The British Council in Spain in collaboration with the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) is organising a series of scientific workshops to provide opportunities for researchers from the UK and Spain to meet face-to-face for the exchange of ideas, knowledge and information on priority topics and to explore future areas of research and collaboration. The next workshop in this series, entitled Evolution 150, will cover the broad field of evolutionary biology and marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of "The Origin of Species".
For further details and an application form contact Rafael Zardoya rafaz@mncn.csic.es or Peter Holland peter.holland@zoo.ox.ac.uk
Early to mid career researchers wishing to participate should send a completed application form and CV to belen.fortea@britishcouncil.es before December 15, 2008.
Os principais objetivos do curso são: familiarização com a terminologia morfológica específica; uso de chaves taxonômicas para identificação dos principais gêneros; exposição de aspectos da sistemática, biogeografia, biologia, e ecologia; discussão de aspectos metodológicos para amostragem, coleta e preparação dos diferentes grupos de abelhas.
O curso terá lugar no Departamento de Zoologia da Universidade Federal do Paraná, localizado no Centro Politécnico, Jardim das Américas, em Curitiba. O período será de 9 a 14 de fevereiro de 2009.
Circulares Informativas / Convocatorias
1º Convocatoria Octubre 2008
Similar to that for other invertebrates, the species description for this minute (0.4 mm) crustacean Leberis chihuahuensis comprises about 4 pages of mysterious text and 2 pages of equally enigmatic illustrations. In addition, the DNA barcode of the type specimen is provided, as well as the more usual NJ tree, in this case showing 14% sequence divergence from its sister species L. davidi.
By including both kinds of characters, ie DNA barcode and morphology, Elias-Gutierrez and Valdez-Moreno provide what seems to me a model for any new species description, one that will enable specialists and non-specialists alike to make the most use of their findings.
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Debate has long simmered over whether data on the order of appearance of taxa in the stratigraphic record should play any role in analyses of phylogenetic relationships among those taxa. Critics argue that temporal data are in principle inapplicable to questions of cladistic relationship, but specific versions of this claim all seem flawed. Stratocladistics offers a methodological context (patterned after that of cladistics itself) within which temporal data participate along with conventional character data in selecting most-parsimonious hypotheses. Stratocladistics outperforms cladistics in tests based on simulated histories, and additional testing will be facilitated by new software automating stratocladistic searches. As with any body of data, we may decide to include or exclude temporal data for specific reasons, but the explanatory power of hypotheses that use both temporal and conventional character data exceeds that of hypotheses based on character data alone.
Biological systems, from molecular complexes to whole organisms and ecological interactions, tend to have a modular organization. Modules are sets of traits that are internally integrated by interactions among traits, but are relatively independent from other modules. The interactions within modules rely on different mechanisms, depending on the context of a study. For morphological traits, modularity occurs in developmental, genetic, functional, and evolutionary contexts. A range of methods for quantifying integration and modularity in morphological data is available, and a number of comparative and experimental designs can be used to compare the different contexts. How development produces covariation between traits can have substantial implications for understanding genetic variation and the potential for evolutionary change, but research in this area has only begun and many questions remain unanswered.
Researchers have revealed the complete mitochondrial genome of one of the world's most celebrated mummies, known as the Tyrolean Iceman or Ötzi. The sequence represents the oldest complete DNA sequence of modern humans' mitochondria, according to the report published online on October 30th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication.
Mitochondria are subcellular organelles that generate all of the body's energy and house their own DNA, which is passed down from mother to child each generation. Mitochondrial DNA thus offers a window into our evolutionary past.
"Through the analysis of a complete mitochondrial genome in a particularly well-preserved human, we have obtained evidence of a significant genetic difference between present-day Europeans and a representative prehistoric human—despite the fact that the Iceman is not so old—just about 5,000 years," said Franco Rollo of the University of Camerino in Italy.
The Tyrolean Iceman witnessed the Neolithic-Copper Age transition in Central Europe more than 5,000 years ago. His mummified corpse was recovered from an Alpine glacier on the Austro-Italian border in 1991. In 2000, scientists defrosted the Iceman's body for the first time and sampled DNA from his intestines.
Earlier study of the DNA showed that he belonged to the lineage, or "subhaplogroup," known as K1. About 8% of modern Europeans belong to the K haplogroup, meaning that they share a common ancestor, and that group is divided into two "subhaplogroups," K1 and K2. The K1 haplogroup, in turn, can be divided into three clusters.
In the new study, the researchers took advantage of advanced genome-sequencing technologies to shed more light on the Iceman's genetics. They sequenced his entire mitochondrial genome and compared that sequence to other published human mitochondrial DNA sequences to construct his evolutionary (or phylogenetic) family tree.
"The surprise came when we found that the lineage of the Iceman did not fit any of the three known K1 clusters," Rollo said. His team has informally named the newly discovered branch on the human family tree "Ötzi's branch."
"This doesn't simply mean that Ötzi had some 'personal' mutations making him different from the others but that, in the past, there was a group—a branch of the phylogenetic tree—of men and women sharing the same mitochondrial DNA," Rollo said. "Apparently, this genetic group is no longer present. We don't know whether it is extinct or it has become extremely rare."
At least for the moment, he said, that means no one can claim to be "the issue of Ötzi."
Source : Cell Press
Workshop at the University of Michigan, Jan 10-11, 2009
Estimating Species Trees: a Phylogenetic Paradigm for the 21st Century
Recent computational and modeling advances have produced methods for estimating species trees directly. Accurate estimates of phylogenetic relationships can be extracted from genetic data with these new approaches, sometimes with less data, by directly modeling the causes of discordance in topology and branch lengths among gene trees. Such inferences are commonly impossible under the traditional phylogenetic paradigm because of the potential for the idiosyncrasies of gene trees to obscure the actual history of species divergence.
We are offering this workshop to not only increase the visibility and use of these methods, but also address a number of significant challenges to estimating species trees, to assure that the advantages these methods offer reach a broad community of users. The goals of the workshop are to: (i) provide an understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of current methodology, (ii) present empirical examples demonstrating the utility of current methodology as well as its limitations, and (iii) offer instruction on the technical aspects involved in using current software. This will be accomplished through the combination of a series of lectures (day one) and hands-on computer training (day two).
For more information, click the "read more" link below, and see the flyer Estimating_Species_Trees.pdf.
Participation in the workshop requires registration (go to http://www.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/sptree.html) and is free for those attending the lectures (on Jan 10) and is $25 for those attending the computer training (on Jan 11; see website for programs that will be covered). To facilitate broad and diverse participation in this important workshop, funding is available to offset transportation and lodging costs (i.e., $500 for those from the US and $1000 for international participants – see website for details on how to apply).
Co-organizers: L. Lacey Knowles, University of Michigan, and Laura S. Kubatko, Ohio State University
Location of the workshop: University of Michigan, January 10-11, 2009.
Invited speakers for workshop:
Liang Liu, Harvard University
Laura Kubatko, Ohio State University
Dennis Pearl, Ohio State University
Célcile Ané, University of Wisconsin
James Degnan, University of Canterbury
L. Lacey Knowles, University of Michigan
Luay Nakhleh, Rice University
Karen Cranston, University of Arizona
Bret Larget, University of Wisconsin
Robb Brumsfield, Louisiana State Univ.
Lisle Gibbs, Ohio State University
Scott Edwards, Harvard University
Catherine Linnen, Harvard University
Natalia Belfiore, University of California, Berkeley
For more information please contact: Dr. L. Lacey Knowles, knowlesl@umich.edu
This workshop has been made possible by funds generously provided by the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan.
Vol. 8, Issue 3, 163-167, March 1998
), and comparative molecular biology is no exception (e.g., Altschul et al. 1989; Goldman et al. 1996). In this commentary, I discuss the use of evolutionary information in the prediction of gene function. To appreciate the potential of a phylogenomic approach to the prediction of gene function, it is necessary to first discuss how gene sequence is commonly used to predict gene function and some general features about gene evolution.
The world's largest flowers, of the Southeast Asian Rafflesia genus, which mimic the smell and appearance of rotting flesh, evolved much more quickly and more often than botanists expected.
Todd Barkman of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo and his team hypothesized that it would have taken a long time for the Rafflesia flowers to evolve from their smaller ancestors to their current maximum size of one metre in diameter because of the many structural and physiological changes required to support such large flowers. To their surprise, they found that the flowers of some Rafflesia species have more or less doubled in size during the past one million to two million years. As Barkman points out, it is hard to imagine a giraffe doubling the length of its neck in the same time frame. The scientists suggest that even bigger flowers could evolve in future.
Fuente de la información: Research Highlights, Nature 455, 1010 (23 October 2008) | doi:10.1038/4551010a; Published online 22 October 2008.
El Laboratorio de Bacteriologia Molecular, Departamento de Ingeniería Genética, Cinvestav Unidad Irapuato (Dr. Gabriela Olmedo Alvarez) en colaboración con el Laboratorio de Evolución Molecular y Experimental, Instituto de Ecología UNAM (Dra. Valeria Souza) invita a científicos que hayan recibido recientemente el grado de Doctor en Ciencias para que se integren al Cinvestav Unidad Irapuato para realizar una estancia postdoctoral por 12 meses, con posibilidades de extenderse por un periodo más.
Proyecto: Genómica comparativa de aislados bacterianos de Cuatro Cienegas, Coahuila.
Requisitos: Formación en Biología Molecular, habilidad computacional (UNIX, MySQL, PERL) con interes de aprender métodos de anotación y comparación de genomas.
Dedicación de tiempo completo a la investigación.
Solicitudes: Los candidatos interesados deben enviar su CV a: golmedo@ira.cinvestav.mx, con atención a la Dra. Gabriela Olmedo
Para su financiamiento la solicitud postdoctoral será preparada en conjunto con el aspirante y será presentada en la próxima convocatoria del CONACyT (Estancias Posdoctorales Vinculadas al Fortalecimiento de la Calidad del Posgrado Nacional)
Gabriela Olmedo
Depto. de Ingeniería Genética
AP 629 Irapuato, Gto. 36500
Tel. (462) 6239663 golmedo@ira.cinvestav.mx
The "Instituto de Biologia, UNAM" and the "Instituto de Ecologia, A.C." are pleased to announce that the fourth Rubiaceae Conference will be held in the Clavijero Botanical Garden of the Institute of Ecology in Jalapa, Veracruz, Mexico. This meeting will include papers and posters on the taxonomy, phylogeny and classification, morphology and anatomy, floristics, ecology and biogeography within Rubiaceae or other Gentianales. We particularly encourage students to submit the results of their work.
Deadline for abstracts: July 31, 2008.
Please visit www.ibiologia.unam.mx/rubiaceas/index.htm
For further questions, contact ivrubiaceae@ibiologia.unam.mx
The meeting will take place January 8-12, 2009 in Mérida, México.
Invited symposia will feature talks on the biogeography of disease, patterns and processes in biotic interchanges, disjunct distributions in Asia and America, and the biogeography of species extinction.
Attendees are invited to submit abstracts for oral and poster presentations. The conference will also include workshops, field excursions, and social events.
Registration, contact, and additional information may be found at: http://www.biogeography.org.
A meeting organised by the Department of Botany, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
This meeting, organised on behalf of the Systematics Association and the Linnean Society, will provide a forum for systematists to present and discuss their research as it relates to the critical issue of Global Climate Change. The conference is open to everyone, whatever their chosen discipline within systematics.
This meeting will examine the problems posed by Global Climate Change and will centre on three themes: 1. Climate change and speciation/extinction; 2. Climate change and biogeography; 3. Climate change: documenting and conserving biodiversity.
We feel this meeting is timely because of interest in this topic at all levels in society, especially governmental. For example, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment states that 'By the end of the twenty-first century, climate change and its impacts may be the dominant direct driver of biodiversity loss and changes in ecosystem services globally' and 'Historically, habitat and land use change have had the biggest impact on biodiversity across biomes. Climate change is projected to increasingly affect all aspects of biodiversity, from individual organisms, through populations and species, to ecosystem composition and function'. The most recent IPCC report this year also highlights these issues. Therefore, global climate change needs to be addressed holistically by the systematics community.
Certainly the changes in the density and location of the World's biodiversity are likely to have impacts on speciation/extinction rates and on the ability of systematits to delimit, through Monographs, Faunas and Floras, the World's biodiversity.
Additional Information
More Information
As an approach to the discovery of phylogenetic relationships among organisms, cladistics took the systematics community by storm. According to David Hull, in his 1988 account of its history, cladistics was winning out everywhere; according to Colin Patterson, cladistics “began in the late 1960s, accelerated in the 1970s, and was virtually complete by the eighties”; in contrast, Gareth Nelson suggested that cladistics is suffering from “Arrested Development”. This symposium, entitled Beyond Cladistics, in honour of botanist Chris Humphries, will address some general issues relating to cladistics: its past, its present and its future – if, indeed, there is anything beyond cladistics itself.
Additional Information
Programme (pdf)
ANALÍA A. LANTERI Y MARÍA MARTA CIGLIANO. (eds) 2004. Sistemática Biológica: fundamentos teóricos y ejercitaciones. EDULP. Argentina.
"Sistemática Biológica: fundamentos teóricos y ejercitaciones es un libro de texto organizado en 14 capítulos, cada uno de los cuales incluye una parte teórica y una serie de ejercicios prácticos. Los temas tratados comprenden aspectos clásicos de la práctica taxonómica, como la elaboración de claves dicotómicas, la organización de descripciones y la aplicación de los principios de la Nomenclatura Biológica. Se tratan también aspectos teórico-metodológicos relativos al análisis de datos moleculares, la aplicación de técnicas multivariadas para la delimitación de especies, el análisis cladístico y las aplicaciónes de la Cladística en otras ramas de la Biología Comparada. Las ejercitaciones están basadas principalmente en ejemplos de trabajos científicos realizados por las autoras de la obra, las cuales se desempeñan como docentes en la Cátedra de Introducción a la Taxonomía de la Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, de la UNLP. El texto está orientado a los alumnos que cursan dicha materia, pero puede ser de utilidad para estudiantes y profesionales que deseen iniciarse en la práctica de la Sistemática moderna."
Nuevamente, la pregunta es, ¿como podemos obtener un ejemplar de este libro?Resumen: Se investigó la posición filogenética de diez de las 12 especies del género Astragalus (Fabaceae) reportadas para el centro de México, mediante un análisis cladístico de secuencias de la región del espaciador interno transcrito (ITS) del DNA ribosomal del núcleo. Seis de las especies recolectadas pertenecen a la sección Strigulosi y las cuatro especies restantes pertenecen a otras secciones del género. Las secuencias de las especies del centro de México fueron analizadas junto con otras disponibles en el GenBank. Los resultados obtenidos indican que las especies del centro de México (n = 11 y 15) son miembros del clado de "Neo-Astragalus", en donde se encuentran todas las especies aneuploides con distribución en Norteamérica y Sudamérica. El clado de Neo-Astragalus presentó tres clados resueltos en el consenso estricto y el resto de las especies fueron politómicas. Las seis especies de la sección Strigulosi con distribución en el centro de México se encontraron en uno de los tres clados resueltos en Neo-Astragalus junto con ocho especies de Sudamérica, una especie de la sección Quinqueflori (A. aff. quinqueflorus), una especie de la sección Hypoleuci (A. hypoleucus) y dos especies de la sección Leptocarpi (A. arizonicus, A. nothoxys). Dos especies (A. cobrensis y A. rusbyi) de la sección Strigulosi, cuya secuencia se obtuvo del GenBank, se encontraron fuera del clado en el que están todas las especies de la sección con distribución en el centro de México. Las especies A. wootonii y A. mollissimus recolectadas en el centro de México se incluyeron en el segundo clado resuelto en Neo-Astragalus. La posición filogenética de estas especies fue apoyada por un carácter morfológico del fruto. También se delimitó a las especies A. strigulosus, A. guatemalensis. A. lyonnetii, A. micranthus, A. hypoleucus y A. mollissimus, para esto se consideró el concepto filogenético de especie y la formación de grupos monofiléticos, parafiléticos y polifiléticos..
Palabras clave: Astragalus, nrDNA ITS, Neo-Astragalus, Filogenia, especie.
Disciplina: Sistemática,
Grupo Taxonómico: Angiospermas
Resumen: Se desarrolló una hipótesis filogenética para el género Pachycereus (A. Berger) Britton & Rose con el propósito de fundamentar la monofilia del género, basada en la clasificación más reciente que propone 12 especies más una descrita recientemente. 30 taxa se\r\nanalizaron mediante el método de la cladística Y bajo el criterio de parsimonia. Las fuentes de información filogenética utilizadas fueron la morfología Y las secuencias génicas. Los caracteres morfológicos empleados fueron del tallo, flor, fruto y semilla, así como anatomía del tallo. Caracteres de la madera y la semilla se exploraron con particular interés, encontrando pocos caracteres filogenéticamente informativos. Se evaluaron 42 caracteres morfológicos en total. Fueron analizadas tres secuencias génicas, de las cuales dos son genes del cloroplasto (intron trnL y espaciador trnL-F, intron rpl16) y una es nuclear (ITS). Los resultados usando las dos fuentes por separado y combinadas (evidencia total) indicaron que: (a) la subtribu Pachycereinae sólo puede ser monofilética si se incluyen dos especies de Stenocereus: S. aragonii y S. eichlamii; (b) el género Pachycereus no es monofilético de acuerdo con la clasificación más reciente; (c) Pachycereus hollianus y P. lepidanthus forman un grupo basal en la subtribu Pachycereinae y no pertenecen al género Pachycereus; (d) Pachycereus fulviceps está relacionada con los géneros Cephalocereus y Neobuxbaumia y no con otros miembros del género Pachycereus; (e) se define un clado con 13 especies al que se le llamo informalmente grupo Pachycereus. En este grupo se resuelve un clado con cinco especies (P. grandis, P. pecten-aboriginum, P. pring/ei, P. tepamo y P. weben), que se define como monofilético con dos sinapomorfias morfológicas: un surco interareolar y la forma de la flor tipo G. Este grupo de cinco especies integran el género Pachycereus y se sugiere que Carnegiea es su género hermano. Pachycereus gatesii, P. schottii y P. marginatus se definen en un clado bien apoyado al cual se le llama género ophocereus. Stenocereus aragonii y S. eich/amii forman un clado al cual se le aplica el nombre genérico de Marshallocereus. Pachycereus gaumeri y P. mi/itaris son divergentes dentro del grupo y con las evidencias presentadas se considera apropiado restablecer los\r\ngéneros Pterocereus y Backebergia. Se presenta un tratamiento taxonómico para el género Pachycereus, redefiniendo el número de especies con base en el análisis filogenético, una clave de identificación y las descripciones para cada especie. Se señalan las especies a excluir del género Pachycereus.
Palabras clave: anatomia, semillas, cladistica, taxonomia.
Disciplina: Sistemática.
Grupo taxonómico: Angiospermas.
Resumen: Se determinaron las relaciones filogenéticas en el género Psorophora con base al análisis cladístico de 66 caracteres morfologícos (L4, pupas, machos y hembras) en 29 especies de las 45 reportadas en este taxón. El grupo interno utilizado incluye tres subgéneros: Cinco de Psorophora, siete de Grabhamia, y doce de Janthinosoma. Como grupos externos y hermanos se utilizaron dos géneros de Culicini (Culex y Toxorhynchites) y dos géneros de Aedini (Aedes y Haemagogus), y un Mansoniini (Mansonia), respectivamente. En el análisis parsimonioso se utilizó NONA/WINCLADA obteniéndose 11 árboles de 164 pasos de longitud (IC=0,66 e IR=0,83). La hipótesis muestra a Aedini (Haemagogus, Aedes y Psorophora) como grupo monofilético incluyendo a Mansonia titillans (Mansoniini), sugiriendo la inclusión de este taxón en Aedini como grupo natural. La monofilia del género Psorophora es soportada por tres sinapomorfías: Larva con peine del segmento VIII en forma de tridente, hembra con tergo y externo VIII con estructuras tipo barra, y genitales masculinos con pocos dientes en el proceso del esternito X. Los clados de los subgéneros Psorophora, Grabhamia, y Janthinosoma fueron soportados por cuatro, tres y dos sinapomorfías respectivamente, validando la clasificación subgenérica. Sin embargo en Grabhamia y Janthinosoma se apreciaron politomías internas, por lo cual las relaciones evolutivas no fueron explicadas.
Abstract: Phylogenetic relationships in the genus Psorophora were examined based on a cladistic analysis of 66 morphological characters (fourth instar larvae, pupae, males and females) of 29 species available from the 45 species reported in the genus, representing the three subgenera. The ingroup species were: five Psorophora (10 spp total, 50%), seven Grabhamia (15 spp total, 47%) and twelve Janthinosoma (20 spp total, 60%). Two Culicini genera (Culex and Toxorhynchites), two Aedini genera (Aedes and Haemagogus), and one Mansoniini (Mansonia) were used as outgroups and sister groups respectively. A parsimony analysis using NONA/WINCLADA resulted in 11 trees, each with 164 steps (CI = 0.66 and RI = 0.83). The analysis indicated that Aedini (Haemagogus, Aedes and Psorophora), is monophyletic group that includes Mansonia titillans (Mansoniini), suggesting natural inclusion of the Mansoniini tribe with Aedini. The genus Psorophora is monophyletic, supported by 3 synapomorphies: larvae with presence of trident-like scales in segment VIII; female with tergo and sternum VIII with rod-like structure and male genitalia with few teeth on the sternite process on segment X. The current subgeneric classification was validated by our results. The clades representing the subgenera Psorophora, Grabhamia and Janthinosoma were supported by four, three and two synapomorphies respectively. However, within Grabhamia and Janthinosoma, internal polytomies were observed leaving the internal evolutionary relationships unresolved.
Palabras clave: Aedini, cladistica, mosquitos, Mansoniini, morfología.
Disciplina: Sistemática.
Grupo taxonómico: Insectos Culicidae.
Systematics of Sedges
A postdoctoral research position is available through an NSF-funded Systematics project on the systematics and evolution of chromosome number and genome size in Carex subgenus Vignea (Cyperaceae).
