Phylogenomic insights into the diversity and evolution of Palearctic vipers.

Despite decades of molecular research, phylogenetic relationships in Palearctic vipers (genus Vipera) still essentially rely on a few loci, such as mitochondrial barcoding genes. Here we examined the diversity and evolution of Vipera with ddRAD-seq data from 33 representative species and subspecies. Phylogenomic analyses of ∼ 1.

A new rainfrog of the genus (Anura, Brachycephaloidea) from central and eastern Panama.

Substantial molecular and morphological character differences lead us to the description of a new species of the genus from the cloud forest of Cerro Chucantí, Maje Mountains, Darien Province, as well as from several other mountain ranges in eastern and central Panama. is a sister species to the allopatric group from northern Colombia with a mtDNA sequence divergence of > 4.4% at 16S and > 14.

Citizen science and online data: Opportunities and challenges for snake ecology and action against snakebite.

The secretive behavior and life history of snakes makes studying their biology, distribution, and the epidemiology of venomous snakebite challenging. One of the most useful, most versatile, and easiest to collect types of biological data are photographs, particularly those that are connected with geographic location and date-time metadata. Photos verify occurrence records, provide data on phenotypes and ecology, and are often used to illustrate new species descriptions, field guides and identification keys, as well as in training humans and computer vision algorithms to identify snakes.

A new subspecies of Zamenis hohenackeri (Strauch, 1873) (Serpentes: Colubridae) based on morphological and molecular data.

Based on morphological characteristics, two subspecies of the Transcaucasian rat snake (Zamenis hohenackeri) are currently recognized, namely Z. h. tauricus and Z.

Systematics of South American snail-eating snakes (Serpentes, Dipsadini), with the description of five new species from Ecuador and Peru.

A molecular phylogeny of the Neotropical snail-eating snakes (tribe Dipsadini) is presented including 43 (24 for the first time) of the 77 species, sampled for both nuclear and mitochondrial genes. Morphological and phylogenetic support was found for four new species of and one of , which are described here based on their unique combination of molecular, meristic, and color pattern characteristics. is designated as a junior subjective synonym of .

Molecular phylogeny of (Serpentes, Dipsadidae), with emphasis on Ecuadorian species and the description of three new taxa.

We present a molecular phylogeny of snake genus , with an improved taxon sampling that includes 30 of the 140 species currently recognized. The phylogenetic tree supports the existence of at least three new species in the Pacific lowlands and adjacent Andean slopes of the Ecuadorian Andes, which we describe here. A unique combination of molecular, meristic and color pattern characters support the validity of the new species.

Composition and natural history notes of the coastal snake assemblage from Northern Bahia, Brazil.

Information about the snake diversity and their natural history from the Atlantic forest domain in Brazil refer mostly to inland forests than to coastal region. Within the state of Bahia, this knowledge is concentrated to the southeastern coastal stretch. Herein we report on the diversity of snakes from the restinga, ombrophilous forest and anthropogenic environment from the northern Atlantic coast of Bahia.

A new species of Dactyloa from eastern Panama, with comments on other Dactyloa species present in the region.

Giant anoles of the genus Dactyloa have been considered to be represented in eastern Panama by six species. In this contribution, we describe a seventh species that is restricted to the Majé, San Blas, Darién, and Piedras-Pacora mountain ranges. The new species resembles D.

Revision of the genus Lepidoblepharis (Reptilia: Squamata: Sphaerodactylidae) in Central America, with the description of three new species.

Based on morphological and molecular data, we describe three new species of the genus Lepidoblepharis with granular dorsals from Panama (Lepidoblepharis emberawoundule sp. nov., Lepidoblepharis rufigularis sp.

Diversifying selection and color-biased dispersal in the asp viper.

Background: The presence of intraspecific color polymorphism can have multiple impacts on the ecology of a species; as a consequence, particular color morphs may be strongly selected for in a given habitat type. For example, the asp viper (Vipera aspis) shows a high level of color polymorphism. A blotched morph (cryptic) is common throughout its range (central and western Europe), while a melanistic morph is frequently found in montane populations, presumably for thermoregulatory reasons.

Two new fringe-limbed frogs of the genus Ecnomiohyla (Anura: Hylidae) from Panama.

Forest canopy-dwelling frogs are usually among the rarest anuran species observed in the neotropical forest, mainly because they fall outside of the scope of the standard search methods used by herpetologists. During field explorations undertaken in western and eastern Panama in recent years, we discovered two species belonging to the genus Ecnomiohyla, which showed significant differences in genetic distances (16S mtDNA gene) and morphological characteristics different from any known Ecnomiohyla species. The first specimen originates from the Serranía de Jingurudó, Darién province, southeastern Panamá, and is described herein as E.

Insulin regulates protein kinase CbetaII alternative splicing in multiple target tissues: development of a hormonally responsive heterologous minigene.

Cells respond to external signals like insulin to alter metabolic pathways in response to varying physiological environments. Insulin stimulates the protein kinase C beta (PKCbeta) isozymes and preferentially switches the expression to PKCbetaII isozyme, which is shown to have a crucial role in glucose uptake, cellular proliferation, and differentiation. We have developed an insulin-responsive PKCbetaII heterologous minigene to identify cis-elements in vivo in eukaryotes by cloning the PKCbetaII exon and its flanking intronic sequences into the splicing vector pSPL3.

The protein kinase C beta II exon confers mRNA instability in the presence of high glucose concentrations.

Previous studies showed that short term exposure of cells to high glucose destabilized protein kinase C (PKC) betaII mRNA, whereas PKCbetaI mRNA levels remained unaltered. Because PKCbeta mRNAs share common sequences other than the PKCbetaII exon encoding a different carboxyl terminus, we examined PKCbetaII mRNA for a cis-acting region that could confer glucose-induced destabilization. A beta-globin/growth hormone reporter con struct containing the PKCbetaII exon was transfected into human aorta and rat vascular smooth muscle cells (A10) to follow glucose-induced destabilization.

Phosphoinositide 3-kinase mediates protein kinase C beta II mRNA destabilization in rat A10 smooth muscle cell cultures exposed to high glucose.

High-glucose exposure down-regulates protein kinaseC beta II posttranscriptionally in rat and human vascular smooth muscle cells and contributes to increased cell proliferation. High-glucose-induced mRNA destabilization is specific for PKC beta II mRNA, while PKC beta I and other PKC mRNA are not affected. This study focused on whether glucose metabolism was required.