Light pollution poses significant ecological challenges for nocturnal animals reliant on natural light for migration, orientation, and circadian rhythms. The physiological effects of abrupt exposure to artificial light at night (ALAN) on migratory fish, such as the light experienced passing near illuminated infrastructures, remain poorly understood. This study investigates the physiological responses of brown trout (Salmo trutta) smolts to low-intensity (0.02 lx) and short-term (30 s) ALAN, simulating nocturnal migration light conditions near illuminated bridges. To evaluate the influence of social dynamics, trout were tested individually (solitary) or in groups of six. Using continuous cardiac monitoring with data storage tags, alongside analyses of oxidative stress markers and adenylate kinase (AK) activity in the heart, we identified distinct patterns of physiological responses. Solitary fish exhibited significant heart rate variability (HRV) increases following repeated ALAN exposure, suggesting impaired physiological regulation under repeated ALAN exposure. In contrast, trout in groups displayed consistently lower HRV over the entire 90-min experiment, implying that social dynamics likely influenced a sustained oxidative stress response, corroborated by increased AK activity. Oxidative stress markers further reflected social effects, with significant upregulation of key antioxidant enzymes (sod1, sod2, gpx1, gpx4) and elevated lipid peroxidation, identifying lipids as primary oxidative targets. The observed divergence between superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and sod gene expression suggests adaptive post-transcriptional regulation to maintain redox balance under combined environmental and social stress. These findings reveal that social dynamics under ALAN can amplify physiological stress, potentially affecting migratory outcomes.

Inosine is a nucleotide resulting from the deamination of adenosine in RNA. This chemical modification process, known as RNA editing, is typically mediated by a family of double-stranded RNA binding proteins named Adenosine Deaminase Acting on dsRNA (ADAR). While the presence of ADAR orthologs has been traced throughout the evolution of metazoans, the existence and extension of RNA editing have been characterized in a more limited number of animals so far. Undoubtedly, ADAR-mediated RNA editing plays a vital role in physiology, organismal development and disease, making the understanding of the evolutionary conservation of this phenomenon pivotal to a deep characterization of relevant biological processes. However, the lack of direct high-throughput methods to reveal RNA modifications at single nucleotide resolution limited an extended investigation of RNA editing. Nowadays, these methods have been developed, and appropriate bioinformatic pipelines are required to fully exploit this data, which can complement existing approaches to detect ADAR editing. Here, we review the current literature on the “bioinformatics for inosine” subject and we discuss future research avenues in the field.

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a key extracellular matrix component of vertebrates, where it mediates cell adhesion, immune regulation, and tissue remodeling through its interaction with specific receptors. Although HA has been detected in a few invertebrate species, the lack of fundamental components of the molecular HA pathway poses relevant objections about its functional role in these species. Mining genomic and transcriptomic data, we considered the conservation of the gene locus encoding for the extracellular link protein (XLINK) in marine mussels as well as its expression patterns. Structural and phylogenetic analyses were undertaken to evaluate possible similarities with vertebrate orthologs and to infer the origin of this gene in invertebrates. Biochemical analysis was used to quantify HA in tissues of Mytilus galloprovincialis. As a result, we confirm that the mussel can produce HA (up to 1.02 ng/mg in mantle) and that its genome encodes two XLINK gene loci. These loci are conserved in Mytilidae species and show a complex evolutionary path. Mussel XLINK genes appeared to be expressed during developmental stages in three mussel species, ranking in the top 100 expressed genes in M. trossulus at 17 h post-fertilization. In conclusion, the presence of HA and an active gene with the potential to bind HA suggests that mussels have the potential to synthesize and use HA and are among the few invertebrates encoding this gene.

The present study aimed to assess the conservation status and characterize the phenotypic and genomic diversity of two endangered Italian poultry genetic resources to guide their conservation plans. Blood samples and morphometric data were collected on 50 Faraona Camosciata (FAC, Numida meleagris ) and 50 Oca Padovana (OPD, Anser anser ) adult animals. Genomes were profiled by low coverage whole genome sequencing. Observed and expected heterozygosity, genomic inbreeding, population structure, runs of homozygosity (ROH), ROH islands, and Gene Ontology enrichment were evaluated. Morphometric measures revealed significant sexual dimorphism within both breeds. FAC females exceeded males for several traits, and OPD males exceeded females for most features. Both breeds had very low heterozygosity and high inbreeding, consistent with their small effective sizes. The ROH length spectra indicated distinct histories: FAC was enriched in numerous short tracts under 2 Mb, compatible with older, diffuse autozygosity, and OPD carried a higher burden of long tracts between 4 and 16 Mb, consistent with more recent common ancestry. Recurrent ROH islands were detected in both breeds. In FAC, islands were enriched for hydrolase and catabolic functions, and organelle related components, including genes such as RAD54L , SEC63 , and POMGNT1 . In OPD, islands emphasized kinase regulation, ion channel and contractile complexes, and endocrine metabolism, featuring IGF2 , INS , TH , and GJA1 genes. Results provide a baseline for genetic management that prioritizes avoidance of matings among relatives, rotation of animals across centers, balanced contributions, and monitoring through genetic methods, while underscoring the importance of improved genome annotation for these non‐model species.