Bacterial anti-phage systems are frequently clustered in microbial genomes, forming
defense islands. This property enabled the recent discovery of multiple defense systems …

Oxygen plays a pivotal role in the metabolism and activities of mammals. However, oxygen
is restricted in some environments—subterranean burrow systems or habitats at high …

With a world population living longer as well as marked disparities in life expectancy,
understanding the determinants of longevity is one of the priority research agendas in 21st …

Background We review genealogical relationships, biogeographic patterns and broad
historical drivers of speciation within the Bathyergidae, a group of endemic African rodents …

Differences in individual locomotor activity patterns may be linked to a number of ecological
factors, such as changes in ambient temperature or photoperiod. Observations on …

Sympatric speciation (SS), ie, speciation within a freely breeding population or in contiguous
populations, was first proposed by Darwin [Darwin C (1859) On the Origins of Species by …

On the social scale, the blind mole rat (BMR; Spalax ehrenbergi) is an extreme. It is
exceedingly solitary, territorial, and aggressive. BMRs reside underground, in self-excavated …

The evolution of species is governed by complex phenomena in which biological and
environmental features may interact dynamically. Subterranean mammals dig tunnels …

Subterranean rodents forage underground, which is energetically costly. Therefore, they can
be expected to economize burrowing activity in response to food supply and soil …

A major interest of evolutionary biologists is to understand which environmental features are
associated with morphological and behavioural characteristics of species. Intraspecific …