Search results for "phylogeny"

The widespread presence of a family of fish virulence plasmids in Vibrio vulnificus stresses its relevance as a zoonotic pathogen linked to fish farms

2021

Vibrio vulnificus is a pathogen of public health concern that causes either primary septicemia after ingestion of raw shellfish or secondary septicemia after wound exposure to seawater. In consequence, shellfish and seawater are considered its main reservoirs. However, there is one aspect of its biology that is systematically overlooked: its association with fish in its natural environment. This association led in 1975 to the emergence of a zoonotic clade within phylogenetic lineage 2 following successive outbreaks of vibriosis in farmed eels. Although this clade is now worldwide distributed, no new zoonotic clades were subsequently reported. In this work, we have performed phylogenetic, ge…

Microbial Diversity in the Midguts of Field and Lab-Reared Populations of the European Corn Borer Ostrinia nubilalis

2011

Background: Insects are associated with microorganisms that contribute to the digestion and processing of nutrients. The European Corn Borer (ECB) is a moth present world-wide, causing severe economical damage as a pest on corn and other crops. In the present work, we give a detailed view of the complexity of the microorganisms forming the ECB midgut microbiota with the objective of comparing the biodiversity of the midgut-associated microbiota and explore their potential as a source of genes and enzymes with biotechnological applications. Methodological/Principal Findings: A high-throughput sequencing approach has been used to identify bacterial species, genes and metabolic pathways, parti…

Downregulation of a Chitin Deacetylase-Like Protein in Response to Baculovirus Infection and Its Application for Improving Baculovirus Infectivity

2009

ABSTRACT Several expressed sequence tags (ESTs) with homology to chitin deacetylase-like protein (CDA) were selected from a group of Helicoverpa armigera genes whose expression changed after infection with H. armigera single nucleopolyhedrovirus (HearNPV). Some of these ESTs coded for a midgut protein containing a chitin deacetylase domain (CDAD). The expressed protein, HaCDA5a, did not show chitin deacetylase activity, but it showed a strong affinity for binding to chitin. Sequence analysis showed the lack of any chitin binding domain, described for all currently known peritrophic membrane (PM) proteins. HaCDA5a has previously been detected in the H. armigera PM. Such localization, togethe…

Mitochondrial DNA Portrait of Latvians: Towards the Understanding of the Genetic Structure of Baltic-Speaking Populations

2005

Summary Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation was investigated in a sample of 299 Latvians, a Baltic-speaking population from Eastern Europe. Sequencing of the first hypervariable segment (HVS-I) in combination with analysis of informative coding region markers revealed that the vast majority of observed mtDNAs belong to haplogroups (hgs) common to most European populations. Analysis of the spatial distribution of mtDNA haplotypes found in Latvians, as well as in Baltic-speaking populations in general, revealed that they share haplotypes with all neighbouring populations irrespective of their linguistic affiliation. Hence, the results of our mtDNA analysis show that the previously described s…

A gene transfer agent and a dynamic repertoire of secretion systems hold the keys to the explosive radiation of the emerging pathogen Bartonella

2013

Gene transfer agents (GTAs) randomly transfer short fragments of a bacterial genome. A novel putative GTA was recently discovered in the mouse-infecting bacterium Bartonella grahamii. Although GTAs are widespread in phylogenetically diverse bacteria, their role in evolution is largely unknown. Here, we present a comparative analysis of 16 Bartonella genomes ranging from 1.4 to 2.6 Mb in size, including six novel genomes from Bartonella isolated from a cow, two moose, two dogs, and a kangaroo. A phylogenetic tree inferred from 428 orthologous core genes indicates that the deadly human pathogen B. bacilliformis is related to the ruminant-adapted clade, rather than being the earliest diverging…

Mitochondrial DNA Regionalism and Historical Demography in the Extant Populations of Chirocephalus kerkyrensis (Branchiopoda: Anostraca)

2012

BackgroundMediterranean temporary water bodies are important reservoirs of biodiversity and host a unique assemblage of diapausing aquatic invertebrates. These environments are currently vanishing because of increasing human pressure. Chirocephalus kerkyrensis is a fairy shrimp typical of temporary water bodies in Mediterranean plain forests and has undergone a substantial decline in number of populations in recent years due to habitat loss. We assessed patterns of genetic connectivity and phylogeographic history in the seven extant populations of the species from Albania, Corfu Is. (Greece), Southern and Central Italy.Methodology/principal findingsWe analyzed sequence variation at two mito…

Evolution of molluscan hemocyanins as deduced from DNA sequencing

2004

When do different C4 leaf anatomies indicate independent C4 origins? Parallel evolution of C4 leaf types in Camphorosmeae (Chenopodiaceae).

2014

Broad-scale phylogenetic studies give first insights in numbers, relationships, and ages of C 4 lineages. They are, however, generally limited to a model that treats the evolution of the complex C4 syndrome in different lineages as a directly comparable process. Here, we use a resolved and well-sampled phylogenetic tree of Camphorosmeae, based on three chloroplast and one nuclear marker and on leaf anatomical traits to infer a more detailed picture of C4 leaftype evolution in this lineage. Our ancestral character state reconstructions allowed two scenarios: (i) Sedobassia is a derived C3/C4 intermediate, implying two independent gains of C4 in Bassia and Camphorosma; or (ii) Sedobassia is a…

What can chromosomes tell us about the origins of primates?

2010

What can chromosomes tell us about the origins of primates? Barbara Picone1, Luca Sineo1, Daniele Silvestro2,3, Massimiliano DelPero4 and Judith Masters5 1 Dipartimento di Biologia Animale “G. Reverberi”, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Via Archirafi 18, 90123 Palermo, Italy; 2 Senckenberg Research Institute, Frankfurt am Main, Germany ; 3 Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Frankfurt am Main, Germany;4 Dipartimento di Biologia Animale e dell’Uomo, Università degli Studi di Torino, Via Accademia Albertina 13, 10124 Torino, Italy; 5Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Fort Hare, Private Bag X1314, Alice 5700, South Africa; Our study investigated the usefulness…

The status of the species Beijerinckia fluminensis Dobereiner and Ruschel 1958. Request for an Opinion.

2011

In a previous article [Oggerin M., Arahal, D. R., Rubio, V. & Marin, I. (2009). Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 59, 2323–2328], it has been shown that strain Beijerinckia fluminensis UQM 1685T and its derived equivalent B. fluminensis CIP 106281T do not conform to the description of the type strain of Beijerinckia fluminensis Döbereiner and Ruschel 1958. Indeed, both strains were identified as members of the species Rhizobium radiobacter and exhibited marked phenotypic and genotypic differences with members of the genus Beijerinckia. It was concluded that both strains, and any other equivalents derived from them, do not descend from the nomenclatural type. Since then, our attempts to find old…