Incidence and identification of Cassava tuber rot caused by Phytophthora palmivora

The occurrence of Cassava tuber rot in regions of Kolli hills, Kollam, and Kottayam of South India, causes major economic loss up to 70% in Cassava production. The disease tuber is characterised by brown watery lesions with foul smell, making it unfit for further use. The sporangia of the pathogen were oval and ellipsoid with a short pedicle. Identification of the isolate from these regions was also confirmed by ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of rDNA region. The pathogen was highly aggressive when pathogenicity was tested. Based on morphological, pathogenicity and ITS sequences, the pathogen was identified as Phytophthora palmivora. Development of integrated disease management practices is essential to combat the disease. This is the first report recording the spread of Cassava tuber rot disease in regions of Kolli hills of Tamil Nadu and Kollam and Kottayam, of Kerala.     

Highly efficient identification of thousands of microsatellite loci in the pearl oyster (Pinctada martensii) from RNA-Seq

High-throughput RNA-Seq affords a cost and time effective means of obtaining large numbers of genetic markers for aquatic genomics. Here, we present thousands of novel microsatellite loci developed for the pearl oyster, Pinctada martensii from the Illumina HiSeq™ 2000 library of the pearl sac. Free user-friendly bioinformatics tools were employed to screen for microsatellite loci and design appropriate primers in 102,762 unigenes with 7216 microsatellite loci identified in total, 4862 of which had flanking sequences suitable for polymerase chain reaction primer design. The 50 randomly chosen primer pairs were tested in two populations of pearl oyster (base population (POP1) and selected population (POP2), with 30 individuals of each population). All the primer pairs were amplified successfully in two populations. All loci were polymorphic in POP1, while there were 3 loci showing monomorphism in POP2. In POP1 and POP2, observed heterozygosity from 0.033 to 1.000 and 0.000 to 1.000, 19 and 16 microsatellite loci deviated significantly from Hardy–Weinberg expectations including a Bonferroni correction (P < 0.001). Thirteen loci were highly informative content (PIC ≥ 0.5) in both populations. These identified loci will be useful for potential application for evolutionary, population genetic and chromosome linkage mapping research on pearl oyster.     

Nematocysts of sea anemones (Actiniaria,Ceriantharia and Corallimorpharia: Cnidaria): nomenclature

A brief historical review of nematocyst terminology is given and three nomenclatural problems are discussed. It is proposed to combine the terms initiated by Weill (1934) with those of Schmidt (1969). A new mesobasic grade, intermediate between microbasic and macrobasic is proposed for amastigophores and p-mastigophores possessing a short Faltstück. A more liberal interpretation of Weill's (1934) terminology for nematocysts than that proposed by Cutress (1955) is suggested in respect of microbasic amastigophores and p-mastigophores. Basitrichs and b-mastigophores continue to be recognized as separate categories.deceased     

Electrochemical Identification of <i>Yulania</i> spp. by Fingerprinting of Leaves Using Glassy Carbon Electrode

In this communication, we used electrochemical sensor for recording the electrochemical profiles of eleven species of Yulania spp. from leaf extract. Two solvents and two buffer conditions were used for electrochemical fingerprints collection. Their electrochemical fingerprints can be converted to different patterns and consequently for species recognition. The results indicate the pattern recognition is much convenient than that of the recognition of species directly using voltammetric signal. The current information in electrochemical fingerprinting represents the type and amount of electrochemically active molecules, which linked to the genetic differences among the plants. Therefore, the electrochemical fingerprints were applied for further phylogenetic study. The phylogenetic tree deduced from voltametric curves is divided into three main groups. The first clade contains Y. denudate, Liriodendron chinense, Y. cylindrica, Y. biondii, Y. sprengeri. The second clade contains Y. zenii, Y. liliiflora, Y. kobus, and Y. amoena. The third clade contains Y. × soulangeana, Manglietia fordiana and Y. sinostellata. In addition, Y. salicifolia is not in these main clades. The results demonstrate that electrochemical fingerprinting can be used as a com-plementary tool in the study of phylogenetics.     

瓦山锥化学成分研究(Ⅰ)

瓦山锥植物富含植物多酚类成分且资源丰富,目前尚无该植物化学成分及生物活性方面的报道。为了明确瓦山锥的物质基础,为该植物资源的合理开发与可持续利用提供科学依据,该研究采用Sephadex LH-20、Diaion HP20SS、Toyopearl HW-40F等多种柱层析方法对瓦山锥树叶乙醇提取物进行分离纯化,从中得到11个单体化合物,它们的结构经波谱数据分析及文献对照鉴定为没食子酸(1)、咖啡酸(2)、1-(3',4'-二羟基肉桂酰)-环戊-2,3-二酚(3)、绿原酸(4)、绿原酸甲酯(5)、kaempferol 3-O-β-D-glucuronopyranoside(6)、kaempferol 3-O-{β-D-xylopyranosyl-(1→2)-[α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→6)]-β-D-glucopyranoside}(7)、quercetin 3-O-β-D-glucuronopyranoside(8)、quercetin 3-O-β-glucuronide-6″-methyl ester(9)、芦丁(10)、quercetin5-O-[α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→6)]-β-D-glucopyranoside(11)。所有化合物均为首次从瓦山锥中分离得到,其中化合物3,7-11为首次从锥属植物中分离得到。     

Coumarins from Musineon divaricatum

A chemical investigation of Musineon divaricatum has resulted in the isolation of 19 coumarins, five of which are novel compounds; 18 are khellactone derivatives. The coumarins were isolated from the crude extracts by a combination of adsorption chromatography, gel permeation and HPLC; the more successful HPLC separations utilized a nitrile bonded phase column. The structures were determined by ¹H NMR and mass spectral studies and by comparisons with literature data. The relative configuration for the entire series was secured from ¹H NMR data, while the absolute configuration could be assigned with any certainty only in the cases of two of the compounds.     

Deep‐sea anglerfishes (Lophiiformes: Ceratioidei) from the western North Atlantic: Testing the efficacy of DNA barcodes

The taxonomy of ceratioid fishes is challenging and frequently based on a small number of female specimens described for each species. Twenty ceratioid specimens caught on Flemish Cap and Grand Bank (western North Atlantic), representing 12 species and six families: Ceratias holboelli and Cryptopsaras couesii (Ceratiidae); Himantolophus albinares (Himantolophidae); Melanocetus johnsonii (Melanocetidae); Lophodolos acanthognathus, Oneirodes eschrichtii, Dolopichthys karsteni, and Leptacanthichthys gracilispinis (Oneirodidae); Caulophryne polynema (Caulophrynidae); and Haplophryne mollis, Linophryne brevibarbata, and L. bicornis (Linophrynidae) were identified by examination of morphological characters. DNA barcode sequences, from the 5′ end of the COI mitochondrial gene, were developed for 18 specimens and compared with all ceratioid barcode sequences available in public repositories. The analyses extended the ranges of some quantitative traits for certain species, highlighted the possible existence of cryptic species in C. couesii with distinct ranges in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and indicated a close relationship between Bertella and Dolopichthys meriting further attention. The authoritative identification of the 18 voucher specimens made possible detection of erroneous identifications of some sequences extracted from the repositories and highlighting of taxonomic conflicts that should be the subject of future studies.