Cryptic species and host specificity in the bryozoan-associated hydrozoan Zanclea divergens (Hydrozoa, Zancleidae)

: Zanclea divergens is a tropical hydrozoan living in symbiotic association with bryozoans and currently reported from Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and Maldives. Here, we used an integrative approach to assess the morpho-molecular diversity of the species across the Indo-Pacific. Phylogenetic and species delimitation analyses based on seven mitochondrial and nuclear loci revealed four well-supported molecular lineages corresponding to cryptic species, and representing a Pacific clade, an Indian clade, and two Red Sea clades. Since the general polyp morphology was almost identical in all samples, the nematocyst capsules were measured and analysed to search for possible fine-scale differences, and their statistical treatment revealed a significant difference in terms of length and width among the clades investigated. All Zanclea divergens specimens were specifically associated with cheilostome bryozoans belonging to the genus Celleporaria. The Pacific and Indian clades were associated with Celleporaria sp. and C. vermiformis, respectively, whereas both Red Sea lineages were associated with C. pigmentaria. Nevertheless, the sequencing of host bryozoans revealed that one of the Red Sea hydrozoan clades is associated with two morphologically undistinguishable, but genetically divergent, bryozoan species. Overall, our results show that Z. divergens is a species complex composed of morphologically cryptic lineages showing partially disjunct distributions and host specificity. The presence of two sympatric lineages living on the same host species reveal complex dynamics of diversification, and future research aimed at understanding their diversification process will likely improve our knowledge on the mechanisms of speciation among currently sympatric cryptic species

NMNAT1 Mutations Cause Leber Congenital Amaurosis

Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA) is an infantile-onset form of inherited retinal degeneration characterized by severe vision loss. Two-thirds of LCA cases are caused by mutations in 17 known disease genes (RetNet Retinal Information Network). Using exome sequencing, we identified a homozygous missense mutation (c.25G>A, p.Val9Met) in NMNAT1 as likely disease-causing in two siblings of a consanguineous Pakistani kindred affected by LCA. This mutation segregated with disease in their kindred, including in three other children with LCA. NMNAT1 resides in the previously identified LCA9 locus and encodes the nuclear isoform of nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyltransferase, a rate-limiting enzyme in nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide $(NAD^+)$ biosynthesis. Functional studies showed the p.Val9Met mutation decreased NMNAT1 enzyme activity. Sequencing NMNAT1 in 284 unrelated LCA families identified 14 rare mutations in 13 additional affected individuals. These results are the first to link an NMNAT isoform to disease and indicate that NMNAT1 mutations cause LCA

Generalizations of the short pulse equation

We classify integrable scalar polynomial partial differential equations of second order generalizing the short pulse equation

Inverting the model of genomics data sharing with the NHGRI Genomic Data Science Analysis, Visualization, and Informatics Lab-space

The NHGRI Genomic Data Science Analysis, Visualization, and Informatics Lab-space (AnVIL; https://anvilproject.org) was developed to address a widespread community need for a unified computing environment for genomics data storage, management, and analysis. In this perspective, we present AnVIL, describe its ecosystem and interoperability with other platforms, and highlight how this platform and associated initiatives contribute to improved genomic data sharing efforts. The AnVIL is a federated cloud platform designed to manage and store genomics and related data, enable population-scale analysis, and facilitate collaboration through the sharing of data, code, and analysis results. By inverting the traditional model of data sharing, the AnVIL eliminates the need for data movement while also adding security measures for active threat detection and monitoring and provides scalable, shared computing resources for any researcher. We describe the core data management and analysis components of the AnVIL, which currently consists of Terra, Gen3, Galaxy, RStudio/Bioconductor, Dockstore, and Jupyter, and describe several flagship genomics datasets available within the AnVIL. We continue to extend and innovate the AnVIL ecosystem by implementing new capabilities, including mechanisms for interoperability and responsible data sharing, while streamlining access management. The AnVIL opens many new opportunities for analysis, collaboration, and data sharing that are needed to drive research and to make discoveries through the joint analysis of hundreds of thousands to millions of genomes along with associated clinical and molecular data types

Data from: From incipient to substantial: evolution of placentotrophy in a phylum of aquatic colonial invertebrates

Matrotrophy has long been known in invertebrates, but it is still poorly understood and has never been reviewed. A striking example of matrotrophy (namely, placentotrophy) is provided by the Bryozoa, a medium-sized phylum of the aquatic colonial filter feeders. Here I report on an extensive anatomical study of placental analogues in 21 species of the bryozoan order Cheilostomata, offering the first review on matrotrophy among aquatic invertebrates. The first anatomical description of incipient placentotrophy in invertebrates is presented together with the evidence for multiple independent origins of placental analogues in this order. The combinations of contrasting oocytic types (macrolecithal or oligolecithal) and various degrees of placental development and embryonic enlargement during incubation, found in different bryozoan species, are suggestive of a transitional series from the incipient to the substantial placentotrophy accompanied by an inverse change in oogenesis, a situation reminiscent of some vertebrates. It seems that matrotrophy could trigger the evolution of sexual zooidal polymorphism in some clades. The results of this study show that this phylum, with its wide variety of reproductive patterns, incubation devices and types of the simple placenta-like systems, offers a promising model for studying parallel evolution of placentotrophy in particular, and matrotrophy in general

Table-DRYAD

Data file contains a list of cheilostome bryozoan species and their reproductive patterns describing their oogenesis mode, absence and presence of brooding and its mode (placental vs non-placental

Omanipora pilleri nov. gen. nov. spec., a new lepraliomorph bryozoan (Cheilostomata) from Oman

Abstract Bryozoans from around the Arabian Peninsula are only poorly known. Here we describe a new cheilostome taxon, Omanipora pilleri nov. gen. nov. spec., from the western Indian Ocean, south of the town of Duqm (eastern central Oman). Starting from an encrusting base the colonies grow erect, producing either branching and anastomosing bilaminar fronds or robust radial branches by means of frontal budding, while some specimens even exhibit an intracolonial morphological gradient from one branch type to the other. The variability in colony morphology presumably reflects growth under different hydrodynamic conditions. Based on superficially similar orificial, ooecial, avicularian and frontal wall structures the new taxon is tentatively placed within the Celleporidae JOhnstOn. Some of the characters that justify the introduction of a new genus are: communication of the ooecial coelomic cavity with the maternal zooid proceeds via several distal communication pores, which is a feature that has not been observed before; ovicell closure is of the cleithral type; and the orifices are dimorphic in fertile (egg-producing) and non-fertile zooids. Keywords: Bryozoa, Indian Ocean, new species, new genus, ovicells. Zusammenfassung Die Bryozoen der Arabischen Halbinsel sind immer noch sehr unzureichend bekannt. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird ein neues Taxon cheilostomer Bryozoen aus dem westlichen Indischen Ozean beschrieben, das an der Ostküste des zentralen Oman (südlich des Ortes Duqm) vorkommt

Unidistelopora krauseae

UNIDISTELOPORA KRAUSEAE (VOIGT & SCHNEEMILCH, 1986) (FIGS 5A, B, 21D, 24P) Material: VC 11025, Cretaceous, Lower Campanian, Grube Allemania, Höver, near Hannover, Germany. VC T 10580, Lower Campanian, Grube Alsen, Lägerdorf, near Hamburg, Germany. VC T 10581, Lower Campanian, Grube Breitenburg, Germany. Description: Non-brooding zooids of this uniserial species have 24–25 mural spine bases, compared with 20– 21 in ovicellate zooids. Distal spine bases, particularly the four ‘oral’ spine bases, are slightly larger than the others. Ovicell roofs were constructed of 18–19 spines whose bases are arranged atop a low semicircular ridge and raised above the concave ovicell floor formed by the proximal gymnocyst of the distal brooding zooid (Figs 5A, B, 21D, 24P). The diameter of ovicell spine bases is markedly smaller than that of mural spine bases, especially the nearby oral spine bases of the maternal zooid. In all cases observed, the distal, median ovicell spine bases are located on the mural rim of the distal zooid where mural spines were absent. The two most proximal spine bases are placed very close to the distal edge of the maternal zooid. Ovicell spine bases are closely spaced, with the distance between adjacent bases usually less than spine base diameter, except in the distal part of the ovicell where the spine bases are sparser and spaced further apart. Remarks: All spines in the species of Distelopora and Unidistelopora described above were basally articulated, as indicated by the double ring structure seen in some of the spine bases (Figs 4C, 5B; Ostrovsky & Taylor, 2004). This is also supported by the fact that no spines are preserved in situ. In the majority of the ovicellate zooids of Distelopora spp. and Unidistelopora krauseae, the proximal part of the mural rim of the distal zooid lacks mural spines in the zone where ovicell spine bases adjoin it. Thus, the mural spine bases and distalmost, median ovicell spine bases often (always in the case of U. krauseae) form a continuous line, and the distalmost ovicell spine bases are positioned where the most proximal mural spine bases are normally located in the nonbrooding zooids (Figs 4A, C, 5A, B, 24P). However, the ‘missing’ proximal mural spines do develop when the ovicell spine bases are separated from the mural rim, and also in intramural reparative buds formed within the distal zooid.Published as part of Ostrovsky, Andrew N. & Taylor, Paul D., 2005, Brood chambers constructed from spines in fossil and Recent cheilostome bryozoans, pp. 317-361 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 144 (3) on page 325, DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2005.00179.x, http://zenodo.org/record/543471