Biological invasions are often closely associated with human impacts and it is difficult to determine whether either or both are responsible for the negative impacts on native communities. Here, we show that human activity, not biological invasion, is the primary driver of negative effects on native communities and of the process of invasion itself. In a large-scale experiment, we combined addi...

The invasion of Spartina alterniflora significantly affected the local ecosystem of Western Pacific Ocean where Moerella iridescens lives. Five patches with different invasion stages of S. alterniflora were selected and the influence on distribution of M. iridescens was studied on the coast of Wenzhou Bay, China in 2007. The aggregated distribution pattern was proved by using Taylor&#39s power ...

Abstract Invasive species can shift the composition of key soil microbial groups, thus creating novel communities. To better understand biological drivers invasion, we studied plant-microbial interactions in Brachypodium distachyon complex, a model system for functional genomic studies temperate grasses and bioenergy crops. While hybridum invasion California is an incipient stage, threatening n...

Clinical outcomes of colorectal cancer are influenced not by tumor size, but by spread into the bowel wall. Although assessment of serosal involvement is an important pathological feature for classification of colon cancer, its diagnostic consistency has been questioned. Using elastic staining, we assessed elastic laminal invasion (ELI) for more objective stratification of deep tumor invasion a...

Long non-coding RNA HOTAIR exerts regulatory functions in various biological processes in cancer cells, such as proliferation, apoptosis, mobility, and invasion. We previously found that HOX transcript antisense RNA (HOTAIR) is a negative prognostic factor and exhibits oncogenic activity in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In this study, we aimed to investigate the role and molecular mechanism o...

Over the last few decades, considerable attention has focused on small-scale studies of invasive plants and invaded systems. Unfortunately, small scale studies rarely provide comprehensive insight into the complexities of biological invasions at macroscales. Systematic and repeated monitoring of biological invasions at broad scales are rare. In this report, we highlight a unique invasive plant ...

Epigenetics, as a DNA signature that affects gene expression and enables rapid reaction of an organism to environmental changes, is likely involved in the process of biological invasions. DNA methylation is an epigenetic mechanism common to plants and animals for regulating gene expression. In this study we show, for the first time in any marine species, significant reduction of global methylat...

The extracellular matrix protein thrombospondin (TSP) plays an important role in a variety of biological processes, including cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions. The biological role of TSP-2 in invasion and metastasis is poorly understood, while it is known that TSP-1 regulates a proteolytic cascade that allows tumor cells to invade and metastasize. In this study, we examined the role of TS...

MiR-200b, a member of the microRNA-200 family, has been identified to be capable of suppressing glioma cell growth through targeting CREB1 or CD133. However, whether miR-200b affects the biological behavior (proliferation, invasion, and migration) of glioma cells is poorly understood. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of miR-200b on the biological behavior of glioma cells in vitr...