New marine gastropod records for the Hellenic waters

The Hellenic Seas are influenced by on-going environmental changes and the introduction of alien species, which are expected to have an impact on their biodiversity. This study contributes to the knowledge of ...

Authors: Thanasis Manousis, Constantinos Kontadakis, Georgios Polyzoulis, George Mbazios and Sofia Galinou-Mitsoudi

Cadmium uptake kinetics in parts of the seagrass Cymodocea nodosa at high exposure concentrations

Seagrass species have been recommended as biomonitors of environmental condition and as tools for phytoremediation, due to their ability to concentrate anthropogenic chemicals. This study aims to provide novel...

Authors: Paraskevi Malea, Theodoros Kevrekidis, Konstantina-Roxani Chatzipanagiotou and Athanasios Mogias

Molecular, biochemical and kinetic analysis of a novel, thermostable lipase (LipSm) from Stenotrophomonas maltophilia Psi-1, the first member of a new bacterial lipase family (XVIII)

Microbial lipases catalyze a broad spectrum of reactions and are enzymes of considerable biotechnological interest. The focus of this study was the isolation of new lipase genes, intending to discover novel li...

Authors: Maria Parapouli, Athanasios Foukis, Panagiota-Yiolanda Stergiou, Maria Koukouritaki, Panagiotis Magklaras, Olga A. Gkini, Emmanuel M. Papamichael, Amalia-Sofia Afendra and Efstathios Hatziloukas

Bone marrow stem cells to destroy circulating HIV: a hypothetical therapeutic strategy

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) still poses enigmatic threats to human life. This virus has mastered in bypassing anti retroviral therapy leading to patients’ death. Circulating viruses are phenomenal for t...

Authors: Umesh Chandra Halder

HaloDom: a new database of halophiles across all life domains

Halophilic organisms may thrive in or tolerate high salt concentrations. They have been studied for decades and a considerable number of papers reporting new halophilic species are being published every year. ...

Authors: Alexios Loukas, Ilias Kappas and Theodore J. Abatzopoulos

Genetic diversity analysis of cultivated Korarima [Aframomum corrorima (Braun) P.C.M. Jansen] populations from southwestern Ethiopia using inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR) marker

Korarima (Aframomum corrorima) is a perennial and aromatic herb native and widely distributed in southwestern Ethiopia. It is known for its fine flavor as a spice in various Ethiopian traditional dishes. Few mole...

Authors: Dagmawit Chombe and Endashaw Bekele

Effects of partial dietary supplementation of fish meal with soymeal on the stress and apoptosis response in the digestive system of common dentex (Dentex dentex)

Soybean is a common alternative protein source of plant origin in aquafeeds as it has a reasonably balanced amino acid profile and is widely available. This study aimed to investigate the influence of partial ...

Authors: Efthimia Antonopoulou, Eleni Chouri, Konstantinos Feidantsis, Antigone Lazou and Stavros Chatzifotis

Host species and pathogenicity effects in the evolution of the mitochondrial genomes of Eimeria species (Apicomplexa; Coccidia; Eimeriidae)

Mitochondria are fundamental organelles responsible for cellular metabolism and energy production in eukaryotes via the oxidative phosphorylation pathway. Mitochondrial DNA is often used in population and spec...

Authors: Asma Awadi

AFLP reveals low genetic diversity of the bryozoan Pectinatella magnifica (Leidy, 1851) in the Czech Republic

Non-native species have aroused scientific interest because of their ability to successfully colonise areas to which they have been introduced, despite their sometimes limited genetic variation compared to the...

Authors: Vendula Moravcová, Jana Moravcová, Vladislav Čurn, Zuzana Balounová, Josef Rajchard and Lenka Havlíčková

Evaluation of a simple method for storage of blood samples that enables isolation of circulating tumor cells 96 h after sample collection

Minimizing the effects of transportation on the properties of biological material is a major challenge for the scientific community. The viability of cells is important in cases where their study is urgent for...

Authors: Panagiotis Apostolou, Dimitrios-Athanasios Ntanovasilis and Ioannis Papasotiriou

MicroRNA-454 may function as an oncogene via targeting AKT in triple negative breast cancer

Altered microRNAs expression mediates tumor development and progression in many type cancers including triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). Here we detected the effect of miR-454 on cell proliferation, migrat...

Authors: Qun Li, Jia Liu, Xianying Meng, Renzhu Pang and Jie Li

Bone marker gene expression in calvarial bones: different bone microenvironments

In calvarial mice, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) differentiate into osteoprogenitor cells and then differentiate into osteoblasts that differentiate into osteocytes, which become embedded within the bone matri...

Authors: Osama Al-Amer

Two single nucleotide polymorphisms sites in α1-AT gene and their association with somatic cell score in Chinese Holstein cows

Alpha 1-antitrypsin (α1-AT) may affect the susceptibility of mastitis in dairy cattle for its possible role in the protection of lactoferrin from proteolytic degradation in the mammary. Milk somatic cell score...

Authors: Xiao-Fei Guo, Wen-Ping Hu, Xian-Zheng Lang, Qiu-Ling Li, Xiang-Yu Wang, Ran Di, Qiu-Yue Liu, Xiao-Lin Liu, Yong-Fu An and Ming-Xing Chu

A survey of methods and tools to detect recent and strong positive selection

Positive selection occurs when an allele is favored by natural selection. The frequency of the favored allele increases in the population and due to genetic hitchhiking the neighboring linked variation diminis...

Authors: Pavlos Pavlidis and Nikolaos Alachiotis

Sudden infant death syndrome due to long QT syndrome: a brief review of the genetic substrate and prevalence

The pathophysiological mechanisms which lead to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) are not completely understood. Cardiac channelopathies are a well-established causative factor with long QT syndrome (LQTS) b...

Authors: Nikolaos S. Ioakeimidis, Theodora Papamitsou, Soultana Meditskou and Zafiroula Iakovidou-Kritsi

Protective role of hesperidin against γ-radiation-induced oxidative stress and apoptosis in rat testis

Gamma (γ) ray, an electromagnetic radiation, is occasionally accompanying the emission of an alpha or beta particle. Exposure to such radiation can cause cellular changes such as mutations, chromosome aberrati...

Authors: Nadia Z. Shaban, Ahmed M. Ahmed Zahran, Fatma H. El-Rashidy and Ahmad S. Abdo Kodous

The Aegean archipelago: a natural laboratory of evolution, ecology and civilisations

The Aegean archipelago, comprising numerous islands and islets with great heterogeneity in topographic, geological, historical and environmental properties, offers an ideal natural laboratory for ecological an...

Authors: Spyros Sfenthourakis and Kostas A. Triantis

Genetic diversity of Atlantic Bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean Sea: insights from genome-wide SNPs and microsatellites

Elucidating the patterns of the Atlantic Bluefin tuna [ABFT, Thunnus thynnus (Linnaeus, 1758)] population structure constitutes a challenging task of great importance. Most of the unique challenges stem from its ...

Authors: Aglaia Antoniou, Panagiotis Kasapidis, Georgios Kotoulas, Constantinos C. Mylonas and Antonios Magoulas

Evolution and inheritance of animal mitochondrial DNA: rules and exceptions

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has been studied intensely for “its own” merit. Its role for the function of the cell and the organism remains a fertile field, its origin and evolution is an indispensable part of th...

Authors: Emmanuel D. Ladoukakis and Eleftherios Zouros

Campanula lingulata populations on Mt. Olympus, Greece: where’s the “abundant centre”?

The abundant-centre hypothesis (ACH) assumes that a species becomes more abundant at the centre of its range, where the environmental conditions are most favorable. As we move away from this centre, abundance ...

Authors: Anastasia E. Tzortzaki, Despoina Vokou and John M. Halley

Effects of cell seeding density on real-time monitoring of anti-proliferative effects of transient gene silencing

Real-time cellular analysis systems enable impedance-based label-free and dynamic monitoring of various cellular events such as proliferation. In this study, we describe the effects of initial cell seeding den...

Authors: Cigdem Selli, Yasemin Erac and Metiner Tosun

DNA methylation changes and TE activity induced in tissue cultures of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)

In vitro plant regeneration via androgenesis or somatic embryogenesis is capable of inducing (epi)mutations that may affect sexual progenies. While epimutations are associated with DNA methylation, mutations c...

Authors: Renata Orłowska, Joanna Machczyńska, Sylwia Oleszczuk, Janusz Zimny and Piotr Tomasz Bednarek

Identification and validation of Aeluropus littoralis reference genes for Quantitative Real-Time PCR Normalization

The use of stably expressed genes as normalizers has crucial role in accurate and reliable expression analysis estimated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Recent studies have shown th...

Authors: Seyyed Hamidreza Hashemi, Ghorbanali Nematzadeh, Gholamreza Ahmadian, Ahad Yamchi and Markus Kuhlmann

Hominin interbreeding and the evolution of human variation

Mitochondrial Eve confirms the “out of Africa” theory, but the evidence also supports interbreeding between Homo sapiens and other hominins: Neanderthals, Denisovans, and Homo heidelbergensis. This article explai...

Authors: Kwang Hyun Ko

Ganges: special at its origin

Authors: Krishna Khairnar