Summer diet of Podarcis milensis, P. gaigeae and P. erhardii (Sauria: Lacertidae)

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Assessing the accuracy of cranial and pelvic ageing methods on human skeletal remains from a modern Greek assemblage

The present study tests the accuracy of commonly adopted ageing methods based on the morphology of the pubic symphysis, auricular surface and cranial sutures. These methods are examined both in their traditional form as well as in the context of transition analysis using the ADBOU software in a modern Greek documented collection consisting of 140 individuals who lived mainly in the second half of the twentieth century and come from cemeteries in the area of Athens. The auricular surface overall produced the most accurate age estimates in our material, with different methods based on this anatomical area showing varying degrees of success for different age groups. The pubic symphysis produced accurate results primarily for young adults and the same applied to cranial sutures but the latter appeared completely inappropriate for older individuals. The use of transition analysis through the ADBOU software provided less accurate results than the corresponding traditional ageing methods in our sample. Our results are in agreement with those obtained from validation studies based on material from across the world, but certain differences identified with other studies on Greek material highlight the importance of taking into account intra- and inter-population variability in age estimation. © 2018 Elsevier B.V

Fine with heat, problems with water: microclimate alters water loss in a thermally adapted insular lizard

Global change, including habitat isolation and climate change, has both short- and long-term impacts on wildlife populations. For example, genetic drift and inbreeding result in genetic impoverishment in small, isolated populations, while species undergo range shifts or adaptive phenotypic change in response to shifts in environmental temperatures. In this study, we utilize a model system in which Holocene landscape changes have occurred to examine long-term effects of population isolation. To examine how isolation may constrain responses to climate change, we characterized ecophysiology across land-bridge island populations of Erhard's wall lizard Podarcis erhardii. We hypothesized that 1) small, isolated populations that are likely genetically depauperate would exhibit lower phenotypic variability; and 2) populations would be adapted to local microhabitat conditions. We compared a population at a low elevation site on the large island of Naxos with two small populations on nearby islets to determine the effects of population fragmentation. We further compared the low elevation Naxos population with two high elevation sites characterized by disparate microclimates to examine the effects of microclimate. To assess the thermal biology and ecophysiological limits of the study species we measured operative body temperatures (Te), field body temperatures (Tb), preferred temperatures (Tp), thermal tolerances (CTmax and CTmin), and evaporative water loss (EWL). Our results indicate that small, isolated populations did not exhibit thermal biology or evaporative water loss, while EWL and thermoregulatory effort varied according to microhabitat characteristics. This study integrates fine-scale measurements with environmental data to provide a holistic view of the relationships between ecophysiology, fragmentation, and microclimate. Our methods can be applied to other ectotherms to gain a better understanding of potential impacts of global change on natural populations. © 2016 The Author

The nucleotide sequence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome VII.

The complete nucleotide sequence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome VII has 572 predicted open reading frames (ORFs), of which 341 are new. No correlation was found between G+C content and gene density along the chromosome, and their variations are random. Of the ORFs, 17% show high similarity to human proteins. Almost half of the ORFs could be classified in functional categories, and there is a slight increase in the number of transcription (7.0%) and translation (5.2%) factors when compared with the complete S. cerevisiae genome. Accurate verification procedures demonstrate that there are less than two errors per 10,000 base pairs in the published sequence.journal articleresearch support, non-u.s. gov't1997 May 29importe

From proteomic mapping to invasion‐metastasis‐cascade systemic biomarkering and targeted drugging of mutant braf‐dependent human cutaneous melanomagenesis

Melanoma is classified among the most notoriously aggressive human cancers. Despite the recent progress, due to its propensity for metastasis and resistance to therapy, novel biomarkers and oncogenic molecular drivers need to be promptly identified for metastatic melanoma. Hence, by employing nano liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry deep proteomics technology, advanced bioinformatics algorithms, immunofluorescence, western blotting, wound healing protocols, molecular modeling programs, and MTT assays, we comparatively examined the respective proteomic contents of WM115 primary (n = 3955 proteins) and WM266‐4 metastatic (n = 6681 proteins) melanoma cells. It proved that WM115 and WM266‐4 cells have engaged hybrid epithelialto‐mesenchymal transition/mesenchymal‐to‐epithelial transition states, with TGF‐β controlling their motility in vitro. They are characterized by different signatures of SOX‐dependent neural crestlike stemness and distinct architectures of the cytoskeleton network. Multiple signaling pathways have already been activated from the primary melanoma stage, whereas HIF1α, the major hypoxiainducible factor, can be exclusively observed in metastatic melanoma cells. Invasion‐metastasis cascade‐specific sub‐routines of activated Caspase‐3‐triggered apoptosis and LC3B‐II‐dependent constitutive autophagy were also unveiled. Importantly, WM115 and WM266‐4 cells exhibited diverse drug response profiles, with epirubicin holding considerable promise as a beneficial drug for metastatic melanoma clinical management. It is the proteome navigation that enables systemic biomarkering and targeted drugging to open new therapeutic windows for advanced disease. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Immune responses of a wall lizard to whole-body exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation

This research has been co-financed by the European Union (European Social Fund [ESF]) and Greek national funds through the Operational Program ‘‘Education and Lifelong Learning’’ of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) – Research Funding Program: THALES. Investing in knowledge society through the European Social Fund. UoA – MIS 375784: ‘‘Biological effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic fields: a multidisciplinary approach’’ grant coordinated by L.H. Margaritis