The ELIXIR Biodiversity Community: Understanding short- and long-term changes in biodiversity.

Biodiversity loss is now recognised as one of the major challenges for humankind to address over the next few decades. Unless major actions are taken, the sixth mass extinction will lead to catastrophic effects on the Earth's biosphere and human health and well-being. ELIXIR can help address the technical challenges of biodiversity science, through leveraging its suite of services and expertise to enable data management and analysis activities that enhance our understanding of life on Earth and facilitate biodiversity preservation and restoration.

Changes in Watering Frequency Stimulate Differentiated Adaptive Responses among Seedlings of Different Beech Populations.

Seasonality, rather than annual precipitation levels, is expected to affect the adaptive responses of plant populations under future climate change. To estimate adaptive traits' variation, we conducted a common garden experiment with two beech populations from contrasting climatic origins (Evros with longer drought intervals during summer and higher precipitation seasonality, and Drama representing a more temperate ecosystem). We simulated two different watering treatments (frequent vs.

Genomic and Phylogenetic Analysis of L125, and Evaluation of Its Anti-Proliferative and Cytotoxic Activity in Cancer Cells.

is a diverse species that includes nomadic strains isolated from a variety of environmental niches. Several strains are being incorporated in fermented foodstuffs as starter cultures, while some of them have also been characterized as probiotics. In this study, we present the draft genome sequence of L125, a potential probiotic strain presenting biotechnological interest, originally isolated from a traditional fermented meat product.

5S-IGS rDNA in wind-pollinated trees (Fagus L.) encapsulates 55 million years of reticulate evolution and hybrid origins of modern species.

Standard models of plant speciation assume strictly dichotomous genealogies in which a species, the ancestor, is replaced by two offspring species. The reality in wind-pollinated trees with long evolutionary histories is more complex: species evolve from other species through isolation when genetic drift exceeds gene flow; lineage mixing can give rise to new species (hybrid taxa such as nothospecies and allopolyploids). The multi-copy, potentially multi-locus 5S rDNA is one of few gene regions conserving signal from dichotomous and reticulate evolutionary processes down to the level of intra-genomic recombination.

Whole-Genome Sequencing, Phylogenetic and Genomic Analysis of L33, a Potential Probiotic Strain Isolated From Fermented Sausages.

is a diverse genus that includes species of industrial and biomedical interest. , formerly known as , is a recently reclassified species, that contains strains isolated from diverse environmental niches, ranging from fermented products to mammalian gut microbiota. Importantly, several strains present health-promoting properties, such as immunomodulatory and antiproliferative activities, and are regarded as potential probiotic strains.

Adaptive Diversity of Beech Seedlings Under Climate Change Scenarios.

The ability of beech ( L.) populations to adapt to the ongoing climate change is especially important in the southern part of Europe, where environmental change is expected to be more intense. In this study, we tested the existing adaptive potential of eight beech populations from two provenances in N.

Distribution and physical traits of red wood ant mounds in a managed Rhodope mountains forest.

Red wood ants (RWA) are of great ecological importance for the forest ecosystem. Forestry practices, like clear-cutting, and trampling load, due to tourism, logging, and grazing stock, can greatly affect their colonies, disturbing their microhabitat. RWA in Greek forests have not been investigated so far.