Phylogeography and postglacial colonization of Central Europe by Anguis fragilis and Anguis colchica

Five slow-worm species are distributed in the Palearctic region. Two species, Anguis fragilis and A. colchica, are native to Central Europe, where only limited information on the phylogeography of the genus exists. Here, we examined the situation in Poland and surrounding regions, where a mitochondrial contact zone between the species is expected. We used new mitochondrial DNA sequences and available published data from Central Europe and the northern Balkans. Haplotypes of both species were recorded in the study area. Anguis fragilis is represented by a single haplogroup, while A. colchica by three haplogroups. This suggests four independent sources/refugia for postglacial colonization of northern Central Europe. The mitochondrial contact zone seems to mirror the borders between lowlands of the North European Plain and East European Plain, and the south-eastern Poland uplands, while the Vistula River does not constitute a barrier. The presence of both species, A. fragilis and A. colchica, in Poland should also be considered for protection by the Polish conservation legislation.

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Two species of slow worm (Anguis fragilis, A. colchica) present in the Baltic region

Amphibia-Reptilia ◽

10.1163/15685381-bja10055 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-7

Author(s):

Václav Gvoždík ◽

Zdeněk Harca ◽

Alexandra Hánová ◽

Daniel Jablonski ◽

Mihails Pupins ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Contact Zone ◽

Nuclear Dna ◽

Baltic Region ◽

East European ◽

Postglacial Colonization ◽

The North ◽

Baltic Coast ◽

North Eastern ◽

Anguis Fragilis ◽

The Baltic

Abstract Five European slow worms (Anguis) have mostly parapatric distributions. Two species, A. fragilis and A. colchica, are widely distributed across the western and eastern parts of the genus range. Their contact zone runs from the north-eastern Balkans, through Pannonia to northern Central Europe. In northern Poland, the contact zone has been located approximately between the North and East European Plains. Here, we present the first mitochondrial and nuclear DNA data from Finland and the coastal Baltics. We demonstrate that A. fragilis enters the East European Plains, where it is presumably distributed along the Baltic coast. Our data indicate that A. colchica is present more inland and to the north of Riga. The genetic structure suggests three independent postglacial colonization events in the Baltics (two by A. colchica). The presence of the two species, A. fragilis and A. colchica, should be considered by the conservation legislations of Lithuania, Latvia and Russia.

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Modelling the Neolithic dispersal in northern Eurasia

Documenta Praehistorica ◽

10.4312/dp.31.3 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 31 ◽

pp. 35-47 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Pavel Dolukhanov ◽

Anvar Shrukov

Keyword(s):

Probability Distribution ◽

Central Europe ◽

East European Plain ◽

Northern Eurasia ◽

Radiocarbon Dates ◽

North West ◽

East European ◽

The North ◽

Rate Of Spread ◽

Spatio Temporal

Comprehensieve lists of radiocarbon dates from key Early Neolithic sites in Central Europe belonging to the Linear pottery Ceramic Culture (LBK) and early pottery-bearing cultures in the East European Plain were analysed with the use of the x2 test. The dates from the LBK sites form a statistically homogeneous set, with a probability distribution similar to a single-date Gaussian curve. This implies the rate of expansion of the LBK in Central Europe being in excess of 4 km/yr. Early potter-bearing sites on the East European Plain exhibit a much broader probability distribution of dates, with a spatio-temporal trend directed from the south-east to the north-west. The rate of spread of pottery-making is in the order of 1 km/yr, i.e., comparable to the average expansion rate of the Neolithic in Western and Central Europe.

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Phenotypic differentiation of the slow worm lizards (Squamata: Anguis) across their contact zone in Central Europe

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.12482 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

pp. e12482

Author(s):

Norbert Benkovský ◽

Jiří Moravec ◽

Veronika Gvoždíková Javůrková ◽

Helena Šifrová ◽

Václav Gvoždík ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Contact Zone ◽

Central Europe ◽

Nuclear Dna ◽

The Body ◽

Hybrid Origin ◽

Body Coloration ◽

Extant Species ◽

Molecular Phylogenetic ◽

Anguis Fragilis ◽

Intraspecific Taxonomy

Background The application of molecular-phylogenetic approaches to taxonomy has had a dramatic effect on our understanding of the diversity of reptiles. These approaches have allowed researchers to reveal previously hidden lineages as well as taxonomic overestimation in morphologically plastic taxa. Slow worms, legless lizards of the genus Anguis (Squamata: Anguidae), were previously considered to comprise either one or two species, and morphology-based intraspecific taxonomy of Anguis fragilis remained controversial throughout the 20th century. After the discovery of deep genetic divergences within the genus, its taxonomy was reconsidered, and as a result, five extant species have been recognized. In order to better understand the patterns of their interspecific differentiation, here we studied phenotypic differences between the two most widespread of them—A. fragilis and A. colchica, and their putative hybrids across the contact zone of both species in Central Europe. Methods We used multivariate and univariate statistics and analyzed ten metric, eleven meristic, and six categorical phenotypic variables in material comprising a total of 326 individuals. We also genotyped individuals from the contact zone for one mitochondrial and two nuclear DNA fragments in order to delineate the distribution of individuals of hybrid and non-hybrid origin. The clines in morphological traits were studied using HZAR. Results We show that the two species are morphologically differentiated. Anguis fragilis has a less robust head, fewer scales covering the body, lower frequency of the external ear opening presence, lower frequency of separated prefrontal scales, higher frequency of prefrontal scales in contact with each other, and body coloration more similar to the juvenile coloration than A. colchica. Slow worms from the contact/hybrid zone are characterized by an intermediate morphology, with more similarities to A. fragilis than to A. colchica. Discussion None of the analyzed characters alone proved to be fully diagnostic, although more than 90% of all individuals could be successfully assigned to one or another species based on numbers of scales around the body. Our results indicate concordant, coincident, and steep clines in character states change. We present several hypotheses on the origin and evolutionary maintenance of the morphological divergence between both species and suggest that different evolutionary histories of the taxa rather than recently acting selection explain the observed morphological variation.

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SEM and TEM observations of sperm development in the testis of the freshwater fish Oreochromis mossambicus

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100157838 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 48 (3) ◽

pp. 58-59

Author(s):

Daryl A. Cornish ◽

George L. Smit

Keyword(s):

Morphological Characteristics ◽

Oreochromis Mossambicus ◽

Breeding Cycle ◽

Limited Information ◽

North West ◽

The North ◽

Sem And Tem ◽

Sperm Development ◽

Ultrastructural Characteristics ◽

The University

Oreochromis mossambicus is currently receiving much attention as a candidater species for aquaculture programs within Southern Africa. This has stimulated interest in its breeding cycle as well as the morphological characteristics of the gonads. Limited information is available on SEM and TEM observations of the male gonads. It is known that the testis of O. mossambicus is a paired, intra-abdominal structure of the lobular type, although further details of its characteristics are not known. Current investigations have shown that spermatids reach full maturity some two months after the female becomes gravid. Throughout the year, the testes contain spermatids at various stages of development although spermiogenesis appears to be maximal during November when spawning occurs. This paper describes the morphological and ultrastructural characteristics of the testes and spermatids.Specimens of this fish were collected at Syferkuil Dam, 8 km north- west of the University of the North over a twelve month period, sacrificed and the testes excised.

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Obsidian in the Early Neolithic of the Upper Vistula basin: origin, processing, distribution and use – a case study from Tominy (southern Poland)

Praehistorische Zeitschrift ◽

10.1515/pz-2021-0014 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 0 (0) ◽

Author(s):

Marcin Szeliga ◽

Zsolt Kasztovszky ◽

Grzegorz Osipowicz ◽

Veronika Szilágyi

Keyword(s):

River Basin ◽

Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis ◽

Raw Material ◽

Published Data ◽

Prompt Gamma ◽

Early Neolithic ◽

Musical Note ◽

Southern Poland ◽

The Carpathians ◽

Vistula River

Abstract The inflow of the Carpathian obsidian into the areas on the northern side of the Carpathians and the Sudetes is confirmed as early as in the Palaeolithic. However, its greatest intensity occurred in the Early Neolithic, i. e. in the late 6th and in the first half of 5th millennia BC. During that period, the phenomenon was closely related with the development of the Danubian cultural groups in the upper Vistula river basin, including especially Linear Pottery culture (LBK) and Malice Culture. The constant presence of this raw material products in mentioned areas is documented from the classical (musical-note) phase of LBK, constituting one of the most expressive pieces of evidence of permanent and intense intercultural contacts with communities of the northern Carpathian Basin. This phenomenon has been repeatedly emphasized in the literature. One of the most numerous LBK obsidian inventories in the upper Vistula river basin was obtained at site 6 in Tominy, located in southern Poland, in the non-loess zone of the Sandomierz Upland northern foreground. The above-mentioned collection, its non-destructive elemental analysis, using Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis (PGAA) and also traceological analysis, is the subject of this article. The results supplement the published data to a significant extent, simultaneously providing partial verification and updating of the current state of knowledge on the basic issues related to the Early Neolithic obsidian inflow into areas located North of the Carpathians, including primarily the origin of the raw material, the scale of its processing and distribution ways, as well as the range of its use by the LBK communities.

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Relationships of North American members of Rhodiola (Crassulaceae)

Botany ◽

10.1139/cjb-2014-0009 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 92 (12) ◽

pp. 901-910 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Joel P. Olfelt ◽

William A. Freyman

Keyword(s):

Dna Sequences ◽

North American ◽

Phylogenetic Analyses ◽

Black Hills ◽

Trnl Intron ◽

The North ◽

Alpine Habitats ◽

Rare And Endangered ◽

Chloroplast Dna Sequences ◽

Rhodiola Integrifolia

Taxa of Rhodiola L. (Crassulaceae) generally grow in arctic or alpine habitats. Some Rhodiola species are used medicinally, one taxon, Rhodiola integrifolia Raf. subsp. leedyi (Rosend. & J.W.Moore) Moran, (Leedy’s roseroot), is rare and endangered, and the group’s biogeography in North America is intriguing because of distributional disjunctions and the possibility that Rhodiola rhodantha (A.Gray) H.Jacobsen (2n = 7II) and Rhodiola rosea L. (2n = 11II) hybridized to form Rhodiola integrifolia Raf. (2n = 18II). Recent studies of the North American Rhodiola suggest that the group’s current taxonomy is misleading. We analyzed nuclear and chloroplast DNA sequences (internal transcribed spacer (ITS), trnL intron, trnL–trnF spacer, trnS–trnG spacer) from the North American Rhodiola taxa. We combined our data with GenBank sequences from Asian Rhodiola species, performed parsimony, maximum likelihood (ML), and Bayesian phylogenetic analyses, and applied a Bayesian clock model to the ITS data. Our analyses reveal two major Rhodiola clades, suggest that hybridization between R. rhodantha and R. rosea lineages was possible, show two distinct clades within R. integrifolia, and demonstrate that a Black Hills, South Dakota, Rhodiola population should be reclassified as Leedy’s roseroot. We recommend that R. integrifolia be revised, and that the Black Hills Leedy’s roseroot population be managed as part of that rare and endangered taxon.

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Toward a global reference database of COI barcodes for marine zooplankton

Marine Biology ◽

10.1007/s00227-021-03887-y ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 168 (6) ◽

Author(s):

Ann Bucklin ◽

Katja T. C. A. Peijnenburg ◽

Ksenia N. Kosobokova ◽

Todd D. O’Brien ◽

Leocadio Blanco-Bercial ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Species Diversity ◽

Dna Sequences ◽

Reference Sequence ◽

Global Ocean ◽

Reference Database ◽

Data Repositories ◽

Marine Zooplankton ◽

The North ◽

Coi Sequences ◽

Taxonomic Groups

AbstractCharacterization of species diversity of zooplankton is key to understanding, assessing, and predicting the function and future of pelagic ecosystems throughout the global ocean. The marine zooplankton assemblage, including only metazoans, is highly diverse and taxonomically complex, with an estimated ~28,000 species of 41 major taxonomic groups. This review provides a comprehensive summary of DNA sequences for the barcode region of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) for identified specimens. The foundation of this summary is the MetaZooGene Barcode Atlas and Database (MZGdb), a new open-access data and metadata portal that is linked to NCBI GenBank and BOLD data repositories. The MZGdb provides enhanced quality control and tools for assembling COI reference sequence databases that are specific to selected taxonomic groups and/or ocean regions, with associated metadata (e.g., collection georeferencing, verification of species identification, molecular protocols), and tools for statistical analysis, mapping, and visualization. To date, over 150,000 COI sequences for ~ 5600 described species of marine metazoan plankton (including holo- and meroplankton) are available via the MZGdb portal. This review uses the MZGdb as a resource for summaries of COI barcode data and metadata for important taxonomic groups of marine zooplankton and selected regions, including the North Atlantic, Arctic, North Pacific, and Southern Oceans. The MZGdb is designed to provide a foundation for analysis of species diversity of marine zooplankton based on DNA barcoding and metabarcoding for assessment of marine ecosystems and rapid detection of the impacts of climate change.

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Past megadroughts in central Europe were longer, more severe and less warm than modern droughts

Communications Earth & Environment ◽

10.1038/s43247-021-00130-w ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

Author(s):

M. Ionita ◽

M. Dima ◽

V. Nagavciuc ◽

P. Scholz ◽

G. Lohmann

Keyword(s):

Central Europe ◽

North Atlantic Ocean ◽

Explosive Volcanism ◽

American Southwest ◽

The North ◽

European Climate ◽

Blocking Activity ◽

Meteorological Observations ◽

Dalton Minimum

AbstractMegadroughts are notable manifestations of the American Southwest, but not so much of the European climate. By using long-term hydrological and meteorological observations, as well as paleoclimate reconstructions, here we show that central Europe has experienced much longer and severe droughts during the Spörer Minimum (~AD 1400–1480) and Dalton Minimum (~AD 1770–1840), than the ones observed during the 21st century. These two megadroughts appear to be linked with a cold state of the North Atlantic Ocean and enhanced winter atmospheric blocking activity over the British Isles and western part of Europe, concurrent with reduced solar forcing and explosive volcanism. Moreover, we show that the recent drought events (e.g., 2003, 2015, and 2018), are within the range of natural variability and they are not unprecedented over the last millennium.

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Biological Impact of a Large-Scale Genomic Inversion That Grossly Disrupts the Relative Positions of the Origin and Terminus Loci of theStreptococcus pyogenesChromosome

Journal of Bacteriology ◽

10.1128/jb.00090-19 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 201 (17) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dragutin J. Savic ◽

Scott V. Nguyen ◽

Kimberly McCullor ◽

W. Michael McShan

Keyword(s):

Dna Sequences ◽

Parental Strain ◽

Large Scale ◽

Galleria Mellonella ◽

Acute Infection ◽

Relative Length ◽

Published Data ◽

Rich Medium ◽

Content Type

ABSTRACTA large-scale genomic inversion encompassing 0.79 Mb of the 1.816-Mb-longStreptococcus pyogenesserotype M49 strain NZ131 chromosome spontaneously occurs in a minor subpopulation of cells, and in this report genetic selection was used to obtain a stable lineage with this chromosomal rearrangement. This inversion, which drastically displaces theorisite relative to the terminus, changes the relative length of the replication arms so that one replichore is approximately 0.41 Mb while the other is about 1.40 Mb in length. Genomic reversion to the original chromosome constellation is not observed in PCR-monitored analyses after 180 generations of growth in rich medium. Compared to the parental strain, the inversion surprisingly demonstrates a nearly identical growth pattern in the first phase of the exponential phase, but differences do occur when resources in the medium become limited. When cultured separately in rich medium during prolonged stationary phase or in an experimental acute infection animal model (Galleria mellonella), the parental strain and the invertant have equivalent survival rates. However, when they are coincubated together, bothin vitroandin vivo, the survival of the invertant declines relative to the level for the parental strain. The accompanying aspect of the study suggests that inversions taking place nearoriCalways happen to secure the linkage oforiCto DNA sequences responsible for chromosome partition. The biological relevance of large-scale inversions is also discussed.IMPORTANCEBased on our previous work, we created to our knowledge the largest asymmetric inversion, covering 43.5% of theS. pyogenesgenome. In spite of a drastic replacement of origin of replication and the unbalanced size of replichores (1.4 Mb versus 0.41 Mb), the invertant, when not challenged with its progenitor, showed impressive vitality for growthin vitroand in pathogenesis assays. The mutant supports the existing idea that slightly deleterious mutations can provide the setting for secondary adaptive changes. Furthermore, comparative analysis of the mutant with previously published data strongly indicates that even large genomic rearrangements survive provided that the integrity of theoriCand the chromosome partition cluster is preserved.

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Confirmation of the first Neolithic rondel-type enclosure in Poland

Antiquity ◽

10.1017/s0003598x00048262 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 86 (334) ◽

pp. 1084-1096 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Zbigniew Kobyliński ◽

Otto Braasch ◽

Tomasz Herbich ◽

Krzysztof Misiewicz ◽

Louis Daniel Nebelsick ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Central Europe ◽

Aerial Photography ◽

Early Neolithic ◽

North East ◽

The North ◽

Danube Region

The early Neolithic rondel is a large curvilinear ditched and palisaded enclosure found in increasing numbers in Central Europe. It has close links with the tells of the Danube region, themselves highly suggestive instruments of the earliest Neolithic. Here the authors extend the distribution of rondels further to the north-east, with the discovery and verification of the first example in Poland. As they point out, it is aerial photography that made this advance possible and we can expect many more discoveries, given appropriate investment in the art.

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