Influence of soil characteristics on the diversity of bacteria in the Southern Brazilian Atlantic Forest.

The Brazilian Atlantic Forest is one of the 25 biodiversity hot spots in the world. Although the diversity of its fauna and flora has been studied fairly well, little is known of its microbial communities. In this work, we analyzed the Atlantic Forest ecosystem to determine its bacterial biodiversity, using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and correlated changes in deduced taxonomic profiles with the physicochemical characteristics of the soil. DNAs were purified from soil samples, and the 16S rRNA gene was amplified to construct libraries. Comparison of 754 independent 16S rRNA gene sequences from 10 soil samples collected along a transect in an altitude gradient showed the prevalence of Acidobacteria (63%), followed by Proteobacteria (25.2%), Gemmatimonadetes (1.6%), Actinobacteria (1.2%), Bacteroidetes (1%), Chloroflexi (0.66%), Nitrospira (0.4%), Planctomycetes (0.4%), Firmicutes (0.26%), and OP10 (0.13%). Forty-eight sequences (6.5%) represented unidentified bacteria. The Shannon diversity indices of the samples varied from 4.12 to 3.57, indicating that the soils have a high level of diversity. Statistical analysis showed that the bacterial diversity is influenced by factors such as altitude, Ca(2+)/Mg(2+) ratio, and Al(3+) and phosphorus content, which also affected the diversity within the same lineage. In the samples analyzed, pH had no significant impact on diversity.

A genetic linkage map of Saccharum spontaneum L. 'SES 208'.

The arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction was used to detect single-dose polymorphisms that, in turn, were used to generate a linkage map of a polyploid relative of cultivated sugarcane, Saccharum spontaneum 'SES 208' (2n = 64). The mapping population was composed of 88 progeny from a cross between SES 208 and a diploidized haploid derived from SES 208 by anther culture, ADP 85-0068. This cross allowed direct analysis of meiosis in SES 208 and gametic segregation ratios to be observed. One hundred twenty-seven 10-mer oligonucleotide primers of arbitrary sequence were selected from a pool of 420 primers used to screen the mapping parents. Three hundred thirty-six of the 420 primers amplified 4,540 loci or 13.5 loci per primer. The selected 127 primers revealed 2,160 loci of which 279 were present in SES 208 and absent in ADP 85-0068 and easily scored. Two hundred and eight (74.6%) of these 279 polymorphisms were single-dose polymorphisms (i.e., they displayed 1:1 segregation, chi 2 at 98% confidence level). Linkage analysis (theta = 0.25, LOD = 9.0 for two-point analysis, then theta = 0.25, LOD = 6.0 for multipoint analysis) of single-dose polymorphisms placed them into 42 linkage groups containing at least 2 markers. These single-dose markers span 1,500 contiguous centimorgans (cM) with 32 markers remaining unlinked (15.4%). From this 208-marker map we estimated the genome size of SES 208 to be 2,500 cM. The map has a predicted coverage of 85.1% at 30 cM, meaning that any new marker placed has an 85.1% chance of being within 30 cM of an existing marker. Furthermore, we show that SES 208 behaves like an autopolyploid because (i) the ratio of single-dose markers to higher dose markers fit the assumption of auto-octaploidy and (ii) the absence of repulsion phase linkages. This is the first genetic map constructed directly on a polyploid species for which no diploid relatives are known.

Chromosome assortment in Saccharum.

Recent work has revealed random chromosome pairing and assortment in Saccharum spontaneum L., the most widely distributed, and morphologically and cytologically variable of the species of Saccharum. This conclusion was based on the analysis of a segregating population from across between S. spontaneum 'SES 208' and a spontaneously-doubled haploid of itself, derived from anther culture. To determine whether polysomic inheritance is common in Saccharum and whether it is observed in a typical biparental cross, we studied chromosome pairing and assortment in 44 progeny of a cross between euploid, meiotically regular, 2n=80 forms of Saccharum officinarum 'LA Purple' and Saccharum robustum ' Mol 5829'. Papuan 2n=80 forms of S. robustum have been suggested as the immediate progenitor species for cultivated sugarcane (S. officinarum). A total of 738 loci in LA Purple and 720 loci in Mol 5829 were amplified and typed in the progeny by arbitrarily primed PCR using 45 primers. Fifty and 33 single-dose polymorphisms were identified in the S. officinarum and S. robustum genomes, respectively (χ 2 at 98%). Linkage analysis of single-dose polymorphisms in both genomes revealed linkages in repulsion and coupling phases. In the S. officinarum genome, a map hypothesis gave 7 linkage groups with 17 linked and 33 unlinked markers. Four of 13 pairwise linkages were in repulsion phase and 9 were in coupling phase. In the S. robustum genome, a map hypothesis gave 5 linkage groups, defined by 12 markers, with 21 markers unlinked, and 2 of 9 pairwise linkages were in repulsion phase. Therefore, complete polysomic inheritance was not observed in either species, suggesting that chromosomal behavior is different from that observed by linkage analysis of over 500 markers in the S. spontaneum map. Implications of this finding for evolution and breeding are discussed.

Phylogenetic analysis of organellar DNA sequences in the Andropogoneae: Saccharinae.

To study the phylogenetics of sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) and its relatives we sequenced four loci on cytoplasmic genomes (two chloroplast and two mitochondrial) and analyzed mitochondrial RFLPs generated using probes for COXI, COXII, COXIII, Cob, 18S+5S, 26S, ATPase 6, ATPase 9, and ATPase α (D'Hont et al. 1993). Approximately 650 bp of DNA in the intergenic spacer region between rbcL and atpB and approximately 150 bp from the chloroplast 16S rDNA through the intergenic spacer region tRNA(val) gene were sequenced. In the mitochondrial genome, part of the 18S rRNA gene and approximately 150 bp from the 18S gene 3' end, through an intergenic spacer region, to the 5S rRNA gene were sequenced. No polymorphisms were observed between maize, sorghum, and 'Saccharum complex' members for the mitochondrial 18S internal region or for the intergenic tRNA(val) chloroplast locus. Two polymorphisms (insertion-deletion events, indels) were observed within the 18S-5S mitochondrial locus, which separated the accessions into three groups: one containing all of the Erianthus, Eccoilopus, Imperata, Sorghum, and 1 Miscanthus species; a second containing Saccharum species, Narenga porphyrocoma, Sclerostachya fusca, and 1 presumably hybrid Miscanthus sp. from New Guinea; and a third containing maize. Eighteen accessions were sequenced for the intergenic region between rbcL and atpB, which was the most polymorphic of the regions studied and contained 52 site mutations and 52 indels, across all taxa. Within the Saccharum complex, at most 7 site mutations and 16 indels were informative. The maternal lineage of Erianthus/Eccoilopus was nearly as divergent from the remaining Saccharum complex members as it was from sorghum, in agreement with a previous study. Sequences from the rbcL-atpB spacer were aligned with GENBANK sequences for wheat, rice, barley, and maize, which were used as outgroups in phylogenetic analyses. To determine whether limited intra-complex variability was caused by under sampling of taxa, we used seven restriction enzymes to digest the PCR-amplified rbcL-atpB spacer of an additional 36 accessions within the Saccharum complex. This analysis revealed ten restriction sites (none informative) and eight length variants (four informative). The small amount of variation present in the organellar DNAs of this polyploid complex suggests that either the complex is very young or that rates of evolution between the Saccharum complex and outgroup taxa are different. Other phylogenetic information will be required to resolve systematic relationships within the complex. Finally, no variation was observed in commercial sugarcane varieties, implying a world-wide cytoplasmic monoculture for this crop.

Translation in a wheat germ cell-free system of RNA from mitochondria of the normal and Texas male-sterile cytoplasms of maize (Zea mays L.).

RNA isolated from etiolated seedling shoot mitochondria of maize (Zea mays L.) with normal (N) or Texas male-sterile (T) cytoplasm stimulated the incorporation of [35S]-methionine into protein when added to a cell-free protein-synthesizing system from wheat germ. Discrete polypeptides with molecular masses of up to approximately 67 kDa were synthesized, and the pattern of bands was distinct from that obtained with total RNA. Products of translation of T-urf13 RNA were identified by immunoprecipitation, and of atpA, coxI, and coxII RNA by hybrid arrest of translation by the cloned gene. Several polypeptides were differentially synthesized from N and T mitochondrial RNA; these differences were more extensive than those found when isolated, intact, N and T mitochondria are allowed to synthesize proteins.