First Records of \u3ci\u3eGomphaeschna Furcillata\u3c/i\u3e and \u3ci\u3eAnax Longipes\u3c/i\u3e in Wisconsin (Odonata: Aeshnidae)

(excerpt) The two new records of Odonata reported here for Wisconsin are north- western range extensions for each species. The genus Gomphaeschna Selys contains two species, antilope (Hagen) and furcillata (Say), the distributions of which are limited to eastern North America. Gomphaeschna antilope ranges from New Jersey west to Ohio and south to Louisiana and Florida (Needham and Westfall 1955). Gomphaeschna furcillata is similarly distributed in the south, but ranges further north, to Nova Scotia and Maine eastward, and to Michigan westward

Gynandromorphs in the genera Ophiogomphus Selys, 1854 and Ischnura Charpentier, 1840 (Odonata: Gomphidae,Coenagrionidae)

A gynandromorph of Ophiogomphus smithi Tennessen and Vogt from Wisconsin and a gynandromorph of Ischnura hastata (Say) from Alabama are described. The specimens appear to be bilateral in that they display mostly left/right separation of male and female characters

New Distribution Records for \u3ci\u3eOphiogomphus Howei\u3c/i\u3e (Odonata: Gomphidae)

New distribution records establish Ophiogomphus howei as a resident species in Wisconsin. Kentucky, Maine, and Minnesota are added as new state records for this seldom-encountered gomphid dragonfly. Larval habitats appear to be undisturbed rivers 10-200 m wide, with sand and gravel sub-strates

How Did E. M. Walker Measure the Length of the Labium of Nymphs of \u3ci\u3eAeshna\u3c/i\u3e and \u3ci\u3eRhionaeschna\u3c/i\u3e (Odonata: Aeshnidae)?

The exhaustive studies of nymphs of Aeshna Fabricius and Rhionaeschna Förster by E. M. Walker (1912-1958) have long guided the taxonomy of these groups and formed the basis for keys still in use today. However, uncertainty about how he measured the length of the labium, including the varied terminology he used over the duration of his career concerning this structure, has led to confusion about application of his taxonomic recommendations. We recalculated ratios of the maximum width/length [W(max)/L] by measuring the illustration dimensions of folded labia and prementums in publications throughout his career and compared these data with the ratios he stated in those publications and with ratios derived from measurements of specimens in our collections. Our results show that from 1912 to 1941, Walker restricted length measurement to the prementum proper (which he called the “mentum of the labium”), exclusive of the ventrally visible portion of the postmental hinge. However, in 1941 he reported ratios from length measurements done two ways, excluding the postmental hinge in his description of the nymph of A. verticalis Hagen, but including the hinge in his description of the nymph of A. septentrionalis Burmeister (Whitehouse 1941). In Walker’s most recent and influential work (1958), he included the postmental hinge in labium length measurements of nine species, but restricted length measurements to the prementum for five others. He was consistent with the use of terms, using both “folded labium” by which he meant the prementum plus the postmental hinge, and “prementum” by which he meant only that structure. However, Walker’s descriptions of the labium in his latest work are buried in long, frequently punctuated sentences that for most species include the terms “folded labium” and “prementum” in the same sentence, so careful reading is required to know which term is intended in the width/length ratio. Width/length ratios we each calculated independently were invariably similar for a given species and were usually similar to Walker’s stated ratio for that species. These similarities affirm our conclusion that while labium measurements must be done with care, they are closely repeatable among workers and will consistently lead to correct determinations in properly designed couplets of dichotomous keys to these genera. We recommend measuring the length of the prementum proper in future studies of these genera when labium ratios are calculated because we found less variability in those cases than when the measurements included the postmental hinge. An approximate conversion between the two methods of calculating W(max)/L ratios can be made as follows: ratio calculated when the length of the prementum excluding the postmental hinge is used x 0.88 is approximately equal to the ratio when the postmental hinge is included for species of Aeshna and Rhionaeschna in North America

Efficacy of Morphological Characters for Distinguishing Nymphs of \u3ci\u3eEpitheca Cynosura\u3c/i\u3e and \u3ci\u3eEpitheca Spinigera\u3c/i\u3e (Odonata: Corduliidae) in Wisconsin

Attempts to distinguish exuviae and last-instar nymphs of Epitheca cynosura (Say) and Epitheca spinigera (Selys) (Odonata: Corduliidae) using lateral spine characters have proven to be unreliable, and recent use of setae counts on only one side of the prementum or one labial palp have led to confusion because these structures often hold unequal numbers of setae on the two sides of the same specimen. Based on exuviae of 67 reared E. cynosura and 55 reared E. spinigera from lakes throughout Wisconsin, we tested the efficacy of previously used character states for distinguishing these species and searched for new characters to improve the reliability of regional keys. The most reliable diagnostic character was the combined number of setae on both sides of the prementum and on both labial palps (≤ 35 – E. cynosura; ≥ 36 – E. spinigera), which correctly determined 96% of our specimens. For the small percentage of specimens that lie in the region of overlap in total setae number, we found that total exuviae length, cerci ÷ epiproct ratios of females, tubercle distance ÷ epiproct ratios of males, and the shape of the dorsal hook on segment 8 could be used to strengthen determinations

Utility of Population-Level DNA Sequence Data in the Diagnosis of Hereditary Endocrine Disease

Context: Genetic testing is increasingly employed for clinical diagnosis, although variant interpretation presents a major challenge due to high background rates of rare coding-region variation, which may contribute to inaccurate estimates of variant pathogenicity and disease penetrance.Objective: To use the Exome Aggregation Consortium (ExAC) dataset to determine the background population frequencies of rare germline coding-region variants in genes associated with hereditary endocrine disease, and to evaluate the clinical utility of this data.Design, Setting, Participants: Cumulative frequencies of rare non-synonymous single nucleotide variants were established for 38 endocrine disease genes in 60,706 unrelated control individuals. The utility of gene-level and variant-level metrics of tolerability was assessed and the pathogenicity and penetrance of germline variants previously associated with endocrine disease evaluated.Results: The frequency of rare coding region variants differed markedly between genes and was correlated with the degree of evolutionary conservation. Genes associated with dominant monogenic endocrine disorders typically harbored fewer rare missense and/or loss-of-function variants than expected. In silico variant prediction tools demonstrated low clinical specificity. The frequency of several endocrine disease-associated variants in the ExAC cohort far exceeded estimates of disease prevalence, indicating either misclassification or overestimation of disease penetrance. Finally, we illustrate how rare variant frequencies may be used to anticipate expected rates of background rare variation when performing disease-targeted genetic testing.Conclusions: Quantifying the frequency and spectrum of rare variation using population-level sequence data facilitates improved estimates of variant pathogenicity and penetrance and should be incorporated into the clinical decision-making algorithm when undertaking genetic testing

A Hybrid Male in the Genus Ophiogomphus (Odonata: Gomphidae)

A gomphid male from west-central Wisconsin (Eau Claire County, North Fork Eau Claire River, 11 June 1994, K. J. Tennessen leg) with characters that are intermediate between Ophiogomphus carolus Needham, 1897 and Ophiogomphus rupinsulensis (Walsh), 1862 is described and illustrated. The specimen appears to be a hybrid based on intermediate character states of 1) color pattern (slightly closer to O. carolus), 2) hamule morphology (shaped slightly more like those of O. carolus), and 3) anal appendage morphology (slightly more like those of O. rupinsulensis)

A Hybrid Male in the Genus Ophiogomphus (Odonata: Gomphidae)

A gomphid male from west-central Wisconsin (Eau Claire County, North Fork Eau Claire River, 11 June 1994, K. J. Tennessen leg) with characters that are intermediate between Ophiogomphus carolus Needham, 1897 and Ophiogomphus rupinsulensis (Walsh), 1862 is described and illustrated. The specimen appears to be a hybrid based on intermediate character states of 1) color pattern (slightly closer to O. carolus), 2) hamule morphology (shaped slightly more like those of O. carolus), and 3) anal appendage morphology (slightly more like those of O. rupinsulensis)

Genome‐Wide Family‐Based Linkage Analysis of Exome Chip Variants and Cardiometabolic Risk

Linkage analysis of complex traits has had limited success in identifying trait‐influencing loci. Recently, coding variants have been implicated as the basis for some biomedical associations. We tested whether coding variants are the basis for linkage peaks of complex traits in 42 African‐American ( n = 596) and 90 Hispanic ( n = 1,414) families in the Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Family Study (IRASFS) using Illumina HumanExome Beadchips. A total of 92,157 variants in African Americans (34%) and 81,559 (31%) in Hispanics were polymorphic and tested using two‐point linkage and association analyses with 37 cardiometabolic phenotypes. In African Americans 77 LOD scores greater than 3 were observed. The highest LOD score was 4.91 with the APOE SNP rs7412 (MAF = 0.13) with plasma apolipoprotein B (ApoB). This SNP was associated with ApoB ( P ‐value = 4 × 10 −19 ) and accounted for 16.2% of the variance in African Americans. In Hispanic families, 104 LOD scores were greater than 3. The strongest evidence of linkage (LOD = 4.29) was with rs5882 (MAF = 0.46) in CETP with HDL. CETP variants were strongly associated with HDL (0.00049 < P ‐value <4.6 × 10 −12 ), accounting for up to 4.5% of the variance. These loci have previously been shown to have effects on the biomedical traits evaluated here. Thus, evidence of strong linkage in this genome wide survey of primarily coding variants was uncommon. Loci with strong evidence of linkage was characterized by large contributions to the variance, and, in these cases, are common variants. Less compelling evidence of linkage and association was observed with additional loci that may require larger family sets to confirm.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106817/1/gepi21801.pd