PeerJ最新文献

{"title":"Comparative range-wide phylogeography and evolutionary history of the two <i>Pyrrhocorax</i> species (Passeriformes: Corvidae).","authors":"Iñigo Palacios-Martínez, Francisco Morinha, José Antonio Dávila, Mohammad Tohidifar, Michael Stubbe, Annegret Stubbe, Augusto De Sanctis, Stavros Xirouchakis, Guillermo Blanco","doi":"10.7717/peerj.21799","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.21799","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Phylogeographic analyses provide key insights into how historical climate change, geographic barriers, and species-specific ecological traits shape evolutionary divergence. We investigated the phylogeography and evolutionary history of the two extant chough species, the red-billed chough (<i>Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax</i>, <i>n</i> = 65) and the alpine chough (<i>Pyrrhocorax graculus</i>, <i>n</i> = 33), across most of their Palearctic range. Using concatenated mitochondrial DNA sequences, complemented by nuclear intron markers, we reconstructed and test lineage divergence and historical dispersal patterns. Haplotype networks revealed long branches separating geographically isolated populations, indicating prolonged historical isolation. Phylogenetic analyses confirmed the monophyly of <i>Pyrrhocorax</i> and revealed a deep split between the two species at approximately 2.5 million years ago. Formal Ancestral Range Analysis (ARA) indicates that Himalayan regions served as the ancestral hub for both species. Within <i>P. graculus</i>, two main mitochondrial lineages were identified: a highly divergent Himalayan and European-Moroccan lineages (around 94 kya). In contrast, <i>P. pyrrhocorax</i> exhibited pronounced phylogeographic complexity, with major east-west differentiation and additional regional structuring across Europe, North Africa, Canary Islands, Ethiopia, and Central Asia, with divergence times ranging from  0.75 Mya to 61-94 kya. Quantitative metrics (<i>π</i> and <i>Da</i>) revealed significant interspecific divergence and distinct population-level structuring. Our results highlight the combined roles of historical isolation, Pleistocene climate dynamics, altitudinal gradients, and ecological constraints in shaping divergence in <i>Pyrrhocorax</i>. This phylogeographic framework provides essential guidance for conservation management, emphasizing the importance of preserving distinct evolutionary lineages in fragmented and declining populations.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"14 ","pages":"e21799"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13657079/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149183713","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Posterior simulation-based calibration tests of phylogenetic dating methods.","authors":"Benedict King","doi":"10.7717/peerj.21691","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.21691","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Simulation-based calibration (SBC) checking is a method to ensure that the inference machinery for a Bayesian statistical analysis is functioning in a correct and unbiased manner. Typically, SBC begins with sampling parameter values from the model priors (prior SBC). However, it has been shown that prior SBC can miss problems when these manifest only in certain regions of parameter space. In phylogenetics, this is relevant not only because of the vastness of tree and parameter space, but also because many phylogenetic analyses involve some degree of model misspecification. Posterior SBC is a recently developed method for checking that the inference algorithms function correctly for a given empirical dataset. Here I use posterior SBC to test the implementation of phylogenetic dating methods in the inference software BEAST 2. I test both the tip-dated approach, employing an Indo-European vocabulary dataset, and the node-dated approach, employing a molecular rRNA dataset of Tabanidae (horseflies). In both cases, posterior SBC tests indicate good calibration. Despite this, posterior predictive datasets simulated from the posterior distribution provided no further increase in the precision of node age estimates compared to the original posterior, a result consistent with previous literature showing fundamental theoretical limits to the identifiability of node ages. Nevertheless, these results suggest that phylogenetic dating methods in BEAST 2 are not biased by problems with the inference machinery, thereby increasing confidence in results obtained using these methods.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"14 ","pages":"e21691"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13654278/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149167252","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Geographical disparities in intentional self-harm hospitalization risks in Florida: a retrospective ecological study.","authors":"Howard Onyuth, Agricola Odoi","doi":"10.7717/peerj.21783","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.21783","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background: &lt;/strong&gt;Over the last decade, intentional self-harm hospitalization risks have increased in the United States (US). Although there is evidence of geographic disparities in intentional self-harm hospitalization risks, with some areas having significantly higher risks, little is known about these disparities in Florida. Identifying these disparities is useful for guiding prevention programs and tailoring efforts to mitigate the problem. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate geographic disparities of intentional self-harm hospitalization risks in Florida.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Methods: &lt;/strong&gt;Retrospective county-level intentional self-harm hospitalization data for the years 2016-2023 were obtained from Florida Health Charts, a publicly available data dashboard maintained by the Florida Department of Health. County-level age-standardized and spatial empirical Bayesian (SEB) smoothed risks were calculated for four time periods: 2016-2017, 2018-2019, 2020-2021, and 2022-2023. Significantly high-risk clusters were identified using Tango's flexible spatial scan statistics. Two-sample tests of proportions were used to compare proportions of counties and populations in high-risk clusters between rural and urban areas.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Results: &lt;/strong&gt;A total of 66,308 intentional self-harm hospitalizations were reported during the study period. Statewide SEB smoothed risks varied geographically, ranging from 25.3 to 1,683.1 hospitalizations per 100,000 persons. The highest risks tended to occur in the northwest, northeast, central, and southwest Florida. A total of four statistically significant high-risk clusters were identified in 2016-2017 (relative risks (RR) = 1.44-15.85), six in 2018-2019 (RR = 1.22-12.79), six in 2020-2021 (RR = 1.21-7.25), and eight in 2022-2023 (RR = 1.20-3.69). The cluster with the highest risks was observed in a single rural northeastern county (Union). Additional high-risk clusters were observed in predominantly urban counties. The proportion of Florida counties included in significant high-risk clusters ranged from 22.4% in 2016-2017 to 38.8% in 2022-2023. Urban counties were significantly more likely than rural counties to be part of high-risk clusters in 2016-2017 (&lt;i&gt;p&lt;/i&gt; = 0.002) and 2020-2021 (&lt;i&gt;p&lt;/i&gt; = 0.019), but not in 2018-2019 (&lt;i&gt;p&lt;/i&gt; = 0.11) or 2022-2023 (&lt;i&gt;p&lt;/i&gt; = 0.477). The highest proportion of the population in high-risk counties alternated between urban and rural areas, with significantly (&lt;i&gt;p&lt;/i&gt; &lt; 0.0001) higher urban proportions in 2016-2017 and 2020-2021, and significantly (&lt;i&gt;p&lt;/i&gt; &lt; 0.0001) higher rural proportions in 2018-2019 and 2022-2023.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion: &lt;/strong&gt;Geographic disparities in intentional self-harm hospitalization risks exist in Florida, with high-risk spikes observed in rural counties and widespread risks in urban counties. Study findings are useful for guiding targeted intentional self-harm prevention strategies and needs-based resou","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"14 ","pages":"e21783"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13654277/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149168491","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Anti-predation behavior resolves sexual conflict over mating rate and duration in a protandric-simultaneous hermaphrodite.","authors":"J Antonio Baeza","doi":"10.7717/peerj.21804","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.21804","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The reproductive interests of males and females rarely coincide, and thus, sexual conflict should be widespread in sexual species and favor the evolution of traits that bias the outcome of mating interactions towards the participant's own interests. Sexual conflict theory has achieved considerable sophistication since its formal proposal. Yet, the evolutionary implications of this process in species other than those with separate sexes remain ill-explored. I examined sexual conflict in <i>Lysmata wurdemanni</i>, a shrimp that exhibits protandric simultaneous hermaphroditism, a peculiar sexual system where individuals invariably mature and reproduce as male first before becoming simultaneous hermaphrodites. In <i>Lysmata wurdemanni</i>, exacerbated mating costs for female-role individuals included death by too-eager-to-mate male-role individuals and resulted in the unprecedented employment by female-role hermaphrodites of anti-predatory tactics (escape response consisting of a backward tail flipping that rapidly propel shrimp away from danger) to actively resist harassment and to exert control over copula termination. Sexual conflict does occur in species featuring unconventional sexual systems and likely has implications for sex allocation patterns.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"14 ","pages":"e21804"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13654276/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149172154","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Lipid-tail modification of the antimicrobial peptide P7 enhances membrane disruption and antibacterial activity against <i>Klebsiella pneumoniae</i>.","authors":"Warintorn Thammathaporn, Natthaporn Klubthawee Aiemwichan, Ratchaneewan Aunpad","doi":"10.7717/peerj.21717","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.21717","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are short, host-defense peptides with broad-spectrum antibacterial activity and a low propensity for inducing resistance, positioning them as promising alternatives to conventional antibiotics. The α-helical peptide P7 (KIAKRIWKILRR) previously demonstrated potent antibacterial activity against drug-resistant <i>Salmonella enterica</i> serovar Typhimurium with minimal toxicity. However, its efficacy against ESKAPE pathogens (<i>Enterococcus faecium</i>, <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i>, <i>Klebsiella pneumoniae</i>, <i>Acinetobacter baumannii</i>, <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i>, and <i>Enterobacter</i> spp.) has not been characterized. In this study, we evaluated P7 and its N-terminal lipidated analogs conjugated with octanoic (C8), pelargonic (C9), and capric (C10) acids against ESKAPE organisms. Lipidation significantly enhanced antibacterial activity, particularly against <i>K. pneumoniae</i>, and promoted α-helical conformations in membrane-mimetic environments. Lipidated peptides also demonstrated improved membrane-permeabilizing and depolarizing capabilities. However, lipidation did not confer enhanced proteolytic stability. C8-P7 exhibited a more favorable activity profile among the analogs. The lipidated variants showed a limited therapeutic index, indicating that further structural optimization is required to improve their selectivity. Flow cytometry and electron microscopy confirmed membrane disruption as the primary mechanism of antibacterial action. Furthermore, additive effects were observed when C8-P7 was combined with gentamicin or ciprofloxacin, as indicated by fractional inhibitory concentration index. These findings highlighted the potential of lipid-tail engineering to enhance antimicrobial potency and membrane-disruptive capacity, offering a foundation for the development of potent lead compounds against multidrug-resistant <i>K. pneumoniae</i> and other ESKAPE pathogens.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"14 ","pages":"e21717"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13653536/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149166552","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Prediction of prognosis and treatment effect of cervical cancer by immunogenic cell death-related genes.","authors":"Xiufang Li, Xiaona Luan, Yewu Sun, Liying Huang, Yan Kong, Tian Tian","doi":"10.7717/peerj.21635","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.21635","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Immunogenic cell death (ICD) is a potential mechanism that mediates adaptive immune responses during anticancer therapy. However, expression patterns and clinical implications of ICD related genes in cervical squamous cell carcinoma and endocervical adenocarcinoma (CESC) remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate the associations of 34 ICD related genes with immune characteristics, prognosis, and immune checkpoint blocking (ICB) efficacy in CESC and to predict drug responses across different risk subgroups.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Ribonucleic acid sequencing (RNA-seq) transcriptomic profiles, standard normalized variate (SNV) data, and corresponding clinicopathological information were retrieved from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Consensus clustering was applied to identify two ICD related molecular subtypes. A prognostic signature was constructed using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression and validated using immunohistochemistry (IHC) and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses. Immunotherapy responses were predicted based on the risk score of the established model.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The ICD-high subtype (C2) was associated with favorable clinical outcomes and enhanced immune activation. The prognostic signature comprised six genes: ATG5, FOXP3, IFNG, IL1B, PDIA3, and TNF. IHC confirmed higher expression of ATG5 and PDIA3 in cervical cancer (CC) tissues than in normal cervical tissues, and ROC curves verified the predictive accuracy. Furthermore, immunophenoscore (IPS) and tumor immune dysfunction and exclusion (TIDE) scores suggested that low risk patients exhibited better responses to anti programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) immunotherapy.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This study characterized the expression profiles of ICD related genes and established a novel ICD based classification system for CESC. Comprehensive analyses of the tumor immune microenvironment further validated the capacity of this signature in predicting prognosis and immunotherapy benefits, which may help identify CC patients who are most likely to benefit from immunotherapy.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"14 ","pages":"e21635"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13653537/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149168479","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The hunter or the hunted? Inferring benthic meso-predator behavior from swim velocity data.","authors":"Perla Salzeri, John P Y Arnould","doi":"10.7717/peerj.21782","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.21782","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Air-breathing benthic predators must balance foraging with exposure risk under strict oxygen constraints. Animal-borne video data from Australian fur seals (<i>Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus</i>; AUFS) has documented prolonged immobility on the sea-floor, but the prevalence, organization, and functional significance of this behavior remain unclear.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Swim velocity and dive-behavior data from adult female AUFS were analyzed to identify Sea-floor Stationary Dives (SFSD), defined as dives in which ≥50% of the bottom phase occurred at zero swim speed. Temporal variation was assessed using Generalized Additive Models with individual identity as a random effect. Sequential organization was evaluated using run-length distributions and permutation tests (10,000 randomizations preserving each individual's dive-type totals). Spatial recurrence was examined qualitatively using locations from two GPS-instrumented females. Dive-cycle characteristics associated with SFSD were compared with other benthic dive types.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>SFSD comprised ∼2% of all benthic dives and showed pronounced crepuscular peaks with substantial individual heterogeneity. Sequential analyses revealed multi-dive SFSD bouts in a subset of individuals, with significant clustering relative to random expectations. SFSD were associated with intermediate bottom times and short surface intervals, indicating compressed dive cycles. Qualitative spatial patterns from two Global Positioning System (GPS)-instrumented females suggested recurrence of SFSD within localized areas across multiple foraging trips.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The timing, clustering, and dive-cycle characteristics of SFSD suggest this behavior is not associated primarily with ambush predation or resting. Instead, they are most consistent with a predator-avoidance response by air-breathing divers vulnerable in an open sea-scape. These findings highlight the importance of predation risk in shaping dive organization and habitat use in benthic marine predators.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"14 ","pages":"e21782"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13651780/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149168162","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Neural substrates of knowledge integration: differential effects of high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) on angular gyrus and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex.","authors":"Xuan Zhang, Michael Lochner, Karen Joseph, Asaf Gilboa","doi":"10.7717/peerj.21761","DOIUrl":"10.7717/peerj.21761","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Humans develop extensive knowledge systems throughout their lives, which are continuously updated in response to new information. One way in which prior knowledge is updated is through semantic integration, where related semantic facts are integrated to support derivation of new information.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This study investigates how anodal high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) applied to the left angular gyrus (AG; Experiment 1) or to the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC; Experiment 2) influences semantic integration and the derivation of novel information. In both studies, participants were first randomly assigned to a stimulation or sham group. Following the stimulation protocol, they were presented with a series of intermixed pairs of related facts and asked to rate their familiarity with each. Participants then completed a semantic integration test following a brief delay, answering questions about novel information that could be derived by integrating the related facts. Participants' integration scores (primary outcome) and their correlations with general intelligence (IQ) (secondary outcome) were measured. Building on exploratory findings from Experiment 1, Experiment 2 was pre-registered to test the impact of stimulation on the correlation between IQ and integration.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>There was no overall mean difference in integration scores between stimulation groups and their sham stimulation counterparts (all <i>p</i>s > 0.10). Stimulation to the left AG resulted in significantly lower variance in integration scores compared to sham stimulation (<i>p</i> < 0.05), reflecting fewer stimulation participants scoring very low on integration. Conversely, stimulation to the left vlPFC reduced the correlation between participants' IQ and their integration scores (<i>p</i> < 0.05).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Self-derivation of new knowledge is a complex, multifactorial process that was not uniquely enhanced by stimulation of the left AG or vlPFC. However, these regions appear to differentially modulate performance by reducing variability for lower-performing individuals (AG) or decoupling the dependence of performance on baseline cognitive capacity (vlPFC).</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"14 ","pages":"e21761"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13651779/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149169995","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Riboflavin-primed seeds reduce arsenic stress in <i>Helianthus annuus</i> L. through modulating antioxidant and metabolomics responses.","authors":"Anum Manzoor, Atif Kamran, Amna Naveed, Summera Jahan, Waheed Akram, Rehana Sardar, Nasim Ahmad Yasin","doi":"10.7717/peerj.21596","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.21596","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Heavy metals-induced stress disrupts plant growth and development, making their survival difficult. Arsenic (As) stress is one of the major constraints that have become obstacles to the successful cultivation of many oilseed plants, especially sunflower (<i>Helianthus annuus</i> L.). The current study aimed to estimate the capacity of riboflavin (Rib) to mitigate As stress in <i>H. annuus</i>. <i>H. annuus</i> seeds were primed with Rib (50 ppm) and grown in soil contaminated with As at 10 ppm per kilogram. Results demonstrated that As-stress negatively affected plant growth by increasing malondialdehyde (MDA) by 138.32% and electrolyte leakage to 54.43%. Stressed plants exhibited reduced antioxidant enzyme activities, reduced plant height to 40.5%, impaired gaseous exchange, and decreased photosynthesis to 22.30%, whereas Rib seed priming alleviated As toxicity by ameliorating membrane stability (from 45.57% to 55.80%), gas exchange, and enzymatic antioxidant activity (CAT, POD, APX) in treated plants. Moreover, Rib reduced MDA levels and increased chlorophyll content. The GC/MS-based non-targeted metabolic profiling indicated that seed priming with Rib could cause shifts in metabolites including sugars, amino acids, alcohols, carboxylic acids, and organic acids to augment <i>H. annuus</i> survival against metal stress. Our study demonstrates that seed priming with Rib can improve plant growth under metal stress in conventional agricultural systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"14 ","pages":"e21596"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13651778/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149170590","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reef fish assemblages on <i>Acropora</i> patches in the Colombian Caribbean: resistance to reef degradation.","authors":"Rocio García-Urueña, Silvia L Sierra-Escrigas, Arturo Acero P","doi":"10.7717/peerj.21744","DOIUrl":"10.7717/peerj.21744","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Coral reefs are crucial habitats for many fish species because they serve as feeding and shelter sites. However, due to their sensitivity to environmental changes, reef degradation has led to a drastic decline in fish and reef assemblages, which has also been reflected in associated economic activities. The loss of branching corals <i>Acropora palmata</i> and <i>A. cervicornis</i> has reached up to 90% in the Colombian Caribbean, resulting in a reduction in the abundance and diversity of associated fish populations. During two time periods (2011-2012 and 2023-2024) across the Colombian Caribbean, fish associated with <i>Acropora</i> formations were evaluated in relation to patch size and health status of these coral species. The best conserved patches of <i>A. palmata</i> were found in the Tayrona National Natural Park (TNNP) and of <i>A. cervicornis</i> in the reefs of the Urabá Gulf. A total of 113 fish species from 34 families were associated with <i>A. palmata</i>, with the most represented families being Labridae, Haemulidae, Pomacentridae, and Serranidae. <i>Acanthurus coeruleus, A. tractus, Chaetodon ocellatus, Haemulon flavolineatum, Scarus iseri</i>, <i>Sparisoma viride</i>, <i>Thalassoma bifasciatum, Abudefduf saxatilis</i>, <i>Microspathodon chrysurus</i>, <i>Stegastes adustus</i>, and <i>Canthigaster rostrata</i> were the species common to all reef locations. In <i>A. cervicornis</i> formations, 78 species belonging to 25 families were recorded, with Labridae and Pomacentridae as the most abundant. <i>Stegastes planifrons</i>, <i>Cephalopholis cruentata,</i> and <i>Hypoplectrus puella</i> were the species common to all locations. The highest number of fish species was found in the TNNP (85 for <i>A. palmata</i>, 55 for <i>A. cervicornis</i>). Although the status is critical throughout the Caribbean, further aggravated by the 2023-2024 bleaching event which caused <i>A. palmata</i> formations to practically disappear from two localities, this structural loss has not yet been reflected in the associated ichthyofauna. These results suggest that the fish assemblages linked to <i>Acropora</i> corals in the Colombian Caribbean remain relatively stable; however, it is unclear for how long they will persist.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"14 ","pages":"e21744"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13648214/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149137925","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}