Xylaria nigripes ( XN) is a medicinal fungus that was used traditionally as a diuretic, nerve tonic, and for treating insomnia and trauma. In this study, we elucidated possible mechanisms of neuroprotective effects of XN mycelia extracts. XN mycelia were produced by fermentation. Hot water extract and 70% ethanol extract of XN mycelia were evaluated on hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-induced apoptosis...

Captive carnivores are susceptible to a wide array of infectious and parasitic diseases, which reflects the diversity of the seven families of Carnivora. Unfortunately, relatively few in-depth studies have been conducted on diseases of non-domestic carnivores, and much remains to be learned, especially regarding diseases of small carnivores (e.g. mustelids, viverrids and procyonids). The more i...

The black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) is an endangered North American carnivore that underwent a well-documented population bottleneck in the mid-1980s. To better understand the effects of a bottleneck on a free-ranging carnivore population, we used 24 microsatellite loci to compare genetic diversity before versus during the bottleneck, and compare the last wild population to two historica...

The origin of Vaccinia virus (VACV) outbreaks in Brazil remains unknown, but since the isolation of VACV in Mus musculus mice during a zoonotic outbreak affecting cattle and milkers, peridomestic rodents have been suggested to be a link between cows and wild animals. Considering that experimentally infected mice eliminate viral particles in their feces, we investigated the presence of VACV in t...

Conservation biological control involving the polyphagous aphid parasitoid, Aphidius colemani Viereck, may include provisioning resources from a variety of plant sources. The fitness of adult A. colemani was enhanced with the provision of food resources such as floral nectar from a range of both native and introduced plant species and aphid honeydew under laboratory conditions. However, enhance...

Mitochondrial 16s rDNAwas sequenced fromninedifferentpopulationsofAphelinidae and 10 of aphidiinae. Sequence divergences between populations within a species are low, ranging from 0 to 0.38%. Divergences among species within the same genus range from 0 to 8.71%. Aphelinus asychisWalker has a sequence divergence from the otherAphelinus spp. of 8.71%,which is evenhigher than the divergences among...

Ticks collected from domestic cats (Felis catus), cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus),caracals (Caracal caracal), African wild cats (Felis lybica), black-footed cats (Felis nigripes), a serval (Leptailurus serval), lions(Panthera leo), and leopards (Panthera pardus) were identified and counted. Thirteen species of ixodid ticks and one argasid tick were identified from domestic cats and 17 species of ix...

In this paper, we formulate a three-species ecological community model consisting of two aphid species (Acyrthosiphon pisum and Megoura viciae) and a specialist parasitoid (Aphidius ervi) that attacks only one of the aphids (A pisum). The model incorporates both density-mediated and trait-mediated host-parasitoid interactions. Our analysis shows that the model possesses much richer and more rea...

Aphids commonly harbour facultative bacterial endosymbionts and may benefit from their presence through increased resistance to parasitoids. This has been demonstrated for Hamiltonella defensa and Serratia symbiotica, while a third common endosymbiont, Regiella insecticola, did not provide such protection. However, this symbiont was recently detected in a highly resistant clone of the peach-pot...

Host-parasite interactions are a key paradigm for understanding the process of coevolution. Central to coevolution is how genetic variation in interacting species allows parasites to evolve manipulative strategies. However, genetic variation in the parasite may also be associated with host phenotype changes, thereby changing the selection on both species. For instance, parasites often induce ch...