Patterns of protist distribution and diversification in alpine lakes across Europe.

Biogeography in Europe is known to be crucially influenced by the large mountain ranges serving as biogeographical islands for cold-adapted taxa and geographical barriers for warm-adapted taxa. While biogeographical patterns are well-known for plants and animals in Europe, we here investigated diversity and distribution patterns of protist freshwater communities on a European scale (256 lakes) in the light of the well-studied post-glacial distribution patterns of macroorganisms. Thus, our study compared 43 alpine protist communities of lakes located in the Alps, Carpathians, Pyrenees, and the Sierra Nevada with that of surrounding lowland lakes. We verified altitudinal diversity gradients of freshwater protists with decreasing richness and diversity across altitudes similar to those observed for plants and animals. Alpine specialists and generalists could be identified differing significantly in richness and diversity, but hardly in occurrence and proportions of major taxonomic groups. High proportions of region-specific alpine specialists indicate an increased occurrence of distinct lineages within each mountain range and thus, suggested either separated glacial refugia or post-glacial diversification within mountain ranges. However, a few alpine specialists were shared between mountain ranges suggesting a post-glacial recolonization from a common lowland pool. Our results identified generalists with wide distribution ranges and putatively wide tolerance ranges toward environmental conditions as main drivers of protist diversification (specification) in alpine lakes, while there was hardly any diversification in alpine specialists.

Depressive hypertension: A proposed human endotype of brain/gut microbiome dysbiosis.

BACKGROUND: Hypertension (HTN) is frequently linked with depression (DEP) in adults with cardiovascular disease (CVD), yet the underlying mechanism and successful management remain elusive. We approached this knowledge gap through the lens that humans are eukaryote-prokaryote "meta-organisms," such that cardiovascular disease dysregulation is a mosaic disorder involving dysbiosis of the gut. We hypothesized that patients diagnosed with hypertension plus depression harbor a unique gut microbial ecology with attending functional genomics engaged with their hosts' gut/brain axis physiology. METHODS: Stool microbiome DNA was analyzed by whole metagenome shotgun sequencing in 54 subjects parsed into cohorts diagnosed with HTN only (N = 18), DEP only (N = 7), DEP plus HTN (DEP-HTN) (N = 8), or reference subjects with neither HTN nor DEP (N = 21). A novel battery of machine-learning multivariate analyses of de-noised data yielded effect sizes and permutational covariance-based dissimilarities that significantly differentiated the cohorts (false discovery rate (FDR)-adjusted P ≤ .05); data clustering within 95% confidence interval). RESULTS: Metagenomic significant differences extricated the four cohorts. Data of the cohort exhibiting DEP-HTN were germane to the interplay of central control of blood pressure concomitant with the neuropathology of depressive disorders. DEP-HTN gut bacterial community ecology was defined by co-occurrence of Eubacterium siraeum, Alistipes obesi, Holdemania filiformis, and Lachnospiraceae bacterium 1.1.57FAA with Streptococcus salivariu. The corresponding microbial functional genomics of DEP-HTN engaged pathways degrading GABA and beneficial short chain fatty acids (SCFA), and are associated with enhanced sodium absorption and inflammasome induction. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest a new putative endotype of hypertension, which we denote "depressive-hypertension" (DEP-HTN), for which we posit a model that is distinctive from either HTN alone or DEP alone. An "endotype" is a subtype of a heterogeneous pathophysiological mechanism. The DEP-HTN model incorporates a unique signature of microbial taxa and functional genomics with crosstalk that putatively intertwines host pathophysiology involving the gastrointestinal tract with disruptions in central control of blood pressure and mood. The DEP-HTN endotype model engages cardiology with gastroenterology and psychiatry, providing a proof-of-concept foundation to explore future treatments, diagnosis, and prevention of HTN-coupled mood disorders.

Does diversity beget diversity in microbiomes?

Microbes are embedded in complex communities where they engage in a wide array of intra- and inter-specific interactions. The extent to which these interactions drive or impede microbiome diversity is not well understood. Historically, two contrasting hypotheses have been suggested to explain how species interactions could influence diversity. 'Ecological Controls' (EC) predicts a negative relationship, where the evolution or migration of novel types is constrained as niches become filled. In contrast, 'Diversity Begets Diversity' (DBD) predicts a positive relationship, with existing diversity promoting the accumulation of further diversity via niche construction and other interactions. Using high-throughput amplicon sequencing data from the Earth Microbiome Project, we provide evidence that DBD is strongest in low-diversity biomes, but weaker in more diverse biomes, consistent with biotic interactions initially favouring the accumulation of diversity (as predicted by DBD). However, as niches become increasingly filled, diversity hits a plateau (as predicted by EC).

Unravelling the importance of the eukaryotic and bacterial communities and their relationship with Legionella spp. ecology in cooling towers: a complex network.

BACKGROUND: Cooling towers are a major source of large community-associated outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease, a severe pneumonia. This disease is contracted when inhaling aerosols that are contaminated with bacteria from the genus Legionella, most importantly Legionella pneumophila. How cooling towers support the growth of this bacterium is still not well understood. As Legionella species are intracellular parasites of protozoa, it is assumed that protozoan community in cooling towers play an important role in Legionella ecology and outbreaks. However, the exact mechanism of how the eukaryotic community contributes to Legionella ecology is still unclear. Therefore, we used 18S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing to characterize the eukaryotic communities of 18 different cooling towers. The data from the eukaryotic community was then analysed with the bacterial community of the same towers in order to understand how each community could affect Legionella spp. ecology in cooling towers. RESULTS: We identified several microbial groups in the cooling tower ecosystem associated with Legionella spp. that suggest the presence of a microbial loop in these systems. Dissolved organic carbon was shown to be a major factor in shaping the eukaryotic community and may be an important factor for Legionella ecology. Network analysis, based on co-occurrence, revealed that Legionella was correlated with a number of different organisms. Out of these, the bacterial genus Brevundimonas and the ciliate class Oligohymenophorea were shown, through in vitro experiments, to stimulate the growth of L. pneumophila through direct and indirect mechanisms. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that Legionella ecology depends on the host community, including ciliates and on several groups of organisms that contribute to its survival and growth in the cooling tower ecosystem. These findings further support the idea that some cooling tower microbiomes may promote the survival and growth of Legionella better than others. Video Abstract.

Unlocking the relationships among population structure, plant architecture, growing season, and environmental adaptation in Henan wheat cultivars.

BACKGROUND: Ecological environments shape plant architecture and alter the growing season, which provides the basis for wheat genetic improvement. Therefore, understanding the genetic basis of grain yield and yield-related traits in specific ecological environments is important. RESULTS: A structured panel of 96 elite wheat cultivars grown in the High-yield zone of Henan province in China was genotyped using an Illumina iSelect 90 K SNP assay. Selection pressure derived from ecological environments of mountain front and plain region provided the initial impetus for population divergence. This determined the dominant traits in two subpopulations (spike number and spike percentage were dominance in subpopulation 2:1; thousand-kernel weight, grain filling rate (GFR), maturity date (MD), and fertility period (FP) were dominance in subpopulation 2:2), which was also consistent with their inheritance from the donor parents. Genome wide association studies identified 107 significant SNPs for 12 yield-related traits and 10 regions were pleiotropic to multiple traits. Especially, GY was co-located with MD/FP, GFR and HD at QTL-ple5A, QTL-ple7A.1 and QTL-ple7B.1 region. Further selective sweep analysis revealled that regions under selection were around QTLs for these traits. Especially, grain yield (GY) is positively correlated with MD/FP and they were co-located at the VRN-1A locus. Besides, a selective sweep signal was detected at VRN-1B locus which was only significance to MD/FP. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicated that extensive differential in allele frequency driven by ecological selection has shaped plant architecture and growing season during yield improvement. The QTLs for yield and yield components detected in this study probably be selectively applied in molecular breeding.

Symbiotic fouling of Vetulicola, an early Cambrian nektonic animal.

Here, we report the earliest fossil record to our knowledge of surface fouling by aggregates of small vermiform, encrusting and annulated tubular organisms associated with a mobile, nektonic host, the enigmatic Cambrian animal Vetulicola. Our material is from the exceptionally preserved early Cambrian (Epoch 2, Age 3), Chengjiang biota of Yunnan Province, southwest China, a circa 518 million-year old marine deposit. Our data show that symbiotic fouling relationships between species formed a component of the diversification of animal-rich ecosystems near the beginning of the Phanerozoic Eon, suggesting an early escalation of intimate ecologies as part of the Cambrian animal radiation.

Environmental DNA can act as a biodiversity barometer of anthropogenic pressures in coastal ecosystems.

Loss of biodiversity from lower to upper trophic levels reduces overall productivity and stability of coastal ecosystems in our oceans, but rarely are these changes documented across both time and space. The characterisation of environmental DNA (eDNA) from sediment and seawater using metabarcoding offers a powerful molecular lens to observe marine biota and provides a series of 'snapshots' across a broad spectrum of eukaryotic organisms. Using these next-generation tools and downstream analytical innovations including machine learning sequence assignment algorithms and co-occurrence network analyses, we examined how anthropogenic pressures may have impacted marine biodiversity on subtropical coral reefs in Okinawa, Japan. Based on 18 S ribosomal RNA, but not ITS2 sequence data due to inconsistent amplification for this marker, as well as proxies for anthropogenic disturbance, we show that eukaryotic richness at the family level significantly increases with medium and high levels of disturbance. This change in richness coincides with compositional changes, a decrease in connectedness among taxa, an increase in fragmentation of taxon co-occurrence networks, and a shift in indicator taxa. Taken together, these findings demonstrate the ability of eDNA to act as a barometer of disturbance and provide an exemplar of how biotic networks and coral reefs may be impacted by anthropogenic activities.

Long-term isolation of European steppe outposts boosts the biome's conservation value.

The European steppes and their biota have been hypothesized to be either young remnants of the Pleistocene steppe belt or, alternatively, to represent relicts of long-term persisting populations; both scenarios directly bear on nature conservation priorities. Here, we evaluate the conservation value of threatened disjunct steppic grassland habitats in Europe in the context of the Eurasian steppe biome. We use genomic data and ecological niche modelling to assess pre-defined, biome-specific criteria for three plant and three arthropod species. We show that the evolutionary history of Eurasian steppe biota is strikingly congruent across species. The biota of European steppe outposts were long-term isolated from the Asian steppes, and European steppes emerged as disproportionally conservation relevant, harbouring regionally endemic genetic lineages, large genetic diversity, and a mosaic of stable refugia. We emphasize that conserving what is left of Europe's steppes is crucial for conserving the biological diversity of the entire Eurasian steppe biome.

Timescales of variation in diversity and production of bacterioplankton assemblages in the Lower Mississippi River.

Rivers are characterized by rapid and continuous one-way directional fluxes of flowing, aqueous habitat, chemicals, suspended particles, and resident plankton. Therefore, at any particular location in such systems there is the potential for continuous, and possibly abrupt, changes in diversity and metabolic activities of suspended biota. As microorganisms are the principal catalysts of organic matter degradation and nutrient cycling in rivers, examination of their assemblage dynamics is fundamental to understanding system-level biogeochemical patterns and processes. However, there is little known of the dynamics of microbial assemblage composition or production of large rivers along a time interval gradient. We quantified variation in alpha and beta diversity and production of particle-associated and free-living bacterioplankton assemblages collected at a single site on the Lower Mississippi River (LMR), the final segment of the largest river system in North America. Samples were collected at timescales ranging from days to weeks to months up to a year. For both alpha and beta diversity, there were similar patterns of temporal variation in particle-associated and free-living assemblages. Alpha diversity, while always higher on particles, varied as much at a daily as at a monthly timescale. Beta diversity, in contrast, gradually increased with time interval of sampling, peaking between samples collected 180 days apart, before gradually declining between samples collected up to one year apart. The primary environmental driver of the temporal pattern in beta diversity was temperature, followed by dissolved nitrogen and chlorophyll a concentrations. Particle-associated bacterial production corresponded strongly to temperature, while free-living production was much lower and constant over time. We conclude that particle-associated and free-living bacterioplankton assemblages of the LMR vary in richness, composition, and production at distinct timescales in response to differing sets of environmental factors. This is the first temporal longitudinal study of microbial assemblage structure and dynamics in the LMR.

Discovery of the oldest bilaterian from the Ediacaran of South Australia.

Analysis of modern animals and Ediacaran trace fossils predicts that the oldest bilaterians were simple and small. Such organisms would be difficult to recognize in the fossil record, but should have been part of the Ediacara Biota, the earliest preserved macroscopic, complex animal communities. Here, we describe Ikaria wariootia gen. et sp. nov. from the Ediacara Member, South Australia, a small, simple organism with anterior/posterior differentiation. We find that the size and morphology of Ikaria match predictions for the progenitor of the trace fossil Helminthoidichnites-indicative of mobility and sediment displacement. In the Ediacara Member, Helminthoidichnites occurs stratigraphically below classic Ediacara body fossils. Together, these suggest that Ikaria represents one of the oldest total group bilaterians identified from South Australia, with little deviation from the characters predicted for their last common ancestor. Further, these trace fossils persist into the Phanerozoic, providing a critical link between Ediacaran and Cambrian animals.

Increased performance of DNA metabarcoding of macroinvertebrates by taxonomic sorting.

DNA-based identification through the use of metabarcoding has been proposed as the next step in the monitoring of biological communities, such as those assessed under the Water Framework Directive (WFD). Advances have been made in the field of metabarcoding, but challenges remain when using complex samples. Uneven biomass distributions, preferential amplification and reference database deficiencies can all lead to discrepancies between morphological and DNA-based taxa lists. The effects of different taxonomic groups on these issues remain understudied. By metabarcoding WFD monitoring samples, we analyzed six different taxonomic groups of freshwater organisms, both separately and combined. Identifications based on metabarcoding data were compared directly to morphological assessments performed under the WFD. The diversity of taxa for both morphological and DNA-based assessments was similar, although large differences were observed in some samples. The overlap between the two taxon lists was 56.8% on average across all taxa, and was highest for Crustacea, Heteroptera, and Coleoptera, and lowest for Annelida and Mollusca. Taxonomic sorting in six basic groups before DNA extraction and amplification improved taxon recovery by 46.5%. The impact on ecological quality ratio (EQR) scoring was considerable when replacing morphology with DNA-based identifications, but there was a high correlation when only replacing a single taxonomic group with molecular data. Different taxonomic groups provide their own challenges and benefits. Some groups might benefit from a more consistent and robust method of identification. Others present difficulties in molecular processing, due to uneven biomass distributions, large genetic diversity or shortcomings of the reference database. Sorting samples into basic taxonomic groups that require little taxonomic knowledge greatly improves the recovery of taxa with metabarcoding. Current standards for EQR monitoring may not be easily replaced completely with molecular strategies, but the effectiveness of molecular methods opens up the way for a paradigm shift in biomonitoring.

Phylogenetic divergence of island biotas: Molecular dates, extinction, and "relict" lineages.

Island formation is a key driver of biological evolution, and several studies have used geological ages of islands to calibrate rates of DNA change. However, many islands are home to "relict" lineages whose divergence apparently pre-dates island age. The geologically dynamic New Zealand (NZ) archipelago sits upon the ancient, largely submerged continent Zealandia, and the origin and age of its distinctive biota have long been contentious. While some researchers have interpreted NZ's biota as equivalent to that of a post-Oligocene island, a recent review of genetic studies identified a sizeable proportion of pre-Oligocene "relict" lineages, concluding that much of the biota survived an incomplete drowning event. Here, we assemble comparable genetic divergence data sets for two recently formed South Pacific archipelagos (Lord Howe; Chatham Islands) and demonstrate similarly substantial proportions of relict lineages. Similar to the NZ biota, our island reviews provide surprisingly little evidence for major genetic divergence "pulses" associated with island emergence. The dominance of Quaternary divergence estimates in all three biotas may highlight the importance of rapid biological turnover and new arrivals in response to recent climatic and/or geological disturbance and change. We provide a schematic model to help account for discrepancies between expected versus observed divergence-date distributions for island biotas, incorporating the effects of both molecular dating error and lineage extinction. We conclude that oceanic islands can represent both evolutionary "cradles" and "museums" and that the presence of apparently archaic island lineages does not preclude dispersal origins.

Cobble community DNA as a tool to monitor patterns of biodiversity within kelp forest ecosystems.

Kelp forest ecosystems dominate 150,000 km of global temperate coastline, rivalling the coastal occurrence of coral reefs. Despite the astounding biological diversity and productive ecological communities associated with kelp forests, patterns of species richness and composition are difficult to monitor and compare. Crustose coralline algae are a critically important substrate for propagule settlement for a range of kelp forest species. Coralline-covered cobbles are home to hundreds of species of benthic animals and algae and form a replicable unit for ecological assays. Here, we use DNA metabarcoding of bulk DNA extracts sampled from cobbles to explore patterns of species diversity in kelp forests of the central California coast. The data from 97 cobbles within kelp forest ecosystems at three sites in Central California show the presence of 752 molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs) and 53 MOTUs assigned up to the species level with >95% similarity to current databases. We are able to detect spatial patterns of important management targets such as abalone recruits, and localized abundance of sea stars in 2012. Comparison of classic ecological surveys of these sites reveals large differences in species targets for these two approaches. In order to make such comparisons more quantitative, we use Presence/Absence Metabarcoding, using the fraction of replicate cobbles showing a species as a measure of its local abundance. This approach provides a fast and repeatable survey method that can be applied for biodiversity assessments across systems to shed light on the impact of different ecological disturbances and the role played by marine protected areas.

Tripal v3: an ontology-based toolkit for construction of FAIR biological community databases.

Community biological databases provide an important online resource for both public and private data, analysis tools and community engagement. These sites house genomic, transcriptomic, genetic, breeding and ancillary data for specific species, families or clades. Due to the complexity and increasing quantities of these data, construction of online resources is increasingly difficult especially with limited funding and access to technical expertise. Furthermore, online repositories are expected to promote FAIR data principles (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) that presents additional challenges. The open-source Tripal database toolkit seeks to mitigate these challenges by creating both the software and an interactive community of developers for construction of online community databases. Additionally, through coordinated, distributed co-development, Tripal sites encourage community-wide sustainability. Here, we report the release of Tripal version 3 that improves data accessibility and data sharing through systematic use of controlled vocabularies (CVs). Tripal uses the community-developed Chado database as a default data store, but now provides tools to support other data stores, while ensuring that CVs remain the central organizational structure for the data. A new site developer can use Tripal to develop a basic site with little to no programming, with the ability to integrate other data types using extension modules and the Tripal application programming interface. A thorough online User's Guide and Developer's Handbook are available at http://tripal.info, providing download, installation and step-by-step setup instructions.

Seeing nature as a 'universal store of genes': How biological diversity became 'genetic resources', 1890-1940.

Till late in the 20th century, biological diversity has been understood and addressed in terms of "genetic resources". This paper proposes a history of this "genetic resources" concept and the biopolitical practices it was related to. A semantic history of the 'resource' idiom first sheds light on how, in the age of empires and fossil industrialism, the Earth came to be considered as a stock of static mineral and living reserves. Then we follow how the gene became the unit of this "resourcist" view of biological diversity as static stocks of entities open to prospection, harnessing and "conservation". Erwin Baur, Nikolai I. Vavilov, Aleksandr S. Serebrovsky and Hermann J. Muller were key biologists who introduced a spatial turn to the gene concept. Beyond the space-time of Neo-mendelian and Morganian laboratory genetics, genes became understood though a geographical gaze at a planetary scale. The world became a "universal store of genes" (Vavilov, 1929). From 1926 to World War 2, this advent of genes as new global epistemic objects went hand in hand with genes' new modes of existence as geopolitical objects. The article documents Interwar years' scramble for genes as well as first collaborative international efforts to conserve and exchange genetic material (which prefigured post WW2 initiatives), and situates the rise of the 'genetic resources' category within mid 20th century's imperialism, high-modernism, agricultural modernization and biopolitics.

Ectomycorrhizal fungi inoculation alleviates simulated acid rain effects on soil ammonia oxidizers and denitrifiers in Masson pine forest.

Acid rain can cause severe effects on soil biota and nutrient biogeochemical cycles in the forest ecosystem, but how plant-symbiotic ectomycorrhizal fungi will modulate the effects remains unknown. Here, we conducted a full factorial field experiment in a Masson pine forest by simultaneously controlling the acidity of the simulated rain (pH 5.6 vs. pH 3.5) and the ectomycorrhizal fungi Pisolithus tinctorius inoculation (non-inoculation vs. inoculation), to investigate the effects on ammonia oxidizers and denitrifiers. After 10 months, compared with the control (rain pH 5.6, and non-inoculation), simulated acid rain (pH 3.5) reduced soil nutrient content, decreased archaeal amoA gene abundance and inhibited denitrification enzyme activity. Also, simulated acid rain altered the community compositions of all the examined functional genes (archaeal amoA, bacterial amoA, nirK, nirS and nosZ). However, inoculation with ectomycorrhizal fungi under acid rain stress recovered soil nutrient content, archaeal amoA gene abundance and denitrification enzyme activity to levels comparable to the control, suggesting that ectomycorrhizal fungi inoculation ameliorates simulated acid rain effects. Taken together, ectomycorrhizal fungi inoculation - potentially through improving soil substrate availability - could alleviate the deleterious effects of acid rain on nitrogen cycling microbes in forest soils.

From the High Arctic to the Equator: Do Soil Metagenomes Differ According to Our Expectations?

Comparing the functional gene composition of soils at opposite extremes of environmental gradients may allow testing of hypotheses about community and ecosystem function. Here, we were interested in comparing how tropical microbial ecosystems differ from those of polar climates. We sampled several sites in the equatorial rainforest of Malaysia and Brunei, and the high Arctic of Svalbard, Canada, and Greenland, comparing the composition and the functional attributes of soil biota between the two extremes of latitude, using shotgun metagenomic Illumina HiSeq2000 sequencing. Based upon "classical" views of how tropical and higher latitude ecosystems differ, we made a series of predictions as to how various gene function categories would differ in relative abundance between tropical and polar environments. Results showed that in some respects our predictions were correct: the polar samples had higher relative abundance of dormancy related genes, and lower relative abundance of genes associated with respiration, and with metabolism of aromatic compounds. The network complexity of the Arctic was also lower than the tropics. However, in various other respects, the pattern was not as predicted; there were no differences in relative abundance of stress response genes or in genes associated with secondary metabolism. Conversely, CRISPR genes, phage-related genes, and virulence disease and defense genes, were unexpectedly more abundant in the Arctic, suggesting more intense biotic interaction. Also, eukaryote diversity and bacterial diversity were higher in the Arctic of Svalbard compared to tropical Brunei, which is consistent with what may expected from amplicon studies in terms of the higher pH of the Svalbard soil. Our results in some respects confirm expectations of how tropical versus polar nature may differ, and in other respects challenge them.

RuBisCO large subunit gene primers for assessing the CO2-assimilating planktonic community structure in Jiaozhou Bay, China.

The protein coding genes (rbcL/cbbL/cbbM) for RuBisCO large subunit, the most abundant protein on earth that drives biological CO2 fixation, were considered as useful marker genes in characterizing CO2-assimilating plankton. However, their community specificity has hindered comprehensive screening of genetic diversity. In this study, six different rbcL/cbbL/cbbM primers were employed to screen clone libraries to identify CO2-assimilating plankton in Jiaozhou Bay. The following community compositions were observed: the community components in Form I A/B rbcL/cbbL clone library mainly comprised Chlorophyta and Proteobacteria, Form ID2 and ID3 libraries consisted of Bacillariophyta, Form II cbbM library consisted of Proteobacteria and Alveolata, and both Form I green and red libraries included Proteobacteria, respectively. At the genus taxonomic level, no overlaps among these clone libraries were observed, except for ID2 and ID3. Overall, the phytoplankton in Jiaozhou Bay mainly consists of Bacillariophyta, Chlorophyta, Cryptophyta, Haptophyceae and Alveolata. The CO2-assimilating prokaryotes mainly consist of Proteobacteria. Considering the high-sequence specificities of these marker genes, we propose that the joint use of multiple primers may be utilized in unveiling the diversity of CO2-assimilating organisms. In addition, designing novel RuBisCO gene primers that generate longer amplicons and have broader phylogenetic coverage may be necessary in the future.

Evidence of the Red-Queen Hypothesis from Accelerated Rates of Evolution of Genes Involved in Biotic Interactions in Pneumocystis.

Pneumocystis species are ascomycete fungi adapted to live inside the lungs of mammals. These ascomycetes show extensive stenoxenism, meaning that each species of Pneumocystis infects a single species of host. Here, we study the effect exerted by natural selection on gene evolution in the genomes of three Pneumocystis species. We show that genes involved in host interaction evolve under positive selection. In the first place, we found strong evidence of episodic diversifying selection in Major surface glycoproteins (Msg). These proteins are located on the surface of Pneumocystis and are used for host attachment and probably for immune system evasion. Consistent with their function as antigens, most sites under diversifying selection in Msg code for residues with large relative surface accessibility areas. We also found evidence of positive selection in part of the cell machinery used to export Msg to the cell surface. Specifically, we found that genes participating in glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) biosynthesis show an increased rate of nonsynonymous substitutions (dN) versus synonymous substitutions (dS). GPI is a molecule synthesized in the endoplasmic reticulum that is used to anchor proteins to membranes. We interpret the aforementioned findings as evidence of selective pressure exerted by the host immune system on Pneumocystis species, shaping the evolution of Msg and several proteins involved in GPI biosynthesis. We suggest that genome evolution in Pneumocystis is well described by the Red-Queen hypothesis whereby genes relevant for biotic interactions show accelerated rates of evolution.

First detection of Wolbachia in the New Zealand biota.

Wolbachia is one of the most widespread intracellular bacteria on earth, estimated to infect between 40 and 66% of arthropod species in most ecosystems that have been surveyed. Their significance rests not only in their vast distribution, but also in their ability to modify the reproductive biology of their hosts, which can ultimately affect genetic diversity and speciation of infected populations. Wolbachia has yet to be formally identified in the fauna of New Zealand which has high levels of endemic biodiversity and this represents a gap in our understanding of the global biology of Wolbachia. Using High Throughput Sequencing (HTS) of host DNA in conjunction with traditional molecular techniques we identified six endemic Orthoptera species that were positive for Wolbachia infection. In addition, short-sequence amplification with Wolbachia specific primers applied to New Zealand and introduced invertebrates detected a further 153 individuals positive for Wolbachia. From these short-range DNA amplification products sequence data was obtained for the ftsZ gene region from 86 individuals representing 10 host species. Phylogenetic analysis using the sequences obtained in this study reveals that there are two distinct Wolbachia bacteria lineages in New Zealand hosts belonging to recognised Wolbachia supergroups (A and B). These represent the first described instances of Wolbachia in the New Zealand native fauna, including detection in putative parasitoids of infected Orthoptera suggesting a possible transmission path. Our detection of Wolbachia infections of New Zealand species provides the opportunity to study local transmission of Wolbachia and explore their role in the evolution of New Zealand invertebrates.