B chromosomes in the species Prochilodus argenteus (Characiformes, Prochilodontidae): morphologicalidentity and dispersion

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Implementing new northernmost records to modelling the distribution of Hypsiboas caingua (Anura: Hylidae) in South America

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

B chromosomes in species of the genus Prochilodus (Characiformes, Prochilodontidae): morphological identity and dispersion

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Diversificação de anuros no Chaco Sul-Americano

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

REML/BLUP para predição de valores genotípicos de topcrosses e seleção de testadores em milho

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Polymorphisms of candidate genes for muscle performance and male fertility in Brazilian Mangalarga horses

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Hidden Effects of Chronic Tuberculosis in African Buffalo

Infectious diseases can bring about population declines and local host extinctions, contributing significantly to the global biodiversity crisis. Nonetheless, studies measuring population-level effects of pathogens in wild host populations are rare, and taxonomically biased toward avian hosts and macroparasitic infections. We investigated the effects of bovine tuberculosis (bTB), caused by the bacterial pathogen Mycobacterium bovis, on African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) at Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, South Africa. We tested 1180 buffalo for bTB infection between May 2000 and November 2001. Most infections were mild, confirming the chronic nature of the disease in buffalo. However, our data indicate that bTB affects both adult survival and fecundity. Using an age-structured population model, we demonstrate that the pathogen can reduce population growth rate drastically; yet its effects appear difficult to detect at the population level: bTB causes no conspicuous mass mortalities or fast population declines, nor does it alter host-population age structure significantly. Our models suggest that this syndrome—low detectability coupled with severe impacts on population growth rate and, therefore, resilience—may be characteristic of chronic diseases in large mammals.

Application of Microsatellite Primers Developed for Polistes in the Independent-Founding Wasp Polists satan Bequaert (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

Microsatellite primers developed for a given species are sometimes useful for another in the same genus and in other genera within the same family, making possible to search for pre-existing suitable primers in the databanks such as GenBank. We examined whether existing primers developed for Polistes could be used for Polistes satan Bequaert. We tested 50 microsatellite primers from three Polistes species and found that six microsatellite loci show polymorphism in size in P. satan. These six loci were highly polymorphic, having four to 15 alleles in P. satan with an expected heterozygosity of 0.525-0.832. These loci can be used to study parameters concerning genetic relatedness such as social interactions in colonies and genetic conflicts of interest among nestmate individuals.

Demographic processes in the montane Atlantic rainforest: Molecular and cytogenetic evidence from the endemic frog Proceratophrys boiei

Historical climatic refugia predict genetic diversity in lowland endemics of the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest. Yet, available data reveal distinct biological responses to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) conditions across species of different altitudinal ranges. We show that species occupying Brazil's montane forests were significantly less affected by LGM conditions relative to lowland specialists, but that pre-Pleistocene tectonics greatly influenced their geographic variation. Our conclusions are based on palaeoclimatic distribution models, molecular sequences of the cytochrome b, 16S, and RAG-1 genes, and karyotype data for the endemic frog Proceratophrys boiei. DNA and chromosomal data identify in P. boiei at least two broadly divergent phylogroups, which have not been distinguished morphologically. Cytogenetic results also indicate an area of hybridization in southern Sao Paulo. The location of the phylogeographic break broadly matches the location of a NW-SE fault, which underwent reactivation in the Neogene and led to remarkable landscape changes in southeastern Brazil. Our results point to different mechanisms underpinning diversity patterns in lowland versus montane tropical taxa, and help us to understand the processes responsible for the large number of narrow endemics currently observed in montane areas of the southern Atlantic forest hotspot. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Amazonian malaria: Asymptomatic human reservoirs, diagnostic challenges, environmentally driven changes in mosquito vector populations, and the mandate for sustainable control strategies

Across the Americas and the Caribbean, nearly 561,000 slide-confirmed malaria infections were reported officially in 2008. The nine Amazonian countries accounted for 89% of these infections; Brazil and Peru alone contributed 56% and 7% of them, respectively. Local populations of the relatively neglected parasite Plasmodium vivax, which currently accounts for 77% of the regional malaria burden, are extremely diverse genetically and geographically structured. At a time when malaria elimination is placed on the public health agenda of several endemic countries, it remains unclear why malaria proved so difficult to control in areas of relatively low levels of transmission such as the Amazon Basin. We hypothesize that asymptomatic parasite carriage and massive environmental changes that affect vector abundance and behavior are major contributors to malaria transmission in epidemiologically diverse areas across the Amazon Basin. Here we review available data supporting this hypothesis and discuss their implications for current and future malaria intervention policies in the region. Given that locally generated scientific evidence is urgently required to support malaria control interventions in Amazonia, we briefly describe the aims of our current field-oriented malaria research in rural villages and gold-mining enclaves in Peru and a recently opened agricultural settlement in Brazil. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Non-classical HLA-E gene variability in Brazilians: a nearly invariable locus surrounded by the most variable genes in the human genome

The non-classical human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I genes present a very low rate of variation. So far, only 10 HLA-E alleles encoding three proteins have been described, but only two are frequently found in worldwide populations. Because of its historical background, Brazilians are very suitable for population genetic studies. Therefore, 104 bone marrow donors from Brazil were evaluated for HLA-E exons 14. Seven variation sites were found, including two known single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at positions +424 and +756 and five new SNPs at positions +170 (intron 1), +1294 (intron 3), +1625, +1645 and +1857 (exon 4). Haplotyping analysis did show eight haplotypes, three of them known as E*01:01:01, E*01:03:01 and E*01:03:02:01 and five HLA-E new alleles that carry the new variation sites. The HLA-E*01:01:01 allele was the predominant haplotype (62.50%), followed by E*01:03:02:01 (24.52%). Selective neutrality tests have disclosed an interesting pattern of selective pressures in which balancing selection is probably shaping allele frequency distributions at an SNP at exon 3 (codon 107), sequence diversity at exon 4 and the non-coding regions is facing significant purifying pressure. Even in an admixed population such as the Brazilian one, the HLA-E locus is very conserved, presenting few polymorphic SNPs in the coding region.

Geographic differentiation of polymorphism in the Plasmodium falciparum malaria vaccine candidate gene SERA5

SERA5 is regarded as a promising malaria vaccine candidate of the most virulent human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. SERA5 is a 120 kDa abundantly expressed blood-stage protein containing a papain-like protease. Since substantial polymorphism in blood-stage vaccine candidates may potentially limit their efficacy, it is imperative to fully investigate polymorphism of the SERA5 gene (sera5). In this study, we performed evolutionary and population genetic analysis of sera5. The level of inter-species divergence (kS = 0.076) between P. falciparum and Plasmodium reichenowi, a closely related chimpanzee malaria parasite is comparable to that of housekeeping protein genes. A signature of purifying selection was detected in the proenzyme and enzyme domains. Analysis of 445 near full-length P. falciparum sera5 sequences from nine countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, Oceania and South America revealed extensive variations in the number of octamer repeat (OR) and serine repeat (SR) regions as well as substantial level of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in non-repeat regions (2562 bp). Remarkably, a 14 amino acid sequence of SERA5 (amino acids 59-72) that is known to be the in vitro target of parasite growth inhibitory antibodies was found to be perfectly conserved in all 445 worldwide isolates of P. falciparum evaluated. Unlike other major vaccine target antigen genes such as merozoite surface protein-1, apical membrane antigen-1 or circumsporozoite protein, no strong evidence for positive selection was detected for SNPs in the non-repeat regions of sera5. A biased geographical distribution was observed in SNPs as well as in the haplotypes of the sera5 OR and SR regions. In Africa, OR- and SR-haplotypes with low frequency (<5%) and SNPs with minor allele frequency (<5%) were abundant and were mostly continent-specific. Consistently, significant genetic differentiation, assessed by the Wright's fixation index (FST) of inter-population variance in allele frequencies, was detected for SNPs and both OR- and SR-haplotypes among almost all parasite populations. The exception was parasite populations between Tanzania and Ghana, suggesting frequent gene flow in Africa. The present study points to the importance of investigating whether biased geographical distribution for SNPs and repeat variants in the OR and SR regions affect the reactivity of human serum antibodies to variants. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Análisis de la diversidad genética en poblaciones naturales de especies vegetales amenzadas: Ilex Perado SSP. Lopezilloi (Aquifoliaceae), Silene Nocteolens (Caryophyllaceae) y Sorbus Aria (Rosaceae)

Se han elminado páginas en blanco

Rekonstruktion der eiszeitlichen Verbreitung und Artbildung vier alpiner Primeln durch Artenverbreitungsmodelle und Phylogeographie

Aim: Previous studies revealed that diversification events in the western clade of the alpine Primula sect. Auricula were concentrated in the Quaternary cold periods. This implies that allopatric speciation in isolated glacial refugia was the most common mode of speciation. In the first part of the present dissertation, this hypothesis is further investigated by locating refugial areas of two sister species, Primula marginata & P. latifolia during the last glacial maximum, 21,000 years ago. In the second part, the glacial and postglacial history of P. hirsuta and P. daonensis is investigated. Location: European Alps. Methods: Glacial refugia were located using species distribution models, which are projected to last glacial maximum climate. These refugia are validated with geographic distribution patterns of intra-specific genetic diversity, rarity and variation. Results 1) Speciation: Glacial refugia of the sister taxa Primula marginata and P. latifolia were largely separated, only a small overlapping zone at the southern margin of the former glacier in the Maritime Alps exists. This overlapping zone is too small to indicate sympatric speciation. The largely separated glacial distribution of both species rather confirms our hypothesis of allopatric speciation in isolated glacial refugia. Results 2) Glacial and postglacial history: Surprizingly, the modelled potential refugia of three out of four Primula species are situated within the former ice-shield, except for P. marginata. This indicates that peripheral and central nunataks played an important role for the glacial survival in P. latifolia, P. hirsuta and P. daonensis, while peripheral refugia outside the maximum extend of the glacier were crucial in P. marginata. In P. hirsuta and P. latifolia SDMs allowed to exclude several hypothetical refugial areas that overlap with today’s distribution as potential refugia for the species. In P. marginata, hypothetical refugial areas at the periphery of the former ice-shield that overlap with today’s distribution were confirmed by the models. The results from the SDMs are confirmed by population genetic patterns in three out of four species. P. daonensis represents an exception, where population genetic data contradict the SDMs. Main conclusions: Species distribution models provide species specific scenarios of glacial distribution and postglacial re-colonization, which can be validated using population genetic analyses. This combined approach is useful and helps to understand the complex processes that have lead to the genetic and floristic patterns of biodiversity that is found today in the Alps.

Populationsgenetik eisenzeitlicher Reiternomaden der Eurasischen Steppe

Vorliegende Dissertation beschäftigt sich mit der Populationsgenetik eisenzeitlicher Bevölkerungen der Eurasischen Steppe, die mit der skythischen Kultur assoziiert werden. Für die Analysen wurden 30 Fragmente der kodierenden Region und die HVR1 (16040–16400) des mitochondrialen Genoms, sowie 20 phänotypische Marker untersucht. Die Marker wurden durch Multiplex-PCRs angereichert, mit einem probenspezifischen barcode versehen und einer parallelen Sequenzanalyse mit dem 454 GS FLX Sequenzierer unterzogen. 97 Individuen wurden erfolgreich analysiert, von denen 19 aus dem Westen der Eurasischen Steppe und 78 aus dem Bereich des Altai-Gebirges stammen. Die populationsgenetischen Analysen ergaben geringe genetische Distanzen zwischen den skythischen Populationen aus dem Bereich des Altai-Gebirges, die sich vom 9. bis zum 3. Jahrhundert vor Christus erstrecken, was für eine kontinuierliche Bevölkerungsentwicklung sprechen könnte. Weiterhin finden sich geringe genetische Distanzen zwischen den Gruppen im Osten und Westen der Eurasischen Steppe, was auf eine gemeinsame Ursprungspopulation, oder zumindest Genfluss hinweisen kann. Die Ergebnisse aus dem Vergleich mit neolithischen und bronzezeitlichen Referenzpopulationen aus Zentralasien und den angrenzenden Gebieten weisen auf die Möglichkeit eines gemeinsamen zentral-asiatischen Ursprungs hin, zeigen aber auch, dass die östlichen und westlichen Gruppen der Eisenzeit jeweils zusätzlich lokalem Genfluss ausgesetzt waren. Die Allelfrequenzen der phänotypischen Marker deuten auf einen größeren europäischen Einfluss auf das östliche Zentralasien in der Eisenzeit hin, oder ansteigenden Genfluss aus Ostasien nach der Eisenzeit.