A polydnaviral genome of Microplitis bicoloratus bracovirus and molecular interactions between the host and virus involved in NF-κB signaling.

Polydnaviruses (PDVs) play a critical role in altering host gene expression to induce immunosuppression. However, it remains largely unclear how PDV genes affect host genes. Here, the complete genome sequence of Microplitis bicoloratus bracovirus (MbBV), which is known to be an apoptosis inducer, was determined.

N-TERMINALLY ELONGATED SpliInx2 AND SpliInx3 REDUCE BACULOVIRUS-TRIGGERED APOPTOSIS VIA HEMICHANNEL CLOSURE.

The hemichannel and gap junction channel are major portals for the release of factors responsible for the effects of apoptotic cells on the spread of apoptosis to neighboring cells and apoptotic corpse clearance, typically by phagocytes. The N-terminal cytoplasmic domain in the connexins, gap junction proteins in vertebrate, has been implicated in regulating channel closure. However, little is known about how the hemichannel close responds to apoptotic signaling transduction leading to the reduction of neighboring cellular apoptosis in an invertebrate.

Genealogy and palaeodrainage basins in Yunnan Province: phylogeography of the Yunnan spiny frog, Nanorana yunnanensis (Dicroglossidae).

Historical drainage patterns adjacent to the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau differed markedly from those of today. We examined the relationship between drainage history and geographic patterns of genetic variation in the Yunnan spiny frog, Nanorana yunnanensis, using approximately 981 base pairs of mitochondrial DNA partial sequences from protein-coding genes ND1 and ND2, and intervening areas including complete tRNA(Ile), tRNA(Gln) and tRNA(Met). Two null hypotheses were tested: (i) that genetic patterns do not correspond to the development of drainage systems and (ii) that populations had been stable and not experienced population expansion, bottlenecking and selection.

Spiny frogs (Paini) illuminate the history of the Himalayan region and Southeast Asia.

Asian frogs of the tribe Paini (Anura: Dicroglossidae) range across several first-order tectono-morphological domains of the Cenozoic Indo-Asian collision that include the Tibetan Plateau, the Himalayas, and Indochina. We show how the tectonic events induced by the Indo-Asian collision affected the regional biota and, in turn, how the geological history of the earth can be viewed from a biological perspective. Our analysis of a concatenated dataset comprising four nuclear gene sequences of Paini revealed two main radiations, corresponding to the genera Nanorana (I) and Quasipaa (II).

Phylogeny of the Asian spiny frog tribe Paini (Family Dicroglossidae) sensu Dubois.

The anuran tribe Paini, family Dicroglossidae, is known in this group only from Asia. The phylogenetic relationships and often the taxonomic recognition of species are controversial. In order to stabilize the classification, we used approximately 2100 bp of nuclear (rhodopsin, tyrosinase) and mitochondrial (12S, 16S rRNA) DNA sequence data to infer the phylogenetic relationships of these frogs.