Synopeas ruficoxum Buhl (Hymenoptera, Platygastridae) is a natural enemy of soybean gall midge, Resseliella maxima Gagné (Diptera, Cecidomyiidae)

Platygastridae (Hymenoptera) is known as a ‘dark taxon’ as it is highly diverse and understudied. Within Platygastridae, one of the largest genera is Synopeas Förster, species of which parasitize Cecidomyiidae (Diptera). This study identifies a new host association between these two families, with Synopeas ruficoxum Buhl as the second reported parasitoid of soybean gall midge, Resseliella maxima Gagné. Parasitoids were reared from soybean stems infested with R. maxima collected in Nebraska, USA. Furthermore, PCR assays confirmed that R. maxima larvae are parasitized by S. ruficoxum in the field. All S. ruficoxum specimens were female, suggesting that this may be an asexually reproducing population. We found that some, but not all, S. ruficoxum were infected with a bacterium, Wolbachia, known to mediate asexual reproduction in other insects, suggesting other factors may be responsible for the all-female population. Publicly available barcoding data allowed us to determine that S. ruficoxum is also present in Eastern Canada, which is beyond the known geographic range of R. maxima. This suggests that S. ruficoxum has other hosts or that the geographic range of R. maxima is broader than currently documented. A redescription and diagnostic data for S. ruficoxum are provided, advancing the ability to use this parasitoid for biological control of R. maxima

Single Bead Affinity Detection (SINBAD) for the Analysis of Protein-Protein Interactions

We present a miniaturized pull-down method for the detection of protein-protein interactions using standard affinity chromatography reagents. Binding events between different proteins, which are color-coded with quantum dots (QDs), are visualized on single affinity chromatography beads by fluorescence microscopy. The use of QDs for single molecule detection allows the simultaneous analysis of multiple protein-protein binding events and reduces the amount of time and material needed to perform a pull-down experiment

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Cell cycle dependent differences in nuclear pore complex assembly

In metazoa, nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) assemble from disassembled precursors into a reforming nuclear envelope (NE) at the end of mitosis, and into growing intact NEs during interphase. Whether there are differences in the mechanism of NPC assembly in these two scenarios is a long standing question in the field that has not been addressed. Experiments described in this dissertation, show that ELYS, a nucleoporin critical for the recruitment of the essential Nup107/160 complex to chromatin, is crucial for NPC assembly at the end of mitosis, but is not required in interphase. Conversely, the transmembrane nucleoporin POM121 is critical for the incorporation of the Nup107/160 complex into new assembly sites specifically during interphase and plays a role in fusing the two leaflets of the NE. We show that in contrast to post-mitosis, where the Nup107/160 complex is targeted to chromatin via ELYS, during interphase this NPC sub-complex assembles at sites of forming pores. These results indicate that, in organisms with open mitosis, NPCs assemble by two distinct mechanisms to accommodate cell cycle-dependent differences in NE topolog

NUCLEAR ENVELOPE AND GENOME INTERACTIONS IN CELL FATE

The eukaryotic cell nucleus houses an organism’s genome and is the location within the cell, where all signaling-induced and development-driven gene expression programs are ultimately specified. The genome is enclosed and separated from the cytoplasm by the nuclear envelope (NE), a double-lipid membrane bilayer, which contains a large variety of trans-membrane and associated protein complexes. In recent years, research regarding multiple aspects of the cell nucleus points to a highly dynamic and coordinated concert of efforts between chromatin and the NE in regulation of gene expression. Details of how this concert is orchestrated and how it directs cell differentiation and disease are coming to light at a rapid pace. Here we review existing and emerging concepts of how interactions between the genome and the NE may contribute to tissue-specific gene expression programs to determine cell fate

Synopeas rigidicornis Forster 1861

<i>Synopeas rigidicornis</i> Förster, 1861 <p> <i>Synopeas rigidicornis</i> Förster, 1861: 41.</p> <p> <i>Leptacis rigidicornis</i> (Förster, 1861) – Vlug 1973: 177.</p> <p> <i>Synopeas rigidicornis</i> Förster, 1861 – Buhl 1997: 24, 25, figs 9–12.</p> Material examined <p> <b>Holotype</b></p> <p>SWITZERLAND • ♂; Rosegg-Thal [Roseg Valley]; [Jul. 1861]; [A. Förster leg.]; NHMW NHMW-HYM#0005302.</p>Published as part of <i>Awad, Jessica, Krogmann, Lars & Talamas, Elijah, 2023, Taxonomic history and review of the Förster genera of Platygastridae (Hymenoptera: Platygastroidea), pp. 1-46 in European Journal of Taxonomy 875 (1)</i> on pages 37-38, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.875.2137, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/8047251">http://zenodo.org/record/8047251</a&gt

Platygaster signata

<i>Platygaster signata</i> (Förster, 1861) <p> <i>Polygnotus signatus</i> Förster, 1861: 41.</p> <p> <i>Platygaster signatus</i> (Förster, 1861) – Vlug 1973: 178.</p> <p> <i>Platygaster signata</i> (Förster, 1861) – Vlug 1995: 65.</p> Material examined <p> <b>Holotype</b></p> <p>SWITZERLAND • ♀; Rosegg-Thal [Roseg Valley]; [Jul. 1861]; [A. Förster leg.]; NHMW NHMW-HYM#0005301.</p>Published as part of <i>Awad, Jessica, Krogmann, Lars & Talamas, Elijah, 2023, Taxonomic history and review of the Förster genera of Platygastridae (Hymenoptera: Platygastroidea), pp. 1-46 in European Journal of Taxonomy 875 (1)</i> on pages 30-31, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.875.2137, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/8047251">http://zenodo.org/record/8047251</a&gt

Monocrita Forster 1856

Genus <i>Monocrita</i> Förster, 1856 <p> (junior synonym of <i>Isostasius</i> Förster, 1856)</p> <p>Figs 13–14</p> <p> <i>Monocrita</i> Förster, 1856: 106, 109. Type species <i>Inostemma atinas</i> Walker, 1835 by monotypy. Junior synonym of <i>Isostasius</i> Förster, 1856 – Masner 1965: 131.</p> Remarks <p> Förster differentiated <i>Monocrita</i> from <i>Metaclisis</i> based on the antennal segments. What he interpreted as a one-segmented clava in <i>Monocrita</i> is in fact an elongate A10 (Masner & Huggert 1989). The type species of <i>Monocrita</i>, <i>Inostemma atinas</i> Walker, 1835, was transferred to <i>Isostasius</i> by Masner (1965). Thus, <i>Monocrita</i> is a junior synonym of <i>Isostasius</i>. However, not all species described in <i>Monocrita</i> belong to <i>Isostasius</i>. <i>Monocrita monheimii</i> Förster, 1861 was transferred to <i>Metaclisis</i> (Vlug 1973). The type specimen and taxonomic position of <i>Monocrita affinis</i> Förster, 1861 are unknown (Vlug 1995).</p>Published as part of <i>Awad, Jessica, Krogmann, Lars & Talamas, Elijah, 2023, Taxonomic history and review of the Förster genera of Platygastridae (Hymenoptera: Platygastroidea), pp. 1-46 in European Journal of Taxonomy 875 (1)</i> on page 22, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.875.2137, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/8047251">http://zenodo.org/record/8047251</a&gt