Selection of high-affinity single-chain antibodies to human C3 by phage display

C3 is the key protein in the activation of the complement system, and it contributes to an effective immune response. However, C3 is also targeted by autoantibodies during the development of autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus, and the autoantigenicity of C3 is still poorly understood. In order to study the molecular aspects of C3 autoantigenicity and the localization of C3 autoepitopes, we selected high-affinity anti-C3 antibodies from the “Griffin 1” phage display library expressing human scFv antibodies. The rounds of phage selection were performed with a gradual decrease in the amount of the antigen C3, resulting in the selection of forty clones of recombinant anti-C3 scFv antibodies. Quantitative ELISA analysis determined four high-affinity monoclonal scFvs to C3, and their expression was optimized with IPTG induction and autoinduction methods. Dot blot analysis revealed that the selected high-affinity anti-C3 clones recognized C3 and its smaller fragments C3b and C3c, but not C3d

DNA barcoding, integrative taxonomy, citizen science, and Bush Blitz surveys combine to reveal 34 new species of Apanteles (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Microgastrinae) in Australia

Microgastrinae is a megadiverse subfamily of wasps in the family Braconidae. As parasitoids of caterpillars, members of the subfamily play important roles in regulating native caterpillar populations, and several species are used commercially as biological control agents. The genus Apanteles comprises a large portion of total microgastrine diversity, however it has not been studied in Australia for more than 30 years, with only nine described species previously known from the continent. We explore the diversity and systematics of Apanteles in Australia, using cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) and Wingless (wg) DNA barcodes from more than 400 Australian Apanteles specimens. Using molecular species delimitation in combination with reduced morphological diagnoses, at least 48 distinct molecular lineages of Apanteles are confirmed in Australia, and 34 new species are formally described, all authored by Slater-Baker, Fagan-Jeffries, Fernández-Triana, Portmann & Oestmann: A. adustus, A. aeternus, A. alatomicans, A. allapsus, A. amicalis, A. apollo, A. apricus, A. artemis, A. aurantius, A. auroralis, A. banrock, A. breviflagellarius, A. brockhedgesi, A. cuprum, A. darthvaderi, A. doreenwatlerae, A. ethanbeaveri, A. fenestrinus, A. ferripulvis, A. focusalis, A. hades, A. insulanus, A. kelpiellus, A. lamingtonensis, A. ligdus, A. magicus, A. margaritarius, A. pellucidus, A. phantasmatus, A. pharusalis, A. ramsaris, A. rufiterra, A. sinusulus, and A. translucentis

Branchiostegus sanae, a new species of deepwater tilefish (Eupercaria, Branchiostegidae) from the South China Sea

A new species of deepwater tilefish, Branchiostegus sanae sp. nov., is described based on five specimens collected from the area between the Xisha Islands and Hainan Island, China. This species can be distinguished from congeners by its unique cheek marker and a combination of characteristics. Among the tilefish species known to be distributed in the South China Sea, this species is the only one with vertical stripes on the body. Based on the COI, CytB, and 12S sequences, a maximum-likelihood phylogenetic tree shows that the B. sanae sp. nov. forms a separate clade and is the sister group to the clade consisting of B. sawakinensis, B. albus, B. argentatus, B. biendong, B. japonicus, B. auratus, and B. okinawaensis. A key to the genus Branchiostegus is also compiled

Unveiling new species of Phragmidiaceae (Basidiomycota, Pucciniales) on rosaceous plants from Guizhou, China

Rust fungi associated with Rubus were collected across diverse locations in Guizhou Province, and three new species – Gerwasia amphidasydis on Rubus amphidasys, Phragmidium coreanicola on Rubus coreanus, and Phragmidium parvifolius on Rubus parvifolius are introduced. These novel species are described based on morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analysis of the ITS and LSU loci. Additionally, Gerwasia rubi-setchuenensis is introduced as a new host record on Rubus buergeri. The study includes comprehensive morpho-anatomical descriptions, detailed illustrations, and a phylogenetic tree, providing insights into the taxonomic placement and relationships of these novel taxa within their respective lineages

Soil campodeids (Diplura, Campodeidae) of Eastern Europe, in Romanian and Bulgarian reliefs

This study presents data on soil campodeids collected in Romania and Bulgaria in recent years. The collection comprises 12 species of genus Campodea Westwood, 1842 in total. A new species, Campodea (Dicampa) transylvanica Sendra, sp. nov. is described from Zarand and Făgăraș mountains in Romania. Campodea (Campodea) plusiochaeta Silvestri, 1912 is newly recorded for the Romanian fauna, while Campodea (Paurocampa) ruseki Condé, 1966 represents a new record for Bulgaria. New distributional data are also provided for the remaining ten species

Challenges and opportunities for assessing trends of amphibians with heterogeneous data – a call for better metadata reporting

Over the last decades, the worldwide decline of amphibian populations has become a major concern of researchers and conservationists. Studies have reported a diversity of trends, with some species strongly declining, others remaining stable and still others increasing. However, only a few species have been monitored annually for a long period of time by specific monitoring programmes. Instead, there are many heterogeneous datasets that contain observations of amphibians from professional surveys as well as diverse citizen science and other voluntary surveys. The use of these data brings a number of challenges, raising concerns about their validity and use in ecological research and conservation. We assessed to what extent such heterogeneous occurrence data can provide information on the status and trends of amphibians by contrasting different approaches to overcoming challenges with the data, using the German state of Saxony as an example. We assessed the effects of data processing decisions to infer absences, the use of survey method information and the statistical model (generalised linear mixed-effect occurrence model [GLMM] versus occupancy-detection model) and compared the trends with expert opinions (Red Lists). The different data processing decisions mainly led to similar annual occupancy estimates, newts being an exception. Annual occupancy estimates were typically less certain when attempting to account for the effects of survey methods, which could be explained by many missing values on methods. Separate models for drift fence data reduced the uncertainty in the annual occurrence probability estimates of the GLMM models, but uncertainty remained high for occupancy-detection models. For both methods, strong peaks and troughs in the annual occupancy estimates occurred for several species, which were not biologically plausible. Some peaks align with periods of lower sampling effort and were probably caused by shifts in the sampling locations or target species amongst years. Only for three species (Bufotes viridis, Hyla arborea and Pelophylax esculentus) were the trend results consistent amongst approaches and with expert opinions. For most other species, some inconsistencies appeared amongst models or approaches, indicating that trend assessments are sensitive to analytical choices. While heterogeneous data have proved useful for other taxa, our results highlight the complexity of using them for amphibians. We strongly recommend better harmonisation of data collection and metadata documentation, including explicit absence data and, if available, abundance data, to enable more robust trend assessments in the future

Plant Leaf Recognition using OSSGabor filter and Vision Transformer

Deep learning methods are increasingly used in automated plant species classification systems to support biodiversity conservation and ecological monitoring, particularly for medicinal plants. This study presents a novel approach to plant leaf recognition by integrating the Vision Transformer (ViT) model with the OSSGabor filter, termed the OGViT method. The OSSGabor filter is a leaf feature extraction technique that combines the responses of Gabor filters in 16 directions and optimizes their parameters using the Structural Similarity Index Measure (SSIM). These features capture intricate details such as leaf veins, texture, and frequency variations, which are essential for enabling ViT to fully leverage deep learning for leaf recognition. Experimental results on four public datasets—Swedish Leaf, Flavia, Folio, and UCI Leaf—demonstrate that the OGViT method outperforms state-of-the-art approaches, achieving accuracy scores of 100%, 100%, 100%, and 98.88%, respectively, with a 20% testing set and an 80% training set. This performance highlights the effectiveness of the proposed method for plant classification, offering a robust tool with potential applications in agriculture and biodiversity conservation.

Greenhouse gas flux measurements from agricultural sites within the Swiss FluxNet network

The Swiss FluxNet provides ecosystem scale flux data for the major land use types in Switzerland. While the current station network includes long-term eddy covariance flux measurements from two forest sites (mixed deciduous forest Lägeren and evergreen spruce forest Davos), three permanent grassland sites (Chamau, Früebüel and Alp Weissenstein) as well as three cropland sites (Oensingen, Tänikon and Forel) complement the network. In addition, the measurements cover an altitude gradient ranging from 393 to 1978 m.a.s.l. Carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapor (H2O) fluxes are measured continuously at all sites, while nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) fluxes are also quantified at some sites. Currently, 123 site-years of data are openly shared with FLUXNET.Ancillary meteorological and soil microclimate data are collected continuously as well; plant growth is routinely monitored at all agricultural sites, i.e., grasslands and croplands. Together with the management data, such continuous measurements allow integrated multi-year (Feigenwinter et al. 2023b) and multi-site (Zeeman et al. 2010) comparisons, identification of drivers for greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes (Maier et al. 2022, Feigenwinter et al. 2023a), quantification of C sequestration (Emmel et al. 2018), as well as assessments of management practices towards sustainable agriculture (Fuchs et al. 2018).Here, we will present long-term CO2 fluxes (since 2004) as well as CH4 and N2O fluxes measured at the six agricultural Swiss FluxNet sites, i.e., three permanent grasslands and three croplands with their typical Swiss crop rotation. Moreover, the contribution of abiotic and biotic drivers to intra- and interseasonal variations in GHG fluxes will be discussed, potential trade-offs among climate mitigation goals identified, and the importance of management information emphasized. We encourage other research teams to use the open-access dataset, growing annually, and seek collaboration in integrated flux measurements worldwide

Habitat compression exacerbates human-macaque conflicts: Implications for regional management in karst southwest China

The escalating incidence of human-wildlife conflicts involving protected species has posed a significant challenge in global conservation. Although population growth, a byproduct of successful conservation, has often been pinpointed as a key factor, the impact of human-induced land use changes and habitat loss on conflict occurrence has not been well comprehended, especially at broader regional levels. In China’s mountainous southwest, conflicts between humans and the nationally protected rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) have intensified due to agricultural encroachment into forested zones. This study integrates species distribution data (309 occurrence points) and conflict incident records (252 sites) across a 16,800 km2 karst landscape to evaluate habitat suitability under natural versus anthropogenic scenarios using the MaxEnt model. Our findings reveal that Precipitation of Wettest Quarter (bio16), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Mean Diurnal Temperature Range (bio2), Minimum Temperature of the Coldest Month (bio6), and Human Population Density (pop) are the predominant determinants of macaque habitat suitability at a regional scale. There is a substantial spatial correlation between high habitat suitability zones and areas prone to conflict incidents. Moreover, human activities have markedly modified the extent and distribution of macaque habitats. Our results imply that the escalating severity of protected species incidents at a regional scale may not be solely due to population growth but also to human-driven land use changes that increase the spatial overlap between suitable habitats and human activity areas. Consequently, effective management strategies for protected species incidents should place a heightened emphasis on habitat modifications

Exploration of Hiptage (Malpighiaceae) diversity in Vietnam reveals a new species with wingless fruits

Hiptage (Malpighiaceae) is a genus almost exclusively native to Asia, with a single species, Hiptage benghalensis, being a noxious invasive plant in several areas of the world and particularly threatening the native flora of the Mascarene Islands. Whereas 17 Hiptage species have been reported from Vietnam, there is currently no available genetic information that could be used to confirm the species diversity in the country. Through a study combining phylogenetic and morphological analyses of newly-collected samples and herbarium specimens, we were able to accurately identify five Hiptage species in Vietnam. One of these, Hiptage aptera, represents a species new to science. Specimens of the new species show white to slightly pink petals, erect to forward-curved petals, eight tiny calyx glands and wingless fruits, a unique feature within this genus. Our results strongly support Vietnam as one of the diversity centres of the Hiptage genus with 18 species out of the 48 species. Although we could not determine the source of introduction of Hiptage in the Mascarenes Archipelago, our findings highlight the genetic similarity of all Hiptage benghalensis samples collected in its secondary distribution areas, suggesting a probable single introduction. This is consistent with historical reports dating the plant’s introduction to the Mascarenes to the 18th century