1,107 results match your criteria: "Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences[Affiliation]"

Article Synopsis
  • Wastewater effluents and rising water temperatures from climate change threaten freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity, prompting our study on their combined effects on aquatic communities.
  • We conducted a 21-day experiment with various treatments on a simplified freshwater food web, examining impacts on species survival, genetic diversity, and metabolic responses among benthic macroinvertebrates.
  • Results showed species-specific sensitivities, particularly in caddisflies and mayflies, where multi-stressor conditions led to reduced lipid content and phylogenetic diversity, indicating the need for molecular indicators to assess immediate ecological impacts.
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Article Synopsis
  • The study looks at how whitefish and their parasites affect each other's evolution in lakes in Europe.
  • The researchers found that as different types of whitefish adapted to their environments, it helped the parasites expand and adapt too.
  • They think that the way whitefish eat and their habitats allow parasites to specialize and change over time, but the role of other animals that the parasites use for resources is important too.
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Laser Metal Printing from Nanoparticles Prepared by a Gas Aggregation Source.

Nano Lett

November 2024

Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Branišovská 1760, 37005 České Budějovice, Czech Republic.

This study demonstrates the use of nanoparticles prepared by a gas aggregation source for fabricating structures by combining laser sintering and ablation. At first, the morphology and optical properties of prepared nanoparticle coatings were characterized. Then, the response of coatings to laser irradiation at different powers or exposure times was studied by in situ time-of-flight mass spectrometry, followed by scanning electron microscopy measurements of the resulting structures.

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Insectivorous predators, including birds and bats, play crucial roles in trophic cascades. However, previous research on these cascades has often relied on permanent predator exclosures, which prevent the isolation of specific effects of birds and bats, given their different activity patterns throughout the day. Moreover, limited knowledge exists regarding the variations in individual effects of these predators under different biotic and abiotic conditions, such as changes in elevation.

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Myxozoans are microscopical parasites widely distributed in fish, with over 2,600 described species, but their actual diversity is still underestimated. Among salmonids, more than 70 myxozoan species have been identified. This study focuses on species of Chloromyxum Mingazzini, 1890 that infect salmonid kidneys, particularly C.

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Global freshwater distribution of Telonemia protists.

ISME J

January 2024

Department of Aquatic Microbial Ecology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, 37005, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.

Article Synopsis
  • Telonemia are ancient marine protists with established evolutionary links to the SAR supergroup, but their ecological roles and distribution in freshwater environments remain under-researched.
  • A global study of over a thousand freshwater metagenomes and 407 samples from lakes revealed a wide distribution of Telonemia, though no new major clades were identified, indicating their diversity is well-represented in current surveys.
  • Findings suggest Telonemia prefer colder, deeper areas of lakes in the Northern Hemisphere, where they can make up 10%-20% of the heterotrophic flagellate population, highlighting their significance in freshwater food webs.
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A brain microbiome in salmonids at homeostasis.

Sci Adv

September 2024

Center for Evolutionary and Theoretical Immunology, Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87108, USA.

Article Synopsis
  • Ectotherms, like salmon, have special relationships with bacteria, which are found in their blood and organs.
  • Scientists discovered that bacteria also live in the brains of healthy salmon, but in smaller amounts than in their guts.
  • The study shows that brain bacteria might help salmon detect and react to microbes in their environment, especially as they grow from young fish to adults.
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Trematodes and their snail hosts have developed intimate parasite-host associations, with snails supporting a diverse and often species-specific trematode fauna. In the faucet snail, (Caenogastropoda, Littorinimorpha), a unique trematode fauna has been recorded recently. However, knowledge of the exact species identity, phylogenetic relationships, and geographical distribution remains limited as many of the species belong to groups with unclear or controversial taxonomical assignment.

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Scanning electron microscopy studies of three paratype specimens (two males and one female) of Ascarophis parupenei Moravec, Orecchia & Paggi, 1988, an intestinal parasite of the marine fish Parupeneus indicus (Shaw) in the Indian Ocean, made it possible to redescribe in detail the cephalic structures of this nematode as well as the morphology of the male caudal end. The presence of non-bilobed sublabia, phasmids in both males and females, bifurcated deirids, well-developed precloacal cuticular ridges (area rugosa) and a ventral median caudal protuberance in the male are reported in this species for the first time. The general morphology and measurements of A.

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Characterization and comparative analysis of sericin protein 150 in Bombyx mori.

Sci Rep

September 2024

Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Entomology, 37005, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.

Article Synopsis
  • - Lepidopteran silk consists primarily of two proteins, fibroins and sericins, with sericins acting as adhesives for silk fibers; five genes for sericin have been identified in the silkworm, Bombyx mori.
  • - Researchers identified sericin protein 150 (SP150) in B. mori, which features a specific structure similar to certain mucin proteins, but found that its levels are much lower compared to a related moth’s SP150.
  • - The study explores the genetic relationships and evolutionary development of silk proteins across different moth species, enhancing our understanding of silk structure and its adhesive properties.
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We present a genome assembly from an individual female (the Plain Longtail butterfly; Arthropoda; Insecta; Lepidoptera; Hesperiidae). The genome sequence is 610.1 megabases in span.

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Ultraviolet-C (UV-C) radiation and ozone gas are potential mechanisms employed to inactivate the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), each exhibiting distinct molecular-level modalities of action. To elucidate these disparities and deepen our understanding, we delve into the intricacies of SARS-CoV-2 inactivation via UV-C and ozone gas treatments, exploring their distinct molecular-level impacts utilizing a suite of advanced techniques, including biological atomic force microscopy (Bio-AFM) and single virus force spectroscopy (SVFS). Whereas UV-C exhibited no perceivable alterations in virus size or surface topography, ozone gas treatment elucidated pronounced changes in both parameters, intensifying with prolonged exposure.

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Genetic diversity of Cryptosporidium species from diarrhoeic ungulates in the United Arab Emirates.

Vet Parasitol Reg Stud Reports

September 2024

Department of Veterinary Medicine, College Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, United Arab Emirates University, PO Box 15551, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates; ASPIRE Research Institute for Food Security in the Drylands (ARIFSID), United Arab Emirates University, P.O. Box 15551, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. Electronic address:

Cryptosporidiosis has previously been reported in animals, humans, and water sources in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). However, most reports were only to the genus level, or generically identified as cryptosporidiosis. We aimed to investigate the genetic diversity of Cryptosporidium species occurring in diarrhetic ungulates which were brought to the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory (CVRL) in Dubai.

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The widespread sharing of information on the Internet has given rise to ecological studies that use data from digital sources including digitized museum records and social media posts. Most of these studies have focused on understanding species occurrences and distributions. In this essay, we argue that data from digital sources also offer many opportunities to study animal behavior including long-term and large-scale comparisons within and between species.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Scientists studied how ticks' stomachs react when they drink blood mixed with certain bacteria, finding that even though there were no immune responses to the bacteria, the act of feeding by itself changed how the ticks' genes worked.
  • * They discovered that ticks naturally produce special proteins, called antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), that help fight off infections, especially against harmful bacteria, and they want to learn more about how these proteins work.
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In this study, we employed short- and long-read sequencing technologies to delineate the transcriptional architecture of the human monkeypox virus and to identify key regulatory elements that govern its gene expression. Specifically, we conducted a transcriptomic analysis to annotate the transcription start sites (TSSs) and transcription end sites (TESs) of the virus by utilizing Cap Analysis of gene expression sequencing on the Illumina platform and direct RNA sequencing on the Oxford Nanopore technology device. Our investigations uncovered significant complexity in the use of alternative TSSs and TESs in viral genes.

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-Acetyllactosamine is a common saccharide motif found in various biologically active glycans. This motif usually works as a backbone for additional modifications and thus significantly influences glycan conformational behavior and biological activity. In this work, we have investigated the type-2 -acetyllactosamine scaffold using the complete series of its monodeoxyfluorinated analogs.

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Neighbourhood effects on herbivory damage and chemical profiles in short-rotation coppice willows and their hybrids.

Phytochemistry

December 2024

Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic; Faculty of Science, Department of Zoology, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic. Electronic address:

Short rotation coppices (SRCs) represent an important source of biomass. Since they are grown in various mixtures, SRCs represent an excellent opportunity for assessing the effects of local plant neighbourhoods on their performance. We used a common garden experiment consisting of plots that varied in genotype diversity of SRC willows to test for the effects of chemical traits of individual plants and chemical variation in the plots where they grew on insect herbivory.

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Background: Picocyanobacteria from the genera Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus, and Cyanobium are the most widespread photosynthetic organisms in aquatic ecosystems. However, their freshwater populations remain poorly explored, due to uneven and insufficient sampling across diverse inland waterbodies.

Results: In this study, we present 170 high-quality genomes of freshwater picocyanobacteria from non-axenic cultures collected across Central Europe.

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European catfish is a large-bodied apex predator, a key species in native areas, but invasive in others where it negatively impacts local aquatic fauna necessitates catfish regulation. However, traditional ichthyological methods face challenges in capturing it. The study presents a detailed description of the efficient long-line method, refined through 48 sampling campaigns across twelve European water bodies.

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Comparative analysis of cyanobacterial communities in gypsum outcrops: insights from sites in Israel and Poland.

Extremophiles

July 2024

Institute of Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Mineral Resources, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.

Today, the biodiversity of endolithic microbial colonisations are only partly understood. In this study, we used a combination of molecular community metabarcoding using the 16S rRNA gene, light microscopy, CT-scan analysis, and Raman spectroscopy to describe gypsum endolithic communities in 2 sites-southern Poland and northern Israel. The obtained results have shown that despite different geographical areas, climatic conditions, and also physical features of colonized gypsum outcrops, both of these sites have remarkably similar microbial and pigment compositions.

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Phylogenetic insights into the Salicaceae: The evolution of willows and beyond.

Mol Phylogenet Evol

October 2024

Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic; Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.

The Salicaceae includes approximately 54 genera and over 1,400 species with a cosmopolitan distribution. Members of the family are well-known for their diverse secondary plant metabolites, and they play crucial roles in tropical and temperate forest ecosystems. Phylogenetic reconstruction of the Salicaceae has been historically challenging due to the limitations of molecular markers and the extensive history of hybridization and polyploidy within the family.

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The present paper comprises a systematic survey of helminths (trematodes, an acanthocephalan and nematodes) found in nine species of freshwater fishes in Ecuador collected in March 1999 and those (a trematode and acanthocephalans) collected from an amphibian and two species of freshwater fishes in Venezuela in 1992, 1996 and 2001. The following 17 helminth species were recorded: Trematoda: Prosthenhystera ornamentosa sp. n.

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Article Synopsis
  • Species richness is crucial for understanding biodiversity, highlighting under-studied groups like Darwin wasps, where previous estimates suggested nearly 11,000 species compared to only 2,322 recorded.
  • New estimates based on various data sources indicate that only 13-22% of Darwin wasp species are known in five heavily studied Afrotropical countries, with estimates of total species ranging from 9,206 to 15,577.
  • Factors contributing to the gap between recorded and estimated species richness include logistical and financial challenges, alongside post-colonial influences affecting research efforts.
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Article Synopsis
  • Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) affects the central nervous system, leading to serious neurological issues, and the role of brain pericytes in TBEV infection is not fully understood.
  • The study analyzed primary human brain pericytes infected with highly virulent Hypr and mildly virulent Neudoerfl strains, finding that both strains showed similar replication rates and peaks of viral RNA.
  • Results indicated that only a small percentage of pericytes were infected, without visible damage, but they produced significant chemokines like IL-6, IP-10, RANTES, and MCP-1, highlighting their role in immune responses during TBEV infection.
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