During times of rapid environmental change, survival of most vertebrate populations
depends on their phenomic plasticity. Although differential gene-expression and post-transcriptional …

Background Temperate winters produce extreme energetic challenges for small insectivorous
mammals. Some bat species inhabiting locations with mild temperate winters forage …

DNA-based taxonomic and functional profiling is widely used for the characterization of
organismal communities across a rapidly increasing array of research areas that include the role …

Background Vultures have adapted the remarkable ability to feed on carcasses that may
contain microorganisms that would be pathogenic to most other animals. The holobiont concept …

Background DNA metabarcoding is an approach for identifying multiple taxa in an environmental
sample using specific genetic loci and taxa-specific primers. When combined with high-…

The extinct cave lion (Panthera spelaea) was an apex predator of the Pleistocene, and one
of the largest felid species ever to exist. We report the first mitochondrial genome sequences …

Speleothems are secondary mineral deposits normally formed by water supersaturated with
calcium carbonate percolating into underground caves, and are often associated with low-…

The interactions between lactic acid bacteria, yeast, and other wine microbiota impact on wine
quality. Some strains of lactic acid bacteria Oenococcus oeni possess cinnamoyl esterase …

Lions (Panthera leo) are of particular conservation concern due to evidence of recent,
widespread population declines in what has hitherto been seen as a common species, robust to …

Background Sequence alignments are used to find evidence of homology but sometimes
contain regions that are difficult to align which can interfere with the quality of the subsequent …