endosomes and controls late endocytic trafficking. The discovery of several Rab7a interacting proteins revealed that Rab7a function is closely connected to ...

Autophagy (macroautophagy) is a highly conserved eukaryotic degradation pathway in which cytosolic components and organelles are sequestered by specialized autophagic membranes and degraded through the lysosomal system. ...

Supplemental feeding for ungulates is a widespread practice in many human-dominated landscapes across Europe and North America, mainly intended to seasonally support populations. Surprisingly, little consideration was given ...

Warming-induced range shifts along elevational and latitudinal gradients have been observed in several species from various taxa. The mobility and behavioral plasticity of large endothermic mammals, however, complicate the ...

Almost all integral membrane proteins found in the outer membranes of Gram-negative bacteria belong to the transmembrane β-barrel family. These proteins are not only important for nutrient uptake and homeostasis, but are ...

The Red Queen Hypothesis proposes that perpetual co-evolution among organisms can result from purely biotic drivers. After more than four decades, there is no satisfactory understanding as to which mechanisms trigger Red ...

Divergence-time estimation based on molecular phylogenies and the fossil record has provided insights into fundamental questions of evolutionary biology. In Bayesian node dating, phylogenies are commonly time calibrated ...

Large herbivores gain nutritional benefits from following the sequential flush of newly emergent, high-quality forage along environmental gradients in the landscape, termed green wave surfing. Which landscape characteristics ...

Resource quantity and quality are fundamental bottom-up constraints on consumers. Best understood in autotroph-based systems, co-occurrence of these constraints may be common but remains poorly studied in detrital-based ...

Commercial fishing generally removes large and old individuals from fish stocks, reducing mean age and age diversity among spawners. It is feared that these demographic changes lead to lower and more variable recruitment ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Mass mortality events caused by pulse anthropogenic or environmental perturbations (e.g., extreme weather, toxic spills or epizootics) severely reduce the abundance of a population in a short time. The frequency and impact ...

Histopathology is a widely used approach to evaluate effects of endocrine-active chemicals in the thyroid. However, effects at an ultrastructural level have hardly been examined in fish thyroids. In the present study, ...

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 ...

Background Anthrax is a globally distributed disease affecting primarily herbivorous mammals. It is caused by the soil-dwelling and spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis. The dormant B. anthracis spores ...

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. ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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) ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 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 ...

The cuticles of most springtails (Collembola) are superhydrophobic, but the mechanism has not been described in detail. Previous studies have suggested that overhanging surface structures play an important role, but such ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...