Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) population data for forensic purposes are still scarce for some populations, which may limit the evaluation of forensic evidence especially when the rarity of a haplotype needs to be determined in a database search. In order to improve the collection of mtDNA lineages from the Iberian and South American subcontinents, we here report the results of a collaborative study involving nine laboratories from the Spanish and Portuguese Speaking Working Group of the International Society for Forensic Genetics (GHEP-ISFG) and EMPOP. The individual laboratories contributed population data that were generated throughout the past 10 years, but in the majority of cases have not been made available to the scientific community. A total of 1019 haplotypes from Iberia (Basque Country, 2 general Spanish populations, 2 North and 1 Central Portugal populations), and Latin America (3 populations from São Paulo) were collected, reviewed and harmonized according to defined EMPOP criteria. The majority of data ambiguities that were found during the reviewing process (41 in total) were transcription errors confirming that the documentation process is still the most error-prone stage in reporting mtDNA population data, especially when performed manually. This GHEP–EMPOP collaboration has significantly improved the quality of the individual mtDNA datasets and adds mtDNA population data as valuable resource to the EMPOP database (www.empop.org).
The Metropolitan Area of Sao Paulo presents today one of the most critical situations in Brazil with regard to ensuring sufficient water supply in quantity and quality to its population. Declining water resources coupled with increased demand for clean water has already become a political issue in many localities. This study aimed to examine whether climate changes (especially in rainfall) resulting from the urbanization process are related to the urban water supply problems detected in the MASP, or whether they are due to poor management and the rapid growth of cities. Broadly, what can be concluded from the results of this research is that they indicate that there are signs of urbanization effects on the behavior of rainfall in the MASP. It was also identified that the averages of the volumes stored in the reservoirs that supply the MASP did not have a default behavior, even in similar weather conditions, suggesting the need for improvements in the systems.
Anopheles darlingi is a major human malaria vector in the Neotropics. Twenty-four polymorphic microsatellite loci were isolated and characterized in 21-32 individuals collected in Coari (Amazonas, Brazil). The number of alleles per locus ranged from 4 to 11 (average of 7.667). The observed heterozygosity (H O ) varied between 0.037 and 0.833 (average of 0.500), while the expected heterozygosity (H E ) ranged from 0.177 to 0.871 (average of 0.723). Thirteen loci showed a significant deviation from HWE. No linkage disequilibrium was found between the loci.Keywords Anopheles darlingi Á Microsatellites Á Malaria vector Á Amazon Basin Anopheles (Nyssorhynchus) darlingi is the major and the most anthropophilic and endophagic malaria vector in the Brazilian Amazon Basin (Tadei et al. 1998). It is also a significant vector in other countries in South America such as Peru, Colombia and Suriname (Vittor et al. 2006). Although morphology and genetics variation had been described suggesting that A. darlingi is a species complex (Freitas-Sibajev et al. 1995), morphometric and genetic analyses using isozymes, RAPD and ITS2 demonstrated the existence of a single species (Manguin et al. 1999). Studies using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA markers provide support for moderate level of population genetic structure (Mirabello and Conn 2006;Scarpassa and Conn 2007;Mirabello et al. 2008).Eight microsatellite loci were characterized (Conn et al. 2001) but the development of new markers would improve genetic population studies, gene mapping and QTL analysis in this vector. This study reports the isolation and characterization of new 24 microsatellite markers for A. darlingi and cross-amplification in three con-generic species.A genomic library enriched with microsatellite DNA of A. darlingi was constructed (Billotte et al. 1999) from the Genomic DNA extracted (Wilkerson et al. 1995) using a pool of 10 A. darlingi adult specimens newly hatched and unfed collected in Coari, Amazonas, Brazil. The DNA was digested with RsaI restriction enzyme (Invitrogen), and linked to RSA21 and RSA25 adapters. Microsatellite DNA fragments were selected by hybridization with (CT) 8 and (GT) 8 repeats biotin-linked probes and recovered with streptavidin-linked particles (Promega). Selected fragments were linked into a pGEM-T vector (Promega), transformed into Escherichia coli XL1-blue competent cells and inoculated into plates with X-Gal/IPTG/LB agar. After the growth at 37°C the white colonies were transferred onto
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