The effects of costly telomere maintenance on lifespan - reproductive tradeoffs in sand lizards.

Telomeres are DNA-protein structures that primarily protect chromosomes and serve multiple functions of gene regulation. When cells divide, telomeres shorten and their main repair system in ectotherms - telomerase - replaces lost nucleotide complexes ((T2AG3)n in vertebrates). It remains a challenge to experimentally investigate resource requirements for telomere maintenance and its effects on lifespan-reproductive tradeoffs in the wild.

Nodal Response and Survival After Neoadjuvant Endocrine Therapy in Hormone Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer: 20-Year Experience from a Single Institution.

Introduction: Axillary response to neoadjuvant endocrine therapy (NET) for the treatment of hormone receptor-positive breast cancer (HR+ BC) is not well-described. This study was designed to characterize nodal response after NET.

Methods: Patients receiving NET followed by curative intent surgery at a comprehensive cancer center from 1998 to 2022 in a prospectively collected registry were included.

Development of a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) Activity.

Global mobility has made global health a priority within nursing curricula and health care organizations. A collaborative online learning activity could promote international perspectives of health care delivery. Including a collaborative online international learning activity in continuing education for practicing nurses is a viable strategy that is consistent with the internationalization at home movement.

Contrasting segregation patterns among endogenous retroviruses across the koala population.

Koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) have experienced a history of retroviral epidemics leaving their trace as heritable endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) in their genomes. A recently identified ERV lineage, named phaCin-β, shows a pattern of recent, possibly current, activity with high insertional polymorphism in the population. Here, we investigate geographic patterns of three focal ERV lineages of increasing estimated ages, from the koala retrovirus (KoRV) to phaCin-β and to phaCin-β-like, using the whole-genome sequencing of 430 koalas from the Koala Genome Survey.

Spatiotemporal variations in retrovirus-host interactions among Darwin's finches.

Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) are inherited remnants of retroviruses that colonized host germline over millions of years, providing a sampling of retroviral diversity across time. Here, we utilize the strength of Darwin's finches, a system synonymous with evolutionary studies, for investigating ERV history, revealing recent retrovirus-host interactions in natural populations. By mapping ERV variation across all species of Darwin's finches and comparing with outgroup species, we highlight geographical and historical patterns of retrovirus-host occurrence, utilizing the system for evaluating the extent and timing of retroviral activity in hosts undergoing adaptive radiation and colonization of new environments.