The Present study aims to examine the physiological adaptability of Panicum turgidum growing in three different habitats: sand dunes, sandy plains, and saline areas. To assess how well plants adapted to rising salinity, physicochemical features of the soil, photosynthetic pigments, biochemical traits, and ionic contents were examined in root and stem tissues of P. turgidum. Five subsites were selected from each habitat, and the quadrat method was applied for vegetative sampling. Outcomes revealed that electrical conductivity (41.3 ± 0.3 dS m⁻1) and concentrations of Na⁺ (4967.9 ± 0.2 mg L⁻1) and Cl⁻ (2431.7 ± 0.3 mg L⁻1) increased from dunes to saline environments, indicating a distinct salinity gradient in the soil. However, under saline circumstances, chlorophyll a and b dramatically decreased, suggesting stress effects on photosynthesis. Osmolytes and stress-related metabolites, such as proline (294.8 ± 1.13 µg g− 1 FW), free amino acids (1593.7 ± 2.83 µg g− 1 FW), soluble proteins (1706.5 ± 1.07 µg g− 1 FW), and total soluble sugars (28.71 ± 0.44 mg g− 1 DW), gradually increased in saline environments. Antioxidants, including flavonoids (3.846 ± 0.04 mg g− 1 DW) and phenolics (11.35 ± 0.01 µg g− 1 FW), also showed greater accumulation in saline conditions, indicating improved protection against oxidative stress. The ion accumulation showed higher Na⁺ and Cl⁻ buildup in root and stem tissues, together with controlled levels of K⁺ and Ca²⁺. These findings indicate that P. turgidum has coordinated physiological responses that may help its survival in saline desert environments, including osmotic adjustment, antioxidant resistance, and ion control. These results suggest that P. turgidum may useful in future studies associated with saline land restoration and desert surroundings.
Feather mites are permanent ectosymbionts that occupy discrete feather microhabitats; however, little is known about how associations between dorsal and ventral taxa vary along continuous wing gradients. We examined feather-level spatial abundance associations between dorsal and ventral feather mites along the proximodistal axis of the wing in the Siberian Rubythroat (Calliope calliope) via nonlinear mixed-effects models. Dorsal feather mites (Trouessartia calliope) were largely absent from distal outer remiges (flight feathers) and increased toward proximal body-side remiges, whereas ventral feather mites (Proctophyllodes sp.) exhibited a positional gradient along the wing. When averaged across positions, the dorsal and ventral abundances showed only weak overall associations. However, position-specific analyses revealed that the dorsal–ventral slope was positive in distal outer remiges, declined toward mid-wing positions, and approached weakly negative values in the innermost secondaries. Because dorsal abundance was minimal distally, positive slopes in that region should not be interpreted as evidence of stable coexistence and may reflect responses to environmental constraints associated with distal wing positions. This position-dependent association was detected in breeding adult birds but not in juvenile birds, suggesting age-related differences in within-host spatial organization that may reflect the shorter time since mite transmission to juveniles and subsequent community assembly. Feather mite abundances were bilaterally symmetrical and showed no consistent effects of sex, date, or year, suggesting that host-level morphological stability provides a consistent spatial template for parasite organization. Together, these findings demonstrate that within-host feather mite assemblages exhibit spatially heterogeneous abundance associations along the wing, highlighting the importance of fine-scale spatial variation for understanding the organization and potential ecological relationships of cooccurring parasite taxa.
Determining whether a person died from drowning remains a major forensic challenge, particularly in cases involving advanced decomposition where only skeletal remains are available. Traditional methods, such as diatom analysis and macroscopic autopsy findings, often lack sufficient specificity and reliability. Although several molecular biomarkers have been investigated, none has yet demonstrated sufficient accuracy for routine forensic application. This prospective experimental study evaluated a novel dual-biomarker approach using Aquaporin 5 (AQP5), a water channel protein, and Cytochrome c (CYCS), an apoptosis-related protein, as potential indicators of drowning. Thirty-eight adult Wistar rats were randomly assigned to experimental drowning groups or non-drowning control groups (exposed to freshwater from Boračko and Jablaničko lakes. Lung, femoral bone, and dental tissues were collected postmortem, and AQP5 and CYCS concentrations were quantified using commercially available ELISA kits. Statistical analyses included the Shapiro–Wilk test and the Mann–Whitney U test, with statistical significance set at p < 0.05. AQP5 expression in dental tissue differed significantly between drowning and control groups in both freshwater environments (p = 0.0184 and p = 0.0235), whereas no significant differences were observed in lung or bone tissues. CYCS expression did not differ significantly between drowning and control groups in any tissue examined. These findings suggest that AQP5 expression in dental tissue may represent a promising supplementary biomarker for the forensic diagnosis of drowning, particularly in cases where only skeletal remains are available. Further validation in human tissues and larger experimental cohorts is warranted.
The role of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in plant-insect interactions has been studied in detail in recent decades, especially in the context of environment-friendly integrated pest management (IPM) in agroecosystems. Field-based study and behavioural investigations have shown that specific VOCs (or combinations of VOCs) of companion crops are crucial in diverting phytophagous insects from main food or cash crops, along with attracting beneficial insects which decimate pest species. The functional mechanisms of these olfactory cues, however, are not always clear and distinctive, especially since these ecological interactions are highly variable. The complex ‘odourscapes’ occurring in mixed cropping systems are determined by species-specific interactions, local climate, prevalent agricultural/landscaping practices, and other environmental factors which need to be examined in localized contexts. This review aims to cover the dynamics and mechanisms of VOCs mediating plant-insect interactions in mixed crop settings, the variables and technical constraints to be considered for implementing these interactions for cost-effective IPM, and potential challenges presented by ecological fine-tuning of such interactions.
Antiarchs represent a highly specialized clade of early jawed vertebrates adapted to benthic habitats and form a major component of Devonian aquatic ecosystems. Euantiarchs, the most diverse antiarch clade, previously had their earliest record from the Emsian of the Early Devonian in China. They achieved a nearly cosmopolitan distribution during the Middle to Late Devonian. Here, we describe a new euantiarch, Yangfanyu anachoresis gen. et sp. nov., based on articulated specimens from the Pragian (Early Devonian, 410 Ma) of Guangnan, Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan Province, southwestern China. Using X-ray computed tomography and three-dimensional digital visualization, we reconstructed the complete dermal head and trunk shields. In addition to diagnostic euantiarch characters, Yangfanyu retains several plesiomorphic features, notably the cavity for the cranio-spinal process and the oblique ridge on the lateral wall of the trunk shield. Phylogenetic analysis placed Yangfanyu at the most basal position among euantiarchs, forming the sister taxon to all other euantiarchs. This placement extends the fossil record of Euantiarcha by approximately 10 million years, refines character polarity at the base of the clade, and indicates that the characteristic euantiarch morphology was assembled progressively through the sequential acquisition of derived characters during the earliest stages of euantiarch evolution.
