We analyzed the tuf gene, encoding elongation factor Tu, from 33 strains representing 17 Lactobacillus species and 8 Bifidobacterium species. The tuf sequences were aligned and used to infer phylogenesis among species of lactobacilli and bifidobacteria. We demonstrated that the synonymous substitution affecting this gene renders elongation factor Tu a reliable molecular clock for investigating ...

A molecular phylogeny for seven taxa of enteric bacteria (Citrobacter freundii, Enterobacter cloacae, Escherichia coli, Hafnia alvei, Klebsiella oxytoca, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Serratia plymuthica) was made from multiple isolates per taxa taken from a collection of environmental enteric bacteria. Sequences from five housekeeping genes (gapA, groEL, gyrA, ompA, and pgi) and the 16S rRNA gene...

In this paper, we report on the in situ diversity of the mycotrophic fungus Trichoderma (teleomorph Hypocrea, Ascomycota, Dikarya) revealed by a taxon-specific metagenomic approach. We designed a set of genus-specific internal transcribed spacer (ITS)1 and ITS2 rRNA primers and constructed a clone library containing 411 molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs). The overall species composit...

A taxonomic overview of the genus Anticharis (Scrophulariaceae) especially in Namibia and Angola is presented. Three new species are described, viz. A. namibensis B. Nord., A. kaokoensis B. Nord. and A. angolensis B. Nord. A key to the Anticharis species of Namibia and Angola is presented. Some aspects of phytogeography, molecular phylogeny and photosynthetic pathways (C3-C4) are briefly discus...

The phylum Actinobacteria harbors many important human pathogens and also provides one of the richest sources of natural products, including numerous antibiotics and other compounds of biotechnological interest. Thus, a reliable phylogeny of this large phylum and the means to accurately identify its different constituent groups are of much interest. Detailed phylogenetic and comparative analyse...

Trichoderma, a commonly known mycoparasite inhabiting nearly all agricultural soils, has shown outstanding biological properties in controlling growth of other less desirable or more harmful (pathogenic) types of fungi. What makes Trichoderma very interesting is that it uses local materials (decaying products) for proliferation, is non-toxic and biodegradable, produces numerous useful metabolit...

The effect of crop species and edaphic factors on the distribution of Trichoderma species in Alfisol soil under different agrosystems was evaluated. Each soil sample was assayed for nine abiotic factors and culturable microfungal populations. Fungal abundance was determined by dilution plate technique, and the identification of fungi was based on morphological characteristics. Pearson’s correla...

The superfamily Colubroidea (> 2500 species) includes the majority of snake species and is one of the most conspicuous and well-known radiations of terrestrial vertebrates. However, many aspects of the phylogeny of the group remain contentious, and dozens of genera have yet to be included in molecular phylogenetic analyses. We present a new, large-scale, likelihood-based phylogeny for the colub...

Trichoderma viridescens is recognised as a species complex. Multigene analyses based on the translation elongation factor 1-alpha encoding gene (tef1), a part of the rpb2 gene, encoding the second largest RNA polymerase subunit and the larger subunit of ATP citrate lyase (acl1) reveals 13 phylogenetic species with little or no phenotypic differentiation. This is the first use of acl1 in Trichod...