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Open AccessConformational coupling of the sialic acid TRAP transporter HiSiaQM with its substrate binding protein HiSiaP
The tripartite ATP-independent periplasmic (TRAP) transporters use an extra cytoplasmic substrate binding protein (SBP) to transport a wide variety of substrates in bacteria and archaea. The SBP can adopt an o...
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Article
Open AccessDeep learning image segmentation reveals patterns of UV reflectance evolution in passerine birds
Ultraviolet colouration is thought to be an important form of signalling in many bird species, yet broad insights regarding the prevalence of ultraviolet plumage colouration and the factors promoting its evolu...
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Article
Open AccessStructural and mechanistic analysis of a tripartite ATP-independent periplasmic TRAP transporter
Tripartite ATP-independent periplasmic (TRAP) transporters are found widely in bacteria and archaea and consist of three structural domains, a soluble substrate-binding protein (P-domain), and two transmembran...
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Article
Open AccessCross-validation of distance measurements in proteins by PELDOR/DEER and single-molecule FRET
Pulsed electron-electron double resonance spectroscopy (PELDOR/DEER) and single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer spectroscopy (smFRET) are frequently used to determine conformational changes, structu...
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Article
Latitudinal gradients in avian colourfulness
It has long been suggested that tropical species are generally more colourful than temperate species, but whether latitudinal gradients in organismal colourfulness exist remains controversial. Here we quantify...
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Article
Open AccessReconstitution and optimisation of the biosynthesis of bacterial sugar pseudaminic acid (Pse5Ac7Ac) enables preparative enzymatic synthesis of CMP-Pse5Ac7Ac
Pseudaminic acids present on the surface of pathogenic bacteria, including gut pathogens Campylobacter jejuni and Helicobacter pylori, are postulated to play influential roles in the etiology of associated infect...
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Article
Heterogeneous relationships between rates of speciation and body size evolution across vertebrate clades
Several theories predict that rates of phenotypic evolution should be related to the rate at which new lineages arise. However, drawing general conclusions regarding the coupling between these fundamental evol...
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Article
Open AccessThe molecular basis of thioalcohol production in human body odour
Body odour is a characteristic trait of Homo sapiens, however its role in human behaviour and evolution is poorly understood. Remarkably, body odour is linked to the presence of a few species of commensal microbe...
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Open AccessEcology and allometry predict the evolution of avian developmental durations
The duration of the developmental period represents a fundamental axis of life-history variation, yet broad insights regarding the drivers of this diversity are currently lacking. Here, we test mechanistic and...
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Article
Open AccessRobust microorganisms for biofuel and chemical production from municipal solid waste
Worldwide 3.4 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) will be produced annually by 2050, however, current approaches to MSW management predominantly involve unsustainable practices like landfilling and i...
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Article
Elucidation of a sialic acid metabolism pathway in mucus-foraging Ruminococcus gnavus unravels mechanisms of bacterial adaptation to the gut
Sialic acid (N-acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5Ac)) is commonly found in the terminal location of colonic mucin glycans where it is a much-coveted nutrient for gut bacteria, including Ruminococcus gnavus. R. gnavus is...
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Author Correction: Comprehensive identification of RNA–protein interactions in any organism using orthogonal organic phase separation (OOPS)
An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper
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Article
Open AccessSexual selection predicts the rate and direction of colour divergence in a large avian radiation
Sexual selection is proposed to be a powerful driver of phenotypic evolution in animal systems. At macroevolutionary scales, sexual selection can theoretically drive both the rate and direction of phenotypic e...
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Article
Comprehensive identification of RNA–protein interactions in any organism using orthogonal organic phase separation (OOPS)
Existing high-throughput methods to identify RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) are based on capture of polyadenylated RNAs and cannot recover proteins that interact with nonadenylated RNAs, including long noncoding ...
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Article
Correction: Corrigendum: Mega-evolutionary dynamics of the adaptive radiation of birds
Nature 542, 344–347 (2017); doi:10.1038/nature21074 In this Letter, two files were inadvertently omitted from the Supplementary Information. The two files (‘Prum_merge_taxonomy_CRC_v2.csv’ and ‘PrumTreeMerge_C...
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Mega-evolutionary dynamics of the adaptive radiation of birds
A study of more than 2,000 bird species shows that diversity in bill shape expands towards extreme morphologies early in avian evolution in a series of major jumps, before switching to a second phase in which ...
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Open AccessCorrection: Corrigendum: Intrinsic challenges in ancient microbiome reconstruction using 16S rRNA gene amplification
Scientific Reports 5: Article number: 16498; Published online: 13 November 2015; Updated: 02 June 2016 The Acknowledgements section in this Article is incomplete. “This work was supported by the European Resea...
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Open AccessIntrinsic challenges in ancient microbiome reconstruction using 16S rRNA gene amplification
To date, characterization of ancient oral (dental calculus) and gut (coprolite) microbiota has been primarily accomplished through a metataxonomic approach involving targeted amplification of one or more varia...
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Article
An avian explosion
The genome sequences of 198 bird species provide an unprecedented combination of breadth and depth of data, and allow the most robust resolution so far of the early evolutionary relationships of modern birds. See...
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Open AccessEvolutionary diversification of an ancient gene family (rhs) through C-terminal displacement
Rhs genes are prominent features of bacterial genomes that have previously been implicated in genomic rearrangements in E. coli. By comparing rhs repertoires across the Enterobacteriaceae, this study provides a r...
