Development of Molecular Markers for Determining Continental Origin of Wood from White Oaks (Quercus L. sect. Quercus)

To detect and avoid illegal logging of valuable tree species, identification methods for the origin of timber are necessary. We used next-generation sequencing to identify chloroplast genome regions that differentiate the origin of white oaks from the three continents; Asia, Europe, and North America. By using the chloroplast genome of Asian Q. mongolica as a reference, we identified 861 variant sites (672 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs); 189 insertion/deletion (indel) polymorphism) from representative species of three continents (Q. mongolica from Asia; Q. petraea and Q. robur from Europe; Q. alba from North America), and we identified additional chloroplast polymorphisms in pools of 20 individuals each from Q. mongolica (789 variant sites) and Q. robur (346 variant sites). Genome sequences were screened for indels to develop markers that identify continental origin of oak species, and that can be easily evaluated using a variety of detection methods. We identified five indels and one SNP that reliably identify continent-of-origin, based on evaluations of up to 1078 individuals representing 13 white oak species and three continents. Due to the size of length polymorphisms revealed, this marker set can be visualized using capillary electrophoresis or high resolution gel (acrylamide or agarose) electrophoresis. With these markers, we provide the wood trading market with an instrument to comply with the U.S. and European laws that require timber companies to avoid the trade of illegally harvested timber.Data Availability Statement: DNA sequences from Sanger sequencing of the indel containing fragments derived from this study have been deposited in GenBank (Accession numbers: KU201020- KU201034). Next-generation sequences supporting this study are available from the NCBI GenBank as BioProject PRJNA269970 (SRA Accessions SRS954648, SRS954649, and SRS954650, SRX1050444-1050539). SRA accession numbers of the next-generation sequencing data of the two DNApools are SRR3624658 (Q. robur) and SRR3624680 (Q. mongolica). Draft chloroplast genome references will be submitted to Dryad soon. The open source software Variant Tools is available on  https://github. com/ThuenenFG/varianttools

The HIPASS Catalogue - II. Completeness, Reliability, and Parameter Accuracy

The HI Parkes All Sky Survey (HIPASS) is a blind extragalactic HI 21-cm emission line survey covering the whole southern sky from declination -90 to +25. The HIPASS catalogue (HICAT), containing 4315 HI-selected galaxies from the region south of declination +2, is presented in Meyer et al. (2004a, Paper I). This paper describes in detail the completeness and reliability of HICAT, which are calculated from the recovery rate of synthetic sources and follow-up observations, respectively. HICAT is found to be 99 per cent complete at a peak flux of 84 mJy and an integrated flux of 9.4 Jy km/s. The overall reliability is 95 per cent, but rises to 99 per cent for sources with peak fluxes >58 mJy or integrated flux > 8.2 Jy km/s. Expressions are derived for the uncertainties on the most important HICAT parameters: peak flux, integrated flux, velocity width, and recessional velocity. The errors on HICAT parameters are dominated by the noise in the HIPASS data, rather than by the parametrization procedure.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 12 pages, 11 figures. Paper with higher resolution figures can be downloaded from http://hipass.aus-vo.or

Timber tracking of Jacaranda copaia from the Amazon forest using DNA fingerprinting

We investigated the utility of nuclear and cytoplasmic single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers for timber tracking of the intensively logged and commercialized Amazonian tree Jacaranda copaia. Eight hundred and thirty-two trees were sampled (cambium or leaves) from 38 sampling sites in Bolivia, Brazil, French Guiana, and Peru. A total of 128 SNP markers (113 nuclear, 11 chloroplastic, and 4 mitochondrial) were used for genotyping the samples. Bayesian cluster analyses were carried out to group individuals into homogeneous genetic groups for tests to self-assign groups of individuals or individuals to their population of origin. Cluster analysis based on all the SNP markers detected seven main genetic groups. Genetic differentiation was high among populations (0.484) and among genetic groups (0.415), and populations showed a strong isolation-by-distance pattern. Self-assignment testing of the groups of individuals for all loci was able to determine the population origin of all the samples (accuracy = 100%). Self-assignment tests of individuals were able to assign the origin of 94.5%–100% of individuals (accuracy: 91.7%–100%). Our results show that the use of the 128 SNP markers is suitable to correctly determine the origin of J. copaia timber, and they should be considered a useful tool for customs and local and international police

The Northern HIPASS catalogue - Data presentation, completeness and reliability measures

The Northern HIPASS catalogue (NHICAT) is the northern extension of the HIPASS catalogue, HICAT (Meyer et al. 2004). This extension adds the sky area between the declination range of +2 deg < dec. < +25.5 deg to HICAT's declination range of -90 deg < dec. < +2 deg. HIPASS is a blind HI survey using the Parkes Radio Telescope covering 71% of the sky (including this northern extension) and a heliocentric velocity range of -1,280 km/s to 12,700 km/s . The entire Virgo Cluster region has been observed in the Northern HIPASS. The galaxy catalogue, NHICAT, contains 1002 sources with v_hel > 300 km/s . Sources with -300 km/s < v_hel < 300 km/s were excluded to avoid contamination by Galactic emission. In total, the entire HIPASS survey has found 5317 galaxies identified purely by their HI content. The full galaxy catalogue is publicly-available at .Comment: 12 pages, accepted for publication by MNRA

An ultra-wide bandwidth (704 to 4 032 MHz) receiver for the Parkes radio telescope

We describe an ultra-wide-bandwidth, low-frequency receiver recently installed on the Parkes radio telescope. The receiver system provides continuous frequency coverage from 704 to 4032 MHz. For much of the band ( ${∼}60$ ), the system temperature is approximately 22 K and the receiver system remains in a linear regime even in the presence of strong mobile phone transmissions. We discuss the scientific and technical aspects of the new receiver, including its astronomical objectives, as well as the feed, receiver, digitiser, and signal processor design. We describe the pipeline routines that form the archive-ready data products and how those data files can be accessed from the archives. The system performance is quantified, including the system noise and linearity, beam shape, antenna efficiency, polarisation calibration, and timing stability