Highly Diverse Arenaviruses in Neotropical Bats, Brazil.

We detected arenavirus RNA in 1.6% of 1,047 bats in Brazil that were sampled during 2007-2011. We identified Tacaribe virus in 2 Artibeus sp.

ATLANTIC MAMMAL TRAITS: a data set of morphological traits of mammals in the Atlantic Forest of South America.

Measures of traits are the basis of functional biological diversity. Numerous works consider mean species-level measures of traits while ignoring individual variance within species. However, there is a large amount of variation within species and it is increasingly apparent that it is important to consider trait variation not only between species, but also within species.

Genetic diversity of bats coronaviruses in the Atlantic Forest hotspot biome, Brazil.

Bats are notorious reservoirs of genetically-diverse and high-profile pathogens, and are playing crucial roles in the emergence and re-emergence of viruses, both in human and in animals. In this report, we identified and characterized previously unknown and diverse genetic clusters of bat coronaviruses in the Atlantic Forest Biome, Brazil. These results highlight the virus richness of bats and their possible roles in the public health.

Hypothalamic expression of Peg3 gene is associated with maternal care differences between SM/J and LG/J mouse strains.

Maternal care is essential in mammals, and variations in the environment provided by mothers may directly influence the viability of newborns and emotional behavior later in life. A previous study investigated genetic variations associated with maternal care in an intercross of LG/J and SM/J inbred mouse strains and identified two single-locus QTLs (quantitative trait loci). Here, we selected three candidate genes located within these QTLs intervals; Oxt on chromosome 2, and FosB and Peg3 on chromosome 7 and tested their association with maternal care.