The InBIO Barcoding Initiative Database: DNA barcodes of Portuguese moths.

Background: The InBIO Barcoding Initiative (IBI) Dataset - DS-IBILP08 contains records of 2350 specimens of moths (Lepidoptera species that do not belong to the superfamily Papilionoidea). All specimens have been morphologically identified to species or subspecies level and represent 1158 species in total. The species of this dataset correspond to about 42% of mainland Portuguese Lepidoptera species.

The InBIO barcoding initiative database: DNA barcodes of Iberian Trichoptera, documenting biodiversity for freshwater biomonitoring in a Mediterranean hotspot.

Background: The Trichoptera are an important component of freshwater ecosystems. In the Iberian Peninsula, 380 taxa of caddisflies are known, with nearly 1/3 of the total species being endemic in the region. A reference collection of morphologically identified Trichoptera specimens, representing 142 Iberian taxa, was constructed.

Using molecular diet analysis to inform invasive species management: A case study of introduced rats consuming endemic New Zealand frogs.

The decline of amphibians has been of international concern for more than two decades, and the global spread of introduced fauna is a major factor in this decline. Conservation management decisions to implement control of introduced fauna are often based on diet studies. One of the most common metrics to report in diet studies is Frequency of Occurrence (FO), but this can be difficult to interpret, as it does not include a temporal perspective.

Challenges for assessing vertebrate diversity in turbid Saharan water-bodies using environmental DNA.

The Sahara desert is the largest warm desert in the world and a poorly explored area. Small water-bodies occur across the desert and are crucial habitats for vertebrate biodiversity. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is a powerful tool for species detection and is being increasingly used to conduct biodiversity assessments.

Using a new RAD-sequencing approach to study the evolution of Micromeria in the Canary islands.

As found in other oceanic islands, the Canary Islands include a large number of single island endemic species, some of which form clades that are broadly distributed within the archipelago. The genus Micromeria (Lamiaceae), for instance, includes groups of morphologically similar but ecologically diverse species on each island, representing a great model to investigate niche shifts and adaptation within the Canary Archipelago. Previous attempts to reconstruct phylogenetic relationships within the genus did not lead to robust phylogenies, presumably due to introgression and/or incomplete lineage sorting.

Genetic structure of (Lamiaceae) in Tenerife, the imprint of geological history and hybridization on within-island diversification.

Geological history of oceanic islands can have a profound effect on the evolutionary history of insular flora, especially in complex islands such as Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Tenerife results from the secondary connection of three paleo-islands by a central volcano, and other geological events that further shaped it. This geological history has been shown to influence the phylogenetic history of several taxa, including genus (Lamiaceae).

Molecular phylogenetics of Micromeria (Lamiaceae) in the Canary Islands, diversification and inter-island colonization patterns inferred from nuclear genes.

Here we reconstruct the evolutionary history of Micromeria in the Canary Islands using eight nuclear markers. Our results show two centers of diversification for Micromeria, one in the eastern islands Gran Canaria and Lanzarote, the other in the western islands, Tenerife, La Palma and El Hierro. Suggested directions of inter-island colonization are the following: Gran Canaria to Lanzarote and La Gomera; Tenerife to La Palma (from the paleoisland of Teno), to El Hierro (from the younger, central part), and to La Gomera and Madeira (from the paleoislands).

Development of phylogenetic markers from single-copy nuclear genes for multi locus, species level analyses in the mint family (Lamiaceae).

The use of single copy nuclear markers is of increasing importance in plant phylogenetics. The generally higher level of variability compared to chloroplast DNA and the ability to use incongruence in a multilocus analysis to determine reticulation patterns makes these kinds of sequence based markers especially useful for species level investigations. However, the prevalence of gene duplication that results from the high frequency of polyploidization events during the evolution of higher plants can impede marker development especially for groups lacking model organisms.

Development of microsatellites in the Hawaiian endemic palm Pritchardia martii (Arecaceae) and their utility in congeners.

Premise Of The Study: Pritchardia (loulu palm) is the seventh largest flowering plant genus in the Hawaiian archipelago, and many species are of high conservation concern. The island radiation has produced many cryptic species complexes across fine ecological gradients. Microsatellite primers were optimized to investigate genetic diversity of Pritchardia martii (Gaudich.