Scientific Center of Zoology and Hydroecology

Plant Proteins and Bioactive Peptides: Distinguishing Nutritional Quality from Sequence-Dependent Bioactivity

Plant proteins represent both important nutritional resources and reservoirs of encrypted bioactive peptide sequences. However, protein nutritional quality and peptide bioactivity are distinct properties: a favorable indispensable amino acid profile or high digestibility does not...

Functionalized peptides incorporating non-canonical ɑ–amino acids: copper(II) coordination and cytotoxic activity

Unusual ɑ–amino acids, owing to their ability to accommodate diverse substituents while preserving a chiral center, constitute valuable building blocks in peptidomimetic design. Their incorporation enables fine-tuning of physicochemical and biological properties, while also provi...

High Mitochondrial Haplotype Diversity and Western Palearctic Genetic Connectivity in White Stork (Ciconia ciconia) Populations of the South Caucasus

Understanding how historical climatic oscillations and contemporary dispersal interact to shape genetic diversity is central to interpreting population structure in long-distance migratory birds. The White Stork (Ciconia ciconia) has a broad trans-Eurasian distribution, yet popul...

Removing wolves did not reliably prevent domestic animal losses

Abstract Humans usually try to kill wild animals that they perceive as threats. However, many scientific findings have raised doubts that killing solves wildlife damage to property. With scant, low‐quality data, uncertainty persists. We reviewed recent studies of killing gray wol...

Testing the reliability of a camera‐trap based abundance proxy for assessing mountain ungulate populations

Abstract Monitoring wildlife abundance is important for understanding species population status and trends and, thus, for informing conservation planning and wildlife management. Yet, abundance monitoring can be challenging and costly to implement, particularly for wildlife of co...