Is Vipera orlovi a Distinct Hybrid Species?

The species status of Vipera orlovi is discussed in the context of the concept of hybrid speciation. The genome of this Caucasian viper is composed of the genomes of Vipera kaznakovi (major part) and of Vipera renardi (about 20%). V. orlovi is intermediate in ecology between its ‘parental species,’ however its habitat is not the typical habitat of neither V. kaznakovi nor V. renardi. As all three taxa are allopatric, there is no evidence of current geneflow between them. Pleistocene climatic changes may have mediated contact and hybridization between V. kaznakovi and V. renardi. The resulting hybrid flock may have had a wider ecological range than its parental species, enabling a descendant lineage to occupy a novel niche which was previously unoccupied. Similar scenarios of hybrid speciation have probably occurred in vipers throughout the Caucasus. Although the future fate of this hybrid speciation remains open unless full genetic isolation has occurred, we propose to grant species status to Vipera orlovi. This is in line with the genotypic cluster species concept and the unified species concept.

Tolerance and determinants of drought character descriptors of the Madurese landrace bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea)

Fatimah S, Ariffin, Rahmi AN, Kuswanto. 2020. Tolerance and determinants of drought character descriptors of the Madurese landrace bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea). Biodiversitas 21: 3108-3116. Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea L. Verdc.) is legume of African origin overlooked in Indonesia. It has underdeveloped in Indonesia; for example, in East Java, it is only cultivated in Gresik, Lamongan, and Bangkalan of Madura. This plant can potentially be developed in dry lands, such as Madura as it has the ability to grow and develop well in a dry environment with low nutrient level. At present, there are sparse researches on the selection and determination of the drought-tolerant character descriptors of bambara groundnut in Indonesia. The present study used the expected lines of bambara groundnut selected from local lines of various regions in Indonesia using the nested design. The results showed that the drought stress treatment led to stunted growth of 12 bambara groundnut genotypes, including the number of leaves, plant height, canopy diameter, leaf thickness, number of flowers, number of stems or branches, number of internodes, length of leaf stems, root length, root wet weight, canopy wet weight, canopy dry weight, root dry weight, and leaf chlorophyll content. However, drought leads to a slight increase in the width and length of the stomata opening and leaf proline contents. The cluster analysis based on stress index and sensitivity index can classify 3 expected lines originating from Gresik Regency (G1, G2, G3), falling into the drought stress-tolerant category. Accumulated proline contents cannot be used as a descriptor of tolerance to drought stresses in bambara groundnut since the expected lines with an increase in proline contents in leaves during drought stresses based on the cluster analysis do not fall into the genotypic cluster tolerant to drought stresses.

Relatedness within and among northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis) colonies at a local scale

We assessed parentage within and among maternity colonies of northern long-eared bats (Myotis septentrionalis (Trouessart, 1897)) in north-central Kentucky, USA, from 2011 to 2013 to examine colony social structure, formation, and membership dynamics. We intensively sampled colonies in close and remote (>10 km) proximity before and after targeted day-roost removal. Colonies were not necessarily composed of closely related individuals, although natal philopatry was common. Adjacent colonies often contained maternally related individuals, indicating that some pups did disperse, albeit not far from their natal home range. Whereas some young had been sired by males also collected on site, most had not, as would be expected since the species mates in fall near hibernacula across a wider landscape. The number of parentages that we inferred among colonies, however, suggests that outside the maternity season, social groups may be relatively flexible and open. Analysis of microsatellite DNA data showed a low FST (0.011) and best fit to a model of one multilocus genotypic cluster across the study area. We observed high turnover in colony membership between years in all colonies, regardless of roost-removal treatment. Our results suggest that female northern long-eared bats exhibit fidelity to a general geographic area and complex, dynamic social–genetic structure.

Multivariate analysis in mungbean [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek] to identify the genetic donors for pubescence and agro-morphological traits

The present investigation was conducted with 36 genotypes of mungbean on 26 agro-morphological traits including seed yield and pubescence traits to access the degree of divergence for mungbean improvement during <italic>zaid</italic> 2012. These mungbean genotypes were grouped into seven clusters. Cluster IV comprised of 14 genotypes, forming the largest cluster followed by cluster VI comprised eight genotypes, cluster I comprised seven genotypes and cluster II comprised four genotypes. Three clusters <italic>viz.</italic>, cluster III, V & VII formed mono genotypic cluster. All the pubescence traits contributed towards total divergence. Among the agro-morphological traits, high contribution towards total divergence was recorded for beak length, average intermodal length, primary branch angle with main stem, biological yield, seed yield and pods per cluster, indicated the possibility of selection of parent(s) for hybridization to manipulate the targeted trait(s) for mungbean improvement.

Multivariate analysis in green gram [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek]

The present study was undertaken to perform the multivariate analysis in green gram using twenty-one green gram genotypes. The extent of genetic divergence revealed that these genotypes could be grouped into ten and five clusters, following Tochers and non-hierarchical Euclidian clustering methods, respectively. Based on the maximum diversity obtained in Tochers method genotype KM 10-1064 of cluster V and genotypes KM 10-1046, KM 10-1059 and KM 10-1070 of cluster VI were found suitable for improving the plant structure, whereas concerning high diversity along with high trait contribution towards total divergence, the clusters KM 10-1064 of cluster V and KM 10-1042 of cluster VIII were found to be appropriate for hybridization. The genotype KM 10-1068, which represents the mono genotypic cluster in case of both the clustering methods signifies that it could be the most diverse from other genotypes and it would be the suitable candidate for hybridization with genotypes present in other clusters to tailor the agriculturally important traits and ultimately, to enhance the seed yield in green gram.

The third genotypic clusters of Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) found in Bangladesh

The sweetpotato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci is a species complex that possessed several biotypes including different genotypic clusters within species, which may differ from each other genetically and physiologically but morphologically alike. This study was performed by molecular analysis for easy identification of whitefly and describes its biotype throughout Bangladesh. Whiteflies have been identified from different places of Bangladesh based on mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (mtCOI) gene and 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequences analysis. The mtCOI sequences of BW3 (collected from eastern part of Bangladesh) whitefly were diverged by 14.5% and 15.1% compared with B and Q biotypes from Korea and it also diverged by 15.4% and 13.7% from each other compared to BW1 (collected from southern part of Bangladesh) and BW2 (collected from northern part of Bangladesh), respectively within the country. The 16S rRNA sequences of BW3 whitefly were more deviated by 41.5%, 10.7%, 42.7% and 12.6% compared with the country populations from BW1, BW2, B and Q biotypes, respectively. Moreover, it showed high divergences from indigenous whiteflies of southern and northern part of Bangladesh which clustered in a different clade on both mtCOI and 16S rRNA phylogeny. Therefore, till date three genotypic cluster of indigenous whitefly BW1, BW2 and BW3 are identified from Bangladesh.Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 40(1): 1-16, March 2015

A quantitative study of morphology in Australian Craspedia (Asteraceae, Gnaphalieae)

The first comprehensive quantitative study of morphological characters in all Australian species of the billy button genus Craspedia (Asteraceae, Gnaphalieae) is presented. Homogeneity analysis and pair-wise reclassification tests are used to test species circumscriptions under the genotypic-cluster concept. Although most species are supported, C. aurantia and C. jamesii do not form separate morphological clusters, and C. jamesii is reduced to a variety of C. aurantia. Although our results indicated that C. variabilis may be synonymous with C. glauca, we reserve judgment because of the small number of specimens of the latter species included in the present study. Other species were found to be less problematic; however, additional and more detailed studies will be needed to clarify the circumscription of various species with woolly leaf indumentum, in particular C. canens, C. coolaminica and C. macrocephala. A synopsis of all Australian species of Craspedia is presented, together with a preliminary key.

Variation in daily shedding patterns of Staphylococcus aureus in naturally occurring intramammary infections

The goal of the current prospective field study was to examine the shedding patterns of naturally occurring Staphylococcus aureus intramammary infections and the association of pulsed field gel electrophoresis pulsotype with shedding. Milk samples from 5 multiparous and 2 primiparous cows identified with S. aureus intramammary infections were collected for 21 consecutive days, 3 times throughout the lactation (63 days total). Cyclicity of each quarter was evaluated using a locally weighted regression. Pulsed field gel electrophoresis was used for genotypic cluster comparisons to evaluate the association of strain type and shedding patterns. Although the amount of shedding varied greatly, 97.5% of the samples were culture positive. There were notable differences in S. aureus shedding patterns among cows as well as within cows; however, no consistent cyclic pattern was identified. Quarters infected with S. aureus isolates grouped in genotypic cluster 1 appeared to shed at consistently higher levels with a median cfu/0.01 ml of 154 (ln[cfu] = 5.0). In comparing ln(cfu)/0.01 ml between genotypic clusters over the first 21-day sample period, accounting for the effect of sample day, samples collected from quarters infected with S. aureus in genotypic cluster 1 had a 1.5 times greater ln(cfu) than those collected from quarters infected with strains in genotypic cluster 2. The ability to detect S. aureus from day to day was very consistent. The current study examining naturally occurring intramammary infections would support the conclusions of other studies suggesting that a single quarter sample would be adequate in determining S. aureus intramammary infections status.

Molecular Epidemiology of an Outbreak of Enterobacter cloacae in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of a Provincial Hospital in Gauteng, South Africa

An outbreak of Enterobacter cloacae in the neonatal intensive care unit of a provincial hospital in Gauteng, South Africa, resulting in nine deaths was investigated. Macrorestriction analysis using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis revealed that three isolates ofE. cloacae from blood cultures of patients, six from environmental sources, and one from the hands of a staff member belonged to the same genotypic cluster.