Publications by authors named "J Michalko"

Current climate change is disrupting biotic interactions and eroding biodiversity worldwide. However, species sensitive to aridity, high temperatures, and climate variability might find shelter in microclimatic refuges, such as leaf rolls built by arthropods. To explore how the importance of leaf shelters for terrestrial arthropods changes with latitude, elevation, and climate, we conducted a distributed experiment comparing arthropods in leaf rolls versus control leaves across 52 sites along an 11,790 km latitudinal gradient.

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Diverse communities of bacterial endophytes inhabit plant tissues, and these bacteria play important roles for plant growth and health. Cherry laurel ( L.) is a broadleaf evergreen shrub that is widely grown in temperate zones for its ornamental and medicinal properties, however virtually nothing is known about its associated bacterial community.

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The construction of shelters on plants by arthropods might influence other organisms via changes in colonization, community richness, species composition, and functionality. Arthropods, including beetles, caterpillars, sawflies, spiders, and wasps often interact with host plants via the construction of shelters, building a variety of structures such as leaf ties, tents, rolls, and bags; leaf and stem galls, and hollowed out stems. Such constructs might have both an adaptive value in terms of protection (i.

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Auxin is a major plant growth regulator, but current models on auxin perception and signaling cannot explain the whole plethora of auxin effects, in particular those associated with rapid responses. A possible candidate for a component of additional auxin perception mechanisms is the AUXIN BINDING PROTEIN 1 (ABP1), whose function in planta remains unclear. Here we combined expression analysis with gain- and loss-of-function approaches to analyze the role of ABP1 in plant development.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study explores the effects of a specific woody vine berry extract, traditionally used in herbal medicine for male infertility, on sperm function and oxidative balance, as there was limited information available on its impact on spermatozoa.
  • - Researchers evaluated the chemical composition of the extract, assessing its antioxidant and antibacterial properties using various laboratory methods such as high performance liquid chromatography and different assays to measure antioxidant activity.
  • - Results showed that the berry extract, particularly at concentrations between 5-50 g/mL, improved sperm motility and metabolism while providing protective antioxidant effects, suggesting that its bioactive compounds may enhance sperm viability and safeguard against oxidative damage and bacterial contamination.
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