An investigation on the chloroplast and nuclear genomes of taxa belong to the subgenus Dracunculus (Bess.) Rydb. of Artemisia L. (Asteraceae) in Turkey

Artemisia is one of the biggest genera in the family Asteraceae, with around 500-600 taxa at specific and sub-specific levels and organised in 5 subgenera. Due to the high number of taxa, a lot taxonomists are trying to solve the problem of its classification and phylogeny but its natural classification still hasn’t been achieved. In this research, 60 individuals belonging to 4 taxa of the subgenus Dracunculus of Artemisia L. in Turkey were examined. For all the examined individuals from both the same and different populations belonging to the taxa of the subgenus Dracunculus, the sequences of the regions both psbA-trnH of chloroplast DNA and ITS of nuclear DNA were determined. Also, the gene regions obtained were recorded in the NCBI GenBank database and an accession number was taken. It was found that there was no gene flow and hybridization between the four studied taxa of the subgenus Dracunculus, and these 4 taxa also completed their speciation. According to the results of this molecular study, A. campestris var. campestris, A. campestris var. marschalliana and A. campestris var. araratica were proposed to be raised from the variety level to the species level. This research is important as it is the first molecular based study relating with the subgenus Dracunculus growing in Turkey.

Processing and analysis of botanical micro-and macroobjects using computer vision technologies

This article discusses the problems of automation of processing and analysis of botanical micro-and macroobjects. The problem is a comprehensive interdisciplinary research aimed at recognizing and searching for botanical micro-and macroobjects using computer vision technologies. Computer vision is an area of artificial intelligence that deals with the analysis and extraction of information from images (in this case, the fern dispute). The purpose of this study is to solve a number of applied and fundamental problems in the biosystematics of botanical objects and the study of microevolutionary processes. The results of the research are stored in a specially developed database “Spore morphology of ferns of the Pteridaceae family”. The database implements a set of queries relevant to biometrics tasks. The database is based on images and biometric data on the morphology of fern spores obtained in the form of measurements of systematically important signs of spores, as well as data on the shape and surface of the studied objects. The diagnostic characters of taxa of the Pteridaceae family have been standardized for solving the research problems. In the course of the study, fundamentally new knowledge was obtained that will supplement the natural classification of the Pteridaceae family, as well as test hypotheses about the relationship of a number of taxa represented on the continents of Eurasia and Africa, for an objective reconstruction of events of past geological periods. Processing and analysis of botanical micro-and macro-objects and the development of specialized software are carried out in the Python programming language using an integrated development environment for Python - PyCharm. When developing the graphical interface of the program, we used the sets of Python libraries PyQt5 and a visual tool for designing and creating graphical user interfaces (GUI) from Qt components - Qt Designer.

Morphological, Karyological and Phylogenetic Analyses of three Artemisia species that Around the Van Lake in Turkey

Artemisia is one of the biggest genera in the family Asteraceae, with around 500-600 taxa at specific and sub-specific levels and organised in five subgenera. Due to the high number of taxa, a lot taxonomists are trying to solve the problem of its classification and phylogeny but its natural classification still has not been achieved.The aim of this study is to try to solve the problematic systematic relationship between three different Artemisia species growing in close proximity to each other in the light of morphological, karyological and molecular data.The roots, stems, leaves, flowers structures of the plant samples collected from different populations belong to these species were investigated within the framework of morphological studies. Additionally, the chromosome counts and karyotype analysises of these species were made and idiograms were drawn in the karyological studies. In the context of phylogenetic studies, ITS and trn regions of 22 individuals belonging to 3 taxa were studied. It has been found that there is complete speciation genetic isolation mechanism between the species A. spicigera, A. taurica and A. fragrans that inhibit gene flow. A. fragrans and A. spicigera species are very similar to each other in terms of morphological characteristics. However, since populations of the species a fragrans are otopolyploid, the dimensional values of their morphological squares are larger than those of the species A. spicigera.This study is important as it is the first molecular based study relating with some species of Artemisia growing naturally in Turkey.

Toward a Natural Classification of Botryosphaeriaceae: A Study of the Type Specimens of Botryosphaeria sensu lato

The genus Botryosphaeria includes more than 200 epithets, but only the type species, Botryosphaeria dothidea and a dozen or more other species have been identified based on DNA sequence data. The taxonomic status of the other species remains unconfirmed because they lack either morphological information or DNA sequence data. In this study, types or authentic specimens of 16 “Botryosphaeria” species are reassessed to clarify their identity and phylogenetic position. nuDNA sequences of four regions, ITS, LSU, tef1-α and tub2, are analyzed and considered in combination with morphological characteristics. Based on the multigene phylogeny and morphological characters, Botryosphaeria cruenta and Botryosphaeria hamamelidis are transferred to Neofusicoccum. The generic status of Botryosphaeria aterrima and Botryosphaeria mirabile is confirmed in Botryosphaeria. Botryosphaeria berengeriana var. weigeliae and B. berengeriana var. acerina are treated synonyms of B. dothidea. Botryosphaeria mucosa is transferred to Neodeightonia as Neodeightonia mucosa, and Botryosphaeria ferruginea to Nothophoma as Nothophoma ferruginea. Botryosphaeria foliicola is reduced to synonymy with Phyllachorella micheliae. Botryosphaeria abuensis, Botryosphaeria aesculi, Botryosphaeria dasylirii, and Botryosphaeria wisteriae are tentatively kept in Botryosphaeria sensu stricto until further phylogenetic analysis is carried out on verified specimens. The ordinal status of Botryosphaeria apocyni, Botryosphaeria gaubae, and Botryosphaeria smilacinina cannot be determined, and tentatively accommodate these species in Dothideomycetes incertae sedis. The study demonstrates the significance of a polyphasic approach in characterizing type specimens, including the importance of using of DNA sequence data.

VERONICA: Visual Analytics for Identifying Feature Groups in Disease Classification

The use of data analysis techniques in electronic health records (EHRs) offers great promise in improving predictive risk modeling. Although useful, these analysis techniques often suffer from a lack of interpretability and transparency, especially when the data is high-dimensional. The emergence of a type of computational system known as visual analytics has the potential to address these issues by integrating data analysis techniques with interactive visualizations. This paper introduces a visual analytics system called VERONICA that utilizes the natural classification of features in EHRs to identify the group of features with the strongest predictive power. VERONICA incorporates a representative set of supervised machine learning techniques—namely, classification and regression tree, C5.0, random forest, support vector machines, and naive Bayes to support users in developing predictive models using EHRs. It then makes the analytics results accessible through an interactive visual interface. By integrating different sampling strategies, analytics algorithms, visualization techniques, and human-data interaction, VERONICA assists users in comparing prediction models in a systematic way. To demonstrate the usefulness and utility of our proposed system, we use the clinical dataset stored at ICES to identify the best representative feature groups in detecting patients who are at high risk of developing acute kidney injury.

DIVERSITY AND PHENETIC STUDY ON SYCONIUM OF FICUS L. (MORACEAE) FROM KERALA, INDIA REVEALING NATURAL CLASSIFICATION ALONG WITH AN IDENTIFICATION KEY

NAIR, S. S., BACHAN, K. H. A. & EBIN, P. J. 2021. Diversity and phenetic study on syconium of Ficus L. (Moraceae) from Kerala, India revealing natural classification along with an identification key. Reinwardtia 20(1): 27–36. — Ficus L. commonly called ‘figs’ is one of the most complex genera among the angiosperms with its specialised inflorescence called syconium that looks like a fruit. Syconium of 33 species of Ficus reported from Kerala were observed here to develop a novel key, solely based on syconium morphology. Numerical taxonomic methodology for syconium morphological characters were standardised, considering 22 characters with 104 character states and analysed using similarity clustering. The floral features of the genus are very much complex and all the existing keys for the species identification relays on both vegetative as well as floral features. Hence, the present key will be practical in use when syconium is the only available part. The numerical analysis of the syconium features well clustered and separated the trees with cauliflorous inflorescence, hemi epiphytic -epiphytic life forms and independent trees similar to the natural classification of the figs as “Atthi, Itthi and Aal”, indicating that phenetic analysis using the syconium characters alone provided a grouping similar to the natural grouping based on the habit. Preliminary phylogenetic analysis of figs also provided a similar clustering. This gives an insight into the fact that the separation of figs into these natural groups is reflecting phylogenetic trait. Detailed studies including more morphological traits and molecular analysis could establish the phylogenetic relation of figs in relation to the evolutionary history of climate and vegetation.