The Expanded mtDNA Phylogeny of the Franco-Cantabrian Region Upholds the Pre-Neolithic Genetic Substrate of Basques

The European genetic landscape has been shaped by several human migrations occurred since Paleolithic times. The accumulation of archaeological records and the concordance of different lines of genetic evidence during the last two decades have triggered an interesting debate concerning the role of ancient settlers from the Franco-Cantabrian region in the postglacial resettlement of Europe. Among the Franco-Cantabrian populations, Basques are regarded as one of the oldest and more intriguing human groups of Europe. Recent data on complete mitochondrial DNA genomes focused on macrohaplogroup R0 revealed that Basques harbor some autochthonous lineages, suggesting a genetic continuity since pre-Neolithic times. However, excluding haplogroup H, the most representative lineage of macrohaplogroup R0, the majority of maternal lineages of this area remains virtually unexplored, so that further refinement of the mtDNA phylogeny based on analyses at the highest level of resolution is crucial for a better understanding of the European prehistory. We thus explored the maternal ancestry of 548 autochthonous individuals from various Franco-Cantabrian populations and sequenced 76 mitogenomes of the most representative lineages. Interestingly, we identified three mtDNA haplogroups, U5b1f, J1c5c1 and V22, that proved to be representative of Franco-Cantabria, notably of the Basque population. The seclusion and diversity of these female genetic lineages support a local origin in the Franco-Cantabrian area during the Mesolithic of southwestern Europe, ∼10,000 years before present (YBP), with signals of expansions at ∼3,500 YBP. These findings provide robust evidence of a partial genetic continuity between contemporary autochthonous populations from the Franco-Cantabrian region, specifically the Basques, and Paleolithic/Mesolithic hunter-gatherer groups. Furthermore, our results raise the current proportion (≈15%) of the Franco-Cantabrian maternal gene pool with a putative pre-Neolithic origin to ≈35%, further supporting the notion of a predominant Paleolithic genetic substrate in extant European populations.     

Untangling spider silk evolution with spidroin terminal domains

Background  

Spidroins are a unique family of large, structural proteins that make up the bulk of spider silk fibers. Due to the highly variable nature of their repetitive sequences, spidroin evolutionary relationships have principally been determined from their non-repetitive carboxy (C)-terminal domains, though they offer limited character data. The few known spidroin amino (N)-terminal domains have been difficult to obtain, but potentially contain critical phylogenetic information for reconstructing the diversification of spider silks. Here we used silk gland expression data (ESTs) from highly divergent species to evaluate the functional significance and phylogenetic utility of spidroin N-terminal domains.     

Typing of Genetic Markers Involved in Stress Response by Fluorescent cDNA-Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism Technique

Identification of genetic markers involved in stress response to physical factors or chemical substances in organisms is a challenging task. Typing of upregulated gene expression due to selective antibacterial pressure is a promising approach in the search of molecular mechanisms responsible for development of resistance. cDNA-Fluorescent Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (cDNA-FAFLP) strategy was developed and applied in the search of antimycotic drug resistance marker(s) in medically important fungi as an alternative method to microarray analysis. We compared differential gene expression of two sensitive Candida albicans reference strains (ATCC 10231 and ATCC 60133) and two of their paired resistant to fluconazole and itraconazole mutants. Resistant mutants Candida albicans FLC-R, resistant to fluconazole (MIC > 128 μg/ml) and Candida albicans ICZ-R, resistant to itraconazole (MIC > 4 μg/ml) were obtained in subcultures with gradual increase of the antifungal in the culture medium. cDNA-AFLP profile in both itraconazole resistant mutants showed specific spectrophotometric peaks with 5–6-fold RNA overexpression product of 500 bp length compared to the sensitive strains. Fluconazole mutants do not reveal RNA level changes under tested by us typing conditions. These results indicate that the cDNA-FAFLP strategy is a relatively rapid, simple, and reliable method for simultaneous typing of both constitutive and induced differences in expression of host genes providing insight into the biological processes involved in response to drugs in bacteria and fungi. Moreover, this methodology could be tested for typing of the genome response of any organism to physical or chemical stress factors.     

Physical and chemical variability in sugarcane fields infested with the red-striped soft scale insect,Pulvinaria Tenuivalvata (Newstead)

The red-striped soft scale insect Pulvinaria tenuivalvata (Newstead) (Hemiptera: Coccidae) started to infest sugarcane plants (Saccharum officinarum L.) in different districts in Egypt during the last decade. The percentage of infestation was recorded in El-Wakf area, Qena Governorate (Naghhamadi mill zone) Upper Egypt in some fields. There are three levels of infestation, low, intermediate and high. From these fields, samples were selected for physical and chemical studies. The results obtained show that the stalks of infested plants decreased in weight, the sugar content (glucose and sucrose) drastically reduced and as the percentage of infestation increased the percentage of glucose and sucrose content significantly decreased. The primary and secondary humidity and the cellulose content also increased in the healthy plants compared to the infested ones. All the physical character of the infested plants was significantly affected in comparison with the healthy ones.