448 research outputs found
A test of psbK-psbI and atpF-atpH as potential plant DNA barcodes using the flora of the Kruger National Park as a model system (South Africa)
A DNA barcode consists of a standardized short sequence of DNA (400-800bp) used to identify the taxonomic species a small organic fragment belongs to. Even though it has been easy to discriminate animal species by using the mitochondrial gene cox1, this is still difficult for plants seeing that the mitochondrial genome is not variable enough on the species level. During the Second International Barcode of Life Conference in Tapei (September 2007), different plastid regions were proposed as potential plant DNA barcodes, such as atpF-atpH and psbK-psbI, but no consensus on which region to use was reached during the meeting. The largest plant DNA barcoding study to date proposed matK as the best candidate and suggested that in combination with trnH-psbA a slight increase in performance could be achieved. However, no study has tested the suitability of the newly proposed psbK-psbI and atpF-atpH for plant barcoding purposes. Four potential DNA barcodes, matK, trnH-psbA, atpF-atpH, and psbK-psbI, were amplified and sequenced for a selective sampling including mainly trees and shrubs of the flora of the Kruger National Park Africa (South Africa). The performance of each region and also each possible combination of these were tested by applying a battery of metrics and statistical tests. Our results confirm that the second half (5’ end) of matK is the best candidate in a single locus barcoding approach reaching 87.5% of species correctly identified. Combining matK with trnH-psbA and psbK-psbI increased only slightly the performance in discriminating species. The results from this study show that the use of a ‘three-region barcode’ does not significantly outperform matK in a single-locus barcoding approach. We therefore argue against the ‘multiple barcode approach’ proposed by the plant working group, and instead propose to keep barcoding plants in line with the approach taken for animals, i.e. using one barcode: cox1 for animals and matK for plants
Optical elastic scattering for early label-free identification of clinical pathogens
Full paper also available on https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.02980International audienceWe report here on the ability of elastic light scattering in discriminating Gram+, Gram-and yeasts at an early stage of growth (6h). Our technique is non-invasive, low cost and does require neither skilled operators nor reagents. Therefore it is compatible with automation. It is based on the analysis of the scattering pattern (scatterogram) generated by a bacterial microcolony growing on agar, when placed in the path of a laser beam. Measurements are directly performed on closed Petri dishes. The characteristic features of a given scatterogram are first computed by projecting the pattern onto the Zernike orthogonal basis. Then the obtained data are compared to a database so that machine learning can yield identification result. A 10-fold cross-validation was performed on a database over 8 species (15 strains, 1906 scatterograms), at 6h of incubation. It yielded a 94% correct classification rate between Gram+, Gram-and yeasts. Results can be improved by using a more relevant function basis for projections, such as Fourier-Bessel functions. A fully integrated instrument has been installed at the Grenoble hospital's laboratory of bacteriology and a validation campaign has been started for the early screening of SA and MRSA (Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant S. aureus) carriers. Up to now, all the published studies about elastic scattering were performed in a forward mode, which is restricted to transparent media. However, in clinical diagnostics, most of media are opaque, such as blood-supplemented agar. That is why we propose a novel scheme capable of collecting back-scattered light which provides comparable results
Hyb-Seq for flowering plant systematics
High-throughput DNA sequencing (HTS) presents great opportunities for plant systematics, yet genomic complexity needs to be reduced for HTS to be effectively applied. We highlight Hyb-Seq as a promising approach, especially in light of the recent development of probes enriching 353 low-copy nuclear genes from any flowering plant taxon
Molecular and morphological analysis of subfamily Alooideae (Asphodelaceae) and the inclusion of chortolirion in aloe
Asphodelaceae subfam. Alooideae (Asparagales) currently comprises five genera, four of which are endemic to southern Africa. Despite their importance in commercial horticulture the evolutionary relationships among the genera are still incompletely understood. This study examines phylogenetic relationships in the subfamily using an expanded molecular sequence dataset from three plastid regions (matK, rbcLa, trnH-psbA) and the first subunit of the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS1). Sequence data were analysed using maximum parsimony and Bayesian statistics, and selected morphological traits were mapped onto the molecular phylogeny. Haworthia is confirmed as being polyphyletic, comprising three main clades that largely correlate with current subgeneric circumscriptions. Astroloba and Gasteria are evidently each monophyletic and sister respectively to Astroloba and H. subg. Robustipedunculares. Chortolirion is shown to be deeply nested within Aloe and is formally included in that genus. Aloe itself is clearly polyphyletic, with the dwarf species A. aristata allied to Haworthia subg. Robustipedunculares. The taxonomic implications of these findings are examined but branch support at critical lower nodes is insufficient at this stage to justify implementing major taxonomic changes
Potential of herbariomics for studying repetitive DNA in angiosperms
Repetitive DNA has an important role in angiosperm genomes and is relevant to our understanding of genome size variation, polyploidisation and genome dynamics more broadly. Much recent work has harnessed the power of high-throughput sequencing (HTS) technologies to advance the study of repetitive DNA in flowering plants. Herbarium collections provide a useful historical perspective on genome diversity through time, but their value for the study of repetitive DNA has not yet been explored. We propose that herbarium DNA may prove as useful for studies of repetitive DNA content as it has for reconstructed organellar genomes and low-copy nuclear sequence data. Here we present a case study in the tobacco genus (Nicotiana; Solanaceae), showing that herbarium specimens can provide accurate estimates of the repetitive content of angiosperm genomes by direct comparison with recently-collected material. We show a strong correlation between the abundance of repeat clusters, e.g., different types of transposable elements and satellite DNA, in herbarium collections versus recent material for four sets of Nicotiana taxa. These results suggest that herbarium specimen genome sequencing (herbariomics) holds promise for both repeat discovery and analyses that aim to investigate the role of repetitive DNAs in genomic evolution, particularly genome size evolution and/or contributions of repeats to the regulation of gene space
Tackling rapid radiations with targeted sequencing
In phylogenetic studies across angiosperms, at various taxonomic levels, polytomies have persisted despite efforts to resolve them by increasing sampling of taxa and loci. The large amount of genomic data now available and statistical tools to analyze them provide unprecedented power for phylogenetic inference. Targeted sequencing has emerged as a strong tool for estimating species trees in the face of rapid radiations, lineage sorting, and introgression. Evolutionary relationships in Cyperaceae have been studied mostly using Sanger sequencing until recently. Despite ample taxon sampling, relationships in many genera remain poorly understood, hampered by diversification rates that outpace mutation rates in the loci used. The C4 Cyperus clade of the genus Cyperus has been particularly difficult to resolve. Previous studies based on a limited set of markers resolved relationships among Cyperus species using the C3 photosynthetic pathway, but not among C4 Cyperus clade taxa. We test the ability of two targeted sequencing kits to resolve relationships in the C4 Cyperus clade, the universal Angiosperms-353 kit and a Cyperaceae-specific kit. Sequences of the targeted loci were recovered from data generated with both kits and used to investigate overlap in data between kits and relative efficiency of the general and custom approaches. The power to resolve shallow-level relationships was tested using a summary species tree method and a concatenated maximum likelihood approach. High resolution and support are obtained using both approaches, but high levels of missing data disproportionately impact the latter. Targeted sequencing provides new insights into the evolution of morphology in the C4 Cyperus clade, demonstrating for example that the former segregate genus Alinula is polyphyletic despite its seeming morphological integrity. An unexpected result is that the Cyperus margaritaceus-Cyperus niveus complex comprises a clade separate from and sister to the core C4 Cyperus clade. Our results demonstrate that data generated with a family-specific kit do not necessarily have more power than those obtained with a universal kit, but that data generated with different targeted sequencing kits can often be merged for downstream analyses. Moreover, our study contributes to the growing consensus that targeted sequencing data are a powerful tool in resolving rapid radiations
A large-scale species level dated angiosperm phylogeny for evolutionary and ecological analyses.
Phylogenies are a central and indispensable tool for evolutionary and ecological research. Even though most angiosperm families are well investigated from a phylogenetic point of view, there are far less possibilities to carry out large-scale meta-analyses at order level or higher. Here, we reconstructed a large-scale dated phylogeny including nearly 1/8th of all angiosperm species, based on two plastid barcoding genes, matK (incl. trnK) and rbcL. Novel sequences were generated for several species, while the rest of the data were mined from GenBank. The resulting tree was dated using 56 angiosperm fossils as calibration points. The resulting megaphylogeny is one of the largest dated phylogenetic tree of angiosperms yet, consisting of 36,101 sampled species, representing 8,399 genera, 426 families and all orders. This novel framework will be useful for investigating different broad scale research questions in ecological and evolutionary biology
DNA barcodes reveal microevolutionary signals in fire response trait in two legume genera
Large-scale DNA barcoding provides a new technique for species
identification and evaluation of relationships across various levels
(populations and species) and may reveal fundamental processes in recently
diverged species. Here, we analysed DNA sequence variation in the recently
diverged legumes from the Psoraleeae (Fabaceae) occurring in the Cape
Floristic Region (CFR) of southern Africa to test the utility of DNA barcodes in
species identification and discrimination. We further explored the phylogenetic
signal on fire response trait (reseeding and resprouting) at species and
generic levels. We showed that Psoraleoid legumes of the CFR exhibit a
barcoding gap yielding the combination of matK and rbcLa (matK + rbcLa) dataset as a better barcode than single regions. We found a high score
(100%) of correct identification of individuals to their respective genera but
very low score (<50%) in identifying them to species. We found a
considerable match (54%) between genetic species and morphologicallydelimited
species. We also found that different lineages showed a weak but
significant phylogenetic conservatism in their response to fire as reseeders or
resprouters, with more clustering of resprouters than would be expected by
chance. These novel microevolutionary patterns might be acting continuously
over time to produce multi-scale regularities of biodiversity. This study
provides the first insight into the DNA barcoding campaign of land plants in
species identification and detection of phylogenetic signal in recently diverged
lineages of the CFR.The South African National
Research Foundation (NRF; AMM); Nigeria Tertiary Education Trust Fund
(NTETF) / Umaru Musa Yar’adua University Katsina, Nigeria (Fellowship
Grant; A. Bello); and University of Cape Town, J. W. Jagger Centenary Gift
Scholarship (to A. Bello).http://aobpla.oxfordjournals.orgam2016Physiotherap
Cell migration and antigen capture are antagonistic processes coupled by myosin II in dendritic cells
The immune response relies on the migration of leukocytes and on their ability to stop in precise anatomical locations to fulfil their task. How leukocyte migration and function are coordinated is unknown. Here we show that in immature dendritic cells, which patrol their environment by engulfing extracellular material, cell migration and antigen capture are antagonistic. This antagonism results from transient enrichment of myosin IIA at the cell front, which disrupts the back-to-front gradient of the motor protein, slowing down locomotion but promoting antigen capture. We further highlight that myosin IIA enrichment at the cell front requires the MHC class II-associated invariant chain (Ii). Thus, by controlling myosin IIA localization, Ii imposes on dendritic cells an intermittent antigen capture behaviour that might facilitate environment patrolling. We propose that the requirement for myosin II in both cell migration and specific cell functions may provide a general mechanism for their coordination in time and space
Phylogenetic position and revised classification of Acacia s.l. (Fabaceae: Mimosoideae) in Africa, including new combinations in Vachellia and Senegalia
Previous phylogenetic studies have indicated that Acacia Miller s.l. is polyphyletic and in need of reclassification.
A proposal to conserve the name Acacia for the larger Australian contingent of the genus (formerly subgenus
Phyllodineae) resulted in the retypification of the genus with the Australian A. penninervis. However, Acacia s.l.
comprises at least four additional distinct clades or genera, some still requiring formal taxonomic transfer of
species. These include Vachellia (formerly subgenus Acacia), Senegalia (formerly subgenus Aculeiferum), Acaciella
(formerly subgenus Aculeiferum section Filicinae) and Mariosousa (formerly the A. coulteri group). In light of this
fragmentation of Acacia s.l., there is a need to assess relationships of the non-Australian taxa. A molecular
phylogenetic study of Acacia s.l and close relatives occurring in Africa was conducted using sequence data from
matK/trnK, trnL-trnF and psbA-trnH with the aim of determining the placement of the African species in the new
generic system. The results reinforce the inevitability of recognizing segregate genera for Acacia s.l. and new
combinations for the African species in Senegalia and Vachellia are formalized.Web of Scienc
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