The causes and consequences of genome reduction in animals are unclear because our understanding of this process mostly relies on lineages with often exceptionally high rates of evolution. Here, we decode the compact ...

Hellenistic portraiture comprises many visual expressions ranging from the ideal to the real. Several factors play a part in the shaping of this diverse portrait art. From the 4th century BC onwards, there was a growing ...

Calcium imaging is an increasingly valuable technique for understanding neural circuits, neuroethology, and cellular mechanisms. The analysis of calcium imaging data presents challenges in image processing, data organization, ...

The oceans’ uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) decreases seawater pH and alters the inorganic carbon speciation – summarized in the term ocean acidification (OA). Already today, coastal regions experience episodic ...

Excretion is an essential physiological process, carried out by all living organisms, regardless of their size or complexity.1, 2, 3 Both protostomes (e.g., flies and flatworms) and deuterostomes (e.g., humans and sea ...

Background: In cnidarians, antagonistic interactions with predators and prey are mediated by their venom, whose synthesis may be metabolically expensive. The potentially high cost of venom production has been hypothesized ...

Terminal selectors are transcription factors that control the morphological, physiological, and molecular features that characterize distinct cell types. Here, we show that, in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis, NvPOU4 ...

Venomous snakebites cause >100 000 deaths every year, in many cases via potent depression of human neuromuscular signaling by snake α-neurotoxins. Emergency therapy still relies on antibody-based antivenom, hampered by ...

The tropical rainforests of Sundaland are a global biodiversity hotspot increasingly threatened by human activities. While parasitic insects are an important component of the ecosystem, their diversity and parasite-host ...