Delineating Ecological Boundaries of Hanuman Langur Species Complex in Peninsular India Using MaxEnt Modeling Approach

Hanuman langur is one of the widely distributed and extensively studied non-human diurnal primates in India. Until recently it was believed to be a single species - Semnopithecus entellus. Recent molecular and morphological studies suggest that the Hanuman langurs consists of at least three species S. entellus, S. hypoleucos and S. priam. Furthermore, morphological studies suggested that both S. hypoleucos and S. priam have at least three subspecies in each. We explored the use of ecological niche modeling (ENM) to confirm the validity of these seven taxa and an additional taxon S. johnii belonging to the same genus. MaxEnt modeling tool was used with 19 bioclimatic, 12 vegetation and 6 hydrological environmental layers. We reduced total environmental variables to 14 layers after testing for collinearity and an independent test for model prediction was done using ENMTools. A total of 196 non-overlapping data points from primary and secondary sources were used as inputs for ENM. Results showed eight distinct ecological boundaries, corroborating the eight taxa mentioned above thereby confirming validity of these eight taxa. The study, for the first time provided ecological variables that determined the ecological requirements and distribution of members of the Hanuman langur species complex in the Indian peninsula.

Molecules support morphology: species status of South Indian populations of the widely distributed Hanuman langur

The taxonomy of the Hanuman langur (Semnopithecus spp.), a widely distributed Asian colobine monkey, has been in a flux for a long time due to much disagreement between various classification schemes. However, results from a recent field-based morphological study were consistent with Hill's (Ceylon J Sci 21:277-305, 1939) species level classification scheme. Here we tested the validity of S. hypoleucos and S. priam, the two South Indian species recognized by Hill. To this end, one mitochondrial and four nuclear markers were sequenced from over 72 non-invasive samples of Hanuman langurs and S. johnii collected from across India. The molecular data were subjected to various tree building methods. The nuclear data was also used in a Bayesian structure analysis and to determine the genealogical sorting index of each hypothesized species. Results from nuclear data suggest that the South Indian population of Hanuman langur consists of two units that correspond to the species recognized by Hill. However in the mitochondrial tree S. johnii and S. priam were polyphyletic probably due to retention of ancestral polymorphism and/or low levels of hybridization. Implications of these results on conservation of Hanuman langurs are also discussed.

Lizards of the Thar Desert - Resource partitioning and community composition

How similar species co-exist in nature is a fundamental question in community ecology. Resource partitioning has been studied in desert lizard communities across four continents, but data from South Asia is lacking. We used area-constrained visual encounter surveys to study community composition and spatial and temporal resource partitioning in a lizard community during summer in the Thar Desert, western India, addressing an important biogeographic gap in knowledge. Twelve one-hectare grids divided into 25 m x 25 m plots were placed across four habitats barren dunes, stabilized dunes, grassland, and rocky hills. We recorded 1039 sightings of 12 species during 84 sampling sessions. Lizard abundance decreased in the order stabilized dunes > grassland > barren dunes > rocky hills; richness was in roughly the opposite order. Resource partitioning was examined for the seven commonest species. Overall spatial overlap was low (<0.6) between species pairs. Overlap was higher within habitats, but species showed finer separation through use of different microhabitat categories and specific spatial resources, as well as by positioning at different distances to vegetation. Diurnal species were also separated by peak time of activity. Space appears to be an important resource dimension facilitating coexistence in this desert lizard community. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Expression of Bioactive Callithrix jacchus Follicle-Stimulating Hormone in Pichia pastoris

Callithrix jacchus (common marmoset) is a New World primate monkey, used as an animal model in biomedical research. Marmoset-specific follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) preparation is required to improve superovulation protocols and to develop homologous FSH monitoring assays in these monkeys. In this study, we document the large-scale expression of recombinant marmoset FSH in methylotropic yeast, Pichia pastoris. The recombinant preparation was found to be immunologically active in Western blotting and radioimmunoassay. The preparation displayed receptor binding ability in radioreceptor assay. Based on the receptor binding ability, the yield of fermentation was estimated to be 7.2 mg/L. FSH-induced cAMP assay and estradiol assay revealed that the recombinant hormone is able to induce signal transduction. Both immunological and in vitro biological activity of marmoset FSH was found to be comparable to purified human pituitary FSH, which served as reference hormone for these assays. Thus, the study suggests that a Pichia expression system can be used for large-scale expression of bioactive recombinant marmoset FSH.

Investigations of aerosol black carbon from a semi-urban site in the Indo-Gangetic Plain region

Long-term (2009-2012) data from ground-based measurements of aerosol black carbon (BC) from a semi-urban site, Pantnagar (29.0 degrees N, 79.5 degrees E, 231 m amsl), in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) near the Himalayan foothills are analyzed to study the regional characterization. Large variations are seen in BC at both diurnal and seasonal scales, associated with the mesoscale and synoptic meteorological processes, and local/regional anthropogenic activities. BC diurnal variations show two peaks (morning and evening) arising from the combined effects of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) dynamics and local emissions. The diurnal amplitudes as well as the rates of diurnal evolution are the highest in winter season, followed by autumn, and the lowest in summer-monsoon. BC exhibits nearly an inverse relation with mixing layer depth in all seasons; being strongest in winter (R-2 = 0.89) and weakest (R-2 = 0.33) in monsoon (July-August). Unlike BC, co-located aerosol optical depths (AOD) and aerosol absorption are highest in spring over IGP, probably due to the presence of higher abundances of aerosols (including dust) above the ABL (in the free troposphere). AOD (500 nm) showed annual peak (>0.6) in May-June, dominated by coarse mode, while fine mode aerosols dominated in late autumn and early winter. Aerosols profiles from CALIPSO show highest values close to the surface in winter/autumn, similar to the feature seen in surface BC, whereas at altitudes > 2 km, the extinction is maximum in spring/summer. WRF-Chem model is used to simulate BC temporal variations and then compared with observed BC. The model captures most of the important features of the diurnal and seasonal variations but significantly underestimated the observed BC levels, suggesting improvements in diurnal and seasonal varying BC emissions apart from the boundary layer processes. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.