The abuse of antibiotics usage in bird industry has resulted in the emerging antibiotic resistant Enterococci worldwide which has posed a threat clinically to human health. The present study was to screen and identify the potential virulence agents in antibiotic resistance E. faecalis in bird industry in Borneo. Enterococcus bacteria collected from the birds’ faeces and indoor air inside ten birdhouses were identified to species level and their antibiotic resistance was checked using antibiotic susceptibility discs. Specific primers using PCR assay were intended for the detection of four potential virulence genes (ace, AS, efaA, gelE). Out of the thirty-seven Enterococci faecal bacteria, the prevailing bacteria found were Enterococcus qallinacum (51%), Enterococcus faecalis (35%) and Enterococcus harae (8%). The airborne bacteria were reported as Enterococcus faecalis (5%) and Enterococcus qallinacum (1%). Twenty-seven percent of isolates were reported to have Multiple Antibiotic Resistance (MAR) index ≥ 0.2 with 9 distinct resistance patterns formed. E. faecalis showed higher resistance to vancomycin. Virulence genes were successfully reported in the 15 E. faecalis isolates. Sixty-seven percent of isolates were detected positive for four virulence genes, 27% possessed three (AS, efaA, gelE) genes and 6% possessed two (ace, AS) genes. Antibiotic resistance and virulence genes detection were significantly correlated. These virulence genes or antibiotic resistance genes were important in the pathogenesis of E. faecalis infections.
Honey quality is the main criterion used for evaluating honey production in the stingless bee Heterotrigona itama, and it is correlated with the plant species consumed as its main diet. The objective of this study was to obtain the metabarcode data from 12 populations of H. itama species throughout Malaysia (Borneo and Peninsular Malaysia) using the trnL marker. A total of 262 species under 70 families and five phyla of plants were foraged by H. itama in the studied populations. Spermatophyta and Magnoliophyta were recorded as the two most abundant phyla foraged, at 55.95% and 32.39%, respectively. Four species, Garcinia oblongifolia, Muntingia calabura, Mallotus pellatus, and Pinus squamata, occurred abundantly and were consumed by H. itama in all the populations. These data are considered as a fundamental finding that is specific to the diet of H. itama for strategizing the management of the domestication process specifically in a mono-cropping system and in a netted structure. Thus, based on these findings, we recommend Momordica charantia, Melastoma sp., and Cucumis sativa as the best choices of food plant species to be planted and utilized by H. itama in meliponiculture.
*Three Bornean pitcher plant species, Nepenthes lowii, N. rajah and N. macrophylla, produce modified pitchers that 'capture' tree shrew faeces for nutritional benefit. Tree shrews (Tupaia montana) feed on exudates produced by glands on the inner surfaces of the pitcher lids and defecate into the pitchers. *Here, we tested the hypothesis that pitcher geometry in these species is related to tree shrew body size by comparing the pitcher characteristics with those of five other 'typical' (arthropod-trapping) Nepenthes species. *We found that only pitchers with large orifices and lids that are concave, elongated and oriented approximately at right angles to the orifice capture faeces. The distance from the tree shrews' food source (that is, the lid nectar glands) to the front of the pitcher orifice precisely matches the head plus body length of T. montana in the faeces-trapping species, and is a function of orifice size and the angle of lid reflexion. *Substantial changes to nutrient acquisition strategies in carnivorous plants may occur through simple modifications to trap geometry. This extraordinary plant-animal interaction adds to a growing body of evidence that Nepenthes represents a candidate model for adaptive radiation with regard to nitrogen sequestration strategies.
Platanthera is one of the largest genera of temperate orchids in the Holarctic and exemplifies a lineage that has adaptively radiated into diverse habitats within North America, Asia, Europe, North Africa, Borneo, and Sarawak. Major centers of diversity in this genus are North America and eastern Asia. Despite its diversity, a thorough phylogenetic hypothesis for the genus is lacking because no studies have yet sampled taxa exhaustively or developed a robust molecular toolkit. While there is strong evidence that suggests monophyly of subgenus Limnorchis, most taxa in this group have not been included in a phylogenetic analysis. In this study, we developed a new toolkit for Platanthera consisting of genomic information from 617 low-copy nuclear loci. Using a targeted enrichment approach, we collected high-throughput sequence data in 23 accessions of nine of the 12 diploid species of subgenus Limnorchis and outgroup species across Platanthera. A maximum likelihood analysis resolved a strongly supported monophyletic clade for subgenus Limnorchis. Ancestral biogeographic reconstruction indicated that subgenus Limnorchis originated in western North America ca. 3-4.5 Mya from an ancestor that was widespread in western North America and eastern Asia and subsequently diversified in western North America, followed by dispersal of some species to eastern North America. Our results indicate complex biogeographic connections between Asia and North America, and therefore it suggests that Platanthera is a suitable system to test biogeographic hypotheses over time and space in the Holarctic. Our results are also expected to facilitate further study of diversification and biogeographic spread across Platanthera and lay the groundwork for understanding independent origins, biogeography, and morphological diversification of polyploid species within subgenus Limnorchis.
Tropical ectotherms are generally believed to be more vulnerable to global heating than temperate species. Currently, however, we have insufficient knowledge of the thermoregulatory physiology of equatorial tropical mammals, particularly of small diurnal mammals, to enable similar predictions. In this study, we measured the resting metabolic rates (via oxygen consumption) of wild-caught lesser treeshrews (Tupaia minor, order Scandentia) over a range of ambient temperatures. We predicted that, similar to other treeshrews, T. minor would exhibit more flexibility in body temperature regulation and a wider thermoneutral zone compared with other small mammals because these thermoregulatory traits provide both energy and water savings at high ambient temperatures. Basal metabolic rate was on average
1.03 ± 0.10
mL O2 h-1 g-1, which is within the range predicted for a 65-g mammal. We calculated the lower critical temperature of the thermoneutral zone at 31.0°C (95% confidence interval: 29.3°-32.7°C), but using metabolic rates alone, we could not determine the upper critical temperature at ambient temperatures as high as 36°C. The thermoregulatory characteristics of lesser treeshrews provide a means of saving energy and water at temperatures well in excess of their current environmental temperatures. Our research highlights the knowledge gaps in our understanding of the energetics of mammals living in high-temperature environments, specifically in the equatorial tropics, and questions the purported lack of variance in the upper critical temperatures of the thermoneutral zone in mammals, emphasizing the importance of further research in the tropics.
The tropical rainforests of Sundaland are a global biodiversity hotspot increasingly threatened by human activities. While parasitic insects are an important component of the ecosystem, their diversity and parasite-host relations are poorly understood in the tropics. We investigated parasites of passerine birds, the chewing lice of the speciose genus MyrsideaWaterston, 1915 (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae) in a natural rainforest community of Malaysian Borneo. Based on morphology, we registered 10 species of lice from 14 bird species of six different host families. This indicated a high degree of host specificity and that the complexity of the system could be underestimated with the potential for cryptic lineages/species to be present. We tested the species boundaries by combining morphological, genetic and host speciation diversity. The phylogenetic relationships of lice were investigated by analyzing the partial mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) and the nuclear elongation factor alpha (EF-1α) genes sequences of the species. This revealed a monophyletic group of Myrsidea lineages from seven hosts of the avian family Pycnonotidae, one host of Timaliidae and one host of Pellorneidae. However, species delimitation methods supported the species boundaries hypothesized by morphological studies and confirmed that four species of Myrsidea are not single host specific. Cophylogenetic analysis by both distance-based test ParaFit and event-based method Jane confirmed overall congruence between the phylogenies of Myrsidea and their hosts. In total we recorded three cospeciation events for 14 host-parasite associations. However only one host-parasite link (M. carmenae and their hosts Terpsiphone affinis and Hypothymis azurea) was significant after the multiple testing correction in ParaFit. Four new species are described: Myrsidea carmenaesp.n. ex Hypothymis azurea and Terpsiphone affinis, Myrsidea franciscaesp.n. ex Rhipidura javanica, Myrsidea ramonisp.n. ex Copsychus malabaricus stricklandii, and Myrsidea victoriaesp.n. ex. Turdinus sepiarius.
The upshot of blood pressure relies on the quantity and frequency of caffeine intake and on the rate of caffeine metabolism. This study aimed to investigate the effect of coffee consumption on blood pressure among frequent and non-frequent drinkers in rural and urban area of Kota Kinabalu. A total of 168 participants (Mean age = 26.52 ± 6.33 years; female = 50%; weight = 61.35 ± 12.52 kg; height = 163.37±7.70 cm; diploma holder = 45.2%) were recruited. Questionnaires consisting of socio-demography (5 items), caffeine intake frequency (2 items) and knowledge on coffee, blood pressure and effect to human health (10 items) were distributed. Blood pressure (BP) was taken before coffee consumption and after 30th, 60th, 90th and 120th minutes. SPSS version 24 were employed for statistical analysis. Frequent drinkers displayed significantly higher BP on the 90th (p=0.015) and 120th (p
Abstracts For The 1st International Borneo Healthcare And Public Health Conference And 4th Borneo Tropical Medicine And Infectious Disease Congress. Held at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia On 3rd-5th September 2019
Introduction: Cancer is a major public health problem and the third leading cause of death in Malaysia. Ovarian cancers are the fifth most common cancer among women in Peninsular Malaysia. Our aim is to assess the risk factors in healthy young adult female students from UMS and will act as an input for further prevention of ovarian cancer. Methods: Cross sectional, questionnaire-based study was done on total 278 Medical and Nursing students from Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and received the answers based on genetic assessment of ovarian cancers whether gives positive history of ovarian cancers in first degree, second degree and third-degree relatives. The life-time risk of a woman who has a first degree relative with ovarian cancer is five percent (the average woman’s lifetime risk is 1.4 percent). Results: Assessing the hereditary risk factor, total 1.8% gives positive results for ovarian cancer in first degree relatives. The lifetime risk of ovarian cancer among female mutation carriers was 39-46% for BRCA1 and 12-20% for BRCA2 mutation carriers. In our study, regarding physical activity,63.7% is not meeting with WHO recommendation for Metabolic Equivalent Task (MET) and remaining 36.3% meets WHO recommendation. By using International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPQA)Score Protocol, only 2.6 % of Medical students showed Health Enhancing Physical Activity (HEPA) active,36.4 % showed minimally active and 60.9% showed inactive. Among nursing students only 5.5% showed HEPA active, 35.4% showed minimally active and 59.1% are inactive. Conclu-sion: Primary prevention through behavioural and lifestyle modification is a cost-effective means of preventing the large burden cancer has on societies world-wide.
This data article provides population frequencies for 21 autosomal and two sex determining short tandem repeat (STR) loci in unrelated Kedayan individuals. This article is related to the research paper entitled "Forensic parameters and ancestral fraction in the Kedayan population inferred using 21 autosomal STR loci" [1] where these same data were subjected to ancestry and forensic analyses. We have collected 200 blood samples consisting of 128 male and 72 female volunteer representatives from Kedayan people residing in various parts of Borneo. All 23 STR loci were simultaneously amplified using Globalfiler™ Express PCR and amplicons were separated using an ABI 3500xl Genetic Analyzer. The STR allele calls at each locus were called using GeneMapperⓇ ID-X Software v1.4, while several algorithms in Arlequin software version 3.5 were used to estimate Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) and linkage disequilibrium (LD) between pairs of STR loci.
Dengue is a mosquito-borne disease caused by virus and found mostly in urban and semi-urban areas, in many regions of the world. Female Aedes mosquitoes, which usually bite during daytime, spread the disease. This flu-like disease may progress to severe dengue and cause fatality. A generic reaction-diffusion model for transmission of mosquito-borne diseases was proposed and formulated. The motivation is to explore the ability of the generic model to reproduce observed dengue cases in Borneo, Malaysia. Dengue prevalence in four districts in Borneo namely Kuching, Sibu, Bintulu and Miri are compared with simulations results obtained from the temporal and spatio-temporal generic model respectively. Random diffusion of human and mosquito populations are taken into account in the spatio-temporal model. It is found that temporal simulations closely resemble the general behavior of actual prevalence in the three locations except for Bintulu. The recovery rate in Bintulu district is found to be the lowest among the districts, suggesting a different dengue serotype may be present. From observation, the temporal generic model underestimates the recovery rate in comparison to the spatio-temporal generic model.
Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB) is the ninth leading cause of mortality in the world while it is the most prevalent infection which is ranked abolve HIV/AIDS. In Malaysia, tuberculosis is still a public health problem. Sabah State on Malaysian Borneo had 20-30% of total TB cases of the country. In Sabah, case notification rate of almost 200 per 100,000 population was still present in the last 10 years. Hotspots are defined as TB notification rate more than 100/100.000 in a district or TB notification rate more than 100/100,000 in the squatters’ area. In this study, cycle threshold (ct) values in GeneXpertMTB/RIF (Xpert) were tried to be correlated with growth in Mycobacterim growth indicator tubes (MGIT) by measurement of time to detection (TTD). Methods: Sputum samples from six hotspots of Kota Kinabalu were studied by Xpert as well as MGIT culture after processing of sputum samples. The correlation between Mean ct value of Xpert and TTD in MGIT was analysed by using IBM SPSS Statistic 25 and the statistical test used was Pearson Correlation test. Results: The results of Xpert indicated 35 of 204 sputum samples were pos-itive whereas only one sample was rifampicin resistant. The mean ct values were very low, low and medium in all the hotspots with sputum from one hotspot showed medium ct values predominantly. The sputum from remaining hotspots showed mainly very low and low ct values. MGIT results showed no growth in five samples with two very low, two low and one medium mean ct values. Conclusion: The finding indicated that there were correlations be-tween mean ct values of Xpert and TTD in MGIT with a few exceptions.
The cavity-nesting honeybee Apis nuluensis inhabits only the highlands of Mount Kinabalu of Sabah, Borneo Island. The mitochondrial genome is a circular molecule of approximately 1.6 kb that includes 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, two rRNA genes, and one AT-rich control region. The average AT content was 84.5%. The start codons ATC, ATG, and ATT were found in one, three, and nine genes, respectively, whereas the stop codon TAA was observed in all genes. The phylogenetic relationship, inferred using 13 PCGs, was consistent with that reported in previous studies that predicted a sister taxon relationship between A. nuluensis and A. cerana.
Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) and Charles Darwin (1809-1882) are honored as the founders of modern evolutionary biology. Accordingly, much attention has focused on their relationship, from their independent development of the principle of natural selection to the receipt by Darwin of Wallace's essay from Ternate in the spring of 1858, and the subsequent reading of the Wallace and Darwin papers at the Linnean Society on 1 July 1858. In the events of 1858 Wallace and Darwin are typically seen as central players, with Darwin's friends Charles Lyell (1797-1875) and Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911) playing supporting roles. This narrative has resulted in an under-appreciation of a more central role for Charles Lyell as both Wallace's inspiration and foil. The extensive anti-transmutation arguments in Lyell's landmark Principles of Geology were taken as the definitive statement on the subject. Wallace, in his quest to solve the mystery of species origins, engaged with Lyell's arguments in his private field notebooks in a way that is concordant with his engagement with Lyell in the 1855 and 1858 papers. I show that Lyell was the object of Wallace's Sarawak Law and Ternate papers through a consideration of the circumstances that led Wallace to send his Ternate paper to Darwin, together with an analysis of the material that Wallace drew upon from the Principles. In this view Darwin was, ironically, intended for a supporting role in mediating Wallace's attempted dialog with Lyell.
According to geological history, Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo formed at different times and were once connected during Quaternary glaciations. To determine how this history has influenced phylogeography, our study examined the population genetic structure of the tropical freshwater gastropod Melanoides tuberculata across Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo using the sequences from mitochondrial DNA 16S rRNA and cytochrome oxidase subunit I genes (1168 bp). In total, 104 specimens were collected from seventeen populations. All mtDNA haplotypes were identified as belonging to two highly divergent lineages, and these lineages were almost allopatric in their distributions. Our study found that the freshwater fauna in Malaysia might be divided into four regions: northeast Peninsular Malaysia, northwest Peninsular Malaysia, south Peninsular Malaysia, and Borneo. The phylogeography of M. tuberculata in Malaysia was shaped by the landforms of Peninsular Malaysia and by the paleo-river systems in the Sunda continental shelf. In addition, our study found that these two lineages in Malaysia have invaded the globe. These results suggest that Malaysia is located in important shipping lanes throughout the world, and the populations of M. tuberculate might be widely distributed throughout the world by shipping.
Vatica mangachapoi is a tree up to 20 m tall with white resinous. It is distributed in China (Hainan province), Indonesia, Malaysia (N Borneo), Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. It grows in forests on hills and mountain slopes below 700 metres. Its durable wood is used for making boats and building bridges and houses. It has been ranked as a VU (Vulnerable) species in China. Here we report and characterize the complete plastid genome sequence of V. mangachapoi in an effort to provide genomic resources useful for promoting its conservation and phylogenetic research. The complete plastome is 151,538 bp in length and contains the typical structure and gene content of angiosperm plastome, including two Inverted Repeat (IR) regions of 23,921 bp, a Large Single-Copy (LSC) region of 83,587 bp and a Small Single-Copy (SSC) region of 20,109 bp. The plastome contains 114 genes, consisting of 80 unique protein-coding genes, 30 unique tRNA gene, and 4 unique rRNA genes. The overall A/T content in the plastome of V. mangachapoi is 62.80%. The phylogenetic analysis indicated that V. mangachapoi and V. odorata is closely related and as an independent branch in Malvales in our study. The complete plastome sequence of V. mangachapoi will provide a useful resource for the conservation genetics of this species and for the phylogenetic studies for Vatica.
Present study investigates the genetic diversity and genetic distribution of the longtail tuna Thunnus tonggol collected from east Malaysia (Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak) based on mitochondrial DNA D-loop sequence analysis. 58 fish samples were obtained, specifically from Kota Kinabalu, KK (n = 22), Miri, MR (n=20) and Bintulu, BT (n = 17). DNA template was isolated using the salt extraction method. Final length of 404 base pair (bp) D-loop sequences revealed 52 haplotypes that comprise of 77 variable sites (38 of parsimony informative and 39 singleton). A total of 20 haplotypes were found in KK, 19 haplotypes in MR and 16 haplotypes in BT. Molecular diversity indices revealed high haplotype diversity and low nucleotide diversity in all populations; KK (h = 0.9913 ± 0.0165, π = 0.00239 ± 0.0127), MR (h = 0.9942 ± 0.0193, π = 0.0226 ± 0.0121) and BT (h = 0.9926 ± 0.0230, π = 0.0196 ± 0.0171). Population comparison pairwise FST show that KK and BT were significantly genetically differentiated. The result from this study will be beneficial for fisheries management and also to provide information on the population genetics of T. tonggol in East Malaysian waters.
Deforestation precipitates spillover of enzootic, vector-borne viruses into humans, but specific mechanisms for this effect have rarely been investigated. Expansion of oil palm cultivation is a major driver of deforestation. Here, we demonstrate that mosquito abundance decreased over ten stepwise distances from interior forest into conterminous palm plantations in Borneo. Diversity in interior plantation narrowed to one species, Aedes albopictus, a potential bridge vector for spillover of multiple viruses. A. albopictus was equally abundant across all distances in forests, forest-plantation edge, and plantations, while A. niveus, a known vector of sylvatic dengue virus, was found only in forests. A. albopictus collections were significantly female-biased in plantation but not in edge or forest. Our data reveal that the likelihood of encountering any mosquito is greater in interior forest and edge than plantation, while the likelihood of encountering A. albopictus is equivalent across the gradient sampled from interior plantation to interior forest.
The application of metabarcoding to environmental and invertebrate-derived DNA (eDNA and iDNA) is a new and increasingly applied method for monitoring biodiversity across a diverse range of habitats. This approach is particularly promising for sampling in the biodiverse humid tropics, where rapid land-use change for agriculture means there is a growing need to understand the conservation value of the remaining mosaic and degraded landscapes. Here we use iDNA from blood-feeding leeches (Haemadipsa picta) to assess differences in mammalian diversity across a gradient of forest degradation in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. We screened 557 individual leeches for mammal DNA by targeting fragments of the 16S rRNA gene and detected 14 mammalian genera. We recorded lower mammal diversity in the most heavily degraded forest compared to higher quality twice logged forest. Although the accumulation curves of diversity estimates were comparable across these habitat types, diversity was higher in twice logged forest, with more taxa of conservation concern. In addition, our analysis revealed differences between the community recorded in the heavily logged forest and that of the twice logged forest. By revealing differences in mammal diversity across a human-modified tropical landscape, our study demonstrates the value of iDNA as a noninvasive biomonitoring approach in conservation assessments.
Introduction: Good visual acuity (VA) coupled with the ability to discriminate colours and having a sufficiently wide field of view are factors needed for safe driving. This study aimed to determine the types of colour vision deficiency (CVD) among failed candidates for driving license and to identify the accuracy of the Road transport Department (RTD) screening tests in detecting those who have poor VA and CVD in Sabah.
Methods: A cross-sectional study on the patient’s records of all failed candidates for the driving license that were referred for further assessment by an optometrist. This study was conducted at eight hospitals in Sabah from March to June 2019. Basic demographic data, distance VA, Ishihara test and Farnsworth-Munsell D15 test were collected. Descriptive statistics were used to summarise the results. All subjects referred with best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) 0.3 LogMAR were included.
Results: A total of 73 subjects (79% males and 21% females), age range from 16 to 61 years (mean 29±13 years) were recruited. Bajau, Dusun, Bugis and Kadazan were the major ethnic among the subjects. Mean VA on attendance was 0.1 ± 0.19 LogMAR, while BCVA was 0.0 ± 0.07 LogMAR. Thirty-six subjects (49%) were found to have CVD. The prevalence of CVD was more in males than females (45% vs 4%). Most of the CVD were deutans (25%) followed by protans (22%), no findings of tritan CVD In this study, 37 subjects (51%) passed the Ishihara test. These were the false-positive error of the RTD screening tests.
Conclusions: Hereditary red-green perceptive disorder was the commonest CVD in Sabah. The severity of CVD was not been evaluated in this study because it is best evaluated using Hardy Rand and Rittler (HRR) test. The false-positive results might be because of technical error or unfamiliar of using computerized colour vision test, especially among elderly candidates. Visual field screening might be considered in the future to ensure safe driving.
Keywords:visual acuity (VA), colour vision deficiency (CVD), driving license
NMRR Research ID: NMRR-19-1785-48811
The fish health status and parasitic infection in paddy fields are understudied in Borneo. This study was done to compare the prevalence and abundance of parasites on freshwater fishes in the upstream and downstream rivers of paddy fields. Parasite study on freshwater fishes was done by collecting live fish samples using ten minnow traps with baits at each site in Serian and Padawan, Sarawak, from October 2017 until March 2018. A total of 120 freshwater fishes were examined during this study period. Cold anaesthesia was applied on live samples prior to ectoparasite and endoparasite microscopic screening, which involved scraping of outer body mucous and removal of fish intestines, respectively. No ectoparasites were recovered from the fish samples. A total of 19 (15.83%) fishes from Cyprinids were infected with endoparasites. From these, 58 individuals of endoparasites were recovered. Two groups of parasites, namely Nematoda (Cucullanus sp.) and Trematoda (unidentified), were recovered from the fish intestines. From this study, there was a significant difference between the upstream fishes and downstream fishes in their endoparasite infection at both Triboh Village (p = 0.035) and Annah Rais Village (p = 1.445 × 10-6) using two samples t-test. The endoparasite abundance in fish was higher in the streams where there was less human disturbance. This study may serve as a baseline study on the parasitic infections of freshwater fishes in streams near paddy fields or other agricultural area in Sarawak.