Signatures of seaway closures and founder dispersal in the phylogeny of a circumglobally distributed seahorse lineage

Background  

The importance of vicariance events on the establishment of phylogeographic patterns in the marine environment is well documented, and generally accepted as an important cause of cladogenesis. Founder dispersal (i.e. long-distance dispersal followed by founder effect speciation) is also frequently invoked as a cause of genetic divergence among lineages, but its role has long been challenged by vicariance biogeographers. Founder dispersal is likely to be common in species that colonize remote habitats by means of rafting (e.g. seahorses), as long-distance dispersal events are likely to be rare and subsequent additional recruitment from the source habitat is unlikely. In the present study, the relative importance of vicariance and founder dispersal as causes of cladogenesis in a circumglobally distributed seahorse lineage was investigated using molecular dating. A phylogeny was reconstructed using sequence data from mitochondrial and nuclear markers, and the well-documented closure of the Central American seaway was used as a primary calibration point to test whether other bifurcations in the phylogeny could also have been the result of vicariance events. The feasibility of three other vicariance events was explored: a) the closure of the Indonesian Seaway, resulting in sister lineages associated with the Indian Ocean and West Pacific, respectively; b) the closure of the Tethyan Seaway, resulting in sister lineages associated with the Indo-Pacific and Atlantic Ocean, respectively, and c) continental break-up during the Mesozoic followed by spreading of the Atlantic Ocean, resulting in pairs of lineages with amphi-Atlantic distribution patterns.     

Cell adhesion molecule in the hexactinellid Aphrocallistes vastus

Abstract. The Hexactinellida sponge Aphrocallistes vastus contains a soluble aggregation factor (AF) whose purification has been described in this communication. It is characterized by a S°_20.w value of 37 and a buoyant density of 1.45 g/cm³. The AF is a glycoporteinaceous particle composed of three major protein species; no core structure could be visualized. In the presence of Ca²⁺, the AF causes secondary aggregation of single cells. The aggregation process is temperature, pH, and ionic strength independent within a broad range. Evidence is presented indicating that two (or more) AF molecules are required for the establishment of a stable cell: cell interaction. In contrast to the AFs from demosponges, the hexactinellid AF functions species-unspecifically.     

Maximum Likelihood Estimation of Genetic Parameters in Cell Populations

In this paper we consider a cell population such as bacteria consisting of two types of cells, mutant and nonmutant. Under the mutation and homogeneous pure birth processes, this paper derives a maximum likelihood estimation procedure for estimating mutation rate and birth rate. The method is applied to Newcombe's data; further some Monte Carlo studies are generated. The numerical results indicate that the method is quite efficient for estimating genetic parameters in cell populations.     

LATERAL CYSTS AND FISTULAS OF THE NECK

The embryonic origin of lateral cysts and fistulas remains controversial. They are, however, located in the general anatomic pattern of the embryonic thymic duct, which starts in the lateral pharyngeal wall and passes under the sternomastoid muscle to enter the mediastinum. The cyst is a unilocular, semiattached, non-translucent mass which has a tendency to become infected in 30 per cent of cases.The preauricular sinus occurs in front of the ear and is due either to a branchial cleft or an inclusion of one of the six primitive buds which form the external ear.Cystic hygroma is due to sequestrated lymphatic channels. These are always multilocular and rather invasive and may extend into mediastinum and arms.Diagnosis and treatment are considered in this presentation.     

Biochemical Conservation and Evolution of Germacrene A Oxidase in Asteraceae

Sesquiterpene lactones are characteristic natural products in Asteraceae, which constitutes ∼8% of all plant species. Despite their physiological and pharmaceutical importance, the biochemistry and evolution of sesquiterpene lactones remain unexplored. Here we show that germacrene A oxidase (GAO), evolutionarily conserved in all major subfamilies of Asteraceae, catalyzes three consecutive oxidations of germacrene A to yield germacrene A acid. Furthermore, it is also capable of oxidizing non-natural substrate amorphadiene. Co-expression of lettuce GAO with germacrene synthase in engineered yeast synthesized aberrant products, costic acids and ilicic acid, in an acidic condition. However, cultivation in a neutral condition allowed the de novo synthesis of a single novel compound that was identified as germacrene A acid by gas and liquid chromatography and NMR analyses. To trace the evolutionary lineage of GAO in Asteraceae, homologous genes were further isolated from the representative species of three major subfamilies of Asteraceae (sunflower, chicory, and costus from Asteroideae, Cichorioideae, and Carduoideae, respectively) and also from the phylogenetically basal species, Barnadesia spinosa, from Barnadesioideae. The recombinant GAOs from these genes clearly showed germacrene A oxidase activities, suggesting that GAO activity is widely conserved in Asteraceae including the basal lineage. All GAOs could catalyze the three-step oxidation of non-natural substrate amorphadiene to artemisinic acid, whereas amorphadiene oxidase diverged from GAO displayed negligible activity for germacrene A oxidation. The observed amorphadiene oxidase activity in GAOs suggests that the catalytic plasticity is embedded in ancestral GAO enzymes that may contribute to the chemical and catalytic diversity in nature.     

BiGG: a Biochemical Genetic and Genomic knowledgebase of large scale metabolic reconstructions

Background  

Genome-scale metabolic reconstructions under the Constraint Based Reconstruction and Analysis (COBRA) framework are valuable tools for analyzing the metabolic capabilities of organisms and interpreting experimental data. As the number of such reconstructions and analysis methods increases, there is a greater need for data uniformity and ease of distribution and use.     

Solid-phase synthesis of oligosaccharides. V. Preparation of an inorganic support

D-Glucose side-chains were introduced into amylose and cellulose by condensation of tetra-O-acetyl-α-D-glucopyranosyl bromide with 6-trityl-2,3-dicarbanilate derivatives of the polysaccharides in nitromethane-p-dioxane in the presence of silver perchlorate (reaction A), and with the detritylated derivatives in acetonitrile-p-dioxane in the presence of mercuric cyanide and mercuric bromide (reaction B). The procedures were equally effective. The distance between the branch points in amylose was in the range 2–4 D-glucose residues, and 5–8 D-glucose residues in cellulose. Whereas considerable degradation of the backbone chain was found with reaction A, no degradation occurred in reaction B under suitable conditions. α-(1→6)-Links were preferably formed in reaction B, and β-(1→6)-links in reaction A.     

Bacteriophage Mu-1-induced mutation to mutT in Escherichia coli.

Of approximately 10,000 independent phage Mu-1 lysogens, 3 had a mutator phenotype. One (mutation designated mut-49) resembled mutT1 in the frequency and types of mutations induced. mut-49 was mapped between leu and ace and was not separable from the Mu prophage. mut-49 was recessive and did not complement mutT1. mut-49, like mutT1, did not increase the reversion of the frameshift mutation lac Z (ICR48). mut-49 and mutT1 induced the same two classes of trpA78 revertants, indicating that mut-49 induced adenine-thymine leads to cytosine-guanine transversions. The results support previous work indicating that the mutational specificity of mutT is gene and not allele specific.