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| Animal venoms are powerful, highly evolved chemical weapons for defense and predation. While venoms are used mainly to lethally antagonize heterospecifics (individuals of a different species), nonlethal envenomation of conspecifics (individuals of the same species) is occasionally observed. Both the venom and target specifications underlying these two forms of envenomation are still poorly unde... more |
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| The study carried out with amphibians as models has made many outstanding original contributions to the life science process, such as muscle metabolism, chemical basis of nerve conduction, somatic cell cloning etc. The skin of amphibians is responsible for important physiological functions of breathing, water balance, mucosal barrier and immunity, but little is known about the mechanisms of cel... more |
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Stroke is the third most common cause of mortality and often leads to long-term disability with no efficient clinical therapy in place. In 80% of cases, stroke is diagnosed as ischemia induced by thrombotic occlusion of cerebral arteries or branches. A variety of circular RNA (circRNAs) molecules are known to function in ischemic brain injury.
In a recent study published in Circulation, res... more |
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| Whole-genome duplication (WGD) or polyploidy provides genomic opportunities for evolutionary innovations and adaptation. Polyploid animal appear to be incapable of coping with genomic and developmental chaos resulting from the merging of two genomes in newly synthesized systems. In polyploid plants, biased subgenomic changes may help alleviate chaos from genome mergers, and subsequent co-ordina... more |
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| Protective resemblance is an important ecological adaptive mechanism in the struggle for survival of many organisms. It usually includes three categories: general resemblance to the environment (i.e., crypsis), more exactly imitating surrounding objects, such as bark, a leaf, or a flower (i.e., masquerade), and resemblance of other species (mimcry: such as Bayesian mimicry and Mullerian mimicry... more |
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