Nytt År 2024

Vi avslutade 2023 med trevlig besök från Sverige och nyårsafton med god mat och bubbel och babbel. Redan den 2 januari började jag jobba. Skön första vecka med noll studenter och tid att fixa med annat!

Ja, och så blev en mina artiklar citerad i en forskningsartikkel om klättermus! Kul!

Finally

Åh, jag är så glad att detta samarbetet äntligen kan avslutas - med flaggan i topp!? Puh!


"The cyanomorph and photosymbiodemes are here reported for the first time for Ricasolia virens (With.) H.H. Blom & Tønsberg comb. nov. (≡ Lobaria virens (With.) J.R. Laundon). The cyanomorph of R. virens is dendriscocauloid. The observed early developmental stages involve (1) a free-living cyanomorph and (2) a photosymbiodeme composed of the cyanomorph supporting small, foliose, chloromorphic lobes. Whereas the chloromorph continues to grow, the cyanomorph decays and disappears leading to the final stage (3), the free-living chloromorph. Secondary cyanomorphs emerging from the chloromorph are not known."

Trettio år

Før 30 år sedan, 1986, skulle jag ta studenten. Tsjernobyl - olyckan hade hænt, vi hade varit på klassresa till Kreta, jag var 18 år och hade blivit gjord slut med tidigt samma år.

Hittar en dagboksanteckning från 31 maj, en lørdag. Jag beskriver veckan som gick och utropar "Idag ær det lørdagen føre sista skolveckan!"

Blablabla och så: "Vad jag har læst før bøcker på sistone:" Jodå, jag læste Kafka "En lækare på landet", Jersild "Efter floden" och "Grisjakten". "2 bøcker skall jag læsa efter den (alltså som jag har lånat och vet alltså)(???), næmligen "Kærlekens børda" (Hce:u): Werner Heiduczek; "Sommarboken" (Hc): Tove Jansson". KUL før just Sommarboken blev rekommenderad i sæsongens sista Babel (bokprogram på svt)!

Xanthoria speciation

Tycker att jag hade en poäng med denna argumentation:
"The phylogenetic trees constructed from DNA sequence data resulted in paraphyly of X. calcicola, because X. aureola is nested inside the same clade, which was also the case in a previous study (Scherrer & Honegger 2003). There is a fundamental distinction between gene trees and species trees (Avise 2000, Rosenberg & Nordborg 2002). Paraphyly, or even polyphyly, in gene genealogies might be a temporary transitional state before finally reaching reciprocal monophyly, owing to incomplete lineage sorting of a genetically variable ancestral population (Avise 2000). Consequently, the genealogical paraphyly observed here cannot be taken as evidence that X. aureola and X. calcicola are conspecific, nor can it be interpreted to mean that colonization has proceeded from an inland rock-walls to maritime habitats. The morphological, chemical, and ecological differences along with the lack of shared haplotypes, on the other hand, indicate that X. aureola and X. calcicola are best treated as separate species."

Lindblom & Ekman (Myc. Res., 2005, sid 194)

Facebook writing: Nästa släkte

...jag ska skriva om är Rusavskia - men min lilla hjärna spjärnar emot...

Facebook writing: Xanthoria s. lat.

Figur 1 (Arup et al. 2013) viser forholdene mellom underordener, familier, underfamilier og slekter i ordenen Teloschistales. Våre norske arter av Xanthoria sensu lato finner vi, akkurat som før, i familien Teloschistaceae. I Teloschistaceae er der tre monofyletiske grupper med maksimal støtte, Caloplacoideae, Teloschistoideae og Xanthorioideae. Det er altså tre underfamilier som holder i alle molekylære fylogenetiske analyser, men deres innbyrdes slektskapsforhold er uklart.

Vi kommer at holde oss i underfamilien Xanthorioideae, som forfatterne (Arup et al. 2013) analyserer i to deler («Clade 1» og «Clade 2») i figur 2 og 3. Jeg tenker starte i «Clade 2», der vi finner fire norske arter i slekten Xanthomendoza.

I sommar: mycofilateli!

"No, being a mycophilelatist is not an immoral activity. It’s a term describing one who collects mushroom topical stamps. There are a small number of people in the stamp collecting world who specialize in mushroom topicals. Topicals are stamps that have specific pictures on them or are themed on a certain “topic” like trains, bugs,…"

Det blir motivsamling ('topicals')  i sommar. Alla sorters svampar (ascomyceter, basidiomyceter, licheniserade, ätliga, giftiga, mediciner...) i hela världen!

Evolutionary history of the liverworts

Update of my bryophyte knowledge:

"Nucleotide sequence data from three chloroplast genes (rbcL, rps4 and psbA), one nuclear gene (the ribosomal LSU) and one mitochondrial gene (nad5) were assembled for 173 species in 117 genera of liverworts, making this the largest molecular phylogeny of the group to date. Analyses of these data provide support for the monophyly of the liverworts, and for previously resolved backbone relationships within the Marchantiophyta. The earliest divergence involves the “simple thalloid” taxa of the Haplomitriaceae and Treubiaceae. A Blasiaceae/complex thalloid clade is resolved as sister to all remaining liverworts. The leafy liverworts do not resolve as monophyletic. The separation of the Aneuraceae/Metzgeriaceae from all other simple thalloids and their placement within the “leafy” clade as sister to the enigmatic leafy genus Pleurozia, as suggested in earlier molecular phylogenies, is also supported by this far larger data set."

Nature-publis = kaka och bubbel

Jag tog mig till arbetet efter dagens Tysabri-kur på Haukeland sykehus (= sjukskriven hela dagen, betalas av NAV), eftersom det bjöds på kaka etc med anledning av en artikel i Nature. Det var Christiane Todt och Christoffer Schander som firade!
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P.S. Skönt att veta att det är OK att stressa på!

Biodiversity and Evolution

Jag startade denna bloggen med en intention att skriva mycket om naturvetenskap och min forskning. Det har inte blivit så värst mycket av det. Men jag behåller titeln; jag gillar rytmen och det är två fina ord.

Xanthomendoza

Regarding the genus Xanthomendoza:

Several phylogenetic analyses have shown that the X. fallax group (sometimes together with representatives from other genera of Teloschistaceae) cluster on a branch not related to Xanthoria s. str. (including the type species, X. parietina).

See references in Lindblom (2006) where I discuss Xanthomendoza in the Introduction:

"The redefined Xanthoria fallax group was characterized by presence of soredia as well as oblong or bacilliform conidia and presence of true rhizines (Søchting & Lutzoni 2003), thus excluding X. candelaria, which has ellipsoid conidia and hapters instead of true rhizines.

Species belonging to the Xanthoria fallax group form a strongly supported major clade in molecular phylogenetic studies either alone or together with non-sorediate species (Arup & Grube 1999; Gaya et al. 2004; Søchting et al. 2002; Søchting & Lutzoni 2003 [lineage A])."

In the table (Tab 3) in the original paper by Søchting et al. 2002), morphological characters are provided. Note that there is an error in the table heading: The third (fourth) column says "Xanthoria ulophyllodes group", but lists the characters of Xanthoria sensu stricto!!! The first (2nd) column has the correct heading of "Xanthoria ulophyllodes group", which were combined into the genus Xanthomendoza.

Useful review

If you have an interest in evolution and analysing populations; read this article from 2006: Computer programs for population genetics data analysis: a survival guide, by Laurent Excoffier and Gerald Heckel. Pubished in Nature Reviews Genetics.

Here is the Abstract: "The analysis of genetic diversity within species is vital for understanding evolutionary processes at the population level and at the genomic level. A large quantity of data can now be produced at an unprecedented rate, requiring the use of dedicated computer programs to extract all embedded information. Several statistical packages have been recently developed, which offer a panel of standard and more sophisticated analyses. We describe here the functionalities, special features and assumptions of more than 20 such programs, indicate how they can interoperate, and discuss new directions that could lead to
improved software and analyses."

BIO230

One of my courses, BIO 230 Evolution and Systematics of... has a weblog!

Inferring Demographic History

I struggled with running analyses of the total data set of Xanthoria parietina using software Beast (& Beauti!) for one whole year. Then I gave up. It was surely a wise decision. The data set is too small (14 populations, 2 markers), at least for the analysis tools currently available

Through the evolgen blog, I was referred to Drummond's own blog today. this is very interesting, and I will follow the development eagerly.

Speciation and Evolutionary change

I know that I was late with the Speciation thing yesterday. I'm faster with this recommendation. Check out the recent (but not latest)issue of Molecular Ecology, which is a special issue on "Evolutionary change in human-altered environments"! Really interesting and hot!

Speciation

Why is biodiversity higher in the tropics than at higher latitudes and where do most species arise? Weir & Schluter examine this in the paper "The Latitudinal Gradient in Recent Speciation and Extinction Rates of Birds and Mammals". It is always intriguing when scientists find evidence that things might be totally the opposite of what is generally thought. Here is a review by John Simpson. And here, the author comments on the findings. What would I need to perform an analysis like this for lichenised fungi? Perhaps this paper gives clues to it?

Flowering plants evolution

I must remember to check out the next issue of PNAS.