Population Size, Genetic Diversity and Molecular Evidence of a Recent Population Bottleneck in Hynobius chinensis, an Endangered Salamander Species

Severe population declines can reduce species to small populations, offering permissive conditions for deleterious processes. For example, following such events, species can become prone to inbreeding and genetic drift which can lead to a loss of genetic diversity and evolutionary potentials. Hynobius chinensis is a poorly studied very rare and declining endangered amphibian species endemic to China in Changyang County. We investigated adult census population size by monitoring breeding populations from 2015 to 2018, developed microsatellite markers from the transcriptome and used them to investigate genetic diversity, and a population bottleneck in this species. We found H. chinensis in 4 different localities in a total area of 2.18 km2 and estimated the overall adult census population size at 386–404 individuals. The adult census size (mean ± SE) per breeding pond ranged from 44 ± 6 to 141 ± 8 individuals and appeared smaller than that reported in closely related species in undisturbed habitats. We developed and characterized 13 microsatellite markers in total. Analysis of data at 7 loci (N = 118) in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium gathered from the largest population showed that genetic diversity level was low. The average number of alleles per locus was 2.14. The observed and expected heterozygosities averaged 0.38 and 0.40, respectively. The inbreeding coefficient was –0.06. All tests performed to investigate a population bottleneck, i.e. The Garza-Williamson test, Heterozygosity excess test, Mode shift test of allele frequency, and effective population size estimates detected a population bottleneck. The contemporary and the historical effective population sizes were estimated at 36 and 234 individuals, respectively. We argue that as bottleneck effects, the studied population may have become prone to genetic drift and inbreeding, losing microsatellite alleles and heterozygosity. Our results suggest that populations of H. chinensis may have been extirpated in the study area

Virulence Factors Identified by Cryptococcus neoformans Mutant Screen Differentially Modulate Lung Immune Responses and Brain Dissemination

Deletions of cryptococcal PIK1, RUB1, and ENA1 genes independently rendered defects in yeast survival in human CSF and within macrophages. We evaluated virulence potential of these genes by comparing wild-type Cryptococcus neoformans strain H99 with deletant and complement strains in a BALB/c mouse model of pulmonary infection. Survival of infected mice; pulmonary cryptococcal growth and pathology; immunological parameters; dissemination kinetics; and CNS pathology were examined. Deletion of each PIK1, RUB1, and ENA1 differentially reduced pulmonary growth and dissemination rates of C. neoformans and extended mice survival. Furthermore, pik1Δ induced similar pathologies to H99, however, with significantly delayed onset; rub1Δ was more efficiently contained within pulmonary macrophages and was further delayed in causing CNS dissemination/pathology; whereas ena1Δ was progressively eliminated from the lungs and did not induce pathological lesions or disseminate into the CNS. The diminished virulence of mutant strains was associated with differential modulation of pulmonary immune responses, including changes in leukocyte subsets, cytokine responses, and macrophage activation status. Compared to H99 infection, mutants induced more hallmarks of a protective Th1 immune response, rather than Th2, and more classical, rather than alternative, macrophage activation. The magnitude of immunological effects precisely corresponded to the level of virulence displayed by each strain. Thus, cryptococcal PIK1, RUB1, and ENA1 differentially contribute to cryptococcal virulence, in correlation with their differential capacity to modulate immune responses

Aspect markings of Niesu, a dialect of Nuosu in Sichuan, China

This paper describes the aspectual markings of Niesu, an understudied Tibeto-Burman language, spoken in Sichuan, Southwest China. Niesu is the dialect of Nuosu, both of which are classified as Nuosu proper. By describing the data of the two subdialects of Niesu, namely Suondi and Adur, this paper categorizes Niesu aspectual markings into two types: simplex and complex. Except for the perfective o44 , which is an enclitic, all other aspectual markings are auxiliary. Unlike the simplex markers, the complex aspectual markers are formed through compounding or modification, making them further analyzable regarding the internal structure. Meanwhile, different nuances of meaning or function accompany the complex forms, compared with the basic forms. The grammaticalizations of the aspectual markings in Niesu are cross-linguistically well-attested phenomena, namely the continuous and progressive markings are grammaticalized from the existential verb, ‘be at, stay’, ‘put, place’, the motion verbs and the posture verbs. But the source and formation can be different. For example, Niesu metaphorically makes use of the verbs po55 ‘run’ (Suondi) in compound aspectual auxiliary ko33po55nɯ44kɯ44 (Suondi) to denote the progressive. The functions of the complex aspectual markings are determined by the grammaticalization of the core verbs in the construction

A Model of High-Dimensional Feature Reduction Based on Variable Precision Rough Set and Genetic Algorithm in Medical Image

Aiming at the shortcomings of high feature reduction using traditional rough sets, such as insensitivity with noise data and easy loss of potentially useful information, combining with genetic algorithm, in this paper, a VPRS-GA (Variable Precision Rough Set--Genetic Algorithm) model for high-dimensional feature reduction of medical image is proposed. Firstly, rigid inclusion of the lower approximation is extended to partial inclusion by classification error rate β in the traditional rough set model, and the ability dealing with noise data is improved. Secondly, some factors of feature reduction are considered, such as attribute dependency, attributes reduction length, and gene coding weight. A general framework of fitness function is put forward, and different fitness functions are constructed by using different factors such as weight and classification error rate β. Finally, 98 dimensional features of PET/CT lung tumor ROI are extracted to build decision information table of lung tumor patients. Three kinds of experiments in high-dimensional feature reduction are carried out, using support vector machine to verify the influence of recognition accuracy in different fitness function parameters and classification error rate. Experimental results show that classification accuracy is affected deeply by different weight values under the invariable classification error rate condition and by increasing classification error rate under the invariable weigh value condition. Hence, in order to achieve better recognition accuracy, different problems use suitable parameter combination

A New Robust Adaptive Fusion Method for Double-Modality Medical Image PET/CT

A new robust adaptive fusion method for double-modality medical image PET/CT is proposed according to the Piella framework. The algorithm consists of the following three steps. Firstly, the registered PET and CT images are decomposed using the nonsubsampled contourlet transform (NSCT). Secondly, in order to highlight the lesions of the low-frequency image, low-frequency components are fused by pulse-coupled neural network (PCNN) that has a higher sensitivity to featured area with low intensities. With regard to high-frequency subbands, the Gauss random matrix is used for compression measurements, histogram distance between the every two corresponding subblocks of high coefficient is employed as match measure, and regional energy is used as activity measure. The fusion factor d is then calculated by using the match measure and the activity measure. The high-frequency measurement value is fused according to the fusion factor, and high-frequency fusion image is reconstructed by using the orthogonal matching pursuit algorithm of the high-frequency measurement after fusion. Thirdly, the final image is acquired through the NSCT inverse transformation of the low-frequency fusion image and the reconstructed high-frequency fusion image. To validate the proposed algorithm, four comparative experiments were performed: comparative experiment with other image fusion algorithms, comparison of different activity measures, different match measures, and PET/CT fusion results of lung cancer (20 groups). The experimental results showed that the proposed algorithm could better retain and show the lesion information, and is superior to other fusion algorithms based on both the subjective and objective evaluations

Data from: Using sounds for making decisions: greater tube-nosed bats prefer antagonistic calls over non-communicative sounds when feeding

Bats vocalize extensively within different social contexts. The type and extent of information conveyed via their vocalizations and their perceptual significance, however, remains controversial and difficult to assess. Greater tube-nosed bats, Murina leucogaster, emit calls consisting of long rectangular broadband noise burst (rBNBl) syllables during aggression between males. To experimentally test the behavioral impact of these sounds for feeding, we deployed an approach and place-preference paradigm. Two food trays were placed on opposite sides and within different acoustic microenvironments, created by sound playback, within a specially constructed tent. Specifically, we tested whether the presence of rBNBl sounds at a food source effectively deters the approach of male bats in comparison to echolocation sounds and white noise. In each case, contrary to our expectation, males preferred to feed at a location where rBNBl sounds were present. We propose that the species-specific rBNBl provides contextual information, not present within non-communicative sounds, to facilitate approach towards a food source

Using sounds for making decisions: greater tube-nosed bats prefer antagonistic calls over non-communicative sounds when feeding

Bats vocalize extensively within different social contexts. The type and extent of information conveyed via their vocalizations and their perceptual significance, however, remains controversial and difficult to assess. Greater tube-nosed bats, Murina leucogaster, emit calls consisting of long rectangular broadband noise burst (rBNBl) syllables during aggression between males. To experimentally test the behavioral impact of these sounds for feeding, we deployed an approach and place-preference paradigm. Two food trays were placed on opposite sides and within different acoustic microenvironments, created by sound playback, within a specially constructed tent. Specifically, we tested whether the presence of rBNBl sounds at a food source effectively deters the approach of male bats in comparison to echolocation sounds and white noise. In each case, contrary to our expectation, males preferred to feed at a location where rBNBl sounds were present. We propose that the species-specific rBNBl provides contextual information, not present within non-communicative sounds, to facilitate approach towards a food source

The complete mitochondrial genome sequence of Stichopus variegatus (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea) and phylogenetic studies of Echinodermata

At present, there exist some confusing issues on the species classification and phylogeny in Echinodermata. In this study, we first determined and described the complete mitochondrial genome of Stichopus variegatus. The complete mitogenome sequence had a circular mapping molecular with the total length of 16,315 bp and contained 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and a putative control region. To further validate the newly determined sequences, phylogenetic trees involving all the Holothuroidea and other Echinodermata species available in GenBank Database were constructed. These results would be used for the species identification and further phylogenetic studies of Echinodermata

data for two choice data

rBNBl stands for long rectangular broadband noise burst.EC stands for echolocation calls. WN stands for white noise