Nosema meligethi I. & R. (Microsporida) in populations of meligethes spp. in Europe

Samples of rape blossom beetles, Meligethes spp., from 12 countries in Eastern and Western Europe were inspected for the occurrence of Nosema meligethi I. &R. infection. From most countries about a dozen samples and a few hundred beetles were inspected. A total of 13 910 individual beetles were checked under a compound microscope, and of these, 561 were found to be infected (4.03%). Despe careful examination, infection was not detectable in samples from the UK (1039 beetles inspected), Germany (694), Sweden (489), or Swzerland (280). One infected beetle was found among 444 beetles inspected from Austria, and one from Denmark (1/85). In contrast, the parase was found rather regularly in samples from Finland and from Eastern European countries. No obvious reason for this pattern of infection is known, but pesticide usage at or close to the sampling ses may play a role, because most samples from whichNosema was detected originated from areas where few pesticides are used. Spore size measurements were made from seven N. meligethi isolates, and they appeared relatively uniform. appears that artificial spread of the disease might be worthwhile in an effort towards the integrated control of M. aeneus F.     

Qualitative yeast enzyme analysis by electrophoresis

Summary Baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) was cultivated under different intensities of aeration on glucose and on ethanol. Seventeen enzymes of the Embden-Meyerhof pathway and the TCA cycle or related reactions were then assayed by starch gel electrophoresis. There were both qualitative and quantitative differences in many enzymes, most notably in glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, alcohol dehydrogenase, isocitrate dehydrogenase, malate dehydrogenase, and fumarase. Enzyme electrophoresis seems to offer a promising method for rapidly obtaining information about many yeast enzymes from a large number of samples.     

Sample size in the monitoring of benthic macrofauna in the profundal of lakes: evaluation of the precision of estimates

We discuss here the influence of sample size (number of replicates) on the accuracy and precision of the results when sampling profundal benthos with an Ekman grab according to the Finnish standard, SFS 5076, which is equivalent to the Swedish and Norwegian standards. The aim was to find criteria for choosing a sample size which would avoid any powerful influence of chance on the results without entailing an unreasonable amount of work for monitoring purposes.Lake Haukivesi (area 620 km², total phosphorus 13 µg l^–1 and colour 35 Pt mg l^–1), Lake Paasivesi (116 km², 5 µg l^–1 and 35 Pt mg l^–1) and Lake Puruvesi (322 km², 4 µg l^–1 and 5 Pt mg l^–1) were sampled randomly in June and October 1991. 25 Replicate samples were taken on each occasion from the deep profundal area of each lake, defined here as 60-100% of the maximum depth. The sedimentation areas studied were fairly homogeneous, since the animal communities were not markedly affected by the variations in depth. Distribution estimates for the statistics studied, such as number of individuals, expected number of species, diversity and benthic quality indices, were calculated for a large set of random samples taken from the empirical data by computer (bootstrap sampling). The sample variance, s ², correlated with the mean animal density, m (ind. m^–2), according to the equation s ² = 31.77 m ^1.247. The sample size required to achieve the desired precision in mean animal density (D, expressed as the ratio standard error/mean) can thus be estimated as n = 31.77 m ^–0.753 D ^–2. The number of replicate samples needed to achieve a standard error of 20% of the mean density was 10 in Lake Haukivesi, seven in Lake Paasivesi and 11 in Lake Puruvesi. The accuracy and precision of the estimated number of species, Shannon's diversity and Benthic Quality Index improved markedly as the sample size was increased to 10 replicates. As a compromise between work load and statistical reliability, a figure of 10 replicate Ekman samples is proposed here for the monitoring of profundal benthos. The proposed sample size usually produces individual numbers which are high enough for practical purposes, probably at least 100 individuals, which is recommended as a minimum in the standard. The lower number of replicate samples recommended in recent Finnish handbook, 3–5, usually produces inadequate data, and this may detract from the comparability of the results and leave the changes in profundal communities undetected.     

Answering six questions in extracting children��s mismatch negativity through combining wavelet decomposition and independent component analysis

This study combines wavelet decomposition and independent component analysis (ICA) to extract mismatch negativity (MMN) from electroencephalography (EEG) recordings. As MMN is a small event-related potential (ERP), a systematic ICA based approach is designed, exploiting MMN’s temporal, frequency and spatial information. Moreover, this study answers which type of EEG recordings is more appropriate for ICA to extract MMN, what kind of the preprocessing is beneficial for ICA decomposition, which algorithm of ICA can be chosen to decompose EEG recordings under the selected type, how to determine the desired independent component extracted by ICA, how to improve the accuracy of the back projection of the selected independent component in the electrode field, and what can be finally obtained with the application of ICA. Results showed that the proposed method extracted MMN with better properties than those estimated by difference wave only using temporal information or ICA only using spatial information. The better properties mean that the deviant with larger magnitude of deviance to repeated stimuli in the oddball paradigm can elicit MMN with larger peak amplitude and shorter latency. As other ERPs also have the similar information exploited here, the proposed method can be used to study other ERPs.     

Molecular systematics and Holarctic phylogeography of cestodes of the genus Anoplocephaloides Baer, 1923 s. s. (Cyclophyllidea,Anoplocephalidae) in lemmings (Lemmus,Synaptomys)

The present molecular systematic and phylogeographic analysis is based on sequences of cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) (mtDNA) and 28S ribosomal DNA and includes 59 isolates of cestodes of the genus Anoplocephaloides Baer, 1923 s. s. (Cyclophyllidea, Anoplocephalidae) from arvicoline rodents (lemmings and voles) in the Holarctic region. The emphasis is on Anoplocephaloides lemmi (Rausch 1952) parasitizing Lemmus trimucronatus and Lemmus sibiricus in the northern parts of North America and Arctic coast of Siberia, and Anoplocephaloides kontrimavichusi (Rausch 1976) parasitizing Synaptomys borealis in Alaska and British Columbia. The cox1 data, 28S data and their concatenated data all suggest that A. lemmi and A. kontrimavichusi are both non‐monophyletic, each consisting of two separate, well‐defined clades, that is independent species. As an example, the sister group of the clade 1 of A. lemmi, evidently representing the ‘type clade’ of this species, is the clade 1 of A. kontrimavichusi. For A. kontrimavichusi, it is not known which one is the type clade. There is also fairly strong evidence for the non‐monophyly of Anoplocephaloides dentata (Galli‐Valerio, 1905)‐like species, although an earlier phylogeny suggested that this multispecies assemblage may be monophyletic. The results suggest a deep phylogenetic codivergence of Lemmus spp. and A. lemmi, primarily separating the two largely allopatric host and parasite species at the Kolyma River in east Siberia. There are also two allopatric sublineages within each main clade/species of A. lemmi and Lemmus, but the present distributions of the sublineages within the eastern L. trimucronatus and clade 1 of A. lemmi are not concordant. This discrepancy may be most parsimoniously explained by an extensive westward distributional shift of the easternmost parasite subclade. The results further suggest that the clade 1 of A. kontrimavichusi has diverged through a host shift from the precursor of L. trimucronatus to S. borealis.     

Comparing segmentations by applying randomization techniques

Background  

There exist many segmentation techniques for genomic sequences, and the segmentations can also be based on many different biological features. We show how to evaluate and compare the quality of segmentations obtained by different techniques and alternative biological features.     

Is parasite pressure a driver of chemical cue diversity in ants?

Parasites and pathogens are possibly key evolutionary forces driving recognition systems. However, empirical evidence remains sparse. The ubiquitous pioneering ant Formica fusca is exploited by numerous socially parasitic ant species. We compared the chemical cue diversity, egg and nest mate recognition abilities in two Finnish and two UK populations where parasite pressure is high or absent, respectively. Finnish populations had excellent egg and nest mate discrimination abilities, which were lost in the UK populations. The loss of discrimination behaviour correlates with a loss in key recognition compounds (C₂₅-dimethylalkanes). This was not owing to genetic drift or different ecotypes since neutral gene diversity was the same in both countries. Furthermore, it is known that the cuticular hydrocarbon profiles of non-host ant species remain stable between Finland and the UK. The most parsimonious explanation for the striking difference in the cue diversity (number of C₂₅-dimethylalkanes isomers) between the UK and Finland populations is the large differences in parasite pressure experienced by F. fusca in the two countries. These results have strong parallels with bird (cuckoo) studies and support the hypothesis that parasites are driving recognition cue diversity.