One-quarter of freshwater fauna threatened with extinction.

Freshwater ecosystems are highly biodiverse and important for livelihoods and economic development, but are under substantial stress. To date, comprehensive global assessments of extinction risk have not included any speciose groups primarily living in freshwaters. Consequently, data from predominantly terrestrial tetrapods are used to guide environmental policy and conservation prioritization, whereas recent proposals for target setting in freshwaters use abiotic factors.

Rational engineering of minimally immunogenic nucleases for gene therapy.

Genome editing using CRISPR-Cas systems is a promising avenue for the treatment of genetic diseases. However, cellular and humoral immunogenicity of genome editing tools, which originate from bacteria, complicates their clinical use. Here we report reduced immunogenicity (Red)(i)-variants of two clinically relevant nucleases, SaCas9 and AsCas12a.

Spatiotemporal occupancy patterns of chronic wasting disease.

Introduction: Chronic wasting disease (CWD) among cervids in Kansas has seen a consistent rise over the years, both in terms of the number of infections and its geographical spread. In this study, we assessed the occupancy patterns of CWD among white-tailed deer and mule deer across the state.

Methods: Using surveillance data collected since 2005, we applied a dynamic patch occupancy model within a Bayesian framework, incorporating various environmental covariates.

Oreichthys warjaintia, a new species of cyprinid fish from Meghalaya, India (Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae).

Oreichthys warjaintia, new species, is described from the Pyrngang stream (Surma-Meghna basin), Meghalaya, northeast India. It can be distinguished from all known species within the genus Oreichthys in having the following combination of characters: complete lateral line with 25-27 pored scales, 13 branched pectoral-fin rays, 5-5½ branched anal-fin rays, 14 rows of papillae on suborbital, ½3/1/2½ scale rows in transverse line on body, presence of a black blotch on caudal-fin base, and in the coloration of dorsal, caudal, and anal fins. Oreichthys warjaintia is distinct from all known Oreichthys species for which mitochondrial cox1 sequence data are available by a raw genetic distance ranging from 8.