An interdisciplinary approach to improving conservation outcomes for parasites.

Parasites represent a significant proportion of Earth's biodiversity and play important roles in the ecology and biology of ecosystems and hosts, making them an important target for conservation. Despite increasing calls to prioritize protection for parasites in the academic literature, they remain undervalued and underrepresented in global biodiversity conservation efforts, not least due to the perception that the interests of parasite and host conservation are opposing and the common misconception that parasites are a threat, rather than a benefit, to conservation. We considered whether taking an interdisciplinary approach to parasite conservation research will generate novel insights and solutions concerning why and how parasite conservation should be practiced for the benefit of parasites, their hosts, ecosystems, and people.

Drawing mitochondrial genomes with circularMT.

Summary: Mitochondrial DNA sequences are used extensively in phylogeographic and phylogenetic studies for a wide range of organisms. With the advent of low-cost, high throughput 'next generation' DNA sequencing, and user-friendly bioinformatics pipelines for generating and annotating whole mitochondrial genome assemblies, the analysis of whole mitochondrial genomes has become an important component of phylogenomic studies for taxa with high species diversity but limited coverage for other genomic resources. An important step in characterizing de novo mitochondrial genome assemblies is to evaluate and describe structural rearrangements relative to reference taxa.

Sampling from commercial vessel routes can capture marine biodiversity distributions effectively.

Collecting fine-scale occurrence data for marine species across large spatial scales is logistically challenging but is important to determine species distributions and for conservation planning. Inaccurate descriptions of species ranges could result in designating protected areas with inappropriate locations or boundaries. Optimizing sampling strategies therefore is a priority for scaling up survey approaches using tools such as environmental DNA (eDNA) to capture species distributions.

Phylogenetic analyses reveal bat communities in Northwestern Mexico harbor a high diversity of novel cryptic ectoparasite species.

Parasites are integral parts of ecosystem function and important drivers of evolutionary processes. Characterizing ectoparasite diversity is fundamental to studies of host-parasite interactions, evolution, and conservation, and also for understanding emerging disease threats for some vector borne pathogens. With more than 1400 species, bats represent the second most speciose mammalian clade, but their ectoparasite fauna are poorly known for most species.

Evidence for strain-specific virulence of in African columbiformes.

Infection by parasites or pathogens can have marked physiological impacts on individuals. In birds, infection may affect moult and feather growth, which is an energetically demanding time in the annual cycle. Previous work has suggested a potential link between clinically visible infection and wing length in turtle doves arriving on breeding grounds.

No borders on a fragile planet: Introducing four lay models of social psychological precarity to support global human identification and citizenship.

Measures such as Identification with all humanity (IWAH) and global identification and citizenship (GHIC) are positivity correlated with measures of humanitarianism, cosmopolitanism and environmental concern. Research using these measures suggests that most citizens have low-global identification scores. This article sheds light on this finding by investigating how global identification relates to precarity and migration (neither of which are measured in the IWAH/GHIC).

Assessing rates of parasite coinfection and spatiotemporal strain variation via metabarcoding: Insights for the conservation of European turtle doves Streptopelia turtur.

Understanding the frequency, spatiotemporal dynamics and impacts of parasite coinfections is fundamental to developing control measures and predicting disease impacts. The European turtle dove (Streptopelia turtur) is one of Europe's most threatened bird species. High prevalence of infection by the protozoan parasite Trichomonas gallinae has previously been identified, but the role of this and other coinfecting parasites in turtle dove declines remains unclear.

Origin and expansion of the world's most widespread pinniped: Range-wide population genomics of the harbour seal (Phoca vitulina).

The harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) is the most widely distributed pinniped, occupying a wide variety of habitats and climatic zones across the Northern Hemisphere. Intriguingly, the harbour seal is also one of the most philopatric seals, raising questions as to how it colonized its current range. To shed light on the origin, remarkable range expansion, population structure and genetic diversity of this species, we used genotyping-by-sequencing to analyse ~13,500 biallelic single nucleotide polymorphisms from 286 individuals sampled from 22 localities across the species' range.

The rhetorical use of the threat of the far-right in the UK Brexit debate.

While attention has been given to understanding support for the far-right, there is a lack of focus on the way in which a threat of the far-right can be used for political ends. This paper addresses this using the UK Brexit debate as an illustration. The question therefore is: What is talk about the far-right used to do in discussions about Brexit? A discursive psychological approach addresses a sample of newspaper reports containing both 'Far-Right' and 'Brexit', from the first quarter of 2019 (n = 45).

Contaminations contaminate common databases.

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a very powerful method to detect and identify pathogens. The high sensitivity of the method, however, comes with a cost; any of the millions of artificial DNA copies generated by PCR can serve as a template in a following experiment. If not identified as contaminations, these may result in erroneous conclusions on the occurrence of the pathogen, thereby inflating estimates of host range and geographic distribution.

The Antibody Society's antibody validation webinar series.

In the wake of the reproducibility crisis and numerous discussions on how commercially available antibodies as research tool contribute to it, The Antibody Society developed a series of 10 webinars to address the issues involved. The webinars were delivered by speakers with both academic and commercial backgrounds. This report highlights the problems, and offers solutions to help the scientific community appropriately identify the right antibodies and to validate them for their research and development projects.

The 3rd Antibody Validation meeting: Bath UK 20-21 September 2018.

The International Antibody Validation meetings offer a welcome British forum for discussing this important topic, which is existentially crucial for the biological sciences community. Now in its 6th year, the biennial meeting is organized by Andrew Chalmers (University of Bath; CiteAb), this year with Carly Dix (Astra Zeneca).  The organizers gathered some 100 members of industry and academia, producers and users, for a day and a half to describe their efforts to ensure that their antibodies have the desired specificity and selectively for well-defined molecular targets.

The path to VICTORy - a beginner's guide to success using commercial research antibodies.

Commercial research antibodies are crucial tools in modern cell biology and biochemistry. In the USA some $2 billion a year are spent on them, but many are apparently not fit-for-purpose, and this may contribute to the 'reproducibility crisis' in biological sciences. Inadequate antibody validation and characterization, lack of user awareness, and occasional incompetence amongst suppliers have had immense scientific and personal costs.

The antibody horror show: an introductory guide for the perplexed.

The biological literature reverberates with the inadequacies of commercial research-tool antibodies. The scientific community spends some $2 billion per year on such reagents. Excellent accessible scientific platforms exist for reliably making, validating and using antibodies, yet the laboratory end-user reality is somehow depressing - because they often "don't work".

Novel avian paramyxovirus isolated from gulls in Caspian seashore in Kazakhstan.

Three isolates APMV/gull/Kazakhstan/5976/2014, APMV/gull/Kazakhstan/ 5977/2014 and APMV/gull/Kazakhstan/5979/2014, were obtained from independent samples during annual surveillance for avian influenza and paramyxoviruses in wild birds from the Caspian Sea coast in Western Kazakhstan, and were initially identified as putative paramyxoviruses on the basis of electron microscopy. Hemagglutination Inhibition Assays with antisera to nine known APMV serotypes (APMV1-9) indicated no relation to any of them. Next generation sequencing of whole genome sequences indicated the three isolates were genetically identical, and had a nucleotide structure typical for all APMVs, consisting of six genes 3'-NP-P-M-F-HN-L-5'.

Integrins as Therapeutic Targets: Successes and Cancers.

Integrins are transmembrane receptors that are central to the biology of many human pathologies. Classically mediating cell-extracellular matrix and cell-cell interaction, and with an emerging role as local activators of TGFβ, they influence cancer, fibrosis, thrombosis and inflammation. Their ligand binding and some regulatory sites are extracellular and sensitive to pharmacological intervention, as proven by the clinical success of seven drugs targeting them.

High prevalence of Trichomonas gallinae in wild columbids across western and southern Europe.

Background: Avian trichomonosis is known as a widespread disease in columbids and passerines, and recent findings have highlighted the pathogenic character of some lineages found in wild birds. Trichomonosis can affect wild bird populations including endangered species, as has been shown for Mauritian pink pigeons Nesoenas mayeri in Mauritius and suggested for European turtle doves Streptopelia turtur in the UK. However, the disease trichomonosis is caused only by pathogenic lineages of the parasite Trichomonas gallinae.

Mixing of porpoise ecotypes in southwestern UK waters revealed by genetic profiling.

Contact zones between ecotypes are windows for understanding how species may react to climate changes. Here, we analysed the fine-scale genetic and morphological variation in harbour porpoises () around the UK by genotyping 591 stranded animals at nine microsatellite loci. The data were integrated with a prior study to map at high resolution the contact zone between two previously identified ecotypes meeting in the northern Bay of Biscay.

High rates of infection by blood parasites during the nestling phase in UK Columbids with notes on ecological associations.

Studies of blood parasite infection in nestling birds rarely find a high prevalence of infection. This is likely due to a combination of short nestling periods (limiting the age at which nestlings can be sampled) and long parasite prepatent periods before gametocytes can be detected in peripheral blood. Here we examine rates of blood parasite infection in nestlings from three Columbid species in the UK.

Cilengitide in newly diagnosed glioblastoma: biomarker expression and outcome.

Integrins αvβ3 and αvβ5 regulate angiogenesis and invasiveness in cancer, potentially by modulating activation of the transforming growth factor (TGF)-β pathway. The randomized phase III CENTRIC and phase II CORE trials explored the integrin inhibitor cilengitide in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma with versus without O6-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) promoter methylation. These trials failed to meet their primary endpoints.

Context-dependent associations between heterozygosity and immune variation in a wild carnivore.

Background: A multitude of correlations between heterozygosity and fitness proxies associated with disease have been reported from wild populations, but the genetic basis of these associations is unresolved. We used a longitudinal dataset on wild Galapagos sea lions (Zalophus wollebaeki) to develop a relatively new perspective on this problem, by testing for associations between heterozygosity and immune variation across age classes and between ecological contexts.

Results: Homozygosity by locus was negatively correlated with serum immunoglobulin G production in pups (0-3 months of age), suggesting that reduced genetic diversity has a detrimental influence on the early development of immune defence in the Galapagos sea lion.

Biogeography of Parasitic Nematode Communities in the Galápagos Giant Tortoise: Implications for Conservation Management.

The Galápagos giant tortoise is an icon of the unique, endemic biodiversity of Galápagos, but little is known of its parasitic fauna. We assessed the diversity of parasitic nematode communities and their spatial distributions within four wild tortoise populations comprising three species across three Galápagos islands, and consider their implication for Galápagos tortoise conservation programmes. Coprological examinations revealed nematode eggs to be common, with more than 80% of tortoises infected within each wild population.

How Do Intimate Partner Violent Men Talk About Self-Control?

This study investigates discourses that male perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPV) use regarding self-control when talking about their IPV. Literature addressing the role of self-control in committing and avoiding using violence toward partners is discussed; however, it is shown that self-control has not been investigated from a discursive psychological perspective, in which the function of talk, rather than what this talk says about speakers' cognitions, is analyzed. Discourse analysis of interviews with six male perpetrators, currently attending treatment and selected for their recent and multiple uses of IPV, revealed that talk of lacking self-control was used to account for situations when individuals engaged in violence.