Studies on populations of potorous Desmarest (Marsupialia) II. Electrophoretic, chromosomal and breeding studies

1977 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 733 ◽  
Author(s):  
PG Johnston ◽  
GB Sharman

Geographic variation in potoroos (genus Potorous) from south-eastern Australia and Tasmania was investigated by electrophoretic and chromosomal techniques. Six of the 10 potoroo blood proteins examined showed electrophoretic variation and the genetic basis of three of these was established by breeding studies. Levels of genic heterozygosity were similar in Tasmanian and mainland populations. Coefficients of genetic similarity based on 10 loci indicated that potoroos from Tasmania and the Bass Strait islands are similar to each other but different from those of mainland Australia. No chromosomal variation was observed in potoroos examined from south-eastern Australia and Tasmania. Crosses between animals from these regions produced fertile offspring. It is concluded from this study and a related investigation on morphological variation that the genus Potorous should be separated into two species, P. platyops and P. tridactylus, with the further subdivision of the latter species into P.t. tridactylus from mainland Australia (including P. gilberti) and P.t. apicalis from Tasmania and the Bass Strait islands.


2008 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murray J. Littlejohn

The male advertisement call of anuran amphibians has a major role in mate choice, and regional variation in this attribute can act as an indicator of speciation and a marker for genetic differentiation. As part of a regional study of geographic variation in the male advertisement call of Crinia signifera across south-eastern Australia and adjacent larger continental islands, samples of advertisement calls from two populations on Kangaroo Island and two populations on the adjacent Fleurieu Peninsula were compared. Four call attributes were considered: pulse number, call duration, pulse rate and dominant frequency. Pulse number is considered the most reliable for comparative purposes because it is not influenced by effective temperature or audio recording and analysis. The two island populations (central and eastern, ~24 km apart) differ significantly in pulse number, with contact but no overlap of interquartile ranges. The eastern sample differs markedly from those on the nearby Fleurieu Peninsula – which are both similar to the more distant central island sample. Geographic variation in pulse number in these four samples and 11 others from two recent publications is then interpreted in the light of land bridges and lower temperatures of the late Pleistocene and early Holocene.



PLoS ONE ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. e0120975 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi E. Davis ◽  
David M. Forsyth ◽  
Barbara Triggs ◽  
Charlie Pascoe ◽  
Joe Benshemesh ◽  
...  


Weed Research ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
pp. 344-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
X C Zhu ◽  
H W Wu ◽  
R Stanton ◽  
G E Burrows ◽  
D Lemerle ◽  
...  


Author(s):  
A.S. Urquhart ◽  
J.K. Douch ◽  
T.A. Heafield ◽  
A.G. Buddie ◽  
A. Idnurm

Here we explore the diversity of one morphologically distinguishable genus in the Mucoromycotina, Backusella, in south-eastern Australia. We isolated more than 200 strains from locations across the states of Victoria and Tasmania. Characterization of these strains using a combination of approaches including morphology, sucrose utilization and whole genome sequencing for 13 strains, revealed 10 new species. The genetic basis for interspecies variation in sucrose utilization was found to be the presence of a gene encoding an invertase enzyme. The genus Backusella is revised and a new key for species identification produced. Given that we have more than doubled the number of species in this genus, this work demonstrates that there may be considerable undiscovered species diversity in the early diverging fungal lineages.



1979 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 433 ◽  
Author(s):  
PG Johnston ◽  
GB Sharman

Geographic variation in island and mainland Australian populations of M. rufogriseus was investigated by electrophoretic, chromosomal and skull morphometric studies. Electrophoretic variation was observed at 9 of the 21 genetic loci examined. The mean proportion of polymorphic loci per population was 0.230 and individuals were on the average heterozygous at 6.5% of their loci. Coefficients of genetic similarity between populations ranged from 0.925 to 0.986, which is indicative of little genetic differentiation between populations. No chromosomal variation was observed in animals from the mainland, Tasmania and the Bass Strait islands. Preliminary data on breeding patterns suggest that females from King I. and Flinders I. are seasonal breeders, as has been reported for M. rufogriseus from Tasmania. It is concluded that M. rufogriseus should be divided into two subspecies: M. r. rufogriseus from Tasmania and the Bass Strait islands; M. r. banksianus from mainland Australia.



PLoS ONE ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. e0130241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi E. Davis ◽  
David M. Forsyth ◽  
Barbara Triggs ◽  
Charlie Pascoe ◽  
Joe Benshemesh ◽  
...  




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