An attempt was made to infer the phylogeny of Pseudo-nitzschia species by using the mitochondrial-encoded gene, cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (cox1), and comparing it with the nuclear-encoded large subunit ribosomal DNA (LSU rDNA). A pair of primers targeting Pseudo-nitzschia cox1 was designed in silico and used to infer the molecular phylogeny of Pseudo-nitzschia. The primer pair was tested using genomic DNAs isolated from six species of Pseudo-nitzschia from Malaysia. The phylogenetic inference of cox1 was then compared to the LSU rDNA phylogeny. Phylogenetic reconstructions of both data sets revealed monophyly of Pseudo-nitzschia species complexes. The range of genetic divergences among Pseudo-nitzschia species were higher in the cox1 data set (3.5–20.4 %) compared to the LSU rDNA data set (0.1–8.8 %). The present study suggests that high genetic divergence in cox1 of Pseudo-nitzschia species could be a useful genetic marker for DNA bar coding.

In order to quantify and monitor the spatio-temporal growth of urban areas, remote sensing data and GIS techniques are getting attention for its unparallel utility by the city planners as well as decision makers. The present study aims to analyse the rapid increase of built-up area in Dehradun city, the capital of Uttarakhand, India. The study uses multi-temporal Landsat images to monitor the pattern of urban growth of Dehradun. To classify coarse satellite data the traditional supervised and unsupervised techniques are not very useful because of mixed pixels in the classified data and poor accuracy. In this situation linear spectral unmixing (LSU) is a very useful classification technique because it classifies land use land cover classes by estimating the fractional values of each class. The study shows that built-up area of the city has grown about 20 per cent during 2000–2010 which is also identical with the population growth of Dehradun when compared with the Census of India data. The accuracy of Landsat based LSU model was assessed using high resolution LISS IV data and the RMSE was 0.07 and 0.11 respectively for vegetation and built-up fraction classes. It is seen that built-up area in the Kaulagarh, Kargi, Deep Nagar, Indirapuram and Kawli wards of Dehradun city have experienced more than 30% increase mainly in the South and South-West part of the city. The multi-temporal, multi-scale maps of the Dehradun city generated from remote satellite data will be very useful for planning both at micro- and macro-levels and further to identify the potential areas for urban expansion and future planning keeping in view protecting the urban green landscape of the Himalayan city of Dehradun.

Studies in soil meiofauna with traditional methods are highly laborious and identification exclusively by means of morphological traits usually underestimates species richness. Although the mitochondrial DNA Cytochrome c Oxidase subunit I gene (COI, CO1, cox1, coxI) has been proposed as a standard DNA barcode for animals, nuclear ribosomal DNA markers such as Large Subunit (LSU, 28S) and Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) have proven efficient to distinguish among species of animals, eukaryotic microbes and plants. The COI and LSU markers discriminate among closely related species of Collembola, but the efficiency of ITS2 has never been tested. We evaluated the relative performance of these three markers for DNA barcoding of Collembola. All three markers proved highly efficient in discriminating species, but LSU exhibited very low differences among certain closely related species. We conclude that ITS2 may serve as an alternative barcode to identify Collembola and has a potential to be used for metabarcoding analyses.

No summary available.

The long drive south in may 1971 from Shreveport to Baton Rouge on U.S. 71--from the buckled pinewood hills toward the sugar fields, swamps, and marshes--was not my first such […]

We describe a case of fungal keratitis due to Beauveria bassiana in a farmer with Fuchs' dystrophy, treated with amphotericin B. Surgery with penetrating keratoplasty was necessary to resolve the lesions. Susceptibility testing and molecular sequencing permitted the identification and treatment of this rare aetiological agent of invasive fungal disease.