Functional responses at each developmental stage of predators and intraspecific competition associated with direct interactions among them provide insights into developing biological control strategies for pests. The functional responses of Harmonia axyridis (Pallas) at each developmental stage of Melanaphis sacchari (Zehntner) and intraspecific competition among predators were evaluated under laboratory conditions. The results showed that all stages of H. axyridis displayed a type II functional response to M. sacchari. Based on Holling's disc equation, the instantaneous searching rates were highest (a) and handling time was shortest (Th) of fourth instar larvae (a = 0.8818; Th = 3.9 min) and female adults (a = 0.9881; Th = 3.0 min) at larval and adult stages, respectively. The coefficients of mutual interference (m) assessed by the intraspecific competition equation were higher for fourth instar larvae (m = 0.4764) and female adults (m = 0.4183). The present study indicates that fourth instar and female adult were more effective stages of H. axyridis in the context of biological control but suitable predator densities need to be considered before natural enemy release., Pengxiang Wu, Jing Zhang, Muhammad Haseeb, Shuo Yan, Lambert Kanga, Runzhi Zhang., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Conifer bark beetles are well known to be associated with fungal complexes, which consist of pathogenic ophiostomatoid fungi as well as obligate saprotroph species. However, there is little information on fungi associated with Ips acuminatus in central and eastern Europe. The aim of the study was to investigate the composition of the fungal communities associated with the pine engraver beetle, I. acuminatus, in the forest-steppe zone in Ukraine and to evaluate the pathogenicity of six associated ophiostomatoid species by inoculating three-year-old Scots pine seedlings with these fungi. In total, 384 adult beetles were collected from under the bark of declining and dead Scots pine trees at two different sites. Fungal culturing from 192 beetles resulted in 447 cultures and direct sequencing of ITS rRNA from 192 beetles in 496 high-quality sequences. Identification of the above revealed that the overall fungal community was composed of 60 species. Among these, the most common were Entomocorticium sp. (24.5%), Diplodia pinea (24.0%), Ophiostoma ips (16.7%), Sydowia polyspora (15.1%), Graphilbum cf rectangulosporium (15.1%), Ophiostoma minus (13.8%) and Cladosporium pini-ponderosae (13.0%). Pathogenicity tests were done using six species of ophiostomatoid fungi, which were inoculated into Scots pine seedlings. All ophiostomatoid fungi tested successfully infected seedlings of Scots pine with varying degrees of virulence. Ophiostoma minus was the only fungus that caused dieback in inoculated seedlings. It is concluded that I. acuminatus vectors a species-rich fungal community including pathogens such as D. pinea and O. minus. The fungal community reported in the present study is different from that reported in other regions of Europe. Pathogenicity tests showed that O. minus was the most virulent causing dieback in seedlings of Scots pine, while other fungi tested appeared to be only slightly pathogenic or completely non-pathogenic., Kateryna Davydenko, Rimvydas Vasaitis, Audrius Menkis., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Discontinuous gas exchange (DGE) is the main (23 individuals) breathing mode in resting adult Platynus assimilis. Few of the beetles tested (13 individuals) displayed a pattern of cyclic gas exchange or CGE. The burst of CO2 release in DGE and CGE was always accompanied by abdominal pumping (active ventilation or V). Seven individuals displayed a pattern of continuous respiration, characterized by regular abdominal pumping. Resting metabolic rate (RMR) in continuously breathing beetles was higher than in those using DGE and CGE. After treatment with sub-lethal doses of alpha-cypermethrin DGE ceased. Treated beetles were characterized by continuous pumping and almost regular periods of activity. RMR increased significantly after treatment with a pyrethroid., Irja Kivimägi ... [et al.]., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
Coccidiosis is a parasitic disease caused by protists (apicomplexans) of the genus Eimeria Schneider, 1875 and is considered to be the most important disease faced by rabbit breeders due to its high morbidity. In the present study, the antioxidant status and changes in apoptosis and in the expression of some genes were quantified in rabbits' ilea following infection with Eimeria intestinalis Cheissin, 1948. Rabbits, orally infected with 1 × 105 sporulated oocysts of E. intestinalis, started to shed oocysts in their faeces on 8 days post infection (dpi) and reached maximum excretion on 10 dpi, with approximately 5 million oocysts. This was accompanied by a significant decrease in the live body weight of infected rabbits. Also, malondialdehyde and nitric oxide were significantly increased while catalase and glutathione were significantly decreased in the ileum tissues of the infected rabbits. In addition, a significant increase was observed in the percentages of apoptotic cells in the ilea of the infected rabbits. Furthermore, interleukin-1β and interleukin-2 mRNA levels were significantly down-regulated and mRNA levels of interleukin-6, interferon gamma and inducible nitric oxide synthase were significantly up-regulated, while those of C-reactive protein remained unchanged. We conclude that infection with E. intestinalis induces oxidative stress, a significant increase in the percentage of apoptotic cells and a diverse and robust Th1 and Th1-related cytokine response in the ileum tissues., Heba M. Abdel-Haleem, Shawky M. Aboelhadid, Thabet Sakran, Gamal El-Shahawy, Huda El-Fayoumi, Saleh Al-Quraishy, Abdel-Azeem S. Abdel-Baki., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Silk production quantity is the most economically important characteristic of the domesticated silkworm moth, Bombyx mori. It is controlled by multiple loci. The cocoon and silk production quantity of silkworm strains Jingsong and Lan10 have significantly diverged. A backcross population (BC1) was bred using Jingsong and Lan10 as parents to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for silk quality. In this research, a genetic linkage map of the silkworm was constructed using the BC1 mapping population. The map contained 85 sequence-tagged site markers, 80 simple sequence repeat markers, and 16 single nucleotide polymorphisms. A linkage map was constructed from the data, which consisted of 181 markers distributed over 28 expected linkage groups and spans 2147.1 cM in total length. Fourteen QTLs were detected for cocoon filament length, whole cocoon weight, pupae weight, filament weight, and cocoon shell weight. The 14 QTLs were distributed in 5 linkage groups (linkage groups 1, 14, 18, 23 and 25) based on the constructed linkage map. In addition, five QTLs, which had the highest logarithm (base 10) of odds (LOD) values, were located on the first chromosome, three of which located at the same region in linkage group 1. These results represent an important foundation for the map-based cloning of QTLs and marker-assisted selection for improving the silk quality of economically important silkworm strains., Bing Li ... [et al.]., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
The utility of inter simple sequence repeat-PCR (ISSR-PCR) assay in the genetic characterisation and elucidation of the phylogenetic relationship of different microsporidian isolates infecting tropical tasar silkworm, Antheraea mylitta Drury, is demonstrated. A total of 22 different microsporidians collected from the diseased tasar silkworms from Jharkhand state of India were analysed using morphological characters and ISSR-PCR. Observations spores under phase contrast microscope revealed oval to elongate in shape with length ranging from 3.8 μm to 5.1 μm and width from 2.6 μm to 3.3 μm. All the microsporidian isolates except MIJ-1gC showed gonadal infection and transovarial transmission in infected tasar silkworms. Fourteen out of 20 ISSR primers tested generated reproducible profiles and yielded a total of 281 fragments, of which 273 were polymorphic (97%). The degree of banding pattern was used to evaluate genetic distances and for phylogenetic analysis. The results demonstrated that ISSR analysis may be a useful and efficient tool for taxonomical grouping and phylogenetic classification of different microsporidians in general., Wazid Hassan, B. Surendra Nath., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The aim of the present study was to estimate the genetic diversity of the cestode Echinococcus multilocularis Leuckart, 1863 in Poland based on sequence analysis of the mitochondrial genes of worms isolated from red foxes, Vulpes vulpes (Linnaeus). Overall, 83 adults of E. multilocularis from the same number of foxes in different parts of Poland were used for analysis. Sequences of the three mitochondrial genes, cytochrome b (cob), NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 (nad2) and cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1), were analysed. Seventy-four individual biological samples were successfully sequenced. Combined sequence analysis of these three genes exhibited fifteen Polish haplotypes (EmPL1-EmPL15). Most isolates (n = 29; 39%) were classified to the EmPL1 haplotype, which occurred mainly in the east, north and centre of Poland. Haplotype EmPL4 (n = 14; 19%) and other haplotypes appeared predominantly in the south and west area. Fourteen haplotypes were grouped in the European clade. One Polish haplotype (EmPL9) (n = 7, 10%) was assigned to the Asian clade with haplotypes from Japan and Kazakhstan. This haplotype was found only in northeast Poland and this is the westernmost report of haplotype of E. multilocularis belonging to the Asian clade in Europe. The investigation demonstrated that populations of E. multilocularis in Poland (and probably also in eastern Europe) included not only different European haplotypes but also those of the Asian origin., Jacek Karamon, Krzysztof Stojecki, Małgorzata Samorek-Pieróg, Ewa Bilska-Zajac, Mirosław Rózycki, Ewa Chmurzyńska, Jacek Sroka, Jolanta Zdybel, Tomasz Cencek., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Two species of the genus Gryllus occur in Europe: G. campestris and G. bimaculatus. The first is widely distributed in the north-western Palaearctic, while the second, G. bimaculatus, occurs predominantly in the Mediterranean area. There is a visible pattern in the distribution of G. campestris, the insect being rare and threatened in the western part of its range, whereas it is still abundant in the east. Despite the fact that this species is commonly used in laboratory experiments, its natural populations are poorly characterised. In the present study, we analysed cricket populations from the lower Oder and Vistula River valleys in Poland. Based on the phylogeny of the mtDNA cytochrome b fragment, we found that 17% of the individuals studied had a G. bimaculatus-like mtDNA haplotype. Analyses of 11 autosomal microsatellite loci failed to reveal any clear genetic differentiation between individuals assigned to these two clades. This suggests, along with the spatial distribution of G. bimaculatus-like haplotypes, successful interbreeding of G. bimaculatus with native populations of G. campestris. However, both the nuclear data and additional analyses of two X-chromosome-linked microsatellite loci revealed incomplete introgression. Human-mediated introgression seems to be the most plausible explanation of the observed genotypic pattern such that caution needs to be taken in conservation efforts carried out in the western part of the species' range., Hanna Panagiotopoulou, Mateusz Baca, Katarzyna Baca, Paweł Sienkiewicz, Piotr Ślipiński, Michał Żmihorski., and Obsahuje bibliografii
a1_In the last few decades, Aedes albopictus (Skuse) (Diptera: Culicidae) (= Stegomyia albopicta), the so-called "Asian tiger mosquito", has spread from its native range in southeast Asia to Africa, the Middle East, Europe, the Americas, and Pacific islands. The spread of this species poses a risk to human health as it is considered to be one of the main vectors of dengue and other arboviruses. Aedes albopictus was reported in Croatia in 2004, thereafter it was discovered at several coastal localities in 2005 and to date it has spread to most coastal areas and islands in Croatia. Here we investigate the genetic variability of A. albopictus based on 39 individuals collected during the summer of 2009 along the East-Adriatic coast and islands of Croatia and Montenegro and using two mitochondrial molecular markers: cytochrome oxidase I (COI) and NADH dehydrogenase 5 (ND5). We identified a single ND5 haplotype, corresponding to the previously reported and worldwide-distributed haplotype H3. The COI marker was more variable and we identified four COI haplotypes. In order to identify the geographic origin of the populations that colonized Croatia, we performed phylogenetic analyses of ND5 and COI haplotypes in Croatian populations and other A. albopictus populations retrieved from the GenBank. The phylogenetic tree based on ND5 haplotypes revealed two well supported clades where the unique Croatian ND5 haplotype clustered with the majority of haplotypes originating from South-Asia, America, Europe, and Africa. Another smaller cluster consisted of only Brazilian haplotypes. The phylogenetic tree and haplotype network that resulted from the COI analysis also indicates that the three Croatian COI haplotypes cluster with European and American haplotypes. However the fourth Croatian COI haplotype was the only European haplotype that occurred in a separate clade (group) with Indian, South-Asian, and Brazilian haplotypes., a2_This data suggests there have been several independent introduction events in Croatia., and Toni Žitko, Ana Kovačić, Yves Desdevises, Jasna Puizina.