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Patterns of variation in eggshell colour of Mountain Bluebirds (Sialia currucoides) provide mixed support for the sexually selected eggshell colour hypothesis
Determining the functional significance of ornamental traits and whether they are shaped by sexual selection requires understanding how they vary...
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Small RNA and drought tolerance in crop plants
Drought is one of the major abiotic stresses affecting plant growth and development and thus affecting yield and productivity in the major dry areas...
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Light and electron microscopic studies on the retina of the booted eagle (Aquila pennata)
The retinal structure of the booted eagle ( Aquila pennata) was investigated using light and electron microscopy. Particular attention is paid to the...
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Living off the Sun: chlorophylls, bacteriochlorophylls and rhodopsins
Pigments absorbing 350–1,050 nm radiation have had an important role on the Earth for at least 3.5 billion years. The ion pum** rhodopsins absorb...
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Assessing the ecological significance of bee visual detection and colour discrimination on the evolution of flower colours
Bee pollinators interact with flowers in a complex signal-receiver system. Chromatic traits that allow reliable discrimination between rewarding and...
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Relationships between female quality, egg mass and eggshell blue-green colouration in southern rockhopper penguins: a test of the sexual signalling hypothesis
Eggshell blue-green colouration (BGC) is caused by the pigment biliverdin which has antioxidant capacities. Eggshell BGC has therefore been...
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Skin and flange colour, but not ectoparasites, predict condition and survival in starling nestlings
AbstractParents are expected to strategically partition their limited resources among the current and future progeny in order to maximize their...
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Quantifying camouflage: how to predict detectability from appearance
BackgroundQuantifying the conspicuousness of objects against particular backgrounds is key to understanding the evolution and adaptive value of...
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Effects of food and thermal regimes on body condition indices and skin colouration in corn snakes
One of the open problems in evolutionary ecology is signal reliability. While the view that signals need to be costly to be honest has attracted most...
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Now you see me, now you don’t: iridescence increases the efficacy of lizard chromatic signals
The selective forces imposed by primary receivers and unintended eavesdroppers of animal signals often act in opposite directions, constraining the...
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Optic-nerve-transmitted eyeshine, a new type of light emission from fish eyes
BackgroundMost animal eyes feature an opaque pigmented eyecup to assure that light can enter from one direction only. We challenge this dogma by...
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Diversity in pitch perception revealed by task dependence
Pitch conveys critical information in speech, music and other natural sounds, and is conventionally defined as the perceptual correlate of a sound’s...
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What is the value of a yellow patch? Assessing the signalling role of yellow colouration in the European serin
Sexual selection promotes the evolution of signals, many of which can reliably indicate condition, health or good genes of individuals. In order to...
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Nutrient depletion modifies cell wall adsorption activity of wine yeast
Yeast cell wall is a structure that helps yeasts to manage and respond to many environmental stresses. The mannosylphosphorylation is a modification...
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Methylglyoxal and Glyoxalase System in Plants: Old Players, New Concepts
Methylglyoxal (MG), a reactive α, β-dicarbonyl ketoaldehyde, is unavoidable by-product of several metabolic pathways, it has long been considered as...
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Visual Matched Filtering in Vertebrates
Despite their large brains, vertebrates extensively filter visual information with numerous adaptations within their eyes, simplifying the stream of...
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Tuning a cellular lipid kinase activity adapts hepatitis C virus to replication in cell culture
With a single exception, all isolates of hepatitis C virus (HCV) require adaptive mutations to replicate efficiently in cell culture. Here, we show...
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The kinesin-4 protein Kif7 regulates mammalian Hedgehog signalling by organizing the cilium tip compartment
Mammalian Hedgehog (Hh) signal transduction requires a primary cilium, a microtubule-based organelle, and the Gli–Sufu complexes that mediate Hh...
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Age-related change in carotenoid-based plumage of the American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla)
Plumage colouration serves a variety of functions for birds, including conspecific signalling, crypsis, and predator–prey interactions. Though much...
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Effect of decellularization on the load-bearing characteristics of articular cartilage matrix
The application of decellularized extracellular matrices to aid tissue regeneration in reconstructive surgery and regenerative medicine has been...