A review of the Costa Rican myxomycetes (Amebozoa)

There has not been a comprehensive review of the taxonomic composition of the assemblage of myxomycetes known from Costa Rica since 1975. As a result of a series of studies carried out in the country during the last decade, considerable additional data now exist, and the review presented herein provides an update on this group of organisms. Collecting carried out in Costa Rica since 1975, a review of the published literature, and an examination of herbarium specimens were used to generate an annotated list consisting of a total of 208 species in 36 different genera. This includes 62 species not previously reported from Costa Rica. The relative abundance of the different orders follows the expected distribution for the Neotropics, with the order Physarales being the most abundant. Interestingly, the data also show that the distribution of species is highly heterogenous. This result suggests that most myxomycetes in Costa Rica are highly specialized for certain microhabitats defined by macro- and microenvironmental factors.Desde 1975 no se ha llevado a cabo una revisión exhaustiva de la composición taxonómica de los mixomicetes de Costa Rica. Como resultado de una serie de proyectos de investigación que se han desarrollado durante la última década, nueva información se encuentra disponible y es por ello que la presente revisión se considera como una actualización sobre este grupo de organismos para este país. El material recolectado desde 1975, una profunda revisión bibliográfica y el examen de especímenes de herbario fueron usados para generar una lista de 208 especies pertenecientes a 36 géneros diferentes. Esta lista incluye 62 especies no comunicadas anteriormente para Costa Rica. La abundancia relativa de los diferentes órdenes concuerda con la distribución esperada para el Neotrópico, siendo el orden Physarales el más abundante. De forma interesante, los datos también muestran que la distribución de las especies es altamente heterogénea. Este resultado sugiere que la mayoría de los mixomicetes en Costa Rica están altamente especializados alrededor de microhabitats definidos por factores macro y microambientales.Ministerio del Ambiente y Energía/[]/MINAE/Costa RicaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Ciencias Básicas::Facultad de Ciencias::Escuela de Biologí

Treatment of Marburg and Ebola hemorrhagic fevers: A strategy for testing new drugs and vaccines under outbreak conditions.

The filoviruses, Marburg and Ebola, have the dubious distinction of being associated with some of the highest case-fatality rates of any known infectious disease-approaching 90% in many outbreaks. In recent years, laboratory research on the filoviruses has produced treatments and vaccines that are effective in laboratory animals and that could potentially drastically reduce case-fatality rates and curtail outbreaks in humans. However, there are significant challenges in clinical testing of these products and eventual delivery to populations in need. Most cases of filovirus infection are recognized only in the setting of large outbreaks, often in the most remote and resource-poor areas of sub-Saharan Africa, with little infrastructure and few personnel experienced in clinical research. Significant political, legal, and socio-cultural barriers also exist. Here, we review the present research priorities and environment for field study of the filovirus hemorrhagic fevers and outline a strategy for future prospective clinical research on treatment and vaccine prevention

18S rDNA Phylogeny of Lamproderma and Allied Genera (Stemonitales, Myxomycetes, Amoebozoa)

The phylogenetic position of the slime-mould genus Lamproderma (Myxomycetes, Amoebozoa) challenges traditional taxonomy: although it displays the typical characters of the order Stemonitales, it appears to be sister to Physarales. This study provides a small subunit (18S or SSU) ribosomal RNA gene-based phylogeny of Lamproderma and its allies, with new sequences from 49 specimens in 12 genera. We found that the order Stemonitales and Lamproderma were both ancestral to Physarales and that Lamproderma constitutes several clades intermingled with species of Diacheopsis, Colloderma and Elaeomyxa. We suggest that these genera may have evolved from Lamproderma by multiple losses of fruiting body stalks and that many taxonomic revisions are needed. We found such high genetic diversity within three Lamproderma species that they probably consist of clusters of sibling species. We discuss the contrasts between genetic and morphological divergence and implications for the morphospecies concept, highlighting the phylogenetically most reliable morphological characters and pointing to others that have been overestimated. In addition, we showed that the first part (∼600 bases) of the SSU rDNA gene is a valuable tool for phylogeny in Myxomycetes, since it displayed sufficient variability to distinguish closely related taxa and never failed to cluster together specimens considered of the same species