Transcriptome analysis revealed potential mechanisms of differences in physiological stress responses between caged male and female magpies.

Background: Under caged conditions, birds are affected more severely by environmental stressors such as dietary structure, activity space, human disturbances, and pathogens, which may be reflected in the gene expression in peripheral blood or other tissues. Elucidating the molecular mechanism of these stress responses will help improve animal welfare.

Results: In the present study, the blood transcriptomes of six male and five female caged magpies (Pica pica) were sequenced, and a total of ~ 100 Gb in clean reads were generated using the Illumina HiSeq 2000 sequencer.

Meta-barcoding insights into the spatial and temporal dietary patterns of the threatened Asian Great Bustard () with potential implications for diverging migratory strategies.

Food resources are often not sufficient to satisfy the nutritional and energetic requirements during winter conditions at high latitudes. Dietary analysis is a prerequisite to fully understanding the feeding ecology of a species and the nature of trophic interactions. Previous dietary studies of Asian Great Bustard () relied on behavioral observations, resulting in categorization of diet limited to broad taxonomic groupings.

Complete mitochondrial genome of Eagle Owl (Bubo bubo, Strigiformes; Strigidae) from China.

In the present study, the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of Bubo bubo using PCR amplification, sequencing and assembling has been obtained for the first time. The total length of the mitochondrial genome was 16,250  bp, with the base composition of 29.88% A, 34.