Organisms evolve in response to their natural environment. Consideration of natural
ecological parameters are thus of key importance for our understanding of an organism's …

The roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans has risen to the status of a top model organism for
biological research in the last fifty years. Among laboratory animals, this tiny nematode is …

It is now well accepted that the gut microbiota contributes to our health. However, what
determines the microbiota composition is still unclear. Whereas it might be expected that the …

Studies of model organisms have provided important insights into how natural genetic
differences shape trait variation. These discoveries are driven by the growing availability of …

Background Genome annotation is of key importance in many research questions. The
identification of protein-coding genes is often based on transcriptome sequencing data, ab …

Across diverse taxa, selfing species have evolved independently from outcrossing species
thousands of times. The transition from outcrossing to selfing decreases the effective …

Abstract Background The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is a major model organism in
laboratory biology. Very little is known, however, about its ecology, including where it …

Generating the raw data for a de novo genome assembly project for a target eukaryotic
species is relatively easy. This democratization of access to large-scale data has allowed …

The measurement of lifespan pervades aging research. Because lifespan results from
complex interactions between genetic, environmental and stochastic factors, it varies widely …

Model organisms are of great importance to our understanding of basic biology and to
making advances in biomedical research. However, the influence of laboratory cultivation on …