On the Classification of the Early Tertiary Erinaceomorpha (Insectivora, Mammalia)

Definitions are provided for three Early Tertiary families of Erinaceomorpha. The family Dormaaliidae includes Dormaalius, Macrocranion, Scenopagus, Ankylodon, Crypholestes, Sespedectes, and Proterixoides

The Loess Hills of Western Iowa: a Problem in Phytogeography

Based upon personal observations over a four year period, a preliminary overview of the phytogeographical significance of the prairies of the Loess Hills of western Iowa is discussed, concentrating upon a few representative taxa. A number of Great Plains vascular plant species reach the easternmost edge of their ranges in the Loess Hills. Climatic changes during the Holocene Period, especially during the Hypsithermal Interval, have had great effects upon the vegetation of the Great Plains and upon the xerophytic components of the Loess Hills. In addition, recent extended drought episodes have affected the flora. It is postulated that the Missouri River system has served, and may still serve, as a major migratory route for many of the Great Plains species found in the Loess Hills

A switch from α‐helical to β‐strand conformation during co‐translational protein folding

Cellular proteins begin to fold as they emerge from the ribosome.The folding landscape of nascent chains is not only shaped by theiramino acid sequence but also by the interactions with the ribo-some. Here, we combine biophysical methods with cryo-EM struc-ture determination to show that folding of aβ-barrel proteinbegins with formation of a dynamicα-helix inside the ribosome. Asthe growing peptide reaches the end of the tunnel, the N-terminalpart of the nascent chain refolds to aβ-hairpin structure thatremains dynamic until its release from the ribosome. Contactswith the ribosome and structure of the peptidyl transferase centerdepend on nascent chain conformation. These results indicate thatproteins may start out asα-helices inside the tunnel and switchinto their native folds only as they emerge from the ribosome.Moreover, the correlation of nascent chain conformations withreorientation of key residues of the ribosomal peptidyl-transferasecenter suggest that protein folding could modulate ribosome activity

Human RAD51 rapidly forms intrinsically dynamic nucleoprotein filaments modulated by nucleotide binding state.

Formation of RAD51 filaments on single-stranded DNA is an essential event during homologous recombination, which is required for homology search, strand exchange and protection of replication forks. Formation of nucleoprotein filaments (NF) is required for development and genomic stability, and its failure is associated with developmental abnormalities and tumorigenesis. Here we describe the structure of the human RAD51 NFs and of its Walker box mutants using electron microscopy. Wild-type RAD51 filaments adopt an 'open' conformation when compared to a 'closed' structure formed by mutants, reflecting alterations in helical pitch. The kinetics of formation/disassembly of RAD51 filaments show rapid and high ssDNA coverage via low cooperativity binding of RAD51 units along the DNA. Subsequently, a series of isomerization or dissociation events mediated by nucleotide binding state creates intrinsically dynamic RAD51 NFs. Our findings highlight important a mechanistic divergence among recombinases from different organisms, in line with the diversity of biological mechanisms of HR initiation and quality control. These data reveal unexpected intrinsic dynamic properties of the RAD51 filament during assembly/disassembly, which may be important for the proper control of homologous recombination

The Vegetation of the Loess Hills Landform Along the Missouri River

The vascular flora of the Loess Hills landform in southeastern South Dakota, western Iowa, and northwestern Missouri totals 703 species. A species checklist is presented based upon an extensive field study over a four-year period, plus herbarium and literature searches. The geology of the area is discussed briefly, in addition to vegetational, climatic and topographic gradients. The upland prairies of the Loess Hills are similar to the mixed-grass prairies .of the Great Plains more than 70 miles to the west. The mixed-grass prairie of the Loess Hills represent a narrow peninsular range extension into an area which otherwise typically supports tall-grass prairie. At least 17 xerophytic Great Plains species reach the easternmost edge of their ranges on the loess prairies. In Iowa 13 of these species are restricted to the loess bluffs. Three new taxa are added to the vascular flora of Iowa: Asclepias stenophylla Gray, Gaillardia pulchella Foug. and Solidago mollis Bartl

Combined data analysis of fossil and living mammals: a Paleogene sister taxon of Placentalia and the antiquity of Marsupialia

The Cretaceous–Paleogene (KPg) boundary, one of Earth’s five major extinction events, occurred just before the appearance of Placentalia in the fossil record. The Gobi Desert, Mongolia and the Western Interior of North America have important fossil mammals occurring just before and after the KPg boundary (e.g. Prodiacodon, Deltatheridium) that have yet to be phylogenetically tested in a character-rich context with molecular data. We present here phylogenetic analyses of >6000 newly scored anatomical observations drawn from six untested fossils and added to the largest existing morphological matrix for mammals. These data are combined with sequence data from 27 nuclear genes. Results show the existence of a new eutherian sister clade to Placentalia, which we name and characterize. The extinct clade Leptictidae is part of this placental sister clade, indicating that the sister clade survived the KPg event to co-exist in ancient ecosystems during the Paleogene radiation of placentals. Analysing the Cretaceous metatherian Deltatheridium in this character-rich context reveals it is a member of Marsupialia, a finding that extends the minimum age of Marsupialia before the KPg boundary. Numerous shared-derived features from multiple anatomical systems support the assignment of Deltatheridium to Marsupialia. Computed tomography scans of exquisite new specimens better document the marsupial-like dental replacement pattern of Deltatheridium. The new placental sister clade has both Asian and North American species, and is ancestrally characterized by shared derived features such as a hind limb modified for saltatorial locomotion

W(h)ither Fossils? Studying Morphological Character Evolution in the Age of Molecular Sequences

A major challenge in the post-genomics era will be to integrate molecular sequence data from extant organisms with morphological data from fossil and extant taxa into a single, coherent picture of phylogenetic relationships; only then will these phylogenetic hypotheses be effectively applied to the study of morphological character evolution. At least two analytical approaches to solving this problem have been utilized: (1) simultaneous analysis of molecular sequence and morphological data with fossil taxa included as terminals in the analysis, and (2) the molecular scaffold approach, in which morphological data are analyzed over a molecular backbone (with constraints that force extant taxa into positions suggested by sequence data). The perceived obstacles to including fossil taxa directly in simultaneous analyses of morphological and molecular sequence data with extant taxa include: (1) that fossil taxa are missing the molecular sequence portion of the character data; (2) that morphological characters might be misleading due to convergence; and (3) character weighting, specifically how and whether to weight characters in the morphological partition relative to characters in the molecular sequence data partition. The molecular scaffold has been put forward as a potential solution to at least some of these problems. Using examples of simultaneous analyses from the literature, as well as new analyses of previously published morphological and molecular sequence data matrices for extant and fossil Chiroptera (bats), we argue that the simultaneous analysis approach is superior to the molecular scaffold approach, specifically addressing the problems to which the molecular scaffold has been suggested as a solution. Finally, the application of phylogenetic hypotheses including fossil taxa (whatever their derivation) to the study of morphological character evolution is discussed, with special emphasis on scenarios in which fossil taxa are likely to be most enlightening: (1) in determining the sequence of character evolution; (2) in determining the timing of character evolution; and (3) in making inferences about the presence or absence of characteristics in fossil taxa that may not be directly observable in the fossil record. Published By: Missouri Botanical Garde

Understanding the threats posed by non-native species: public vs. conservation managers.

Public perception is a key factor influencing current conservation policy. Therefore, it is important to determine the influence of the public, end-users and scientists on the prioritisation of conservation issues and the direct implications for policy makers. Here, we assessed public attitudes and the perception of conservation managers to five non-native species in the UK, with these supplemented by those of an ecosystem user, freshwater anglers. We found that threat perception was not influenced by the volume of scientific research or by the actual threats posed by the specific non-native species. Media interest also reflected public perception and vice versa. Anglers were most concerned with perceived threats to their recreational activities but their concerns did not correspond to the greatest demonstrated ecological threat. The perception of conservation managers was an amalgamation of public and angler opinions but was mismatched to quantified ecological risks of the species. As this suggests that invasive species management in the UK is vulnerable to a knowledge gap, researchers must consider the intrinsic characteristics of their study species to determine whether raising public perception will be effective. The case study of the topmouth gudgeon Pseudorasbora parva reveals that media pressure and political debate has greater capacity to ignite policy changes and impact studies on non-native species than scientific evidence alone

Coalescent-based genome analyses resolve the early branches of the euarchontoglires

Despite numerous large-scale phylogenomic studies, certain parts of the mammalian tree are extraordinarily difficult to resolve. We used the coding regions from 19 completely sequenced genomes to study the relationships within the super-clade Euarchontoglires (Primates, Rodentia, Lagomorpha, Dermoptera and Scandentia) because the placement of Scandentia within this clade is controversial. The difficulty in resolving this issue is due to the short time spans between the early divergences of Euarchontoglires, which may cause incongruent gene trees. The conflict in the data can be depicted by network analyses and the contentious relationships are best reconstructed by coalescent-based analyses. This method is expected to be superior to analyses of concatenated data in reconstructing a species tree from numerous gene trees. The total concatenated dataset used to study the relationships in this group comprises 5,875 protein-coding genes (9,799,170 nucleotides) from all orders except Dermoptera (flying lemurs). Reconstruction of the species tree from 1,006 gene trees using coalescent models placed Scandentia as sister group to the primates, which is in agreement with maximum likelihood analyses of concatenated nucleotide sequence data. Additionally, both analytical approaches favoured the Tarsier to be sister taxon to Anthropoidea, thus belonging to the Haplorrhine clade. When divergence times are short such as in radiations over periods of a few million years, even genome scale analyses struggle to resolve phylogenetic relationships. On these short branches processes such as incomplete lineage sorting and possibly hybridization occur and make it preferable to base phylogenomic analyses on coalescent methods