Mitochondrial heteroplasmy in an avian hybrid form (Passer italiae: Aves, Passeriformes)

Mitochondrial heteroplasmy is the result from biparental transmission of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) to the offspring. In such rare cases, maternal and paternal mtDNA is present in the same individual. Though recent studies suggested that mtDNA heteroplasmy might be more common than previously anticipated, that phenomenon is still poorly documented and was mostly detected in case studies on hybrid populations. The Italian sparrow, Passer italiae is a homoploid hybrid form that occurs all across the Italian Peninsula mostly under strict absence of either of its parent species, the house sparrow (P. domesticus) and the Spanish sparrow (P. hispaniolensis). In this study, we document a new case of mitochondrial heteroplasmy from two island populations of P. italiae (Ustica and Lipari). Our analysis was based on the mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 (ND2) that allows for a clear distinction between mitochondrial lineages of the two parental species. We amplified and sequenced the mitochondrial ND2 gene with specifically designed primer combinations for each of the two parental species. In two of our study populations, a single individual carried two different ND2 haplotypes from each of the two parental lineages. These findings contribute to current knowledge on the still poorly documented phenomenon of paternal leakage in vertebrates

Pipunculidae (Diptera) del Parque Nacional de la Caldera de Taburiente, La Palma (Islas Canarias, España) — Investigando la variabilidad morfológica y molecular de una nueva especie de moscas cabezonas

The present paper is a result of the project “Inventory and study of the invertebrate fauna of the Caldera de Taburiente National Park on La Palma, Canary Islands. Among the four species of Pipunculidae recorded, Chalarus guanche Kehlmaier sp. nov. is described and also recorded from Madeira, whereas Tomosvaryella freidbergi De Meyer, 1995 and T. parakuthyi De Meyer, 1995 are first records for La Palma. The morphological and molecular variability of C. guanche sp. nov. is studied and the presence of intragenomic variation in ITS2 rDNA is discussed. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:D6A9AA88-A717-4AC2-AA8C-B32F1C91081EEste trabajo es el resultado del proyecto “Inventario y estudio de la fauna invertebrada del Parque Nacional de la Caldera de Taburiente” en la isla de La Palma, Islas Canarias. De las cuatro especies recogidas, se describe Chalarus guanche sp. nov. que se registra asimismo de Madeira, y Tomosvaryella freidbergi De Meyer, 1995 y T. parakuthyi De Meyer, 1995 son nuevos registros para La Palma. Se estudia la variabilidad morfológica y molecular de C. guanche sp. nov. y se discute la presencia de variación intragenómica en el ADNr ITS2

Twenty-six new species of Hoploscopa (Lepidoptera, Crambidae) from South-East Asia revealed by morphology and DNA barcoding

Hoploscopa Meyrick (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) is a fern-feeding genus found in montane areas of South-East Asia and Melanesia, eastwards up to the Samoan Islands. It includes sixteen described species, with at least 70 further undescribed species known from scientific collections. An iterative approach including morphological and molecular characters was used in order to explore the diversity of Hoploscopa. The hitherto described species are revised, and descriptions authored by T. Léger and M. Nuss are provided for an additional 26 new species: H. agtuuganonensis sp. nov., H. albipuncta sp. nov., H. albomaculata sp. nov., H. anacantha sp. nov., H. boleta sp. nov., H. cynodonta sp. nov., H. danaoensis sp. nov., H. gombongi sp. nov., H. gracilis sp. nov., H. ignitamaculae sp. nov., H. isarogensis sp. nov., H. jubata sp. nov., H. kelama sp. nov., H. kinabaluensis sp. nov., H. mallyi sp. nov., H. marijoweissae sp. nov., H. matheae sp. nov., H. niveofascia sp. nov., H. pangrangoensis sp. nov., H. parvimacula sp. nov., H. pseudometacrossa sp. nov., H. sepanggi sp. nov., H. sumatrensis sp. nov., H. titika sp. nov., H. tonsepi sp. nov., H. ypsilon sp. nov. Using a protocol specific for the amplification of DNA from old museum specimens, we recovered 101 COI barcodes for all but one of the newly described species, with 76 being barcode compliant (>487 bp). Species delimitation analyses suggest cryptic diversity, with six cases reflecting allopatric divergence, and two further cases found in sympatry

Mitogenomics of historical type specimens of Australasian turtles: clarification of taxonomic confusion and old mitochondrial introgression

Diagnosability is central to taxonomy as are type specimens which define taxa. New advances in technologies and the discovery of new informative traits must be matched with previous taxonomic decisions based on name-bearing type specimens. Consequently, the challenge of sequencing highly degraded DNA from historical types becomes an inevitability to resolve the very many taxonomic issues arising from, by modern standards, poor historical species descriptions leading to difficulties to assign names to genetic clusters identified from fresh material. Here we apply high-throughput parallel sequencing and sequence baiting to reconstruct the mitogenomes from 18 type specimens of Australasian side-necked turtles (Chelidae). We resolve a number of important issues that have confused the taxonomy of this family, and analyse the mitogenomes of the types and those of fresh material to improve our understanding of the phylogenetic relationships of this morphologically conservative group. Together with previously published nuclear genomic data, our study provides evidence for multiple old mitochondrial introgressions.Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Ancient mitogenomics clarifies radiation of extinct Mascarene giant tortoises (Cylindraspis spp.)

The five extinct giant tortoises of the genus Cylindraspis belong to the most iconic species of the enigmatic fauna of the Mascarene Islands that went largely extinct after the discovery of the islands. To resolve the phylogeny and biogeography of Cylindraspis, we analysed a data set of 45 mitogenomes that includes all lineages of extant tortoises and eight near-complete sequences of all Mascarene species extracted from historic and subfossil material. Cylindraspis is an ancient lineage that diverged as early as the late Eocene. Diversification of Cylindraspis commenced in the mid-Oligocene, long before the formation of the Mascarene Islands. This rejects any notion suggesting that the group either arrived from nearby or distant continents over the course of the last millions of years or had even been translocated to the islands by humans. Instead, Cylindraspis likely originated on now submerged islands of the Réunion Hotspot and utilized these to island hop to reach the Mascarenes. The final diversification took place both before and after the arrival on the Mascarenes. With Cylindraspis a deeply divergent clade of tortoises became extinct that evolved long before the dodo or the Rodrigues solitaire, two other charismatic species of the lost Mascarene fauna

The last of the large-sized tortoises of the Mediterranean islands

Altres ajuts: CERCA Programme/Generalitat de CatalunyaAltres ajuts: Operational Programme Research, Development and Education Project (CZ.02.2.69/0.0/0.0/16_027/0008360)Archaeological investigations carried out in the cave Zubbio di Cozzo San Pietro, Bagheria, Sicily, revealed the presence of a few skeletal elements of a large-sized tortoise in a funerary area dating to the Copper/Bronze Age. The tortoise has been AMS-dated revealing an age of 12.5 ± 0.5 kyr BP and therefore it pre-dates the funerary activities. The morphology of the retrieved skeletal elements differs from that of the only native tortoise currently living in Sicily, Testudo hermanni. The tortoise's size significantly exceeds the size range of extant Te. hermanni and all Testudo spp., as well as that of their known fossils, and suggests a shell length of 50-60 cm. Repeated efforts to obtain DNA sequences from the tortoise of Zubbio di Cozzo San Pietro failed, but the morphology of the femur is distinct enough to allow us to erect a new taxon, Solitudo sicula gen. et sp. nov., based on a parsimony analysis. It belongs to a hitherto unrecognized clade that includes other large-sized tortoises from Mediterranean islands, like Malta and Menorca. A review of the pertinent taxa indicates that the remains here described represent the geologically youngest large-sized tortoise of the Mediterranean area

The Small and the Dead: A Review of Ancient DNA Studies Analysing Micromammal Species

The file attached is the Published/publisher’s pdf version of the article

Central American Trachemys revisited: New sampling questions current understanding of taxonomy and distribution (Testudines: Emydidae)

Using 3226-bp-long mtDNA sequences and five nuclear loci (Cmos, ODC, R35, Rag1, Rag2, together 3409 bp), we examine genetic differentiation and relationships of Central American slider turtles (Trachemys grayi, T. venusta). Our investigation also included samples from taxa endemic to North America (T. gaigeae, T. scripta), the Antilles (T. decorata, T. decussata, T. stejnegeri, T. terrapen), and South America (T. dorbigni, T. medemi plus the two T. venusta subspecies endemic to northern South America). Our mitochondrial phylogeny retrieves all studied species as distinct, with three well-supported clades in a polytomy: (1) the Central and South American species (T. grayi + T. venusta) + (T. dorbigni + T. medemi), (2) the Antillean species, and (3) T. gaigeae + T. scripta. Our nuclear DNA analyses also suggest three distinct but conflicting clusters: (1) T. scripta plus the Antillean species, (2) T. gaigeae, and (3) the Central and South American species T. dorbigni, T. grayi, T. medemi, and T. venusta. However, in the mitochondrial phylogeny, T. gaigeae is the little divergent sister taxon of T. scripta. This conflicting placement of T. gaigeae suggests a distinct evolutionary trajectory and old hybridization with T. scripta and mitochondrial capture. Despite prominent color pattern differences, genetic divergences within T. grayi and T. venusta are shallow and the taxonomic diversity of each species with several currently recognized subspecies could be overestimated. Finally, we provide for the first time evidence for the occurrence of T. grayi along the Caribbean versant of Costa Rica

Important new records of Pelomedusa species for South Africa and Ethiopia

Because of a recent taxonomic revision, the species identity of helmeted terrapins (Pelomedusa) became unclear in many regions of their wide distribution range. Based on mtDNA sequence data, here we present the first record of Pelomedusa subrufa sensu stricto for the South African province of Mpumalanga. In South Africa, this species was previously known only from a single record in the province of Limpopo. In addition, we provide evidence for the occurrence of at least two distinct Pelomedusa species in Ethiopia. A sample from southern Ethiopia (Omo Region) turned out as P. neumanni, while another sample from Koka Lake (Oromia Region, central Ethiopia) represents P. somalica. Also a historical museum specimen from Ethiopia, most likely collected south of the Shebelle River (Oromia Region), belongs to P. somalica. However, these two Ethiopian specimens of P. somalica represent highly distinct genetic lineages, which may actually correspond to two different species