From Construction Workers to Architects: Developing Scientific Research Capacity in Low-Income Countries

Solving global health challenges in a sustainable manner depends on explicitly addressing scientific capacity-building needs, as well as establishing long-term, meaningful partnerships with colleagues in the developing world

Efficient screening for ‘genetic pollution’ in an anthropogenic crested newt hybrid zone

Genetic admixture between endangered native and non-native invasive species poses a complex conservation problem. Decision makers often need to quickly screen large numbers of individuals and distinguish natives from morphologically similar invading species and their genetically admixed offspring. We describe a protocol using the fast and economical Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR (KASP) technology for genotyping on a large scale. We apply this protocol to a case study of hybridization between a native and an invasive crested newt species. Using previously published data, we designed a panel of ten nuclear and one mitochondrial diagnostic SNP markers. We observed only minor differences between KASP and next-generation sequencing data previously produced with the Ion Torrent platform. We briefly discuss practical considerations for tackling the insidious conservation problem of genetic admixture between native and invasive species. The KASP genotyping protocol facilitates policy decision making for the crested newt case and is generally applicable to invasive hybridization with endangered taxa

Setting and meeting priorities in Indigenous health research in Australia and its application in the Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health

Priority setting is about making decisions. Key issues faced during priority setting processes include identifying who makes these decisions, who sets the criteria, and who benefits. The paper reviews the literature and history around priority setting in research, particularly in Aboriginal health research. We explore these issues through a case study of the Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health (CRCAH)'s experience in setting and meeting priorities

Positive Selection within the Schizophrenia-Associated GABA(A) Receptor β(2) Gene

The gamma-aminobutyric acid type-A (GABA(A)) receptor plays a major role in inhibitory neurotransmissions. Intronic SNPs and haplotypes in GABRB2, the gene for GABA(A) receptor β(2) subunit, are associated with schizophrenia and correlated with the expression of two alternatively spliced β(2) isoforms. In the present study, using chimpanzee as an ancestral reference, high frequencies were observed for the derived (D) alleles of the four SNPs rs6556547, rs187269, rs1816071 and rs1816072 in GABRB2, suggesting the occurrence of positive selection for these derived alleles. Coalescence-based simulation showed that the population frequency spectra and the frequencies of H56, the haplotype having all four D alleles, significantly deviated from neutral-evolution expectation in various demographic models. Haplotypes containing the derived allele of rs1816072 displayed significantly less diversity compared to haplotypes containing its ancestral allele, further supporting positive selection. The variations in DD-genotype frequencies in five human populations provided a snapshot of the evolutionary history, which suggested that the positive selections of the D alleles are recent and likely ongoing. The divergence between the DD-genotype profiles of schizophrenic and control samples pointed to the schizophrenia-relevance of positive selections, with the schizophrenic samples showing weakened selections compared to the controls. These DD-genotypes were previously found to increase the expression of β(2), especially its long isoform. Electrophysiological analysis showed that this long β(2) isoform favored by the positive selections is more sensitive than the short isoform to the inhibition of GABA(A) receptor function by energy depletion. These findings represent the first demonstration of positive selection in a schizophrenia-associated gene

Choosing and Using a Plant DNA Barcode

The main aim of DNA barcoding is to establish a shared community resource of DNA sequences that can be used for organismal identification and taxonomic clarification. This approach was successfully pioneered in animals using a portion of the cytochrome oxidase 1 (CO1) mitochondrial gene. In plants, establishing a standardized DNA barcoding system has been more challenging. In this paper, we review the process of selecting and refining a plant barcode; evaluate the factors which influence the discriminatory power of the approach; describe some early applications of plant barcoding and summarise major emerging projects; and outline tool development that will be necessary for plant DNA barcoding to advance

Shared phylogeographic patterns and widespread chloroplast haplotype sharing in Eucalyptus species with different ecological tolerances

We examined the phylogeography of three south-east Australian trees (Eucalyptus delegatensis, Eucalyptus obliqua, and Eucalyptus regnans) with different tolerances, in terms of cold, drought, fire and soil to explore whether species with different ecologies share major phylogeographic patterns. A second aim of this study was to examine geographic patterns of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) haplotype sharing among the three study species. Trees of E. delegatensis (n = 120), E. obliqua (n = 265) and E. regnans (n = 270) were genotyped with five cpDNA microsatellite markers. The species shared major phylogeographic disjunctions, and common patterns at proposed glacial refugia (generally high haplotype diversity) and areas thought to have been treeless during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) (low diversity). Inter-specific sharing of haplotypes was extensive, and fixation of shared, regional haplotypes was more frequent in areas postulated as having been treeless at the LGM. Despite ecological differences, chloroplast microsatellite data suggest the three species have responded to past climatic changes in a similar way, by persisting in multiple, generally common refugia. We suggest that the natural ability of eucalypt species to hybridise with others with quite different or broader ecological tolerances may provide an "insurance policy" for response to rapidly changing abiotic conditions