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By sequencing the genome of the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus, the authors explore genomic signatures of selection and expression of sex-biased genes.
The authors suggest that increased dispersal of marine animals from the Middle Ordovician onwards enhanced α diversity, providing a possible mechanism for the shift from β to α diversity as the major component of global diversity.
Glaciers are retreating globally due to climate change. A meta-analysis identifies factors that determine biodiversity response to glacier loss and shows that local increases in biodiversity favour generalist species, whereas specialist species are likely to lose out.
Field studies of the bat-to-bat transfer and ingestion of fluorescent biomarkers as a proxy for an oral vaccine are combined with mathematical models to predict the efficacy of oral vaccines for reducing bat rabies outbreaks.
Whole genome sequencing and genome-wide association studies of ash trees affected by the invasive alien fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus are used to train a genomic prediction model, which could predict tree health with >65% accuracy.
Interviews with local people and camera-trap surveys have led to the first scientifically confirmed sightings of the silver-backed chevrotain for more than 25 years. The news that this species is not extinct is tempered by major threats of habitat loss and poaching in the region.
Understanding the crucial conditions for metabolism in early life is challenging. Using network-based analysis, the authors infer an organo-sulfur proto-metabolic network fuelled by a thioester- and redox-driven variant of the reductive tricarboxylic acid cycle that was capable of producing lipids and keto acids.
Analysing more than 22 million in situ phenological observations across two continents, the authors show that plants in areas with higher human population densities have more advanced flowering and leaf-out dates, but that this cannot be attributed solely to urban heat island effects.
Urbanization gradients do not make good field laboratories for predicting climate warming effects on phenology, according to the analysis of a 30 year dataset on plant phenology and temperature in different urbanized settings.
Inventory data from 90 lowland Amazonian forest plots and a phylogeny of 526 angiosperm genera were used to show that taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity are both predictive of wood productivity but not of biomass variation.
This study provides empirical evidence for the formation of vesicles from mixtures of single-chain amphiphiles under alkaline hydrothermal conditions, suggesting that such conditions favoured protocell formation at the origin of life.
Phylogenetic analysis reveals that the managed bee Megachile rotundata lacks the specific P450 enzymes that confer tolerance to some insecticides in other bee species, rendering M. rotundata substantially more sensitive to these insecticides in acute contact assays.
An interdisciplinary investigation of the Dallol polyextreme environment reveals two physicochemical barriers to life in the presence of surface liquid water: high chaotropicity–low water activity and hyperacidity–salt combinations.
Analysing changes in grasslands and savannahs following agricultural abandonment, the authors show that even after more than 90 years, plant diversity and productivity recovered by only 73% and 53%, respectively.
A phylogenetically diverse dataset of birds reveals that eggshell pigmentation may have been shaped by thermoregulatory needs, with birds in colder habitats having darker eggs.
Analysis of the neo-Y chromosome of Drosophila miranda shows massive gene amplification in initial stages of Y-chromosome evolution and reveals signatures of sexual and meiotic conflict.
A theoretical framework is developed to show that interactions among organisms are limited by the availability of sensory information, and that the dynamical properties of a wide variety of interacting populations depend on responses to this information.
Genomic analysis of Saccharomyces hybrids shows complex hybridization in strains used in beer fermentation and genetic changes associated with adaptation to cold temperature and the crisp flavour of lager beer.