Inconsistent Transcriptomic Responses to Hexabromocyclododecane in Japanese Quail: A Comparative Analysis of Results From Four Different Study Designs.

Efforts to use transcriptomics for toxicity testing have classically relied on the assumption that chemicals consistently produce characteristic transcriptomic signatures that are reflective of their mechanism of action. However, the degree to which transcriptomic responses are conserved across different test methodologies has seldom been explored. With increasing regulatory demand for New Approach Methods (NAMs) that use alternatives to animal models and high-content approaches such as transcriptomics, this type of comparative analysis is needed.

Reframing wildlife disease management problems with decision analysis.

Contemporary wildlife disease management is complex because managers need to respond to a wide range of stakeholders, multiple uncertainties, and difficult trade-offs that characterize the interconnected challenges of today. Despite general acknowledgment of these complexities, managing wildlife disease tends to be framed as a scientific problem, in which the major challenge is lack of knowledge. The complex and multifactorial process of decision-making is collapsed into a scientific endeavor to reduce uncertainty.

Gene flow and an anomaly zone complicate phylogenomic inference in a rapidly radiated avian family (Prunellidae).

Background: Resolving the phylogeny of rapidly radiating lineages presents a challenge when building the Tree of Life. An Old World avian family Prunellidae (Accentors) comprises twelve species that rapidly diversified at the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary.

Results: Here we investigate the phylogenetic relationships of all species of Prunellidae using a chromosome-level de novo assembly of Prunella strophiata and 36 high-coverage resequenced genomes.

Mercury bioaccumulation and Hepatozoon spp. infections in two syntopic watersnakes in South Carolina.

Mercury (Hg) is a ubiquitous environmental contaminant known to bioaccumulate in biota and biomagnify in food webs. Parasites occur in nearly every ecosystem and often interact in complex ways with other stressors that their hosts experience. Hepatozoon spp.

Migration timing and tributary use of spawning flannelmouth sucker (Catostomus latipinnis).

Spawning phenology and associated migrations of fishes are often regulated by factors such as temperature and stream discharge, but flow regulation of mainstem rivers coupled with climate change might disrupt these cues and affect fitness. Flannelmouth sucker (Catostomus latipinnis) persisting in heavily modified river networks are known to spawn in tributaries that might provide better spawning habitat than neighboring mainstem rivers subject to habitat degradation (e.g.

Environmental implications of Ptolemaic Period rodents and shrews from the Sacred Falcon Necropolis at Quesna, Egypt (Mammalia: Muridae and Soricidae).

Background: Assemblages of mummified and preserved animals in necropoleis of Ptolemaic Period Egypt (ca. 332-30 BC) document some aspects of the ceremonial and religious practices of the ancient Egyptians, but study of these animal remains can also provide insight into the local environments in which the animals and humans lived.

Results: Excavations of the Sacred Falcon Necropolis at Quesna in the Nile Delta have yielded many thousands of animal remains, mostly of raptors, but also of a lesser number of small, wild mammals.