Tropical forests are a significant global source of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O). Predicted environmental changes for this biome highlight the need to understand how simultaneous changes in precipitation and labile carbon (C) availability may affect soil N 2O production. We conducted a small-scale throughfall and leaf litter manipulation in a lowland tropical forest in southwestern Co...

Dramatic declines and extinctions of amphibian populations throughout the world have been associated with chytridiomycosis, an infectious disease caused by the pathogenic chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). Previous studies indicated that Bd prevalence correlates with cooler temperatures in the field, and laboratory experiments have demonstrated that Bd ceases growth at temperat...

BACKGROUND Emerging infectious diseases in wildlife are major threats for both human health and biodiversity conservation. Infectious diseases can have serious consequences for the genetic diversity of populations, which could enhance the species' extinction probability. The Ebola epizootic in western and central Africa induced more than 90% mortality in Western lowland gorilla population. Alth...

Genetic diversity among 49 Indian accessions of rice (Oryza sativa subsp. indica), including 29 landraces from Jeypore, 12 modern cultivars, and 8 traditional cultivars from Tamil Nadu, was investigated using AFLP markers. In total, nine primer combinations revealed 664 AFLPs, 408 of which were found to be polymorphic. The percentage of polymorphic AFLPs was approximately the same within the cu...

BACKGROUND Tibetan chickens living at high altitudes show specific adaptations to high-altitude conditions, but the epigenetic modifications associated with these adaptations have not been characterized. RESULTS We investigated the genome-wide DNA methylation patterns in Tibetan chicken blood by using whole genome bisulfite sequencing. Generally, Tibetan chickens exhibited analogous methylati...

BACKGROUND Deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) that are native to high altitudes in the Rocky Mountains have evolved hemoglobins with an increased oxygen-binding affinity relative to those of lowland conspecifics. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms responsible for the evolved increase in hemoglobin-oxygen affinity, the crystal structure of the highland hemoglobin variant was solved and compar...

In this article the effects of an education programme (area II) on transmission of Echinococcus granulosus from dogs to sheep in Wales and of substitution of the education programme by a 6-weekly anthelmintic control programme (area I) are compared with the situation in an area where no control interventions had occurred (area III). The education programme failed to prevent transmission of E. g...

Plant habit and production of secondary metabolites in chamomile plants depend on endogenous and exogenous factors that can be divided into two groups (FRANZ 1982): a) morpho-ontogenetic variability, b) genetic variability or genetic determinateness. The activity of these factors is reflected in biomass production, flower drug production, content and composition of essential oil and some other ...

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) is a polyploid, outcrossing grass species native to North America and has recently been recognized as a potential biofuel feedstock crop. Significant phenotypic variation including ploidy is present across the two primary ecotypes of switchgrass, referred to as upland and lowland switchgrass. The tetraploid switchgrass genome is approximately 1400 Mbp, split betwe...

Eight Y-linked short-tandem-repeat polymorphisms (DYS19, DYS388, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, and DYS393) were analyzed in four populations of Central Asia, comprising two lowland samples-Uighurs and lowland Kirghiz-and two highland samples-namely, the Kazakhs (altitude 2,500 m above sea level) and highland Kirghiz (altitude 3,200 m above sea level). The results were compared with...