Does urbanisation lead to parallel demographic shifts across the world in a cosmopolitan plant?

Urbanisation is occurring globally, leading to dramatic environmental changes that are altering the ecology and evolution of species. In particular, the expansion of human infrastructure and the loss and fragmentation of natural habitats in cities is predicted to increase genetic drift and reduce gene flow by reducing the size and connectivity of populations. Alternatively, the 'urban facilitation model' suggests that some species will have greater gene flow into and within cities leading to higher diversity and lower differentiation in urban populations.

Haplotype-Resolved, Chromosome-Level Assembly of White Clover (Trifolium repens L., Fabaceae).

White clover (Trifolium repens L.; Fabaceae) is an important forage and cover crop in agricultural pastures around the world and is increasingly used in evolutionary ecology and genetics to understand the genetic basis of adaptation. Historically, improvements in white clover breeding practices and assessments of genetic variation in nature have been hampered by a lack of high-quality genomic resources for this species, owing in part to its high heterozygosity and allotetraploid hybrid origin.

Reconnecting Students and Faculty to Maximize Academic Integrity and Minimize Student Stress in the Virtual Classroom.

The article documents faculty experiences with the shift online due to the pandemic and provides recommendations to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) instructors. Over 100 faculty members were surveyed on these topics and contrasted with previously reported student experiences. The online shift changed how faculty administered exams, ran courses, and acted to ensure academic integrity.

Persistence of Immunogenicity of a Purified Inactivated Zika Virus Vaccine Candidate in Healthy Adults: 2 Years of Follow-up Compared With Natural Infection.

Background: We report 2-year persistence of immune response to Takeda's prophylactic purified formalin-inactivated whole Zika virus vaccine candidate (TAK-426) compared with that observed after natural infection.

Methods: A randomized, observer-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-selection, phase 1 trial was conducted in 18-49-year-old adults at 9 centers (7 in the United States, 2 in Puerto Rico) from 13 November 2017 to 24 November 2020. Primary objectives were safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of 3 increasing doses of TAK-426 administered as 2 doses 28 days apart to flavivirus (FV)-naive and FV-primed adults.

A global horizon scan for urban evolutionary ecology.

Research on the evolutionary ecology of urban areas reveals how human-induced evolutionary changes affect biodiversity and essential ecosystem services. In a rapidly urbanizing world imposing many selective pressures, a time-sensitive goal is to identify the emergent issues and research priorities that affect the ecology and evolution of species within cities. Here, we report the results of a horizon scan of research questions in urban evolutionary ecology submitted by 100 interdisciplinary scholars.