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Bacteria
Published in Julius P. Kreier, Infection, Resistance, and Immunity, 2022
The need for intelligent communication about the large number of vastly diverse organisms has prompted biologists to develop systems of classification. Taxonomy is the classification (or grouping) of organisms according to their natural relationships. Hence, a taxon (plural taxa) is a category. The study of natural relationships or evolutionary history of organisms is called phylogeny; i.e., a taxonomic grouping based on heritable or evolutionary relationships. This system of taxonomy leads to construction of a phylogenetic tree, which emphasizes branching away from common ancestors due to heritable differences. It does not usually consider adaptations as differences between descendants of a common ancestor.
Natural Products from the Amazon Region as Potential Antimicrobials
Published in Mahendra Rai, Chistiane M. Feitosa, Eco-Friendly Biobased Products Used in Microbial Diseases, 2022
Josiane E. A. Silva, Iasmin L. D. Paranatinga, Elaine C. P. Oliveira, Silvia K. S. Escher, Ananda S. Antonio, Leandro S. Nascimento, Patricia P. Orlandi, Valdir F. Veiga-Júnior
The presence of EOs is quite common in angiosperms (the flowering plants) and especially in the so-called basal angiosperms. Grouped in the angiosperm phylogeny group APG IV (2016), the basal angiosperms are formed by the orders Austrobaileyales, Nymphaeales, Amborellales (which has only one species, in New Caledonia), Chloranthales and the Magnoliids clade. Austrobaileyales is made up of three families, Austrobaileyaceae, Trimeniaceae, and Schisandraceae. In the latter, the very common aromatic species are called Star Anise (Illicium verum), used as an aromatic tea with several biological properties described (Wang et al. 2011) (Fig. 2.3).
Radiation Hormesis in Growth and Development
Published in T. D. Luckey, Radiation Hormesis, 2020
The trinity of life consists of time, nature and nurture. Time accepts the phylogeny of the individual and allows development of its ontogeny. Nature is the genetic and constitutional base of the individual; the expression and mutation of genes is particularly pertinent for cancer induction. Nurture includes all the contributions of the environment to the individual, a complex of physical, chemical, and biologic elements.523 The biologic elements include all the living forms with which one interacts; for example, the number of bacteria in the alimentary tract equals the total living human cells in one’s body.524 Chemical agents include essential nutrients, nonessential nutrients, oxygen, toxicants, waste products, pheromones, and drugs. The physical components of nurture include electricity, magnetism, sound, temperature, gravity, pressure, osmolality, heat, and light, as well as the subject of this book, ionizing radiation.
Testing for genetic mutation of seasonal influenza virus
Published in Journal of Applied Statistics, 2023
Phylogeny is concerned with the evolution of groups and specifically about the lines of descent and relationships among groups. It is one of the best tools for understanding the evolution of pathogens. A phylogenetic tree is a diagram depicting a phylogeny through lines of evolutionary descent from a common ancestor. Throughout this article, the phrase ‘phylogenetic tree’ and ‘evolutionary tree’ are used interchangeably. Influenza viruses are permanently changing, undergoing genetic changes over time and monitoring these changes in the genome is fundamental to the production of vaccines on a seasonal basis. The RNA genes of influenza are made up of nucleotides. It is the composition of these nucleotides and the differences which account for the different viruses. The differences and ancestry of viruses are demonstrated through the use of a phylogenetic tree. The tree shows how different viruses are related to each other and are grouped together based on how close their corresponding nucleotides are. Specifically the phylogenetic trees of influenza viruses will usually display how similar the viruses hemagglutinin (HA) or neuraminidase (NA) genes are to one another. The tree consists of branches and branch lengths. Groups on the same branch share the same nucleotides. At a split of a branch, the length of the branch indicates how different (i.e. the number of nucleotide differences) from each other the groups are.
Identification, characterization, and molecular phylogeny of scorpion enolase (Androctonus crassicauda and Hemiscorpius lepturus)
Published in Toxin Reviews, 2023
Elham Pondehnezhadan, Atefeh Chamani, Fatemeh Salabi, Reihaneh Soleimani
The evolutionary origin and relevance of scorpions have been the subject of many studies in recent decades, especially recent pan-genome studies that support the Arachnopulmonata hypothesis: a sister-group relationship between scorpions and tetrapulmonates (i.e. spiders and allied orders) (Regier et al. 2010, Sharma et al. 2014, 2015). Previous morphological-based phylogenetic approaches are restricted to those scorpions exemplifying morphological stasis (Prendini and Wheeler 2005, Prendini et al. 2006). To address this challenge, however, phylogenetic relationships can be inferred more precisely using both molecular and morphological methods (Chippaux and Goyffon 2008). Molecular phylogeny compares homologous DNA or protein sequences to decide the relationships among organisms or genes. It constructs a hierarchical phylogenetic tree based on the genetic divergences of the similarity or dissimilarity of homologous molecules from different organisms, resulting from molecular evolution over time (Patwardhan et al. 2014).
The foraging gene as a modulator of division of labour in social insects
Published in Journal of Neurogenetics, 2021
Christophe Lucas, Yehuda Ben-Shahar
Over 50years ago, the pioneering ethologist Niko Tinbergen published his seminal paper entitled “On aims and methods of ethology” (Burkhardt, 2014; Tinbergen, 1963). With brilliant simplicity, Tinbergen argued that if biologists want to really understand “behaviour” then they need to ask the following four questions (rephrased): (1) What is the studied trait good for (its impact on fitness)? (2) How does it develop during the lifetime of an individual (development/ontogeny)? (3) How did it evolve over the history of the species (trait phylogeny)? (4) How does it work (mechanism/causation)? The emergence of modern neuroscience and neurogenetics followed in the footsteps of ethology by providing a mechanistic framework as a powerful approach to the design of behavioural studies and their interpretation in the context of brain functions (Tinbergen question #4).