Suchergebnisse

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Genetic diversity of livestock is vitally important as it enables the adaptation of future populations to changing environments. Therefore, preserving a sufficiently large genetic diversity is key. However, for many local cattle populations, little is known about their genetic diversity such as inbreeding level, effective size etc. We studied the genetic diversity of two local Belgian red cattle populations (Belgian Red and Belgian White Red cattle) using state-of-the-art genomic techniques. These tools assessed diversity at the population and individual level, and allowed the positioning of these two breeds in an international context of 52 other (European) cattle breeds. Accordingly, we contribute to the general knowledge of European red cattle, and more specifically we help the breeders, breed organization and the government to manage the genetic diversity of both breeds. ABSTRACT: Genetic diversity is increasingly important for researchers and society. Small and local populations deserve more attention especially, as they may harbor important characteristics. Moreover, small populations are at greater risk and their genetic management is often more challenging. Likewise, European red cattle populations are threatened, as they are outcompeted by more specialized cattle breeds. In this study, we investigate the genetic diversity of two local Belgian red cattle breeds: Belgian Red and Belgian White Red cattle. A total of 270 animals were genotyped via medium density SNP arrays. Genetic diversity was assessed using runs of homozygosity screening, effective population size estimation and F(st) analyses. Genomic inbreeding coefficients based on runs of homozygosity were estimated at 7.0% for Belgian Red and 6.1% for Belgian White Red cattle, and both populations had a low effective population size (68 and 86, respectively). PCA, F(st) and admixture analyses revealed the relationship to 52 other international breeds, where they were closest related to some Belgian, French, Scandinavian and Dutch ...

The Albertine Rift harbours a highly diverse flora with numerous endemic species. An important component of the forestunderstorey is the herbaceous genusImpatiens. Fieldwork in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda as well asmorphological studies indicated that the Albertine Rift endemicImpatiens purpureoviolacearepresents a species complex. We ana-lyzed the hidden diversity of the complex using morphological and molecular data supplemented by herbarium studies. We found thattheImpatiens purpureoviolaceacomplex can be divided into morphologically and phylogenetically well characterized clades contain-ing ten species and a natural hybrid. We describe all of these species, provide a species key and analyze their evolutionary history.BesideImpatiens purpureoviolaceaandI. gesneroidea, the already describedI. urundiensisis resurrected from synonymy. Two va-rieties,Impatiens purpureoviolaceavar.longicalcarataandI. gesneroideavar.superglabraare raised to species status, and five newspecies (Impatiens elwiraurzulae,I. lotteri,I. ludewigii,I. lutzmannii,I. versicolor) and a new natural hybrid (I. ×troupinii) are de-scribed. Within the mostly insect-pollinated species of the clade, two bird-pollinated species (Impatiens gesneroidea,I. super-glabra) evolved independently. The clade split from its sister taxon in the Pliocene and started diversifying during the Pliocene/Pleistocene transition in parallel to an increased mountain uplifting and volcanic activity in the Albertine Rift. It further diversifiedduring the Pleistocene, likely due to the changes in forest cover and connectivity induced by climatic fluctuations. ; This is an open access article, available to all readers online, published under a creative commons licensing (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Tropical forests represent vast carbon stocks and continue to be key carbon sinks and buffer climate changes. The international policy constructed several mechanisms aiming at conservation and sustainable use of these forests. Illegal logging is an important threat of forests, especially in the tropics. Several laws and regulations have been set up to combat illegal timber trade. Despite significant enforcement efforts of these regulations, illegal logging continues to be a serious problem and impacts for the functioning of the forest ecosystem and global biodiversity in the tropics. Microscopic analysis of wood samples and the use of conventional plant DNA barcodes often do not allow to distinguish closely-related species. The use of novel molecular technologies could make an important contribution for the identification of tree species. In this study, we used high-throughput sequencing technologies and bioinformatics tools to obtain the complete de-novo chloroplast genome of 62 commercial African timber species using the genome skimming method. Then, we performed a comparative genomic analysis that revealed new candidate genetic regions for the discrimination of closely-related species. We concluded that genome skimming is a promising method for the development of plant genetic markers to combat illegal logging activities supporting CITES, FLEGT and the EU Timber Regulation. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Aim Crop wild relatives (CWR) are an essential source of genetic material for the improvement of certain traits in related crop species. Despite their importance, increasing public, scientific and political support, large gaps exist in the amount of genetic material collected and conserved of many CWR. Here, we construct a dataset on the distribution of wild banana species (Musa spp.) and assess their risk and conservation status. We deal with the following questions: (a) What areas are potentially suitable for wild banana species? (b) How much of the wild banana diversity is currently at risk or insufficiently conserved ex and in situ? Location Native distribution area of wild banana species, ranging from the north-eastern states of India to north-eastern Australia. Methods We assessed the potential environmental range of wild species using a species distribution modelling approach with MaxEnt. Extinction risk was evaluated following IUCN criterion B, and the ex and in situ conservation status was assessed using an indicator for biodiversity and sustainable development targets. Results We found that 11 out of 59 assessed species can be considered as vulnerable and nine as endangered. Highest species richness was found along the border of south China and northern Vietnam, in the north-eastern states of India and on the Malayan peninsula. Our distribution modelling approach indicates that the northern Indo-Burmese region has the highest environmental suitability for most wild banana species and that lowland rain forests in general are highly suitable for bananas. Assessment of in and ex situ conservation status indicates that 56 out of 59 assessed species are currently insufficiently conserved ex situ and that 49 are of high priority for further conservation. Additional in situ conservation is of high priority for six species and of medium priority for 40 species. Main conclusions To date, little of the banana CWR are sufficiently conserved both in and ex situ.

Aim: Crop wild relatives (CWR) are an essential source of genetic material for the improvement of certain traits in related crop species. Despite their importance, increasing public, scientific and political support, large gaps exist in the amount of genetic material collected and conserved of many CWR. Here, we construct a dataset on the distribution of wild banana species (Musa spp.) and assess their risk and conservation status. We deal with the following questions: (a) What areas are potentially suitable for wild banana species? (b) How much of the wild banana diversity is currently at risk or insufficiently conserved ex and in situ? Location: Native distribution area of wild banana species, ranging from the northeastern states of India to north-eastern Australia. Methods: We assessed the potential environmental range of wild species using a species distribution modelling approach with MaxEnt. Extinction risk was evaluated following IUCN criterion B, and the ex and in situ conservation status was assessed using an indicator for biodiversity and sustainable development targets. Results: We found that 11 out of 59 assessed species can be considered as vulnerable and nine as endangered. Highest species richness was found along the border of south China and northern Vietnam, in the north-eastern states of India and on the Malayan peninsula. Our distribution modelling approach indicates that the northern Indo-Burmese region has the highest environmental suitability for most wild banana species and that lowland rain forests in general are highly suitable for bananas. Assessment of in and ex situ conservation status indicates that 56 out of 59 assessed species are currently insufficiently conserved ex situ and that 49 are of high priority for further conservation. Additional in situ conservation is of high priority for six species and of medium priority for 40 species. Main conclusions: To date, little of the banana CWR are sufficiently conserved both in and ex situ.

High value commodities such as spices suffer from occasional contaminations of both chemical and biological origin. Consequently, quality control and safety monitoring has become a pressing issue for the spice industry. Two recent independent studies showed that at least one third of the analyzed cumin and green anise spice seeds samples surpassed the by the European Union recently established threshold value for toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) and their corresponding N-oxides (PANOs). These heterocyclic secondary plant metabolites are produced by a large number of different plant families. In those spice seeds, it was found by means of DNA metabarcoding, that predominant contamination was due to the presence of herbal material from the Heliotropium genus (Boraginaceae). Unfortunately, the use of this specific type of DNA-based identification remains controversial for the majority of the official instances and preference is still given to the use of more tangible classical approaches, including microscopy and chemical analysis. However, these methodologies often suffer from inherent drawbacks. Here we demonstrate that at least for spice seeds, a combinatory approach of microscopy, chemical analysis and classical DNA barcoding of the isolated contaminants using the matK and trnH-psbA loci, provides qualitative and quantitative information on the amount of plant material responsible for the contaminations and the extent of the contamination. The generated data also demonstrates that the presence of a very limited number of Heliotropium sp. seeds in a standard commercially available canister is sufficient to surpass the allowed threshold value, illustrating once more the importance of weed control.