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. ...

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 ...

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 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 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Knowledge of the range and chronology of historic trade and long-distance transport of natural resources is essential for determining the impacts of past human activities on marine environments. However, the specific ...

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 ...

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, ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

Mysids, an important food web component in the littoral zone of coastal waters, have been neglected so far in ocean acidification research. Juveniles of the littoral mysid Praunus flexuosus were exposed in the laboratory ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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, ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Perineuronal nets (PNNs) are specialized extracellular matrix (ECM) structures that condense around the soma and proximal dendrites of subpopulations of neurons. Emerging evidence suggests that they are involved in regulating ...

Rab-interacting lysosomal protein (RILP) is a regulator of late stages of endocytosis. Recent work proved that depletion of RILP promotes migration of breast cancer cells in wound healing assay, whereas its overexpression ...

Current methods for characterisation of extracellular vesicles (EVs) need further standardisation in order to obtain an acceptable level of data comparability. Size and concentration of EVs can be determined by nanoparticle ...

Vaccine development against extracellular bacteria has been important for the sustainability of the aquaculture industry. In contrast, infections with intracellular pathogens remain largely an unresolved problem. Francisella ...

Despite an increased recognition that hybridization is an important evolutionary force, we are only starting to investigate the potential for adaptation in hybrid species. Historically, hybridization has been viewed as ...

Risiko knyttet til eksponering av miljøgifter i det antarktiske økosystemet har blitt vurdert som lav, og som følge av dette har studier som omhandler organohalogene miljøgifter (OHC) i det Antarktiske dyrelivet vært ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

It is well known that aluminium is the principle toxicant killing fish in acidified freshwater systems, and it has been shown that crucian carp (Carassius carassius) can survive exposures to aqueous aluminium levels toxic ...

Formålet med denne undersøkelsen var å identifisere mulige krysninger mellom hund og ulv i dagens skandinaviske ulvebestand. I tillegg ønsket vi å finne ut i hvor stor grad det er mulig å gjenkjenne innblanding av hund i ...

In a recent study of Carex sect. Vesicariae in northern Europe, two hybrid species were identified using microsatellite markers. Whereas both taxa already have names associated with them, we find that these names are not ...

The activity pattern and temporal dynamics within and between neuron ensembles are essential features of information processing and believed to be profoundly affected by anesthesia. Much of our general understanding of ...

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 ...

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 ...