Mastomys natalensis (Smith, 1834) as a natural host for Schistosoma haematobium (Bilharz, 1852) Weinland, 1858 x Schistosoma bovis Sonsino, 1876 introgressive hybrids.

Cercarial emission of schistosomes is a determinant in the transmission to the definitive host and constitutes a good marker to identify which definitive host is responsible for transmission, mainly in introgressive hybridization situations. Our goal was to test the hypothesis that micro-mammals play a role in Schistosoma haematobium, S. bovis, and/or S.

Mini-FLOTAC as an alternative, non-invasive diagnostic tool for Schistosoma mansoni and other trematode infections in wildlife reservoirs.

Background: Schistosomiasis and food-borne trematodiases are not only of major public health concern, but can also have profound implications for livestock production and wildlife conservation. The zoonotic, multi-host nature of many digenean trematodes is a significant challenge for disease control programmes in endemic areas. However, our understanding of the epidemiological role that animal reservoirs, particularly wild hosts, may play in the transmission of zoonotic trematodiases suffers a dearth of information, with few, if any, standardised, reliable diagnostic tests available.

sp. in small mammals of Senegal and the potential emergence of a zoonotic trematodiasis.

Trematodes of the genus have a wide geographical distribution and can exploit a variety of hosts. The occurrence and zoonotic potential of spp. have been characterised across several countries in Asia; in contrast, information on parasites in Africa remains anecdotal.

Rodents of Senegal and their role as intermediate hosts of Hydatigera spp. (Cestoda: Taeniidae).

Hydatigera (Cestoda: Taeniidae) is a recently resurrected genus including species seldom investigated in sub-Saharan Africa. We surveyed wild small mammal populations in the areas of Richard Toll and Lake Guiers, Senegal, with the objective to evaluate their potential role as intermediate hosts of larval taeniid stages (i.e.

Rodents as Natural Hosts of Zoonotic Schistosoma Species and Hybrids: An Epidemiological and Evolutionary Perspective From West Africa.

The complex multi-host disease dynamics of schistosomiasis and Schistosoma spp., including the emergence of zoonotic parasite hybrids, remain largely unexplored in West Africa. We elucidated the role of wild small mammals as reservoir for zoonotic Schistosoma species and hybrids in endemic areas of Senegal.

Rapid adaptive evolution in novel environments acts as an architect of population range expansion.

Colonization and expansion into novel landscapes determine the distribution and abundance of species in our rapidly changing ecosystems worldwide. Colonization events are crucibles for rapid evolution, but it is not known whether evolutionary changes arise mainly after successful colonization has occurred, or if evolution plays an immediate role, governing the growth and expansion speed of colonizing populations. There is evidence that spatial evolutionary processes can speed range expansion within a few generations because dispersal tendencies may evolve upwards at range edges.

The Asian house shrew Suncus murinus as a reservoir and source of human outbreaks of plague in Madagascar.

Identifying key reservoirs for zoonoses is crucial for understanding variation in incidence. Plague re-emerged in Mahajanga, Madagascar in the 1990s but there has been no confirmed case since 1999. Here we combine ecological and genetic data, from during and after the epidemics, with experimental infections to examine the role of the shrew Suncus murinus in the plague epidemiological cycle.

Deciphering the Routes of invasion of Drosophila suzukii by Means of ABC Random Forest.

Deciphering invasion routes from molecular data is crucial to understanding biological invasions, including identifying bottlenecks in population size and admixture among distinct populations. Here, we unravel the invasion routes of the invasive pest Drosophila suzukii using a multi-locus microsatellite dataset (25 loci on 23 worldwide sampling locations). To do this, we use approximate Bayesian computation (ABC), which has improved the reconstruction of invasion routes, but can be computationally expensive.

Endogenous murine leukemia retroviral variation across wild European and inbred strains of house mouse.

Background: Endogenous murine leukemia retroviruses (MLVs) are high copy number proviral elements difficult to comprehensively characterize using standard low throughput sequencing approaches. However, high throughput approaches generate data that is challenging to process, interpret and present.

Results: Next generation sequencing (NGS) data was generated for MLVs from two wild caught Mus musculus domesticus (from mainland France and Corsica) and for inbred laboratory mouse strains C3H, LP/J and SJL.

Patterns of genetic variation in the endangered European mink (Mustela lutreola L., 1761).

Background: The European mink (Mustela lutreola, L. 1761) is a critically endangered mustelid, which inhabits several main river drainages in Europe. Here, we assess the genetic variation of existing populations of this species, including new sampling sites and additional molecular markers (newly developed microsatellite loci specific to European mink) as compared to previous studies.

What do Pneumocystis organisms tell us about the phylogeography of their hosts? The case of the woodmouse Apodemus sylvaticus in continental Europe and western Mediterranean islands.

Pneumocystis fungi represent a highly diversified biological group with numerous species, which display a strong host-specificity suggesting a long co-speciation process. In the present study, the presence and genetic diversity of Pneumocystis organisms was investigated in 203 lung samples from woodmice (Apodemus sylvaticus) collected on western continental Europe and Mediterranean islands. The presence of Pneumocystis DNA was assessed by nested PCR at both large and small mitochondrial subunit (mtLSU and mtSSU) rRNA loci.

The larva of the genus Palaeosynthemis Förster, 1903 (Odonata: Anisoptera: Synthemistidae) and a generic key to the larvae of non-New Caledonian Synthemistidae.

The larva of Palaeosynthemis Förster, 1903, based on P. cyrene (Lieftinck, 1953), is described and illustrated for the first time. A diagnosis of the genus is given.

Description of a new genus, Chileana (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Torymidae), with four new species.

Chileana Janšta & Křížková gen. nov. and four new species, C.

Obtaining molecular data for all life stages of Typhlodromus (Typhlodromus) exhilaratus (Mesostigmata: Phytoseiidae): consequences for species identification.

Several species of the family Phytoseiidae are known to control mite pests in many crops worldwide. However, biological control success greatly depends on the accurate identification of these predatory mites. Species diagnostics is essentially based on the morphological characters of females.

Testing the emergence of New Caledonia: fig wasp mutualism as a case study and a review of evidence.

While geologists suggest that New Caledonian main island (Grande Terre) was submerged until ca 37 Ma, biologists are struck by the presence of supposedly Gondwanan groups on the island. Among these groups are the Oreosycea fig trees (Ficus, Moraceae) and their Dolichoris pollinators (Hymenoptera, Agaonidae). These partners are distributed in the Paleotropics and Australasia, suggesting that their presence on New Caledonia could result from Gondwanan vicariance.

Phylogeny and evolution of life-history strategies in the Sycophaginae non-pollinating fig wasps (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea).

Background: Non-pollinating Sycophaginae (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea) form small communities within Urostigma and Sycomorus fig trees. The species show differences in galling habits and exhibit apterous, winged or dimorphic males. The large gall inducers oviposit early in syconium development and lay few eggs; the small gall inducers lay more eggs soon after pollination; the ostiolar gall-inducers enter the syconium to oviposit and the cleptoparasites oviposit in galls induced by other fig wasps.

Using AFLP markers and the Geneland program for the inference of population genetic structure.

The use of dominant markers such as amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) for population genetics analyses is often impeded by the lack of appropriate computer programs and rarely motivated by objective considerations. The point of the present note is twofold: (i) we describe how the computer program Geneland designed to infer population structure has been adapted to deal with dominant markers; and (ii) we use Geneland for numerical comparison of dominant and codominant markers to perform clustering. AFLP markers lead to less accurate results than bi-allelic codominant markers such as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) markers but this difference becomes negligible for data sets of common size (number of individuals n≥100, number of markers L≥200).

Monte Carlo integration over stepping stone models for spatial genetic inference using approximate Bayesian computation.

Approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) substitutes simulation for analytic models in Bayesian inference. Simulating evolutionary scenarios under Kimura's stepping stone model (KSS) might therefore allow inference over spatial genetic process where analytical results are difficult to obtain. ABC first creates a reference set of simulations and would proceed by comparing summary statistics over KSS simulations to summary statistics from localities sampled in the field, but: comparison of which localities and stepping stones? Identical stepping stones can be arranged so two localities fall in the same stepping stone, nearest or diagonal neighbours, or without contact.

Can things get worse when an invasive species hybridizes? The harlequin ladybird Harmonia axyridis in France as a case study.

So far, only a few studies have explicitly investigated the consequences of admixture for the adaptative potential of invasive populations. We addressed this question in the invasive ladybird Harmonia axyridis. After decades of use as a biological control agent against aphids in Europe and North America, H.

Representativeness of microsatellite distributions in genomes, as revealed by 454 GS-FLX titanium pyrosequencing.

Background: Microsatellites are markers of choice in population genetics and genomics, as they provide useful insight into patterns and processes as diverse as genome evolutionary dynamics and demographic processes. The acquisition of microsatellites through multiplex-enriched libraries and 454 GS-FLX Titanium pyrosequencing is a promising new tool for the isolation of new markers in unknown genomes. This approach can also be used to evaluate the extent to which microsatellite-enriched libraries are representative of the genome from which they were isolated.

Reconstructing routes of invasion using genetic data: why, how and so what?

Detailed knowledge about the geographical pathways followed by propagules from their source to the invading populations--referred to here as routes of invasion-provides information about the history of the invasion process and the origin and genetic composition of the invading populations. The reconstruction of invasion routes is required for defining and testing different hypotheses concerning the environmental and evolutionary factors responsible for biological invasions. In practical terms, it facilitates the design of strategies for controlling or preventing invasions.

Effects of fluctuating moisture and temperature regimes on the persistence of quiescent conidia of Isaria fumosorosea.

Conidia of Isaria fumosorosea were submitted to three regimes of temperature and moisture to simulate microclimatic conditions which prevail in temperate (43% RH and 28 degrees C to 98% RH and 15 degrees C), subtropical (75% RH and 35 degrees C to 98% RH and 25 degrees C), and arid areas (13% RH and 40 degrees C to 33% RH and 15 degrees C) with daily fluctuating cycles. Germination, conidial viability, and virulence to Spodoptera frugiperda larvae were less affected after 20 days exposure under temperate cycling conditions than under arid and subtropical conditions. Exposure of conidia for 20 days to constant nocturnal simulated conditions of any tested regime weakly affected conidial persistence, whereas diurnal conditions exerted the most detrimental effects of high temperatures.

Rodent host cell/Lassa virus interactions: evolution and expression of α-Dystroglycan, LARGE-1 and LARGE-2 genes, with special emphasis on the Mastomys genus.

Arenaviruses are usually rodent-borne viruses that constitute a major threat for human health. Among them, Lassa Fever Virus (LFV) occurs in Western Africa where it infects hundreds of thousands of people annually. According to the most recent surveys, LFV is hosted by one of the multimammate rats, Mastomys natalensis, but has never been detected in its sibling and sometimes sympatric species Mastomys erythroleucus.

Laying the foundations for a new classification of Agaonidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea), a multilocus phylogenetic approach.

A phylogeny of the Agaonidae (Chalcidoidea) in their restricted sense, pollinators of Ficus species (Moraceae), is estimated using 4182 nucleotides from six genes, obtained from 101 species representing 19 of the 20 recognized genera, and four outgroups. Data analysed by parsimony and Bayesian inference methods demonstrate that Agaonidae are monophyletic and that the previous classification is not supported. Agaonidae are partitioned into four groups: (i) Tetrapus, (ii) Ceratosolen + Kradibia, (iii) some Blastophaga + Wiebesia species, and (iv) all genera associated with monoecious figs and a few Blastophaga and Wiebesia.