Topic Review
Southern African Gekkonids Diversity
South Africa is recognised for its high reptile diversity and endemism, specifically among lizards. Phylogenetic diversity, endemism, and richness can have clear implications or raise important questions in a range of fields, and most urgently in conservation. Among squamate reptiles, these indices are very commonly associated with high temperatures and topographic heterogeneity. Indeed, mountainous biogeography has been a critical driver in the radiation of the family Gekkonidae within the subregion.
  • 39
  • 27 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Opportunities for Biodiversity Conservation via Urban Ecosystem Regeneration
Conservation traditionally focuses on at-risk species and relatively intact ecosystems. As the human population and our global impact have risen, many more species and ecosystems are at risk and fewer intact ecosystems remain, with urbanization being a major contributing factor. Cities and their inhabitants are here to stay, and the prevalence of urbanization, often in the vicinity of areas of high conservation value, requires reconsideration of the conservation value of urban ecosystems and urban green spaces.
  • 88
  • 05 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Community-Based Strategy of Forest Genetic Conservation
Forest genetic conservation is typically species-specific and does not integrate interspecific interaction and community structure. It mainly focuses on the theories of population and quantitative genetics. This approach depicts the intraspecific patterns of population genetic structure derived from genetic markers and the genetic differentiation of adaptive quantitative traits in provenance trials. Phylogenetic β-diversity would assess the similarities and differences of a tree species across communities regarding ecological function, the strength of selection pressure, and the nature and extent of its interaction with other species. 
  • 126
  • 23 Feb 2024
Topic Review
Metaverse Applications in Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics and genomics are driving a healthcare revolution, particularly in the domain of drug discovery for anticancer peptides (ACPs). The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed healthcare, enabling personalized and immersive patient care experiences. These advanced technologies, coupled with the power of bioinformatics and genomic data, facilitate groundbreaking developments. The precise prediction of ACPs from complex biological sequences remains an ongoing challenge in the genomic area. 
  • 61
  • 02 Feb 2024
Topic Review
The Reason Breeding Companies Established Genebanks
Among the most important users of plant genetic resources, conserved predominantly in public genebanks around the world, are public and private plant breeders. Through their breeding efforts, they contribute significantly to global, regional, and local food and nutrition security. Plant breeders need genetic diversity to be able to develop competitive new varieties that are adapted to the changing environmental conditions and suit the needs of consumers. To ensure continued and timely access to the genetic resources that contain the required characteristics and traits, plant breeders established working collections with breeding materials and germplasm for the crops they were breeding. However, with the changing and increasingly more restrictive access conditions, triggered by new global legal instruments like the Convention on Biological Diversity/Nagoya Protocol and the International Treaty, plant breeders started to establish their own genebanks, to ensure continued and non-bureaucratic access.
  • 62
  • 28 Jan 2024
Topic Review
State of the World’s Herbaria
Herbaria remain the primary means of documenting plant life on earth, and the number of herbaria worldwide and the number of specimens they hold continues to grow. Digitization of herbarium specimens, though far from complete, has increased the discoverability of herbarium holdings and has increased the range of studies from which data from herbarium specimens can be used. The rather large number of herbaria about which no current information is available is a source of concern, as is herbarium consolidation and removal of herbaria to offsite storage facilities. Partnerships are key to the future health of herbaria. 
  • 67
  • 09 Jan 2024
Topic Review
Caspase-Linked Programmed Cell Death in Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer (PCa) is a complex disease and the cause of one of the highest cancer-related mortalities in men worldwide. Annually, more than 1.2 million new cases are diagnosed globally, accounting for 7% of newly diagnosed cancers in men. Programmed cell death (PCD) plays an essential role in removing infected, functionally dispensable, or potentially neoplastic cells. Apoptosis is the canonical form of PCD with no inflammatory responses elicited, and the close relationship between apoptosis and PCa has been well studied. Necroptosis and pyroptosis are two lytic forms of PCD that result in the release of intracellular contents, which induce inflammatory responses.
  • 102
  • 18 Dec 2023
Topic Review
Host–Parasitoid Phenology under Climate Change
Climate change raises a serious threat to global entomofauna—the foundation of many ecosystems—by threatening species preservation and the ecosystem services they provide.
  • 213
  • 05 Dec 2023
Topic Review
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Marine Mammal Research
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as “drones” or remote piloted aircrafts (RPAs), are an emerging tool for wildlife studies that could serve as a safer and non-invasive alternative or complement to traditional methodologies for marine mammal monitoring, with less impact on target populations. Marine mammals are ecosystem engineers that influence ecosystem structure and function because of their role in middle and upper trophic levels, large body size, and high regional abundance, exerting an important top-down control effect on the food web. 
  • 154
  • 15 Nov 2023
Topic Review
Guzmania monostachia in Florida Rests with Humans
Land use changes by humans have eliminated more than half of the wetlands in Florida over the last 200 years, and additional losses are anticipated as a consequence of climate change and ongoing development activities that will accommodate a rapidly growing human population. Both spell danger for the biodiversity and ecosystem services in Florida, and data are needed to inform conservation priorities and actions concerning threatened or endangered wetland species.
  • 173
  • 20 Oct 2023
  • Page
  • of
  • 8