The Wildlife Malaria Research network (WIMANET): Meeting report on the 1st WIMANET workshop.

The Wildlife Malaria Network (WIMANET) is a groundbreaking multinational collaboration focused on studying vector-borne haemosporidian parasites in wildlife. Unlike human malaria, wildlife malaria is found on all continents except Antarctica, with parasites being transmitted by a range of vectors. The complexity and diversity of these parasites makes it necessary to have an interdisciplinary approach to understand and mitigate their impacts.

Rapid SARS-CoV-2 surveillance using clinical, pooled, or wastewater sequence as a sensor for population change.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical role of genomic surveillance for guiding policy and control. Timeliness is key, but sequence alignment and phylogeny slow most surveillance techniques. Millions of SARS-CoV-2 genomes have been assembled.

Functionally-Graded Serrated Fangs Allow Spiders to Mechanically Cut Silk, Carbon and Kevlar Fibers.

Before humans and allegedly any animal group, spiders developed "functionally graded toothed blades" that cut one of the toughest biological materials: silk. Here, this work reveals the importance of micro-structured serrations in spiders' fangs that allow these animals to cut silk and artificial high-performance fibers, such as carbon or Kevlar. The importance of serrations revolves around the stress concentration at the interface between the fang and the fibers, resulting in a cutting efficiency superior to that of a razor blade.

How effective are protected areas for reducing threats to biodiversity? A systematic review protocol.

Background: Protected areas (PAs) have become one of the most important instruments to preserve nature and, when effective, can significantly reduce human pressure and derived threats to biodiversity. However, evidence suggests that despite the growing number and coverage of PAs worldwide, biodiversity trends continue to deteriorate, and human pressure increases outside and inside PAs. While many studies have focused on the effectiveness of PAs in maintaining ecological features, less attention has been given to the threat reduction potential of PAs, despite threats being one of the main factors leading to the need to conserve biodiversity.

Bursts of Rapid Diversification, Dispersals Out of Southern Africa, and Two Origins of Dioecy Punctuate the Evolution of Asparagus.

The genus Asparagus arose ∼9 to 15 million years ago (Ma), and transitions from hermaphroditism to dioecy (separate sexes) occurred ∼3 to 4 Ma. Roughly 27% of extant Asparagus species are dioecious, while the remaining are bisexual with monoclinous flowers. As such, Asparagus is an ideal model taxon for studying the early stages of dioecy and sex chromosome evolution in plants.

Untangling the colonization history of the Australo-Pacific reed warblers, one of the world's great island radiations.

Island radiations, such as those of the Australo-Pacific, offer unique insight into diversification, extinction, and early speciation processes. Yet, their speciation and colonization histories are often obscured by conflicting genomic signals from incomplete lineage sorting (ILS) or hybridization. Here, we integrated mitogenomes and genome-wide SNPs to unravel the evolutionary history of one of the world's most geographically widespread island radiations.

Ornithophily in the trumpet creeper ().

The diversification of hummingbirds (Trochilidae) has shaped the pollination strategies and floral trait evolution in at least 68 families of flowering plants in the Western Hemisphere. The trumpet creeper (Bignoniaceae) is the quintessential example of ornithophily in eastern North America. The mutualistic relationship between this orange-flowered liana and the ruby-throated hummingbird () was illustrated as early as 1731.

Sonification of Genomic Data to Represent Genetic Load in Zoo Populations.

Maintaining a diverse gene pool is important in the captive management of zoo populations, especially in endangered species such as the pink pigeon (Nesoenas mayeri). However, due to the limited number of breeding individuals and relaxed natural selection, the loss of variation and accumulation of harmful variants is inevitable. Inbreeding results in a loss of fitness (i.

The genome sequence of the Mauritius kestrel, (Temminck, 1821).

We present a genome assembly from an individual male (the Mauritius kestrel; Chordata; Aves; Falconiformes; Falconidae). The genome sequence is 1,279.3 megabases in span.

Code sharing in ecology and evolution increases citation rates but remains uncommon.

Biologists increasingly rely on computer code to collect and analyze their data, reinforcing the importance of published code for transparency, reproducibility, training, and a basis for further work. Here, we conduct a literature review estimating temporal trends in code sharing in ecology and evolution publications since 2010, and test for an influence of code sharing on citation rate. We find that code is rarely published (only 6% of papers), with little improvement over time.

Molecular Phylogeny of the Family Cordulegastridae (Odonata) Worldwide.

In this study, we present the first attempt at a molecular phylogenetic analysis of the entire family of Cordulegastridae involving 60% of its known species. Our analysis is in favor of reclassification of the members of the family into four genera: (i) the monophyletic genus Selys, 1854, with the number of known species reduced by three synonymizations; (ii) the genus Leach in Brewster, 1815 including all members of the group and, as a preliminary solution, the American species Novelo-Gutiérrez, 2018 and, very tentatively, Selys, 1868. The group forms a genus of its own, for which we restored the name Selys 1854, stat.

Approaches and methods to study wildlife cancer.

The last few years have seen a surge of interest from field ecologists and evolutionary biologists to study neoplasia and cancer in wildlife. This contributes to the One Health Approach, which investigates health issues at the intersection of people, wild and domestic animals, together with their changing environments. Nonetheless, the emerging field of wildlife cancer is currently constrained by methodological limitations in detecting cancer using non-invasive sampling.

Linked Selection and Gene Density Shape Genome-Wide Patterns of Diversification in Peatmosses.

Genome evolution under speciation is poorly understood in nonmodel and nonvascular plants, such as bryophytes-the largest group of nonvascular land plants. Their genomes are structurally different from angiosperms and likely subjected to stronger linked selection pressure, which may have profound consequences on genome evolution in diversifying lineages, even more so when their genome architecture is conserved. We use the highly diverse, rapidly radiated group of peatmosses () to characterize the processes affecting genome diversification in bryophytes.

Evolutionary Insights from the Mitochondrial Genome of Oikopleura dioica: Sequencing Challenges, RNA Editing, Gene Transfers to the Nucleus, and tRNA Loss.

Sequencing the mitochondrial genome of the tunicate Oikopleura dioica is a challenging task due to the presence of long poly-A/T homopolymer stretches, which impair sequencing and assembly. Here, we report on the sequencing and annotation of the majority of the mitochondrial genome of O. dioica by means of combining several DNA and amplicon reads obtained by Illumina and MinIon Oxford Nanopore Technologies with public RNA sequences.

North Atlantic deep-sea benthic biodiversity unveiled through sponge natural sampler DNA.

The deep-sea remains the biggest challenge to biodiversity exploration, and anthropogenic disturbances extend well into this realm, calling for urgent management strategies. One of the most diverse, productive, and vulnerable ecosystems in the deep sea are sponge grounds. Currently, environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding is revolutionising the field of biodiversity monitoring, yet complex deep-sea benthic ecosystems remain challenging to assess even with these novel technologies.

A siliceous arms race in pelagic plankton.

Coevolution between predator and prey plays a central role in shaping the pelagic realm and may have significant implications for marine ecosystems and nutrient cycling dynamics. The siliceous diatom frustule is often assumed to have coevolved with the silica-lined teeth of copepods, but empirical evidence of how this relationship drives natural selection and evolution is still lacking. Here, we show that feeding on diatoms causes significant wear and tear on copepod teeth and that this leads to copepods becoming selective feeders.

Genomic context determines the effect of DNA methylation on gene expression in the gut epithelium of Atlantic salmon ().

The canonical view of DNA methylation, a pivotal epigenetic regulation mechanism in eukaryotes, dictates its role as a suppressor of gene activity, particularly within promoter regions. However, this view is being challenged as it is becoming increasingly evident that the connection between DNA methylation and gene expression varies depending on the genomic location and is therefore more complex than initially thought. We examined DNA methylation levels in the gut epithelium of Atlantic salmon () using whole-genome bisulfite sequencing, which we correlated with gene expression data from RNA sequencing of the same gut tissue sample (RNA-seq).

Fungal Planet description sheets: 1614-1696.

Novel species of fungi described in this study include those from various countries as follows: , in leaves of , among deep leaf litter, from uredinium of on , on well-rotted twigs and litter in mixed wet sclerophyll and subtropical rainforest. , on twigs of , on bark, in savannas with shrubs and trees. , on leaves of , (incl.

Network analysis to reveal the most commonly detected compounds in predator-prey pairs in freshwater and marine mammals and fish in Europe.

Marine and freshwater mammalian predators and fish samples, retrieved from environmental specimen banks (ESBs), natural history museum (NHMs) and other scientific collections, were analysed by LIFE APEX partners for a wide range of legacy and emerging contaminants (2545 in total). Network analysis was used to visualize the chemical occurrence data and reveal the predominant chemical mixtures for the freshwater and marine environments. For this purpose, a web tool was created to explore these chemical mixtures in predator-prey pairs.