@article {4126, title = {Diversity of cultivable fungi associated with Antarctic marine sponges and screening for their antimicrobial, antitumoral and antioxidant potential.}, journal = {World J Microbiol Biotechnol}, volume = {30}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jan}, pages = {65-76}, abstract = {

The diversity of sponge-associated fungi has been poorly investigated in remote geographical areas like Antarctica. In this study, 101 phenotypically different fungal isolates were obtained from 11 sponge samples collected in King George Island, Antarctica. The analysis of ITS sequences revealed that they belong to the phylum Ascomycota. Sixty-five isolates belong to the genera Geomyces, Penicillium, Epicoccum, Pseudeurotium, Thelebolus, Cladosporium, Aspergillus, Aureobasidium, Phoma, and Trichocladium but 36 isolates could not be identified at genus level. In order to estimate the potential of these isolates as producers of interesting bioactivities, antimicrobial, antitumoral and antioxidant activities of fungal culture extracts were assayed. Around 51\% of the extracts, mainly from the genus Geomyces and non identified relatives, showed antimicrobial activity against some of the bacteria tested. On the other hand, around 42\% of the extracts showed potent antitumoral activity, Geomyces sp. having the best performance. Finally, the potential of the isolated fungi as producers of antioxidant activity seems to be moderate. Our results suggest that fungi associated with Antarctic sponges, particularly Geomyces, would be valuable sources of antimicrobial and antitumoral compounds. To our knowledge, this is the first report describing the biodiversity and the metabolic potential of fungi associated with Antarctic marine sponges.

}, keywords = {Animals, Antarctic Regions, Anti-Bacterial Agents, Antineoplastic Agents, Antioxidants, Ascomycota, DNA, Ribosomal Spacer, Porifera, Sequence Analysis, DNA}, issn = {1573-0972}, doi = {10.1007/s11274-013-1418-x}, author = {Henr{\'\i}quez, Marlene and Vergara, Karen and Norambuena, Javiera and Beiza, Andrea and Maza, Felipe and Ubilla, Pamela and Araya, Ivanna and Ch{\'a}vez, Renato and San-Mart{\'\i}n, Aurelio and Darias, Jos{\'e} and Darias, Maria and Vaca, Inmaculada} } @article {4161, title = {A multilocus molecular phylogeny of combtooth blennies (Percomorpha: Blennioidei: Blenniidae): multiple invasions of intertidal habitats.}, journal = {Mol Phylogenet Evol}, volume = {70}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jan}, pages = {47-56}, abstract = {

The combtooth blennies (f. Blenniidae) is a diverse family of primarily marine fishes with approximately 387 species that inhabit subtidal, intertidal, supralittoral habitats in tropical and warm temperate regions throughout the world. The Blenniidae has typically been divided into six groups based on morphological characters: Blenniini, Nemophini, Omobranchini, Phenablenniini, Parablenniini, and Salariini. There is, however, considerable debate over the validity of these groups and their relationships. Since little is known about the relationships in this group, other aspects of their evolutionary history, such as habitat evolution and remain unexplored. Herein, we use Bayesian and maximum likelihood analyses of four nuclear loci (ENC1, myh6, ptr, and tbr1) from 102 species, representing 41 genera, to resolve the phylogeny of the Blenniidae, determine the validity of the previously recognized groupings, and explore the evolution of habitat association using ancestral state reconstruction. Bayesian and maximum likelihood analyses of the resulting 3100bp of DNA sequence produced nearly identical topologies, and identified many well-supported clades. Of these clades, Nemophini was the only traditionally recognized group strongly supported as monophyletic. This highly resolved and thoroughly sampled blenniid phylogeny provides strong evidence that the traditional rank-based classification does not adequately delimit monophyletic groups with the Blenniidae. This phylogeny redefines the taxonomy of the group and supports the use of 13 unranked clades for the classification of blenniids. Ancestral state reconstructions identified four independent invasions of intertidal habitats within the Blenniidae, and subsequent invasions into supralittoral and freshwater habitats from these groups. The independent invasions of intertidal habitats are likely to have played an important role in the evolutionary history of blennies.

}, keywords = {Animals, Bayes Theorem, Ecosystem, Likelihood Functions, Perciformes, Phylogeny, Sequence Analysis, DNA}, issn = {1095-9513}, doi = {10.1016/j.ympev.2013.09.001}, author = {Hundt, Peter J and Samuel Iglesias and Hoey, Andrew S and Simons, Andrew M} } @article {3486, title = {New Sicydiinae phylogeny (Teleostei: Gobioidei) inferred from mitochondrial and nuclear genes: insights on systematics and ancestral areas.}, journal = {Mol Phylogenet Evol}, volume = {70}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jan}, pages = {260-71}, abstract = {

The Sicydiinae subfamily (Teleostei: Gobioidei) is the biggest contributor to the diversity of fish communities in river systems of tropical islands. These species are found in the Indo-Pacific area, the Caribbean region and West Africa. They spawn in freshwater, their planktotrophic larvae drift downstream to the sea where they develop, before returning to the rivers to grow and reproduce. Hence, they are called amphidromous. Their phylogeny has been explored using a total of 3545 sites from 5 molecular markers (mitochondrial DNA: 16S rDNA, cytochrome oxidase I, cytochrome b; nuclear DNA: rhodopsin gene and a nuclear marker specially developed for this study, the interferon regulatory factor 2 binding protein 1-IRF2PB1). Sequences were obtained for 59 Sicydiinae specimens of 9 known genera. The Bayesian and maximum likelihood analyses support the monophyly of the subfamily as well as the monophylyof all genera except Sicydium, which is paraphyletic. Five major clades were identified within this subfamily. One clade contained the genus Stiphodon. Another clade contained Sicyopterus, Sicydium and Parasicydium with Sicyopterus as sister genus of Sicydium. The non-monophyly of Sicydium subclade, because it includes the monotypic genus Parasicydium, challenged the validity of Parasicydium genus. Ancestral area reconstruction showed that the subfamily emerged in the Central West Pacific region implying that previous hypotheses proposing a dispersal route for Sicydiinae into the Atlantic Ocean are unsupported by the present analysis. Our results suggest that the hypotheses for the dispersal route of the genus Sicydium should be reconsidered.

}, keywords = {Animals, Bayes Theorem, Cell Nucleus, Cytochromes b, DNA, Mitochondrial, DNA, Ribosomal, Electron Transport Complex IV, Evolution, Molecular, Female, Mitochondria, Perciformes, Phylogeny, Sequence Analysis, DNA}, issn = {1095-9513}, doi = {10.1016/j.ympev.2013.09.026}, author = {Taillebois, Laura and Castelin, Magalie and Clara Lord and Chabarria, Ryan and Dettai, Agn{\`e}s and Philippe Keith} }