Toward a Self-Updating Platform for Estimating Rates of Speciation and Migration, Ages, and Relationships of Taxa.

Rapidly growing biological data-including molecular sequences and fossils-hold an unprecedented potential to reveal how evolutionary processes generate and maintain biodiversity. However, researchers often have to develop their own idiosyncratic workflows to integrate and analyze these data for reconstructing time-calibrated phylogenies. In addition, divergence times estimated under different methods and assumptions, and based on data of various quality and reliability, should not be combined without proper correction. Here we introduce a modular framework termed SUPERSMART (Self-Updating Platform for Estimating Rates of Speciation and Migration, Ages, and Relationships of Taxa), and provide a proof of concept for dealing with the moving targets of evolutionary and biogeographical research. This framework assembles comprehensive data sets of molecular and fossil data for any taxa and infers dated phylogenies using robust species tree methods, also allowing for the inclusion of genomic data produced through next-generation sequencing techniques. We exemplify the application of our method by presenting phylogenetic and dating analyses for the mammal order Primates and for the plant family Arecaceae (palms). We believe that this framework will provide a valuable tool for a wide range of hypothesis-driven research questions in systematics, biogeography, and evolution. SUPERSMART will also accelerate the inference of a "Dated Tree of Life" where all node ages are directly comparable. [Bayesian phylogenetics; data mining; divide-and-conquer methods; GenBank; multilocus multispecies coalescent; next-generation sequencing; palms; primates; tree calibration.].

MRP2/ABCC2 C1515Y polymorphism modulates exposure to lumefantrine during artemether-lumefantrine antimalarial therapy.

AIM: To investigate the potential involvement of the hepatic ATP-binding cassette transporters MRP2 and MDR1 in the disposition of lumefantrine (LUM) among patients with uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria. MATERIALS & METHODS: The tag SNPs MDR1/ABCB1 C3435T and MRP2/ABCC2 C1515Y were determined in two artemether-LUM clinical trials, including a pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic study focused on the treatment phase (72 h), and an efficacy trial where day 7 (D7) LUM levels were measured. RESULTS: The 1515YY genotype was significantly associated with higher (p < 0.01) LUM D7 concentrations (median 1.42 µM), compared with 0.77 µM for 1515CY and 0.59 µM for 1515CC. No significant influence of the MDR1/ABCB1 C3435T was found. CONCLUSION: LUM body disposition may be influenced by MRP2/ABCC2 genotype.