Comparison of a multiplex PCR with DNA barcoding for identification of container breeding mosquito species.

Background: Identification of mosquitoes greatly relies on morphological specification. Since some species cannot be distinguished reliably by morphological methods, it is important to incorporate molecular techniques into the diagnostic pipeline. DNA barcoding using Sanger sequencing is currently widely used for identification of mosquito species.

A citizen science report-Tiger mosquitoes (Aedes albopictus) in allotment gardens in Graz, Styria, Austria.

Aedes albopictus, the Asian tiger mosquito, is an invasive species not native to Europe. Due to its ability to transmit pathogens, such as dengue, chikungunya and Zika viruses, Ae. albopictus is considered a major health threat.

Parasites of firebugs in Austria with focus on the "micro"-diversity of the cosmopolitan trypanosomatid Leptomonas pyrrhocoris.

In this work, we investigated parasites of the firebug Pyrrhocoris apterus in Austria and demonstrated that in addition to the extensively studied Leptomonas pyrrhocoris, it can also be infected by Blastocrithidia sp. and by a mermithid, which for the first time has been characterized using molecular methods. This diversity can be explained by the gregarious lifestyle, as well as the coprophagous and cannibalistic behavior of the insect hosts that makes them susceptible to various parasites.

Quality of MALDI-TOF mass spectra in routine diagnostics: results from an international external quality assessment including 36 laboratories from 12 countries using 47 challenging bacterial strains.

Objectives: Matrix assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry (MS) is a widely used method for bacterial species identification. Incomplete databases and mass spectral quality (MSQ) still represent major challenges. Important proxies for MSQ are the number of detected marker masses, reproducibility, and measurement precision.