Two species of brush-tailed mice, genus Calomyscus, are known from eastern Iran: Calomyscus hotsoni has been reported from southwestern Pakistan and southeastern Iran, and C. elburzensis ranges through northeastern and central Iran. Based on molecular studies of two mitochondrial genes, all the specimens from eastern Iran examined herein belong to either of these two species. Furthermore, our data expand the northern distribution limits of C. hotsoni to just south of Birjand and the southern limits of C. elburzensis to east of Birjand. Morphometric analyses conducted on three geographic groups of C. hotsoni within Iran, contained specimens from Birjand (group 1), Zahedan and Khash (group 2) and Saravan (as group 3) revealed a north-to-south cline of decreasing body and cranial size, such that the most significant differences were between the northern and southern most groups. Karyological studies also showed differences in autosomal arms between the two geographical groups in Iran. Although the phylogenetic analyses separated these two groups into distinct clades, along with a third clade containing most of the C. hotsoni from Pakistan. The morphometric and molecular partitioning of geographic populations of C. hotsoni were not concordant. We consider the north and south groups of C. hotsoni as distinct Evolutionary Significant Units. There is evidence of introgression between the two forms across a broad geographic area presented by individuals of group 2 resulting in a clinal pattern of variation.
It is commonly held that Central Europe harbours but a single harvester ant species, namely Messor structor. Recently discovered bionomic differences between two Central European populations, which may reflect interspecific variation, cast doubt on this assumption. In the present study we test alternative hypotheses - one versus two harvester ant species in Central Europe and adjacent regions - by investigating the genetic diversity of ants determined as M. structor or close to it ("M. cf. structor"). Sequences of the mitochondrial COI gene revealed two major lineages of different but partially overlapping geographic distributions, both occurring in Central Europe. The existence of a cryptic species within M. cf. structor is the most plausible interpretation, since the sequence divergence between the two major lineages equals those between M. capitatus, M. concolor and M. bouvieri. The phylogenetic analyses revealed a distinct substructuring for both of the detected major lineages and the possible existence of additional cryptic species.
After the last glacial retreat in Europe, multiple recolonizations led to intraspecific differentiation in many of the recolonizing taxa. Here we investigate the genetic diversification across central Europe in two recolonizing taxa, the tephritid fruit flies Rhagoletis alternata (Fallén, 1814) and Carpomya schineri (Loew, 1856), which attack rose hips. Analysis of amplified and sequenced fragments of the mitochondrial genes encoding cytochrome oxidase I (800 bp), cytochrome oxidase II (470 bp) and cytochrome b (450 bp), indicate that all the individuals of R. alternata (n = 21) collected from across Europe share the same haplotype. Two individuals of C. schineri form Berlin, which is further north of the range than previously reported in the literature, differ from the other individuals (n = 13) in one nucleotide position on the cytochrome oxidase II gene fragment. This level of genetic variation in sequences with a summed length of 1720 bp is unexpectedly lower than in other insect taxa (n = 63). This might have been caused by a selective sweep by a cytoplasmic symbiont such as Wolbachia, or a recent range expansion associated with a host shift or a single recolonization event.
The phylogenetic relationships in the myrmicine ant genus Myrmecina were analyzed using 1,281 bp of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I gene. Intermorphic queens observed in M. graminicola (Europe), M. nipponica (Japan), M. americana (North America; reported for the first time) and M. sp. A (Java) were reconstructed as an ancestral trait in this genus. Molecular-clock-based age estimates suggest that queen polymorphism evolved in Myrmecina at the latest during the Miocene. In terms of biogeographical regions, the inferred chronological order of divergence is: (oriental, (nearctic, (western palearctic, eastern palearctic))).
Dolichopodidae (over 6000 described species in more than 200 genera) is one of the most speciose families of Diptera. Males of many dolichopodid species, including Dolichopus, feature conspicuous ornaments (Male Secondary Sexual Characters) that are used during courtship. Next to these MSSCs, every identification key to Dolichopus primarily uses colour characters (postocular bristles; femora) of unknown phylogenetic relevance. The phylogeny of Dolichopodidae has rarely been investigated, especially at the species level, and molecular data were hardly ever involved. We inferred phylogenetic relationships among 45 species (57 samples) of the subfamily Dolichopodinae on the basis of 32 morphological and 1415 nucleotide characters (810 for COI, 605 for Cyt-b). The monophyly of Dolichopus and Gymnopternus as well as the separate systematic position of Ethiromyia chalybea were supported in all analyses, confirming recent findings by other authors based purely on morphology. Within Dolichopus, stable species groups could be assigned to four distinct categories on the basis of their statistical support in 7 phylogenetic analyses: (i) clades significantly supported in all analyses, (ii) clades supported in trees based on DNA and combined data, but only partly in morphological trees, (iii) clades significantly supported in trees based on DNA and combined data, but not in morphological trees, and (iv) clades consistently supported only in morphological trees. The phylogeny generated here provides a better understanding of the phylogenetic relevance of some debated morphological characters used for species and species-group characterizations in the most commonly used identification keys. In this respect, postocular bristle colour proved of little phylogenetic relevance since every group with species featuring black bristles also included species with partly yellow bristles. Entirely or partly infuscated femora explained the nodes of three stable species groups and even revealed an incorrect polarity of this morphological character in three species. Four of 6 complex MSSCs and 5 of 8 more common MSSCs were found consistently in further species groups.
Phylogenetic relationships of 27 species within the genus Ochotona were reconstructed through mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. Maximum parsimony, neighbor-joining and maximum likelihood analysis strongly indicated five major species groups: the northern group, the surrounding Qinghai-Tibet Plateau group, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau group, the Huanghe group, and the Central Asia group. The northern group is composed of O. alpina, O. hyperborea, O. pallasi, O. princeps, and . The surrounding Qinghai-Tibet Plateau group includes O. macrotis, O. roylei, O. ladacensis, O. rutila, O. erythrotis, O. gloveri, O. brookei, O. muliensis, O. iliensis, O. himalayana, O. koslowi, O. forresti, and O. rufescens. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau group contains O. curzoniae, O. thibetana, O. cansus, O. annectens, O. nubrica, O. daurica, and O. thomasi. The Huanghe group and the Central Asia group comprise only one species, O. huangensis and O. pusilla, respectively. Our data did not support the previous subgeneric classification. The phylogenetic trees suggested that divergences of the five groups occurred in the Early Pleistocene (about 2.8 Myr ago), and that the differentiation of the surrounding Qinghai-Tibet Plateau group, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau group, and the Huanghe group was closely related to the uplifting of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the radiation prompted by environmental changes could play a major role in these groups. Due to the relatively stable environments, however, differentiations were not so strong within the northern group and the Central Asia group, which had never invaded the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
The genetic variation of the forest dormouse Dryomys nitedula (Pallas, 1779) from isolated populations of Russian Plain and the Caucasus was investigated using cytochrome b gene (cytb). The genetic distance calculated between these populations of forest dormouse was 9.94 %, which corresponds to the typical distance between biological species of mammals. The genetic distance of cytb between Western and Central Caucasus forest dormouse populations is also significant, 6.0 %. Probably, there was a long-term isolation of European and Caucasian areas of D. nitedula during the whole Pleistocene.
The phylogenetic relationships of the three major species groups of Tribolium (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) were inferred using the simultaneous analysis of 642 bp of the most conserved part of mitochondrial DNA (mt DNA) cytochrome oxidase I (COI) and 448-452 bp of mt 16S rDNA. High sequence divergence was observed for both genes even among sibling species. The analysis of the combined segments of COI and 16S rDNA sequences produced a phylogenetic tree with moderate level of confidence. The tree topology showed monophyly of the genus Tribolium whose species were separated into three groups: "brevicornis" group (with T. brevicornis as the only representative), "castaneum" group (with T. castaneum, T. freemani, T. madens and T. audax) and "confusum" group (with T. confusum, T. anaphe and T. destructor). Sibling species pairs T. castaneum - T. freemani and T. madens - T. audax are clearly resolved. The preliminary results presented here give moderate support to the previously proposed phylogeny based on morphological data.
The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) amount in cells as the basis for mitochondrial energy generating system, which produces ATP, plays an important role in the fetal development and postnatal morbidity. Isolated human cord blood leukocytes (HCBL) contribute very little to the overall metabolic turnover, but they may serve as easily available marker cells for the study of the mtDNA amount changes in cord blood during fetal development. The aim of our study was to analyze the mtDNA amount in HCBL. HCBL were isolated from cord blood samples of 107 neonates born between the 25th and 41st week of gestation. The mtDNA amount was analyzed by the real-time PCR method. The significant negative correlations were found between the relative mtDNA amount in HCBL and gestational age (r = -0.54, p<0.01) and birth weight (r = -0.43, p<0.01), respectively. The results revealed that the mtDNA content per cell decreases in HCBL with progressing fetal development. This may be explained by gradual shift of the hematopoiesis from fetal liver to bone marrow during the second half of pregnancy presumably accompanied by decreasing cell volume of HCBL as it was shown similarly in red blood cells., M. Pejznochová, M. Tesařová, T. Honzík, H. Hansíková, M. Magner, J. Zeman., and Obsahuje bibliografii a bibliografické odkazy
The Stegana undulata species group is revised and eight new species described: S. (Steganina) flaviclypeata Chen & Chen, sp. n., S. (S.) flavipalpata Chen & Chen, sp. n., S. (S.) leucothorax Chen & Chen, sp. n., S. (S.) melanocheilota Chen & Chen, sp. n. and S. (S.) melanothorax Chen & Chen, sp. n. from southern China, and S. (S.) flaviscutellata Chen & Chen, sp. n., S. (S.) nigriclypeata Chen & Chen, sp. n. and S. (S.) nigripalpata Chen & Chen, sp. n. from eastern Malaysia. A key to all the species examined based on morphological data is provided. Based on DNA sequence data of the mitochondrial ND2 and COI genes, the relationship among six Chinese species of the undulata group and that of the S. coleoptrata and S. nigrolimbata species groups of the same subgenus is investigated, using S. emeiensis of the subgenus Stegana s. str. as an out-group. and Jin-Ming LU, Jian-Jun GAO, Xi-Peng CHEN, Hong-Wei CHEN.