Is Nymphaea lotus var. thermalis a Tertiary relict in Europe?

Nymphaea lotus L. is a tropical and subtropical species of waterlilies with an African distribution. A conspicuous satellite occurrence can be found in Europe in a thermal spring in NW Romania. This population (treated as var. thermalis (DC.) Tuzson) received much attention as a potential Tertiary relict in the flora of Europe, although its relict vs. planted nature has been part of great debate among scholars during the last 200 years. We revisit this question by using molecular phylogenetic methods to estimate the timing of divergence of this species, and put this population into a phylogeographic context by comparing it to samples coming from the whole area of the species. By using sequences of the nuclear and the plastid genome, we reconstructed the phylogeographic relationships within N. lotus with a haplotype network building approach, that identified a genetically distant lineage in western Africa, which we relate to N. zenkeri Gilg, the sister species of N. lotus. All the populations of N. lotus s.str. displayed genetic distance between each other except for the Egyptian and Romanian populations. On our dated phylogeny of the subgenus Lotus the separation between N. lotus and its sister species was found to be younger than the end of the Tertiary (1.26 Mya). These results clearly refute the Tertiary relict status of the European population of N. lotus

Environmental bacteria increase population growth of hydra at low temperature

Multicellular organisms engage in complex ecological interactions with microorganisms, some of which are harmful to the host’s health and fitness (e.g., pathogens or toxin-producing environmental microbiota), while others are either beneficial or have a neutral impact (as seen in components of host-associated microbiota). Although environmental microorganisms are generally considered to have no significant impact on animal fitness, there is evidence suggesting that exposure to these microbes might be required for proper immune maturation and research in vertebrates has shown that developing in a sterile environment detrimentally impacts health later in life. However, it remains uncertain whether such beneficial effects of environmental microorganisms are present in invertebrates that lack an adaptive immune system. In the present study, we conducted an experiment with field-collected Hydra oligactis, a cold-adapted freshwater cnidarian. We cultured these organisms in normal and autoclaved lake water at two distinct temperatures: 8°C and 12°C. Our findings indicated that polyps maintained in sterilized lake water displayed reduced population growth that depended on temperature, such that the effect was only present on 8°C. To better understand the dynamics of microbial communities both inhabiting polyps and their surrounding environment we conducted 16S sequencing before and after treatment, analyzing samples from both the polyps and the water. As a result of culturing in autoclaved lake water, the polyps showed a slightly altered microbiota composition, with some microbial lineages showing significant reduction in abundance, while only a few displayed increased abundances. The autoclaved lake water was recolonized, likely from the surface of hydra polyps, by a complex albeit different community of bacteria, some of which (such as Pseudomonas, Flavobacteriaceae) might be pathogenic to hydra. The abundance of the intracellular symbiont Polynucleobacter was positively related to hydra population size. These findings indicate that at low temperature environmental microbiota can enhance population growth rate in hydra, suggesting that environmental microorganisms can provide benefits to animals even in the absence of an adaptive immune system

Sermones compilati = Sermones compilati

A kutatás elsődleges feladata Temesvári Pelbárt prédikációs kézikönyveinek digitális kiadása volt. Elkészült a Stellarium, a Pomerium de sanctis teljes anyagának és a Pomerium de Tempore téli részének átírása, kereshetővé tétele, a források felkutatása. Számos helyen Pelbárt forrásai, a szentírási és liturgikus idézetek, az exemplumok forrásai is azonosítva vannak. Ezen kívül elkészült a legnagyobb terjedelmű magyar nyelvemlék, az Érdy-kódex digitális kiadása, új átírással, mely összevethető a régivel, és a magyar kódexirodalom más párhuzamos helyeinek beazonosításával. Pázmány Péter 100 prédikációja is felkerült kereshető formában a honlapra, és a prédikációk egy részének liturgikus, teológiai és szentírási hivatkozásai is feldolgozásra kerültek. A csoport útjára indította a Biblia Mediaevalis Hungarica című vállalkozást, mely kereshetővé és összevethetővé teszi a kódexek korának magyar Biblia-fordításait egymással és a Vulgata clementinával. A Bibliotheca Compilatorum adatbázisa a 15. századi prédikációk forrásaként leggyakrabban előforduló művek, ősnyomtatványok és kódexek listáját tartalmazza, a szabadon hozzáférhető digitalizált kiadások megjelölésével. A csoport a kutatás mindegyik évadában rendezett saját kutatói konferenciát, amelyen az eredmények megvitatására, és több magyar illetve nemzetközi konferencián mutatták be a készülő adatbázist és felhasználását. | The primary goal of the research project was to prepare the digital edition of Pelbart of Temesvár's most important books. The Stellarium, the Pomerium de sanctis and the first part of Pomerium de Tempore (pars hiemalis) have been successfully edited (transcription, notes, list of sources, searching engines). Pelbárt's sources, biblical, liturgical and theological citations have been identified. The Hungarian sermons and legends contained in the Érdy-kódex (the largest collection of Hungarian texts before the appearance of the Hungarian printed books) have been equally edited with a new transcription that can be compared with the parallels in other Hungarian codices of that time. Péter Pázmány's sermons have been equally published on our website; one fourth of them are analysed and their sources, exempla and citations have been identified. The group launched the project Biblia Mediaevalis Hungarica, with the goal to make available and comparable all medieval translations of the Bible into Hungarian with each other and with the Vulgata clementina. Another database, the Bibliotheca compilatorum gives an overview on the most popular sources of late medieval sermons with a list of the online available editions of the texts. The Sermones compilati research group organised a colloquium each year in order to publish his results, and later edited on line the papers, and its members participated regularly on national and international colloquia

Novel genetic sex markers reveal unexpected lack of, and similar susceptibility to, sex reversal in free-living common toads in both natural and anthropogenic habitats

Anthropogenic environmental changes are affecting biodiversity and microevolution worldwide. Ectothermic vertebrates are especially vulnerable because environmental changes can disrupt their sexual development and cause sex reversal, a mismatch between genetic and phenotypic sex. This can potentially lead to sex‐ratio distortion and population decline. Despite these implications, there is scarce empirical knowledge on the incidence of sex reversal in nature. Populations in anthropogenic environments may be exposed to sex‐reversing stimuli more frequently, which may lead to higher sex‐reversal rate or, alternatively, these populations may adapt to resist sex reversal. We developed PCR‐based genetic sex markers for the common toad (Bufo bufo) to assess the prevalence of sex reversal in wild populations living in natural, agricultural and urban habitats, and the susceptibility of the same populations to two ubiquitous oestrogenic pollutants in a common garden experiment. We found negligible sex‐reversal frequency in free‐living adults despite the presence of various endocrine‐disrupting pollutants in their breeding ponds. Individuals from different habitat types showed similar susceptibility to sex reversal in the laboratory: all genetic males developed female phenotype when exposed to 1 µg L(−1) 17α‐ethinylestradiol (EE2) during larval development, whereas no sex reversal occurred in response to 1 ng L(−1) EE2 and a glyphosate‐based herbicide with 3 µg L(−1) or 3 mg L(−1) glyphosate. The latter results do not support that populations in anthropogenic habitats would have either increased propensity for or higher tolerance to chemically induced sex reversal. Thus, the extremely low sex‐reversal frequency in wild toads compared to other ectothermic vertebrates studied before might indicate idiosyncratic, potentially species‐specific resistance to sex reversal

Seed mass, hardness, and phylogeny explain the potential for endozoochory by granivorous waterbirds

Field studies have shown that waterbirds, especially members of the Anatidae family, are major vectors of dispersal by endozoochory for a broad range of plants lacking a fleshy fruit, yet whose propagules can survive gut passage. Widely adopted dispersal syndromes ignore this dispersal mechanism, and we currently have little understanding of what traits determine the potential of angiosperms for endozoochory by waterbirds. Results from previous experimental studies have been inconsistent as to how seed traits affect seed survival and retention time in the gut and have failed to control for the influence of plant phylogeny. Using 13 angiosperm species from aquatic and terrestrial habitats representing nine families, we examined the effects of seed size, shape, and hardness on the proportion of seeds surviving gut passage through mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) and their retention time within the gut. We compiled a molecular phylogeny for these species and controlled for the nonindependence of taxa due to common descent in our analyses. Intact seeds from all 13 species were egested, but seed survival was strongly determined by phylogeny and by partial effects of seed mass and hardness (wet load): species with seeds harder than expected from their size, and smaller than expected from their loading, had greater survival. Once phylogeny was controlled for, a positive partial effect of seed roundness on seed survival was also revealed. Species with seeds harder than expected from their size had a longer mean retention time, a result retained after controlling for phylogeny. Our study is the first to demonstrate that seed shape and phylogeny are important predictors of seed survival in the avian gut. Our results demonstrate that the importance of controlling simultaneously for multiple traits and relating single traits (e.g., seed size) alone to seed survival or retention time is not a reliable way to detect important patterns, especially when phylogenetic effects are ignoredPeer reviewe

Genomic epidemiology of antifungal resistance in human and avian isolates of Candida albicans: a pilot study from the One Health perspective

Stress-induced genomic changes in Candida albicans contribute to the adaptation of this species to various environmental conditions. Variations of the genome composition of animal-origin C. albicans strains are largely unexplored and drug resistance or other selective pressures driving the evolution of these yeasts remained an intriguing question. Comparative genome analysis was carried out to uncover chromosomal aneuploidies and regions with loss of heterozygosity (LOH), two mechanisms that manage genome plasticity. We detected aneuploidy only in human isolates. Bird-derived isolates showed LOH in genes commonly associated with antifungal drug resistance similar to human isolates. Our study suggests that environmental fungicide usage might exert selective pressure on C. albicans infecting animals, thus contributing to the spread of potentially resistant strains between different hosts