A comprehensive molecular phylogeny of Afrotropical white-eyes (Aves: Zosteropidae) highlights prior underestimation of mainland diversity and complex colonisation history

White-eyes (Zosterops) are a hyper-diverse genus of passerine birds that have rapidly radiated across the Afrotropics and Southeast Asia. Despite their broad range, a disproportionately large number of species are currently recognised from islands compared to the mainland. Described species-level diversity of this ‘great speciator’ from continental Africa-Arabia is strikingly low, despite the vast size and environmental complexity of this region. However, efforts to identify natural groups using traditional approaches have been hindered by the remarkably uniform morphology and plumage of these birds. Here, we investigated the phylogenetic relationships and systematics of Afrotropical Zosterops, including the Gulf of Guinea and western Indian Ocean islands. We included exceptional sampling (∼160 individuals) from all except one subspecies of the 54 taxa (31 species, plus 22 additional named sub-species) currently recognized throughout the region, in addition to a subset of extra-Afrotropical taxa, by exploiting blood and archival samples. Employing a multi-locus phylogenetic approach and applying quantitative species delimitation we tested: 1) if there has been a single colonisation event of the Afrotropical realm; 2) if constituent mainland and island birds are monophyletic; and 3) if mainland diversity has been underestimated. Our comprehensive regional phylogeny revealed a single recent colonisation of the Afrotropical realm c.1.30 Ma from Asia, but a subsequent complex colonisation history between constituent island and mainland lineages during their radiation across this vast area. Our findings suggest a significant previous underestimation of continental species diversity and, based on this, we propose a revised taxonomy. Our study highlights the need to densely sample species diversity across ranges, providing key findings for future conservation assessments and establishing a robust framework for evolutionary studies

Quaternary land bridges have not been universal conduits of gene flow

Quaternary climate oscillations are a well‐known driver of animal diversification, but their effects are most well studied in areas where glaciations lead to habitat fragmentation. In large areas of the planet, however, glaciations have had the opposite effect, but here their impacts are much less well understood. This is especially true in Southeast Asia, where cyclical changes in land distribution have generated enormous land expansions during glacial periods. In this study, we selected a panel of five songbird species complexes covering a range of ecological specificities to investigate the effects Quaternary land bridges have had on the connectivity of Southeast Asian forest biota. Specifically, we combined morphological and bioacoustic analysis with an arsenal of population genomic and modelling approaches applied to thousands of genome‐wide DNA markers across a total of more than 100 individuals. Our analyses show that species dependent on forest understorey exhibit deep differentiation between Borneo and western Sundaland, with no evidence of gene flow during the land bridges accompanying the last 1–2 ice ages. In contrast, dispersive canopy species and habitat generalists have experienced more recent gene flow. Our results argue that there remains much cryptic species‐level diversity to be discovered in Southeast Asia even in well‐known animal groups such as birds, especially in nondispersive forest understorey inhabitants. We also demonstrate that Quaternary land bridges have not been equally suitable conduits of gene flow for all species complexes and that life history is a major factor in predicting relative population divergence time across Quaternary climate fluctuations

Emergency and critical care services in Tanzania: a survey of ten hospitals.

While there is a need for good quality care for patients with serious reversible disease in all countries in the world, Emergency and Critical Care tends to be one of the weakest parts of health systems in low-income countries. We assessed the structure and availability of resources for Emergency and Critical Care in Tanzania in order to identify the priorities for improving care in this neglected specialty. Ten hospitals in four regions of Tanzania were assessed using a structured data collection tool. Quality was evaluated with standards developed from the literature and expert opinion. Important deficits were identified in infrastructure, routines and training. Only 30% of the hospitals had an emergency room for adult and paediatric patients. None of the seven district and regional hospitals had a triage area or intensive care unit for adults. Only 40% of the hospitals had formal systems for adult triage and in less than one third were critically ill patients seen by clinicians more than once daily. In 80% of the hospitals there were no staff trained in adult triage or critical care. In contrast, a majority of equipment and drugs necessary for emergency and critical care were available in the hospitals (median 90% and 100% respectively. The referral/private hospitals tended to have a greater overall availability of resources (median 89.7%) than district/regional hospitals (median 70.6). Many of the structures necessary for Emergency and Critical Care are lacking in hospitals in Tanzania. Particular weaknesses are infrastructure, routines and training, whereas the availability of drugs and equipment is generally good. Policies to improve hospital systems for the care of emergency and critically ill patients should be prioritised

The avian W chromosome is a refugium for endogenous retroviruses with likely effects on female-biased mutational load and genetic incompatibilities

It is a broadly observed pattern that the non-recombining regions of sex-limited chromosomes (Y and W) accumulate more repeats than the rest of the genome, even in species like birds with a low genome-wide repeat content. Here, we show that in birds with highly heteromorphic sex chromosomes, the W chromosome has a transposable element (TE) density of greater than 55% compared to the genome-wide density of less than 10%, and contains over half of all full-length (thus potentially active) endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) of the entire genome. Using RNA-seq and protein mass spectrometry data, we were able to detect signatures of female-specific ERV expression. We hypothesize that the avian W chromosome acts as a refugium for active ERVs, probably leading to female-biased mutational load that may influence female physiology similar to the ‘toxic-Y’ effect in Drosophila males. Furthermore, Haldane's rule predicts that the heterogametic sex has reduced fertility in hybrids. We propose that the excess of W-linked active ERVs over the rest of the genome may be an additional explanatory variable for Haldane's rule, with consequences for genetic incompatibilities between species through TE/repressor mismatches in hybrids. Together, our results suggest that the sequence content of female-specific W chromosomes can have effects far beyond sex determination and gene dosage

Ancient horizontal transfers of retrotransposons between birds and ancestors of human pathogenic nematodes

Parasite host switches may trigger disease emergence, but prehistoric host ranges are often unknowable. Lymphatic filariasis and loiasis are major human diseases caused by the insect-borne filarial nematodes Brugia, Wuchereria and Loa. Here we show that the genomes of these nematodes and seven tropical bird lineages exclusively share a novel retrotransposon, AviRTE, resulting from horizontal transfer (HT). AviRTE subfamilies exhibit 83–99% nucleotide identity between genomes, and their phylogenetic distribution, paleobiogeography and invasion times suggest that HTs involved filarial nematodes. The HTs between bird and nematode genomes took place in two pantropical waves, >25–22 million years ago (Myr ago) involving the Brugia/Wuchereria lineage and >20–17 Myr ago involving the Loa lineage. Contrary to the expectation from the mammal-dominated host range of filarial nematodes, we hypothesize that these major human pathogens may have independently evolved from bird endoparasites that formerly infected the global breadth of avian biodiversity