APOBEC1 (A1) proteins from lagomorphs and rodents have deaminase-dependent restriction activity against HIV-1, whereas human A1 exerts a negligible effect. To investigate these differences in the restriction of HIV-1 by A1 proteins, a series of chimeric proteins combining rabbit and human A1s was constructed. Homology models of the A1s indicated that their activities derive from functional domains that likely act in tandem through a dimeric interface. The C-terminal region containing the leucine-rich motif and the dimerization domains of rabbit A1 is important for its anti-HIV-1 activity. The A1 chimeras with strong anti-HIV-1 activity were incorporated into virions more efficiently than those without anti-HIV-1 activity, and exhibited potent DNA-mutator activity. Therefore, the C-terminal region of rabbit A1 is involved in both its packaging into the HIV-1 virion and its deamination activity against both viral cDNA and genomic RNA. This study identifies the novel molecular mechanism underlying the target specificity of A1.
Members of the sooty blotch and flyspeck (SBFS) complex are epiphytic fungi in the Ascomycota that cause economically damaging blemishes of apples worldwide. SBFS fungi are polyphyletic, but approx. 96% of SBFS species are in the Capnodiales. Evolutionary origins of SBFS fungi remain unclear, so we attempted to infer their origins by means of ancestral state reconstruction on a phylogenetic tree built utilizing genes for the nuc 28S rDNA (approx. 830 bp from near the 59 end) and the second largest subunit of RNA polymerase II (RPB2). The analyzed taxa included the well-known genera of SBFS as well as non-SBFS fungi from seven families within the Capnodiales. The non-SBFS taxa were selected based on their distinct ecological niches, including plant-parasitic and saprophytic species. The phylogenetic analyses revealed that most SBFS species in the Capnodiales are closely related to plant-parasitic fungi. Ancestral state reconstruction provided strong evidence that plant-parasitic fungi were the ancestors of the major SBFS lineages. Knowledge gained from this study may help to better understand the ecology and evolution of epiphytic fungi.
Mycobacterium abscessus group subsp., such as M. massiliense, M. abscessus sensu stricto and M. bolletii, are an environmental organism found in soil, water and other ecological niches, and have been isolated from respiratory tract infection, skin and soft tissue infection, postoperative infection of cosmetic surgery. To determine the unique genetic feature of M. massiliense, we sequenced the complete genome of M. massiliense type strain JCM 15300 (corresponding to CCUG 48898). Comparative genomic analysis was performed among Mycobacterium spp. and among M. abscessus group subspp., showing that additional ß-oxidation-related genes and, notably, the mammalian cell entry (mce) operon were located on a genomic island, M. massiliense Genomic Island 1 (MmGI-1), in M. massiliense. In addition, putative anaerobic respiration system-related genes and additional mycolic acid cyclopropane synthetase-related genes were found uniquely in M. massiliense. Japanese isolates of M. massiliense also frequently possess the MmGI-1 (14/44, approximately 32%) and three unique conserved regions (26/44; approximately 60%, 34/44; approximately 77% and 40/44; approximately 91%), as well as isolates of other countries (Malaysia, France, United Kingdom and United States). The well-conserved genomic island MmGI-1 may play an important role in high growth potential with additional lipid metabolism, extra factors for survival in the environment or synthesis of complex membrane-associated lipids. ORFs on MmGI-1 showed similarities to ORFs of phylogenetically distant M. avium complex (MAC), suggesting that horizontal gene transfer or genetic recombination events might have occurred within MmGI-1 among M. massiliense and MAC.
Matched MeSH terms: DNA, Bacterial; Sequence Analysis, DNA
The mitochondrial genome sequence of the ghost crab, Ocypode ceratophthalmus, is documented (GenBank accession number: LN611669) in this article. This is the first mitogenome for the family Ocypodidae and the second for the order Ocypodoidea. Ocypode ceratophthalmus has a mitogenome of 15,564 base pairs consisting of 13 protein-coding genes, two ribosomal subunit genes, 22 transfer RNAs and a non-coding AT-rich region. The base composition of the O. ceratophthalmus mitogenome is 35.78% for T, 19.36% for C, 33.73% for A and 11.13% for G, with an AT bias of 69.51% and the gene order is the typical arrangement for brachyuran crabs.
The growing concern about the effectiveness of reclamation strategies has motivated the evaluation of soil properties following reclamation. Recovery of belowground microbial community is important for reclamation success, however, the response of soil bacterial communities to reclamation has not been well understood. In this study, PCR-based 454 pyrosequencing was applied to compare bacterial communities in undisturbed soils with those in reclaimed soils using chronosequences ranging in time following reclamation from 1 to 20 year. Bacteria from the Proteobacteria, Chloroflexi, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, Planctomycetes and Bacteroidetes were abundant in all soils, while the composition of predominant phyla differed greatly across all sites. Long-term reclamation strongly affected microbial community structure and diversity. Initial effects of reclamation resulted in significant declines in bacterial diversity indices in younger reclaimed sites (1, 8-year-old) compared to the undisturbed site. However, bacterial diversity indices tended to be higher in older reclaimed sites (15, 20-year-old) as recovery time increased, and were more similar to predisturbance levels nearly 20 years after reclamation. Bacterial communities are highly responsive to soil physicochemical properties (pH, soil organic matter, Total N and P), in terms of both their diversity and community composition. Our results suggest that the response of soil microorganisms to reclamation is likely governed by soil characteristics and, indirectly, by the effects of vegetation restoration. Mixture sowing of gramineae and leguminosae herbage largely promoted soil geochemical conditions and bacterial diversity that recovered to those of undisturbed soil, representing an adequate solution for soil remediation and sustainable utilization for agriculture. These results confirm the positive impacts of reclamation and vegetation restoration on soil microbial diversity and suggest that the most important phase of microbial community recovery occurs between 15 and 20 years after reclamation.
Calamus palustris Griff. is an economically important dioecious rattan species in Southeast Asia. However, dioecy and onset of flowering at 3-4 years old render uncertainties in desired female:male seedling ratios to establish a productive seed orchard for this rattan species. We constructed a subtractive library for male floral tissue to understand the genetic mechanism for gender determination in C. palustris. The subtractive library produced 1536 clones with 1419 clones of high quality. Reverse Northern screening showed 313 clones with differential expression, and sequence analyses clustered them into 205 unigenes, including 32 contigs and 173 singletons. The subtractive library was further validated with reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis. Homology identification classified the unigenes into 12 putative functional proteins with 83% unigenes showing significant match to proteins in databases. Functional annotations of these unigenes revealed genes involved in male flower development, including MADS-box genes, pollen-related genes, phytohormones for flower development, and male flower organ development. Our results showed that the male floral genes may play a vital role in sex determination in C. palustris. The identified genes can be exploited to understand the molecular basis of sex determination in C. palustris.
The mitochondrial genome sequence of the Morton Bay bug, Thenus orientalis, is documented, which makes it the second mitogenome for species of the family Scyllaridae and the ninth for members of the superfamily Palinuroidae. Thenus orientalis has a mitogenome of 16,826 base pairs consisting of 13 protein-coding genes, 2 ribosomal subunit genes, 23 transfer RNAs, and a non-coding AT-rich region. The base composition of the T. orientalis mitogenome is 31.31% for T, 23.77% for C, 31.05% for A, and 13.87% for G, with an AT bias of 62.36%. In addition to a duplicated trnS1 and several other tRNA gene rearrangements, the mitogenome gene order has novel protein coding gene order with the nad6 and cob genes translocated as a block to a location downstream of the nad3 gene.
The complete mitochondrial genome of the swimming crab Thalamita crenata was obtained from a partial genome scan using the MiSeq sequencing system. The Thalamita crenata mitogenome has 15,787 base pairs (70% A+T content) made up of 13 protein-coding genes, 2 ribosomal subunit genes, 22 transfer RNAs, and a putative 897 bp non-coding AT-rich region. This Thalamita mitogenome sequence is the first for the genus and the eighth for the family Portunidae.
The mosquito Aedes albopictus is indigenous to Southeast Asian and is a vector for arbovirus diseases. Studies examining the population genetics structure of A. albopictus have been conducted worldwide; however, there are no documented reports on the population genetic structure of A. albopictus in Malaysia, particularly in Penang. We examined the population genetics of A. albopictus based on a 445-base pair segment of the mitochondrial DNA cytochrome oxidase 1 gene among 77 individuals from 9 localities representing 4 regions (Seberang Perai Utara, Seberang Perai Tengah, Northeast, and Southwest) of Penang. A total of 37 haplotypes were detected, including 28 unique haplotypes. The other 9 haplotypes were shared among various populations. These shared haplotypes reflect the weak population genetic structure of A. albopictus. The phylogenetic tree showed a low bootstrap value with no genetic structure, which was supported by minimum spanning network analysis. Analysis of mismatch distribution showed poor fit of equilibrium distribution. The genetic distance showed low genetic variation, while pairwise FST values showed no significant difference between all regions in Penang except for some localities. High haplotype diversity and low nucleotide diversity was observed for cytochrome oxidase 1 mtDNA. We conclude that there is no population genetic structure of A. albopictus mosquitoes in the Penang area.
For centuries, morphology-based fish identification has been applied without molecular evaluation. Many studies showed that specimens with a similar morphology are frequently found to be quite genetically distinct. One of the fish species that still remains taxonomically problematic is a commercial snapper species, Lutjanus johnii. Because of morphological ambiguities among local fish taxonomists in Malaysia, we examined the ability of the cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene to genetically examine the taxonomic status of L. johnii. A 626-base pair COI region was successfully amplified and aligned with conspecific sequences that were retrieved from GenBank. The phylogenetic tree obtained showed two major clusters; the first cluster consists of L. johnii from Straits of Malacca, Thailand, Australia, and China while the second cluster comprises L. johnii from China and India. The latter group showed sequence divergence greater than 3.5%. After observing this, we suspected that there might be a cryptic species between the South China Sea and Indian Ocean. This is the first molecular report concerning the commercial species of snapper, L. johnii, in Malaysia, which had only gained provisional recognition from morphological examination.
Two subspecies of cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis) are alleged to co-exist in the Philippines, M. f. philippensis in the north and M. f. fascicularis in the south. However, genetic differences between the cynomolgus macaques in the two regions have never been studied to document the propriety of their subspecies status. We genotyped samples of cynomolgus macaques from Batangas in southwestern Luzon and Zamboanga in southwestern Mindanao for 15 short tandem repeat (STR) loci and sequenced an 835 bp fragment of the mtDNA of these animals. The STR genotypes were compared with those of cynomolgus macaques from southern Sumatra, Singapore, Mauritius and Cambodia, and the mtDNA sequences of both Philippine populations were compared with those of cynomolgus macaques from southern Sumatra, Indonesia and Sarawak, Malaysia. We conducted STRUCTURE and PCA analyses based on the STRs and constructed a median joining network based on the mtDNA sequences. The Philippine population from Batangas exhibited much less genetic diversity and greater genetic divergence from all other populations, including the Philippine population from Zamboanga. Sequences from both Batangas and Zamboanga were most closely related to two different mtDNA haplotypes from Sarawak from which they are apparently derived. Those from Zamboanga were more recently derived than those from Batangas, consistent with their later arrival in the Philippines. However, clustering analyses do not support a sufficient genetic distinction of cynomolgus macaques from Batangas from other regional populations assigned to subspecies M. f. fascicularis to warrant the subspecies distinction M. f. philippensis.
The genus Labisia (Myrsinaceae) is a popular medicinal plant in Malaysia. We examined the genetic relationship among three varieties of L. pumila var. pumila, L. pumila var. alata, L. pumila var. lanceolata and Labisia paucifolia using an ISSR assay. Fifty-eight primers were tested, among which 18 gave reliable polymorphic banding patterns; these yielded 264 polymorphic markers. A similarity matrix was used to construct a dendrogram, and a principal component plot was developed to examine genetic relationships among varieties. Jaccard's similarity coefficient among species ranged from 0.09 to 0.14. At a similarity of 0.117%, species were divided into two main clusters. The mean value of the observed number of alleles, the effective number of alleles, mean Nei's gene diversity, and Shannon's information index were 1.98, 1.64, 0.38, and 0.57, respectively.
Matched MeSH terms: Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique*
Bats are important flagship species for biodiversity research; however, diversity in Southeast Asia is considerably underestimated in the current checklists and field guides. Incorporation of DNA barcoding into surveys has revealed numerous species-level taxa overlooked by conventional methods. Inclusion of these taxa in inventories provides a more informative record of diversity, but is problematic as these species lack formal description. We investigated how frequently documented, but undescribed, bat taxa are encountered in Peninsular Malaysia. We discuss whether a barcode library provides a means of recognizing and recording these taxa across biodiversity inventories. Tissue was sampled from bats trapped at Pasir Raja, Dungun Terengganu, Peninsular Malaysia. The DNA was extracted and the COI barcode region amplified and sequenced. We identified 9 species-level taxa within our samples, based on analysis of the DNA barcodes. Six specimens matched to four previously documented taxa considered candidate species but currently lacking formal taxonomic status. This study confirms the high diversity of bats within Peninsular Malaysia (9 species in 13 samples) and demonstrates how DNA barcoding allows for inventory and documentation of known taxa lacking formal taxonomic status.
Variable detection of human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA can result in misclassification of infection status, but the extent of misclassification has not been quantitatively evaluated.
The fungus-growing termite, Macrotermes gilvus (Hagen), an indigenous species from Southeast Asia distributed from Myanmar to Indonesia and the Philippines, offers great potential as an ecological model system to elucidate the effects of geography on gene flow within this region. We used next generation sequencing (Roche 454 pyrosequencing) to identify microsatellite markers from the genomic DNA of M. gilvus. A modest sequencing volume generated 34,122 reads, with 1,212 (3.6%) reads contains microsatellites with di-, tri-, tetra-, penta-, and hexa-nucleotide repeat motifs. Thirty-seven loci were selected for primer development and tested for polymorphism across 22 colonies of M. gilvus. Eleven loci were found to be polymorphic with 2-4 alleles per locus. Observed and expected heterozygosities ranged between 0.091-0.727 and 0.090-0.540, respectively. Cross taxa amplification was successful across a panel of four related termite species and four multiplex groups were designed for future population genetic studies. These markers will open new avenues for the study of phylogeography and population genetics of this fungus-growing termite. This study also has effectively demonstrated the use of 454 pyrosequencing for the rapid development of informative microsatellite markers from a termite genome.
Bactrocera dorsalis s.s. is a pestiferous tephritid fruit fly distributed from Pakistan to the Pacific, with the Thai/Malay peninsula its southern limit. Sister pest taxa, B. papayae and B. philippinensis, occur in the southeast Asian archipelago and the Philippines, respectively. The relationship among these species is unclear due to their high molecular and morphological similarity. This study analysed population structure of these three species within a southeast Asian biogeographical context to assess potential dispersal patterns and the validity of their current taxonomic status.
The fruit fly Bactrocera caudata is a pest species of economic importance in Asia. Its larvae feed on the flowers of Cucurbitaceae such as Cucurbita moschata. To-date it is distinguished from related species based on morphological characters. Specimens of B. caudata from Peninsular Malaysia and Indonesia (Bali and Lombok) were analysed using the partial DNA sequences of cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) and 16S rRNA genes. Both gene sequences revealed that B. caudata from Peninsular Malaysia was distinctly different from B. caudata of Bali and Lombok, without common haplotype between them. Phylogenetic analysis revealed two distinct clades, indicating distinct genetic lineage. The uncorrected 'p' distance for COI sequences between B. caudata of Malaysia-Thailand-China and B. caudata of Bali-Lombok was 5.65%, for 16S sequences from 2.76 to 2.99%, and for combined COI and 16S sequences 4.45 to 4.46%. The 'p' values are distinctly different from intraspecific 'p' distance (0-0.23%). Both the B. caudata lineages are distinctly separated from related species in the subgenus Zeugodacus - B. ascita, B. scutellata, B. ishigakiensis, B. diaphora, B. tau, B. cucurbitae, and B. depressa. Molecular phylogenetic analysis indicates that the B. caudata lineages are closely related to B. ascita sp. B, and form a clade with B. scutellata, B. ishigakiensis, B. diaphora and B. ascita sp. A. This study provides additional baseline for the phylogenetic relationships of Bactrocera fruit flies of the subgenus Zeugodacus. Both the COI and 16S genes could be useful markers for the molecular differentiation and phylogenetic analysis of tephritid fruit flies.
Malaysian arowana (dragonfish; Scleropages formosus) is an ancient osteoglossid fish from southeast Asia. Due to the high demand of the ornamental fish trade and because of habitat loss, the species is close to extinction. We isolated and characterized 10 polymorphic microsatellites of this species, using 5'-anchored PCR. The number of alleles at the 10 microsatellite loci ranged from 2 to 28, with a mean of 7.8/locus. The observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.03 to 0.93 (mean: 0.39), whereas the expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.03 to 0.94 (mean: 0.46). Seven microsatellites deviated from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, and three conformed to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and were in linkage equilibrium. These 10 novel microsatellites should facilitate studies of genetic diversity and population structure of arowana to help plan actions for the conservation of the indigenous Malaysian arowana.
Recent advances in microfluidic systems, particularly in the Micro Total Analysis System (μTAS) or Lab On a Chip (LOC), drive the current analysis tools and equipment towards miniaturization, rapid at-line testing and mobility. The state-of-the-art microfluidic technology targets a wider range but smaller volumes of analytes, making the analytical procedure relatively easier and faster. This trend together with faster electronics and modern instrumentation systems will make real-time and in situ analysis a definite possibility. This review focuses on microchip capillary electrophoresis with amperometric detection (MCE-AD) for the detection of DNA and other electroactive analytes. The problems associated with the microchip design, in particular the choice of materials and the configuration of electrodes are discussed thoroughly and solutions are proposed. Significant developments in the related areas are also covered and reviewed critically.
The most economically important form of aquaculture is fish farming, which is an industry that accounts for an ever increasing share of world fishery production. Molecular markers can be used to enhance the productivity of the aquaculture and fish industries to meet the increasing demand. Molecular markers can be identified via a DNA test regardless of the developmental stage, age or environmental challenges experienced by the organism. The application of 16s and cytochrome b markers has enabled rapid progress in investigations of genetic variability and inbreeding, parentage assignments, species and strain identification and the construction of high resolution genetic linkage maps for aquaculture fisheries. In this review, the advantages of principles and potential power tools of 16s and cytochrome b markers are discussed. Main findings in term of trend, aspects and debates on the reviewed issue made from the model of aquatic species for the benefit of aquaculture genomics and aquaculture genetics research are discussed. The concepts in this review are illustrated with various research examples and results that relate theory to reality and provide a strong review of the current status of these biotechnology topics.