Field and laboratory experiments compared the feeding behaviours of two marine scavengers, the gastropod, Nassarius festivus and the hermit crab, Diogenes edwardsii, sympatric on the lower intertidal shore at Starfish Bay, Hong Kong. Field trials demonstrated that they both preferred bivalve and fish to other carrion. N. festivus arrived at bait in greater numbers and more quickly 3 than D. edw...

Comparative ecology uses interspecific relationships among traits, while accounting for the phylogenetic non-independence of species, to uncover general evolutionary processes. Applied to biogeographic questions, it can be a powerful tool to explain the spatial distribution of organisms. Here, we review how comparative methods can elucidate biogeographic patterns and processes, using analyses o...

DNA cytosine methylation is a widespread epigenetic mechanism in eukaryotes, and plant genomes commonly are densely methylated. Genomic methylation can be associated with functional consequences such as mutational events, genomic instability or altered gene expression, but little is known on interspecific variation in global cytosine methylation in plants. In this paper, we compare global cytos...

Key message. The success of interspecific hybridization in hardy geranium (Geranium sp.) can be predicted by considering the genetic distance between parental genotypes and using logistic regression model developed this study. Hardy is a popular ornamental plant known for its architecture, hardiness, prolonged flowering, diverse colors leaves flowers. In breeding, pursuit novel trait combinatio...

Knowledge of the genetic basis of phenotypic divergence between species and how such divergence is caused and maintained is crucial to an understanding of speciation and the generation of biodiversity. The hybrid zone between Senecio aethnensis and S. chrysanthemifolius on Mount Etna, Sicily, provides a well-studied example of species divergence in response to conditions at different elevations...

Recolonization of Europe by forest tree species after the last glaciation is well documented in the fossil pollen record. This spread may have been achieved at low densities by rare events of long-distance dispersal, rather than by a compact wave of advance, generating a patchy genetic structure through founder effects. In long-lived oak species, this structure could still be discernible by usi...

Taxonomic information is important to fisheries management and conservation. In this study, we collected 95 specimens of larval fish from Hawaiian waters a total 92 mitochondrial COI barcode sequences were obtained, representing 20 species, 18 genera 12 families. The determined average Kimura-2-parameter distances within genera, families, orders 0.72%, 25.99%, 26.30%, 27.50%, respectively, the ...

To provide a resource for cotton genetics and breeding, an interspecific hybridization between Gossypium hirsutum cv. Emian22 and G. barbadense acc. 3-79 was made. A population of 54 BILs (backcross inbred lines, BC1F8) was developed with the aim of transferring G. barbadense genes into G. hirsutum in order to genetically analyze these genes' function in a G. hirsutum background and create new ...

Sequences of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) mitochondrial gene from adults of 22 Culex (Culex) species from Argentina and Brazil were employed to assess species identification and to test the usefulness of COI for barcoding using the best close match (BCM) algorithm. A pairwise Kimura two-parameter distance matrix including the mean intra and interspecific distances for 71 COI barcode...

Triatoma brasiliensis is one of the most important vectors of Chagas disease in the semiarid zone of the northeast of Brazil. Intraspecific morphological and behavioural variation has been reported for different populations. Results for four distinct populations using eight isoenzymes are reported here. The literature describes three subspecies: T. brasiliensis brasiliensis Neiva, 1911; T. bras...