An Extensive Comparison of the Effect of Anthelmintic Classes on Diverse Nematodes

Soil-transmitted helminths are parasitic nematodes that inhabit the human intestine. These parasites, which include two hookworm species, Ancylostoma duodenale and Necator americanus, the whipworm Trichuris trichiura , and the large roundworm Ascaris lumbricoides , infect upwards of two billion people and are a major cause of disease burden in children and pregnant women. The challenge with treating these diseases is that poverty, safety, and inefficient public health policy have marginalized drug development and distribution to control infection in humans. Anthelmintics (anti-worm drugs) have historically been developed and tested for treatment of non-human parasitic nematodes that infect livestock and companion animals. Here we systematically compare the in vitro efficacy of all major anthelmintic classes currently used in human therapy (benzimidazoles, nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonists, macrocyclic lactones, nitazoxanide) against species closely related to human parasitic nematodes-Ancylostoma ceylanicum, Trichuris muris , and Ascaris suum --- as well as a rodent parasitic nematode used in veterinary drug discovery, Heligmosomoides bakeri , and the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Extensive in vitro data is complemented with single-dose in vivo data in three rodent models of parasitic diseases. We find that the effects of the drugs in vitro and in vivo can vary greatly among these nematode species, e.g., the efficacy of albendazole is strong on A. ceylanicum but weak on H . bakeri . Nonetheless, certain commonalities of the in vitro effects of the drugs can be seen, e.g., nitazoxanide consistently shows an all-or-nothing response. Our in vitro data suggest that further optimization of the clinical efficacy of some of these anthelmintics could be achieved by altering the treatment routine and/or dosing. Most importantly, our in vitro and in vivo data indicate that the hookworm A. ceylanicum is a particularly sensitive and useful model for anthelmintic studies and should be incorporated early on in drug screens for broad-spectrum human soil-transmitted helminth therapies.     

Thysanoptera of Bulgaria

The present checklist includes data on the species composition, geographic distribution and feeding preferences of thrips species in Bulgaria. In total, 155 species in 48 genera are listed. Of these, 125 species belong to suborder Terebrantia and include 103 species of 33 genera in family Thripidae, 14 species of two genera in Aeolothripidae, seven species of two genera in Melanthripidae and one species in Fauriellidae. In suborder Tubulifera, 30 species of 10 genera in the single family Phlaeothripidae are listed. Of the 155 Bulgarian thrips species, 87.7% are phytophagous, 4.5% are obligate predators, 5.8% are mycophagous and 1.9% are with unknown feeding preferences. Fourteen pest species are listed for Bulgaria, of which Frankliniella occidentalis, Thrips tabaci and Haplothrips tritici are of economic importance. The list provides detailed information on the horizontal and vertical distribution of Thysanoptera in 5 regions and 45 subregions of Bulgaria. The present paper also includes an evaluation of the biodiversity of Thysanoptera and the extent to which each region of the country has been studied.     

Checklist of the Cecidomyiidae (Diptera) of Finland

A list of the 356 species of Cecidomyiidae (Diptera) recorded from Finland is presented, which comprises 6 Lestremiinae, 156 Micromyinae, 16 Winnertziinae, 69 Porricondylinae, and 109 Cecidomyiinae. The faunistic knowledge of Finnish Winnertziinae, Porricondylinae and Cecidomyiinae is regarded as particularly poor. Based on species numbers known from other countries in Europe, a conservative estimate is 700–800 species of Cecidomyiidae actually occurring in Finland.     

DNA barcoding of euryglossine bees and the description of new species of Euhesma Michener (Hymenoptera,Colletidae, Euryglossinae)

This paper launches an open access DNA barcoding project “AUSBS” under the Barcoding of Life Datasystems (BOLD). The aims of the project are to help scientists who lack the necessary morphological knowledge to identify known species using molecular markers, to aid native bee specialists with the recognition of species groups that morphologically are difficult to define, and, eventually, to assist with the recognition of new species among known species. Using integrative taxonomy, i.e. morphological comparison to type specimens in Australian museum collections combined with phylogenetic analysis of a fragment of the mitochondrial DNA cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (mtCOI) gene sequences led to the recognition of four new species of Euhesma Michener (Hymenoptera: Colletidae: Euryglossini) collected during intensive surveys in remote Australian conservation areas, which are described. The new species are Euhesma micans, Euhesma lyngouriae, and Euhesma aulaca in a species group associated with Eremophila flowers, and Euhesma albamala in the walkeriana species group.     

Crustaceans from antipatharians on banks of the northwestern Gulf of Mexico

The stalked barnacle Oxynaspis gracilis, the chirostylid squat lobster Uroptychus sp., and the caridean shrimps Periclimenes cf. antipathophilus and Pseudopontonides principis have been collected at 68–124 m by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) on banks in the northern Gulf of Mexico. These species inhabited six species of antipatharian hosts. Pseudopontonides principis, Oxynaspis gracilis, and Uroptychus sp. were not confined to a single host species. Except for Oxynaspis gracilis, collected by ROV in 2004–2005, these species have not been reported previously in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico.     

The role of recombination in the formation of circular oligomers of the lambda plasmid

The λdv1 plasmid forms an extensive oligomeric series of circular DNA molecules in recombination-proficient (recsu⁺) Escherichia coli. These rec⁺ [λdv1]⁺ strains can be typed into the following four classes according to which member of the oligomeric series is most frequent: monomer, dimer, trimer, and tetramer strains. Each of these strains forms a set of circular λdv1 DNA molecules in which most members belong to the series l, 2l, 3l, 4l, where l is the length of the most frequent circular DNA that characterizes the strain—i.e. l equals the length of the most frequent oligomer in the respective strain. In a given strain, the frequency of a molecular species decreases as its length becomes a larger multiple of l. For example, the dimer strains produce dimers, tetramers, hexamers, octomers, etc., in decreasing frequencies, which reach the limits of detection at about the hexadecamer.When recA^? mutations that are absolutely defective for host recombination are introduced into each of these four strains, l retains the same values as in the parent rec⁺ strain, but oligomers larger than 2l are not formed, and the frequency of the 2l oligomer is much reduced. The introduction of recB^? or recC^? mutations, which are only partially defective for host recombination, produces a much smaller perturbation of the rec⁺ distributions, and $\text{rec}{}^{\mathrm{+}}\text{recA}{}^{\mathrm{?}}$ merodiploids exhibit the rec⁺ phenotype with respect to both oligomerization and host recombination.The effects of rec^? mutations on the distribution of λdv1 oligomers and the nature of the oligomeric series produced in rec⁺ cells all indicate that an intermolecular reciprocal recombination between two circular λdv1 DNAs is the principal reaction responsible for oligomerization. It is suggested that the small residual oligomerization that yields 2l oligomers in recA^?cells results from aberrant segregation of the DNA strands at the termination of the replication of l-sized molecules.The inactivation of recA, but not of recB or C, also results in a marked reduction in the frequency of spontaneous curing which in recA⁺ [λdv1⁺]hosts leads to the segregation of [λdv^?]cells. However, spontaneous curing does not appear to be dependent upon the recombination reactions that yield the [λdv 1⁺]oligomers, since the frequency of oligomerization in recA⁺ hosts decreases with increasing l, whereas the frequency of curing increases with increasing l.     

The rate of allelism of lethal genes in a geographically structured population

The expected rate of allelism, E[I(x)], of lethal genes between two colonies with distance x in a structured population is studied by using one- and two-dimensional stepping-stone models. It is shown that E[I(x)] depends on the magnitude of selection in heterozygous condition (h), the rate of migration among adjacent colonies (m), the number of loci which produce lethal mutations (n) and the effective population size of each colony (N).——E[I(x)] always decreases with distance x. The rate of decrease is affected strongly by the magnitude of m. The rate of decrease is faster when m is small. E[I(x)] also decreases with increasing N and n. The effect of h on E[I(x)] is somewhat complicated. However, E[I(0)] is always smaller when h is small than when it is large.——For large x, the following approximate formulae may be obtained: (see PDF) where q and Var (q) are the mean and the variance of gene frequencies in each colony, t is approximated as t=h, (see PDF), -h for the partially recessive, completely recessive, and overdominant lethals, respectively, and C₀ is a function of m and t. It is clear that E[I(x)] declines exponentially with x in a one-dimensional habitat. The decrease E[I(x)] is faster in a two-dimensional habitat than in a one-dimensional habitat. The present result is applied to some of the existing data and the estimation of population parameters is also discussed.     

Tentorial mobility in centipedes (Chilopoda) revisited: 3D reconstruction of the mandibulo-tentorial musculature of Geophilomorpha

Mandibular mechanisms in Geophilomorpha are revised based on three-dimensional reconstructions of the mandibulo-tentorial complex and its muscular equipment in Dicellophilus carniolensis (Placodesmata) and Hydroschendyla submarina (Adesmata). Tentorial structure compares closely in the two species and homologies can be proposed for the 14/17 muscles that attach to the tentorium. Both species retain homologues of muscles that in other Pleurostigmophora are traditionally thought to cause swinging movements of the tentorium that complement the mobility of the mandibles. Although the original set of tentorial muscles is simplified in Geophilomorpha, the arrangement of the preserved homologues conforms to a system of six degrees of freedom of movement, as in non-geophilomorph Pleurostigmophora. A simplification of the mandibular muscles is confirmed for Geophilomorpha, but our results reject absence of muscles that in other Pleurostigmophora primarily support see-saw movements of the mandibles. In the construction of the tentorium, paralabial sclerites seem to be involved in neither Placodesmata nor Adesmata, and we propose their loss in Geophilomorpha as a whole. Current insights on the tentorial skeleton and its musculature permit two alternative conclusions on their transformation in Geophilomorpha: either tentorial mobility is primarily maintained in both Placodesmata and Adesmata (contrary to Manton’s arguments for immobility), or the traditional assumption of the tentorium as being mobile is a misinterpretation for Pleurostigmophora as a whole.     

Two new species of the Liolaemus elongatus-kriegi complex (Iguania,Liolaemidae) from Andean highlands of southern Chile

The elongatus-kriegi complex is one of the most diverse clades of the Liolaemus (sensu stricto) subgenus of lizards. There are currently 29 species recognized in this group distributed between Chile and Argentina. Based on molecular evidence, there seem to be five main clades nested within this complex: the elongatus, leopardinus, kriegi, petrophilus and punmahuida clades. Liolaemus buergeri and Liolaemus kriegi, both of the kriegi clade, were believed to inhabit the surroundings of the Laja Lagoon, in the Biobío Region of Chile. Moreover, this Chilean population of Liolaemus kriegi was recently recognized as an undescribed taxon called “Liolaemus sp. A” based on molecular phylogenetics. In this work, we studied these two populations of the Laja Lagoon and provided the morphological diagnosis to describe them as two new species: Liolaemus scorialis sp. n. and Liolaemus zabalai sp. n., previously considered Liolaemus buergeri and “Liolaemus kriegi/Liolaemus sp. A” respectively. Additionally, we identified another population of Liolaemus scorialis in the vicinity of La Mula Lagoon in the Araucanía Region of Chile. Liolaemus scorialis differs from almost all of the species of the elongatus-kriegi complex by its considerably smaller size. Nevertheless, without molecular data we cannot assign it to any particular subclade. Liolaemus zabalai belongs to the kriegi clade based on published molecular phylogenies. Finally, we provide some natural history data on both species and we document for the first time the presence of Liolaemus neuquensis in Chile from a museum specimen from La Mula Lagoon.     

Elucidation of Molecular Identity of the W3 Locus and Its Implication in Determination of Flower Colors in Soybean

The wide range of flower colors in soybean is controlled by six independent loci (W1, W2, W3, W4, Wm, and Wp). Among these loci, mutations in the W3 locus under the w4 allelic background (i.e., w3w4) produce near-white flowers, while the W3w4 genotype produces purple throat flowers. Although a gene encoding dihydroflavonol 4-reductase, DFR1, has been known to be closely associated with the W3 locus, its molecular identity has not yet been characterized. In the present study, we aimed to determine whether DFR1 is responsible for allelic variations in the W3 locus. On the basis of the sequence of a DFR probe, Glyma.14G072700 was identified as a candidate gene for DFR1, and nucleotide sequences of Glyma.14G072700 from cultivars with previously validated genotypes for the W3 locus were determined. As a result, a number of nucleotide polymorphisms, mainly single-base substitutions, between both coding and 5′-upstream region sequences of the W3 and w3 alleles were identified. Among them, an indel of 311-bp in the 5′-upstream region was noteworthy, since the Glyma.14G072700 in all the w3 alleles examined contained the indel, whereas that in all the W3 alleles did not; the former was barely expressed, but the latter was well expressed. These results suggest that Glyma.14G072700 is likely to correspond to DFR1 for the W3 locus and that its expression patterns may lead to allelic color phenotypes of W3 and w3 alleles under the w4 allelic background.     

Growth,allometry and shade tolerance of understory saplings of four subalpine conifers in central Japan

The conifers Abies veitchii, A. mariesii, Picea jezoensis var. hondoensis, Tsuga diversifolia dominate in subalpine forests in central Japan. We expected that species differences in shade tolerance and in aboveground and belowground architecture are important for their coexistence. We examined net production and carbon allocation of understory saplings. Although the four species allocated similar amounts of biomass to roots at a given trunk height, the root-zone area of T. diversifolia was greater than that of the three other species. T. diversifolia often dominates shallow soil sites, such as ridge and rocky slopes, and, therefore, a wide spread of lateral roots would be an adaptation to such edaphic conditions. Crown width and leaf and branch mass were greatest for T. diversifolia and A. mariesii, followed in order by A. veitchii and P. jezoensis var. hondoensis. Although leaf mass of P. jezoensis var. hondoensis was lowest among the four species, species differences were not found in the net production per sapling because net production per leaf mass was greatest for P. jezoensis var. hondoensis. The leaf lifespan was longer in the order A. mariesii, T. diversifolia, P. jezoensis var. hondoensis and A. veitchii. The minimum rate of net production per leaf mass required to maintain the current sapling leaf mass (MRNP_LM) was lowest in A. mariesii and T. diversifolia, and increased in the order of A. veitchii and P. jezoensis var. hondoensis. A. mariesii and T. diversifolia may survive in shade conditions by a lower MRNP_LM than the two other species. Therefore, species differences in aboveground and belowground architecture and MRNP_LM reflected their shade tolerance and regeneration strategies, which contribute to their coexistence.     

Checklist of the family Simuliidae (Diptera) of Finland

A checklist of the family Simuliidae (Diptera) is provided for Finland and recognizes 56 species. One new record has been added (Simulium latipes) and one name sunken in synonymy (Simulium carpathicum). Furthermore, Simulium tsheburovae is treated as a doubtful record.     

A new species of nectar-feeding bat,genus Lonchophylla,from the Caatinga of Brazil (Chiroptera,Phyllostomidae)

We describe Lonchophylla inexpectata sp. n. from the Caatinga of Brazil. This new species can be distinguished from all known species of Lonchophylla that occur in Brazil by dental traits, cranial size, and fur colour. Specimens of Lonchophylla inexpectata have been misidentified as Lonchophylla mordax; but Lonchophylla inexpectata is a pale-venter species, similar in external appearance to Lonchophylla dekeyseri. We have found Lonchophylla inexpectata in the Caatinga of North-eastern Brazil; Lonchophylla mordax along the eastern border of the Caatinga and in the Atlantic Forest–Caatinga ecotone in North-eastern Brazil; and Lonchophylla dekeyseri in the Cerrado of Mid-western Brazil, in the Brazilian Cerrado–Caatinga ecotone, and as far west as the Cerrado of Bolivia.     

Helminths of three species of opossums (Mammalia,Didelphidae) from Mexico

From August 2011 to November 2013, 68 opossums (8 Didelphis sp., 40 Didelphis virginiana, 15 Didelphis marsupialis, and 5 Philander opossum) were collected in 18 localities from 12 Mexican states. A total of 12,188 helminths representing 21 taxa were identified (6 trematodes, 2 cestodes, 3 acanthocephalans and 10 nematodes). Sixty-six new locality records, 9 new host records, and one species, the trematode Brachylaima didelphus, is added to the composition of the helminth fauna of the opossums in Mexico. These data, in conjunction with previous records, bring the number of taxa parasitizing the Mexican terrestrial marsupials to 41. Among these species, we recognized a group of helminths typical of didelphids in other parts of the Americas. This group is constituted by the trematode Rhopalias coronatus, the acanthocephalan Oligacanthorhynchus microcephalus and the nematodes Cruzia tentaculata, Gnathostoma turgidum, and Turgida turgida. In general, the helminth fauna of each didelphid species showed a stable taxonomic composition with respect to previously sampled sites. This situation suggests that the rate of accumulation of helminth species in the inventory of these 3 species of terrestrial marsupials in the Neotropical portion of Mexico is decreasing; however, new samplings in the Nearctic portion of this country will probably increase the richness of the helminthological inventory of this group of mammals.     

Involvement of recF, recO, and recR Genes in UV-Radiation Mutagenesis of Escherichia coli

The recF, recO, and recR genes were originally identified as those affecting the RecF pathway of recombination in Escherichia coli cells. Several lines of evidence suggest that the recF, recO, and recR genes function at the same step of recombination and postreplication repair. In this work, we report that null mutations in recF, recO, or recR greatly reduce UV-radiation mutagenesis (UVM) in an assay for reversion from a Trp⁻ (trpE65) to a Trp⁺ phenotypes. Introduction of the defective lexA51 mutation [lexA51(Def)] and/or UmuD′ into recF, recO, and recR mutants failed to restore normal UVM in the mutants. On the other hand, the presence of recA2020, a suppressor mutation for recF, recO, and recR mutations, restored normal UVM in recF, recO, and recR mutants. These results indicate an involvement of the recF, recO, and recR genes and their products in UVM, possibly by affecting the third role of RecA in UVM.