Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil: setting the baseline knowledge on the animal diversity in Brazil

The limited temporal completeness and taxonomic accuracy of species lists, made available in a traditional manner in scientific publications, has always represented a problem. These lists are invariably limited to a few taxonomic groups and do not represent up-to-date knowledge of all species and classifications. In this context, the Brazilian megadiverse fauna is no exception, and the Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil (CTFB) (http://fauna.jbrj.gov.br/), made public in 2015, represents a database on biodiversity anchored on a list of valid and expertly recognized scientific names of animals in Brazil. The CTFB is updated in near real time by a team of more than 800 specialists. By January 1, 2024, the CTFB compiled 133,691 nominal species, with 125,138 that were considered valid. Most of the valid species were arthropods (82.3%, with more than 102,000 species) and chordates (7.69%, with over 11,000 species). These taxa were followed by a cluster composed of Mollusca (3,567 species), Platyhelminthes (2,292 species), Annelida (1,833 species), and Nematoda (1,447 species). All remaining groups had less than 1,000 species reported in Brazil, with Cnidaria (831 species), Porifera (628 species), Rotifera (606 species), and Bryozoa (520 species) representing those with more than 500 species. Analysis of the CTFB database can facilitate and direct efforts towards the discovery of new species in Brazil, but it is also fundamental in providing the best available list of valid nominal species to users, including those in science, health, conservation efforts, and any initiative involving animals. The importance of the CTFB is evidenced by the elevated number of citations in the scientific literature in diverse areas of biology, law, anthropology, education, forensic science, and veterinary science, among others

Clocks do not tick in unison: isolation of Clock and vrille shed new light on the clockwork model of the sand fly Lutzomyia longipalpis

Submitted by sandra infurna ([email protected]) on 2016-03-10T11:54:08Z No. of bitstreams: 1 joao_gesto_etal_IOC_2015.pdf: 553724 bytes, checksum: b41592733dbfe464b0c6b7da57943612 (MD5)Approved for entry into archive by sandra infurna ([email protected]) on 2016-03-10T14:31:30Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 joao_gesto_etal_IOC_2015.pdf: 553724 bytes, checksum: b41592733dbfe464b0c6b7da57943612 (MD5)Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-10T14:31:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 joao_gesto_etal_IOC_2015.pdf: 553724 bytes, checksum: b41592733dbfe464b0c6b7da57943612 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratório de Biologia Molecular. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil / Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Centro de Pesquisas René Rachou. Mosquitos Vetores: Endossimbiontes e Interação Patógeno Vetor. Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratório de Biologia Molecular. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratório de Biologia Molecular. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil / Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratório de Epidemiologia e Sistemática Molecular. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. School of Life Sciences. , Institute of Bioengineering. Laboratory of Systems Biology and Genetics. Lausanne, Switzerland.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratório de Biologia Molecular. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratório Transmissores de Leishmanioses. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratório de Biologia Molecular. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil / Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia em Entomologia Molecular (INCT-EM)/ CNPq. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratório de Biologia Molecular. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil / Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia em Entomologia Molecular (INCT-EM)/ CNPq. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.Background: Behavior rhythms of insect vectors directly interfere with the dynamics of pathogen transmission to humans. The sand fly Lutzomyia longipalpis is the main vector of visceral leishmaniasis in America and concentrates its activity around dusk. Despite the accumulation of behavioral data, very little is known about the molecular bases of the clock mechanism in this species. This study aims to characterize, within an evolutionary perspective, two important circadian clock genes, Clock and vrille. Findings: We have cloned and isolated the coding sequence of L. longipalpis’ genes Clock and vrille. The former is structured in eight exons and encodes a protein of 696 amino acids, and the latter comprises three exons and translates to a protein of 469 amino acids. When compared to other insects’ orthologues, L. longipalpis CLOCK shows a high degree of conservation in the functional domains bHLH and PAS, but a much shorter glutamine-rich (poly-Q) C-terminal region. As for L. longipalpis VRILLE, a high degree of conservation was found in the bZIP domain. To support these observations and provide an elegant view of the evolution of both genes in insects, phylogenetic analyses based on maximum-likelihood and Bayesian inferences were performed, corroborating the previously known insect systematics. Conclusions: The isolation and phylogenetic analyses of Clock and vrille orthologues in L. longipalpis bring novel and important data to characterize this species’ circadian clock. Interestingly, the poly-Q shortening observed in CLOCK suggests that its transcription activity might be impaired and we speculate if this effect could be compensated by other clock factors such as CYCLE