Biodiversity of rolB/C-like Natural Transgene in the Genus Vaccinium L. and Its Application for Phylogenetic Studies.

A variety of plant species found in nature contain agrobacterial T-DNAs in their genomes which they transmit in a series of sexual generations. Such T-DNAs are called cellular T-DNAs (cT-DNAs). cT-DNAs have been discovered in dozens of plant genera, and are suggested to be used in phylogenetic studies, since they are well-defined and unrelated to other plant sequences. Their integration into a particular chromosomal site indicates a founder event and a clear start of a new clade. cT-DNA inserts do not disseminate in the genome after insertion. They can be large and old enough to generate a range of variants, thereby allowing the construction of detailed trees. Unusual cT-DNAs (containing the rolB/C-like gene) were found in our previous study in the genome data of two Vaccinium L. species. Here, we present a deeper study of these sequences in Vaccinium L. Molecular-genetic and bioinformatics methods were applied for sequencing, assembly, and analysis of the rolB/C-like gene. The rolB/C-like gene was discovered in 26 new Vaccinium species and Agapetes serpens (Wight) Sleumer. Most samples were found to contain full-size genes. It allowed us to develop approaches for the phasing of cT-DNA alleles and reconstruct a Vaccinium phylogenetic relationship. Intra- and interspecific polymorphism found in cT-DNA makes it possible to use it for phylogenetic and phylogeographic studies of the Vaccinium genus.

A DNA-based description of a new carpenter moth species (Lepidoptera: Cossidae) from Morocco.

We used a combination of morphological data (genitalia structure) and a molecular marker (a 658bp fragment of the COI gene) to demonstrate that carpenter moth populations from central and southern Morocco, previously identified as Cossus cossus (Linnaeus, 1758) based on external morphology, represent a new species, described herein as C. romantsovi Yakovlev Shapoval, sp. n. The genetic divergence of the new species with respect to other members of genus Cossus is significant and includes at least 23 fixed nucleotide substitutions in the 658 bp of the COI barcode.