NEOTROPICAL ALIEN MAMMALS: a data set of occurrence and abundance of alien mammals in the Neotropics.

Biological invasion is one of the main threats to native biodiversity. For a species to become invasive, it must be voluntarily or involuntarily introduced by humans into a nonnative habitat. Mammals were among first taxa to be introduced worldwide for game, meat, and labor, yet the number of species introduced in the Neotropics remains unknown.

Enhanced xylose fermentation and ethanol production by engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain.

We have recently demonstrated that heterologous expression of a bacterial xylose isomerase gene (xylA) of Burkholderia cenocepacia enabled a laboratorial Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain to ferment xylose anaerobically, without xylitol accumulation. However, the recombinant yeast fermented xylose slowly. In this study, an evolutionary engineering strategy was applied to improve xylose fermentation by the xylA-expressing yeast strain, which involved sequential batch cultivation on xylose.