Functional relationships of three NFU proteins in the biogenesis of chloroplastic iron-sulfur clusters.

Iron-sulfur clusters are required in a variety of biological processes. Biogenesis of iron-sulfur clusters includes assembly of iron-sulfur clusters on scaffold complexes and transfer of iron-sulfur clusters to recipient apoproteins by iron-sulfur carriers, such as nitrogen-fixation-subunit-U (NFU)-type proteins. has three plastid-targeted NFUs: NFU1, NFU2, and NFU3.

A century of intermittent eco-evolutionary feedbacks resulted in novel trait combinations in invasive Great Lakes alewives ().

Species introductions provide opportunities to quantify rates and patterns of evolutionary change in response to novel environments. Alewives () are native to the East Coast of North America where they ascend coastal rivers to spawn in lakes and then return to the ocean. Some populations have become landlocked within the last 350 years and diverged phenotypically from their ancestral marine population.

Habitat transitions alter the adaptive landscape and shape phenotypic evolution in needlefishes (Belonidae).

Habitat occupancy can have a profound influence on macroevolutionary dynamics, and a switch in major habitat type may alter the evolutionary trajectory of a lineage. In this study, we investigate how evolutionary transitions between marine and freshwater habitats affect macroevolutionary adaptive landscapes, using needlefishes (Belonidae) as a model system. We examined the evolution of body shape and size in marine and freshwater needlefishes and tested for phenotypic change in response to transitions between habitats.

Two organelle RNA recognition motif proteins affect distinct sets of RNA editing sites in the plastid.

Plastid and mitochondrial RNAs in vascular plants are subjected to cytidine-to-uridine editing. The model plant species (Arabidopsis) has two nuclear-encoded plastid-targeted organelle RNA recognition motif (ORRM) proteins: ORRM1 and ORRM6. In the mutant, 21 plastid RNA editing sites were affected but none are essential to photosynthesis.

Comparative analysis of landscape effects on spatial genetic structure of the big brown bat and one of its cimicid ectoparasites.

Identification of landscape features that correlate with genetic structure permits understanding of factors that may influence gene flow in a species. Comparing effects of the landscape on a parasite and host provides potential insights into parasite-host ecology. We compared fine-scale spatial genetic structure between big brown bats () and their cimicid ectoparasite (; class Insecta) in the lower Great Lakes region of the United States, in an area of about 160,000 km.