Biology, Volume 1, Issue 3

Changes in the potential habitat of five allopatric species of threatened Macrozamia cycads under scenarios of increased ambient temperature were examined. A lack of seed dispersal, poor recruitment, low seedling survival, obligate pollinator mutuali...

Quantitative and systems biology approaches benefit from the unprecedented depth of next-generation sequencing. A typical experiment yields millions of short reads, which oftentimes carry particular sequence tags. These tags may be: (a) specific to t...

The possible loss of whole branches from the tree of life is a dramatic, but under-studied, biological implication of climate change. The tree of life represents an evolutionary heritage providing both present and future benefits to humanity, often i...

An understanding of the climate conditions governing spatial variation in the reproductive performance of plants can provide important information about the factors characterizing plant community structure, especially in the context of climate change...

The chemokine receptor CCR5 regulates trafficking of immune cells of the lymphoid and the myeloid lineage (such as monocytes, macrophages and immature dendritic cells) and microglia. Because of this, there is an increasing recognition of the importan...

Large tracts of lowlands have been drained to expand extensive agriculture into areas that were historically categorized as wasteland. This expansion in agriculture necessarily coincided with changes in ecosystem structure, biodiversity, and nutrient...

Forward genetic screens in Drosophila melanogaster using ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) mutagenesis are a powerful approach for identifying genes that modulate specific biological processes in an in vivo setting. The mapping of genes that contain rando...

Enhancer elements regulate the tissue- and developmental-stage-specific expression of genes. Recent estimates suggest that there are more than 50,000 enhancers in mammalian cells. At least a subset of enhancers has been shown to recruit RNA polymeras...

Species endemic to mountains on oceanic islands are subject to a number of existing threats (in particular, invasive species) along with the impacts of a rapidly changing climate. The Lord Howe Island endemic palm Hedyscepe canterburyana is restricte...

Bone is a complex connective tissue characterized by a calcified extracellular matrix. This mineralized matrix is constantly being formed and resorbed throughout life, allowing the bone to adapt to daily mechanical loads and maintain skeletal propert...

Development of neural and sensory primordia at the early stages of embryogenesis depends on the activity of two B1 Sox transcription factors, Sox2 and Sox3. The embryonic expression patterns of the Sox2 and Sox3 genes are similar, yet they show gene-...

After entry into the target cell, the human immunodeficiency virus type I (HIV) integrates into the host genome and becomes a proviral eukaryotic transcriptional unit. Transcriptional regulation of provirus gene expression is critical for HIV replica...

RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) has become the tool of choice for transcriptomics. Several recent studies demonstrate its successful adaption to single cell analysis. This allows new biological insights into cell differentiation, cell-to-cell variation and...

Many migratory birds have changed their timing of arrival at breeding grounds in response to recent climate change. Understanding the adaptive value and the demographic consequences of these shifts are key challenges. To address these questions we ex...

Intertidal mangrove ecosystems are sensitive to climate change impacts, particularly to associated relative sea level rise. Human stressors and low tidal range add to vulnerability, both characteristics of the Doula Estuary, Cameroon. To investigate...

In many European estuaries, extensive areas of intertidal habitats consist of bare mudflats and sandflats that harbour a very high abundance and biomass of macrobenthic invertebrates. The high stocks of macrobenthos in turn provide important food sou...

How have animals evolved new body designs (morphological evolution)? This requires explanations both for simple morphological changes, such as differences in pigmentation and hair patterns between different Drosophila populations and species, and als...

Few studies have investigated the causes of evolutionary rate variation among plant nuclear genes, especially in recently diverged species still capable of hybridizing in the wild. The recent advent of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) permits investi...

Bacteria that utilize sunlight to supplement metabolic activity are now being described in a range of ecosystems. While it is likely that phototrophy provides an important competitive advantage, the contribution that these microorganisms make to the...

HIV-1 enzyme reverse transcriptase (RT) is a major target for antiviral drug development, with over half of current FDA-approved therapeutics against HIV infection targeting the DNA polymerase activity of this enzyme. HIV-1 RT is a multifunctional en...

Unravelling the role of neuromessenger processes in learning and memory has long interested researchers. We investigated the effects of an acetylcholinesterase blocker, Methyl Parathion (MeP), on honeybee learning. We used visual and olfactory tasks...

Genome Walking (GW) comprises a number of PCR-based methods for the identification of nucleotide sequences flanking known regions. The different methods have been used for several purposes: from de novo sequencing, useful for the identification of un...

The advent of next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS) technologies has led to the development of rapid genome-wide Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) detection applications in various plant species. Recent improvements in sequencing throughput combine...

The TLRs and IL-1 receptors have evolved to coordinate the innate immune response following pathogen invasion. Receptors and signalling intermediates of these systems are generally characterised by a high level of evolutionary conservation. The recen...