Although endogenous retroviruses are common across vertebrate genomes, the koala retrovirus (KoRV) is the only retrovirus known to be currently invading the germ line of its host. KoRV is believed to have first infected koalas in northern Australia less than two centuries ago. We examined KoRV in 28 koala museum skins collected in the late 19th and 20th centuries and deep sequenced the complete...

Species distribution models have great potential to efficiently guide management for threatened species, especially for those that are rare or cryptic. We used MaxEnt to develop a regional-scale model for the koala Phascolarctos cinereus at a resolution (250 m) that could be used to guide management. To ensure the model was fit for purpose, we placed emphasis on validating the model using indep...

The primary aim of the National Koala Conservation and Management Strategy 2009 – 2014 (NKCMS) is to conserve the Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) by retaining viable populations in the wild throughout the species’ natural range (Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council (NRMMC) 2009). In order to assist this aim, Action 1.06 of the NKCMS promotes the need for development of standard monito...

Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) comprise 8% of the human genome and are common in all vertebrate genomes. The only retrovirus known to be currently transitioning from exogenous to endogenous form is the koala retrovirus (KoRV), making koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) ideal for examining the early stages of retroviral endogenization. To distinguish endogenous from exogenous KoRV proviruses, we iso...

Background. Highly stable, evolutionarily conserved, small, non-integrative plasmids are commonly found in members of the Chlamydiaceae and, in some species, these plasmids have been strongly linked to virulence. To date, evidence for such a plasmid in Chlamydia pecorum has been ambiguous. In a recent comparative genomic study of porcine, ovine, bovine, and koala C. pecorum isolates, we identif...

Koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) are arboreal marsupials native to Australia that eat a specialized diet of almost exclusively eucalyptus leaves. Microbes in koala intestines are known to break down otherwise toxic compounds, such as tannins, in eucalyptus leaves. Infections by Chlamydia, obligate intracellular bacterial pathogens, are highly prevalent in koala populations. If animals with Chlam...

The trends toward product line development and toward adopting more 3rd-party software are hard to combine. The reason is that product lines demand fine control over the software (e.g., for diversity management), while 3rd-party software (almost by definition) provides only little or no control. A growing use of 3rd-party software may therefore lead to less control over the product development ...

Since European settlement more than 10 % of Australia’s native fauna have become extinct and the current picture reflects 46 % are at various vulnerability stages. Australia’s iconic marsupial species, koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is listed as vulnerable under national environmental law. Human population growth, road expansion and extensive land clearance have fragmented their eucalyptus habi...

The Australian continent exhibits complex biogeographic patterns but studies of the impacts of Pleistocene climatic oscillation on the mesic environments of the Southern Hemisphere are limited. The koala (Phascolarctos cinereus), one of Australia's most iconic species, was historically widely distributed throughout much of eastern Australia but currently represents a complex conservation challe...