Ecological and Evolutionary Science
Editor's Pick Research Article | Ecological and Evolutionary ScienceIdentification of an Exceptionally Long Intron in the HAC1 Gene of Candida parapsilosisThe unfolded protein response (UPR) responds to the build-up of misfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum. The UPR has wide-ranging functions from fungal pathogenesis to applications in biotechnology. The UPR is regulated through the splicing of an unconventional intron in the HAC1 gene. This intron has been described in many fungal species and is of variable length. Until now it was believed that some members of the CTG-...
Research Article | Ecological and Evolutionary ScienceThe Enterococcus Cassette Chromosome, a Genomic Variation Enabler in EnterococciEnterococcus faecium is a bacterium found in a great variety of environments, ranging from the clinic as a nosocomial pathogen to natural habitats such as mammalian intestines, water, and soil. They are known to exchange genetic material through horizontal gene transfer and recombination, leading to great variability of accessory genes and aiding environmental...
Research Article | Ecological and Evolutionary ScienceTaxAss: Leveraging a Custom Freshwater Database Achieves Fine-Scale Taxonomic ResolutionMicrobial communities drive ecosystem processes, but microbial community composition analyses using 16S rRNA gene amplicon data sets are limited by the lack of fine-resolution taxonomy classifications. Coarse taxonomic groupings at the phylum, class, and order levels lump ecologically distinct organisms together. To avoid this, many researchers define operational taxonomic units (OTUs) based on clustered sequences, sequence variants, or...
Research Article | Ecological and Evolutionary ScienceNovel Divergent Polar Bear-Associated Mastadenovirus Recovered from a Deceased Juvenile Polar BearCross-species transmission of viral pathogens is becoming an increasing problem for captive-animal facilities. This study highlights how animals in captivity are vulnerable to novel opportunistic pathogens, many of which do not result in straightforward diagnosis from symptoms and histopathology. In this study, a novel pathogen was suspected to have contributed to the death of a juvenile polar bear. HTS techniques were employed, and a...
Observation | Ecological and Evolutionary ScienceBroadscale Ecological Patterns Are Robust to Use of Exact Sequence Variants versus Operational Taxonomic UnitsMicrobial ecologists have made exceptional improvements in our understanding of microbiomes in the last decade due to breakthroughs in sequencing technologies. These advances have wide-ranging implications for fields ranging from agriculture to human health. Due to limitations in databases, the majority of microbial ecology studies use a binning approach to approximate taxonomy based on DNA sequence similarity. There remains extensive...
Research Article | Ecological and Evolutionary SciencePersistence of Resident and Transplanted Genotypes of the Undomesticated Yeast Saccharomyces paradoxus in Forest SoilSaccharomyces yeasts are intensively studied in biological research and in their domesticated roles in brewing and baking, and yet, remarkably little is known about their mode of life in forest soils. We report here that resident genotypes of the yeast S. paradoxus are persistent on a time scale of years in their microhabitats in forest soils. We also show...
Research Article | Ecological and Evolutionary SciencePotential Mechanism of Detoxification of Cyanide Compounds by Gut Microbiomes of Bamboo-Eating PandasThe giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) and red panda (Ailurus fulgens), two obligate bamboo feeders, have distinct phylogenetic positions in the order Carnivora. Bamboo is extraordinarily rich in plant secondary metabolites, such as allied phenolic and polyphenolic compounds and even toxic cyanide...
Research Article | Ecological and Evolutionary ScienceThe Unique Phylogenetic Position of a Novel Tick-Borne Phlebovirus Ensures an Ixodid Origin of the Genus PhlebovirusThe emergence of novel tick-borne RNA viruses causing severe illness in humans has complicated the epidemiological landscape of tick-borne diseases, requiring further investigation to safeguard public health. In the present study, we discovered a novel tick-borne phlebovirus from Ixodes persulcatus ticks in Japan. While its viral RNA genome sequences were similar to...
Opinion/Hypothesis | Ecological and Evolutionary ScienceModel Communities Hint at Promiscuous Metabolic Linkages between Ubiquitous Free-Living Freshwater BacteriaGenome streamlining is frequently observed in free-living aquatic microorganisms and results in physiological dependencies between microorganisms. However, we know little about the specificity of these microbial associations.
Opinion/Hypothesis | Ecological and Evolutionary ScienceExperimental Evolution as a High-Throughput Screen for Genetic AdaptationsExperimental evolution is a method in which populations of organisms, often microbes, are founded by one or more ancestors of known genotype and then propagated under controlled conditions to study the evolutionary process. These evolving populations are influenced by all population genetic forces, including selection, mutation, drift, and recombination, and the relative contributions of these forces may be seen as mysterious.
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