Phylogenetic relationship of coffee leaf rust in the central jungle of Peru

Coffee leaf rust is the main disease that causes significant losses in Coffea arabica. In Peru, this disease caused epidemics between 2008 and 2013 with production losses of 35 %. The objective was to identify H. vastatrix using a morphological and molecular approach based on a phylogenetic species concept. Coffee leaf samples with symptoms of chlorotic lesions with the presence of yellow uredospores at different severity stages of different cultivars were collected from 11 locations in the departments of Pasco and Junin during 2017-2018. DNA was purified as proposed by Cristancho and coworkers. The major subunit of ribosomal DNA was amplified with universal primers LR0R and LR5, and sequenced by Macrogen and deposited in GenBank. Sequences from the genera Achrotelium, Blastospora, Cystopsora, Hemileia, and Mikronegeria were included for phylogenetic analysis. The results showed that the rust was distributed in coffee growing regions of Pasco: Villa Rica (Catimor, Caturra, and Gran Colombia); Oxapampa (Yellow Caturra), and Junín: San Luis de Shuaro (Catimor), Chanchamayo (Catimor), San Ramón (Catimor), Vitoc (Caturra), Pichanaki (Caturra), Río Negro (Caturra), Pangoa (Yellow Caturra, Gran Colombia, Limani). It was also grouped into a single clade with isolated H. vastatrix from Mexico and Australia, suggesting that they come from a common ancestor. This is the first confirmed report using molecular barcoding of H. vastatrix in the central jungle of Peru.

Molecular species delimitation of shrub frogs of the genus Pseudophilautus (Anura, Rhacophoridae)

Sri Lanka is an amphibian hotspot of global significance. Its anuran fauna is dominated by the shrub frogs of the genus Pseudophilautus. Except for one small clade of four species in Peninsular India, these cool-wet adapted frogs, numbering some 59 extant species, are distributed mainly across the montane and lowland rain forests of the island. With species described primarily by morphological means, the diversification has never yet been subjected to a molecular species delimitation analysis, a procedure now routinely applied in taxonomy. Here we test the species boundaries of Pseudophilautus in the context of the phylogenetic species concept (PSC). We use all the putative species for which credible molecular data are available (nDNA–Rag-1; mt-DNA– 12S rRNA, 16S rRNA) to build a well resolved phylogeny, which is subjected to species delimitation analyses. The ABGD, bPTP, mPTP and bGMYC species delimitation methods applied to the 16S rRNA frog barcoding gene (for all species), 12S rRNA and Rag-1 nDNA grouped P. procax and P. abundus; P. hallidayi and P. fergusonianus; P. reticulatus and P. pappilosus; P. pleurotaenia and P. hoipolloi; P. hoffmani and P. asankai; P. silvaticus and P. limbus; P. dilmah and P. hankeni; P. fulvus and P. silus.. Surprisingly, all analyses recovered 14 unidentified potential new species as well. The geophylogeny affirms a distribution across the island’s aseasonal ‘wet zone’ and its three principal hill ranges, suggestive of allopatric speciation playing a dominant role, especially between mountain masses. Among the species that are merged by the delimitation analyses, a pattern leading towards a model of parapatric speciation emerges–ongoing speciation in the presence of gene flow. This delimitation analysis reinforces the species hypotheses, paving the way to a reasonable understanding of Sri Lankan Pseudophilautus, enabling both deeper analyses and conservation efforts of this remarkable diversification. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:DA869B6B-870A-4ED3-BF5D-5AA3F69DDD27.

Predictors of Taxonomic Inflation and its Role in Primate Conservation

ABSTRACTSpecies are the main unit used to measure biodiversity, but different preferred diagnostic criteria can lead to very different delineations. For instance, named primate species have more than doubled since 1982. Such increases have been termed “taxonomic inflation” and have been attributed to the widespread adoption of the ‘phylogenetic species concept’ (PSC) in preference to the previously popular ‘biological species concept’ (BSC). Criticisms of the PSC have suggested taxonomic inflation may be biased toward particular taxa and have unfavourable consequences for conservation. Here, we explore predictors of taxonomic inflation across primate taxa since the initial application of the PSC nearly 40 years ago. We do not find evidence that diversification rate, the rate of lineage formation over evolutionary time, is linked to inflation, contrary to expectations if the PSC identifies incipient species. We also do not find evidence of research effort in fields where work has been suggested to motivate splitting being associated with increases in species numbers among genera. To test the suggestion that splitting groups is likely to increase their perceived risk of extinction, we test whether genera that have undergone more splitting have also observed a greater increase in their proportion of threatened species since the introduction of the PSC. We find no cohesive signal of inflation leading to higher threat probabilities across primate genera. Overall, this analysis sends a positive message that threat statuses of primate species are not being overwhelmingly affected by splitting in line with what has recently been reported for birds. Regardless, we echo warnings that it is unwise for conservation to be reliant on taxonomic stability. Species (however defined) are not independent from one another, thus, monitoring and managing them as such may not meet the overarching goal of conserving biodiversity.

Spiranthes bightensis (Orchidaceae), a New and Rare Cryptic Hybrid Species Endemic to the U. S. Mid-Atlantic Coast

Recognizing species diversity is challenging in genera that display interspecific similarity and intraspecific variation; hybridization and the evolution of cryptic hybrid species amplifies these challenges. Recent molecular and morphological research focused on the systematics of Spiranthes (Orchidaceae) support hybrid speciation as an important driver of species diversity, particularly within the S. cernua species complex. Working under an integrated history-bound phylogenetic species concept, new molecular and morphometric data provide evidence for a new and rare cryptic hybrid species resulting from the ancient hybridization of S. cernua × S. odorata, here described as S. bightensis. Although S. bightensis is regionally sympatric with S. cernua it does not co-occur with that species, and it is allopatric with respect to S. odorata. Endemic to a narrow region extending from the Delmarva Peninsula to Long Island, New York, this new species occurs in the shadow of the Northeast megalopolis and appears to have undergone a major population decline over the last 200 years. By recognizing this distinct evolutionary lineage as a new species, this research is the first step towards developing conservation protocols for this rare species and highlights the importance of the North American Geologic Coastal Plain for biodiversity conservation and evolution.

Molecular phylogeny and species delimitation of the genus Tonkinacris (Orthoptera, Acrididae, Melanoplinae) from China

Tonkinacris is a small group in Acrididae. While a few species were occasionally sampled in some previous molecular studies, there is no revisionary research devoted to the genus. In this study, we explored the phylogeny of and the relationships among Chinese species of the genus Tonkinacris using the mitochondrial COI barcode and the complete sequences of ITS1 and ITS2 of the nuclear ribosomal DNA. The phylogeny was reconstructed in maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference frameworks, respectively. The overlap range between intraspecific variation and interspecific divergence was assessed via K2P distances. Species boundaries were delimitated using phylogenetic species concept, NJ tree, K2P distance, the statistical parsimony network as well as the GMYC model. The results demonstrate that the Chinese Tonkinacris species is a monophyletic group and the phylogenetic relationship among them is (T. sinensis, (T. meridionalis, (T. decoratus, T. damingshanus))). While T. sinensis, T. meridionalis and T. decoratus were confirmed being good independent species strongly supported by both morphological and molecular evidences, the validity of T. damingshanus was not perfectly supported by molecular evidence in this study.

Species

This chapter studies the systematists' perspective on species concepts and the role of species in systematics. No matter how sophisticated the tools and methods enhancing the conceptualization of reality may become in the future, systematists will still be constrained by their perceptions. In their more modest, empirical view, systematists embrace their perceived reality and prefer species concepts that incorporate tools for identifying and delimiting species as empirical hypotheses, thereby providing them with efficacious working terminal elements for phylogenetic analysis and classification of more inclusive taxa. It is fortunate that cladists employed the notion of a “phylogenetic” species concept based on diagnosability before more metaphysically inclined authors appropriated the term for concepts founded on monophyly or common ancestors. As noted, Willi Hennig's species concept was a version of the “biological” species concept, and it fell to his followers to develop a species concept that is well suited to cladistic principles. Among the earliest of the post-Hennigian empiricists was American Museum ichthyologist Donn Rosen. Rosen's concept, sometimes called the apomorphic concept because of its requirement that every recognized species must have its own derived character state, accomplished two key advances for systematics: it proposed a cladistic criterion for recognizing species, and it defined species as the minimal units of analysis, as far as taxonomy is concerned, thus setting a lower bound for systematic inquiry.

Xenacoelomorpha flatworms are basal Deuterostome

Background: Whether position Xenacoelomorpha as an early branch of Bilateria (Protostomes + Deuterostomes) has been intensely debated during last several decades. Considering Darwin’s “tree of life”, with the “Phylogenetic Species Concept”, we choose mitochondrial genome as the subject to predict phylogenetic position of Xenacoelomorpha, by genes genealogy. Results: Herein, we sequence Heterochaerus australis’s mitochondrial genome and infer intrinsic relationships of Metazoan with Xenacoelomorpha. The optimal tree under the popular maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian phylogenetic reconstructions are consensus with each other being strongly supported. The relationship between Chordates, Ambulacrarians and Xenoturbella/Acoelomorph is resolved. To avoid previous query about alignment process, the datasets are alignmented and trimmed automatically. Reducing taxon or cutting outgroups can not affect the relationship between Xenacoelomorpha and other Metazoan. Meanwhile, analysis using CAT model and Dayhoff groups also supporting the prediction made by mtZOA, relaxing the restriction of alignment criteria ( MAFFT, strategy G–ins–1, BLOSUM 62, 45, 30 ) introducing potential misleading signals can not challenge the tree topology indicating our auto-alignmented mitochondrial dataset is not artificially restricted one. Conclusions: Finally, a repeatable prediction of the genes genealogy with reliable statistical support places Xenacoelomorpha as a basal Deuterostome.

Towards Genomic Criteria for Delineating Fungal Species

The discussion of fungal species delineation has yet to reach a consensus, despite the advancements in technology, which helped modernise traditional approaches. In particular, the phylogenetic species concept was one of the tools that has been used with considerable success across the fungal kingdom. The fast rise of fungal genomics provides an unprecedented opportunity to expand measuring the relatedness of fungal strains to the level of whole genomes. However, the use of genomic information in taxonomy has only just begun, and few methodological guidelines have been suggested so far. Here, a simple approach of computationally measuring genomic distances and their use as a standard for species delineation is investigated. A fixed threshold genomic distance calculated by the quick and easy-to-use tools Mash and Dashing proved to be an unexpectedly widely applicable and robust criterion for determining whether two genomes belong to the same or to different species. The accuracy of species delineation in an uncurated dataset of GenBank fungal genomes was close to 90%—and exceeded 90% with minimal curation. As expected, the discriminative power of this approach was lower at higher taxonomic ranks, but still significantly larger than zero. Simple instructions for calculation of a genomic distance between two genomes and species similarity thresholds at different k-mer sizes are suggested. The calculation of genomic distance is identified as a powerful approach for delineating fungal species and is proposed—not as the only criterion—but as an additional tool in the versatile toolbox of fungal taxonomy.

Xenacoelomorpha flatworms are basal Deuterostome

Background: Whether position Xenacoelomorpha as an early branch of Bilateria (Protostomes + Deuterostomes) has been intensely debated during last several decades. Considering Darwin’s “tree of life”, with the “Phylogenetic Species Concept”, we choose mitochondrial genome as the subject to predict phylogenetic position of Xenacoelomorpha, by genes genealogy. Results: Herein, we sequence Heterochaerus australis’s mitochondrial genome and infer intrinsic relationships of Metazoan with Xenacoelomorpha. The optimal tree under the popular maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian phylogenetic reconstructions are consensus with each other being strongly supported. The relationship between Chordates, Ambulacrarians and Xenoturbella/Acoelomorph is resolved. To avoid previous query about alignment process, the datasets are alignmented and trimmed automatically. Reducing taxon or cutting outgroups can not affect the relationship between Xenacoelomorpha and other Metazoan. Meanwhile, analysis using CAT model and Dayhoff groups also supporting the prediction made by mtZOA, relaxing the restriction of alignment criteria ( MAFFT, strategy G–ins–1, BLOSUM 62, 45, 30 ) introducing potential misleading signals can not challenge the tree topology indicating our auto-alignmented mitochondrial dataset is not artificially restricted one. Conclusions: Finally, a repeatable prediction of the genes genealogy with reliable statistical support places Xenacoelomorpha as a basal Deuterostome. Let's enjoy the elegent metapher about Tree of LIfe—— "As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation we believe it has been with the great Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever branching and beautiful ramifications". (Darwin 1964 [1859], p. 130).