A phylogeny and timescale derived from analyses of multilocus nuclear DNA sequences for Holarctic genera of plethodontid salamanders reveal them to be an old radiation whose common ancestor diverged from sister taxa in the late Jurassic and underwent rapid diversification during the late Cretaceous. A North American origin of plethodontids was followed by a continentalwide diversification, not necessarily centered only in the Appalachian region. The colonization of Eurasia by plethodontids most likely occurred once, by dispersal during the late Cretaceous. Subsequent diversification in Asia led to the origin of Hydromantes and Karsenia, with the former then dispersing both to Europe and back to North America. Salamanders underwent rapid episodes of diversification and dispersal that coincided with major global warming events during the late Cretaceous and again during the Paleocene-Eocene thermal optimum. The major clades of plethodontids were established during these episodes, contemporaneously with similar phenomena in angiosperms, arthropods, birds, and mammals. Periods of global warming may have promoted diversification and both inter-and transcontinental dispersal in northern hemisphere salamanders by making available terrain that shortened dispersal routes and offered new opportunities for adaptive and vicariant evolution.historical biogeography ͉ paleogeography ͉ Plethodontidae dispersal ͉ salamander phylogeny ͉ phylogeny P lethodontidae, the most speciose family of salamanders, is also the most differentiated in morphology, ecology, and behavior. The family includes Ϸ68% of the extant described species of caudate amphibians (1). New analyses of mtDNA, nuclear DNA, and morphology (2-6) have achieved consensus on many aspects of phylogenetic relationships, but unresolved conflicts remain. The disjunct and highly asymmetric Holarctic distribution of the family, with Ϸ98% of the species in the Americas and a few in the Mediterranean region, has long been a biogeographic puzzle (7-9), with the debate centered on the timing and route of colonization of Eurasia (reinvigorated with the recent discovery of Karsenia, the first East Asian plethodontid; ref. 10

We investigated the physical properties of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) atomic crystals with a sulfur vacancy passivation after treatment with alkanethiol molecules including their electrical, Raman, and photoluminescence (PL) characteristics. MoS2, one of the transition metal dichalcogenide materials, is a promising two-dimensional semiconductor material with good physical properties. It is known that sulfur vacancies exist in MoS2, resulting in the n-type behavior of MoS2. The sulfur vacancies on the MoS2 surface tend to form covalent bonds with sulfur-containing groups. In this study, we deposited alkanethiol molecules on MoS2 field effect transistors (FETs) and then characterized the electrical properties of the devices before and after the alkanethiol treatment. We observed that the electrical characteristics of MoS2 FETs dramatically changed after the alkanethiol treatment. We also observed that the Raman and PL spectra of MoS2 films changed after the alkanethiol treatment. These effects are attributed to the thiol (-SH) end groups in alkanethiols bonding at sulfur vacancy sites, thus altering the physical properties of the MoS2. This study will help us better understand the electrical and optical properties of MoS2 and suggest a way of tailoring the properties of MoS2 by passivating a sulfur vacancy with thiol molecules.

Population declines and extinctions of amphibians have been attributed to the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), especially one globally emerging recombinant lineage ('Bd-GPL'). We used PCR assays that target the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) of Bd to determine the prevalence and genetic diversity of Bd in South Korea, where Bd is widely distributed but is not known to cause morbidity or mortality in wild populations. We isolated Korean Bd strains from native amphibians with low infection loads and compared them to known worldwide Bd strains using 19 polymorphic SNP and microsatellite loci. Bd prevalence ranged between 12.5 and 48.0%, in 11 of 17 native Korean species, and 24.7% in the introduced bullfrog Lithobates catesbeianus. Based on ITS sequence variation, 47 of the 50 identified Korean haplotypes formed a group closely associated with a native Brazilian Bd lineage, separated from the Bd-GPL lineage. However, multilocus genotyping of three Korean Bd isolates revealed strong divergence from both Bd-GPL and the native Brazilian Bd lineages. Thus, the ITS region resolves genotypes that diverge from Bd-GPL but otherwise generates ambiguous phylogenies. Our results point to the presence of highly diversified endemic strains of Bd across Asian amphibian species. The rarity of Bd-GPL-associated haplotypes suggests that either this lineage was introduced into Korea only recently or Bd-GPL has been outcompeted by native Bd strains. Our results highlight the need to consider possible complex interactions among native Bd lineages, Bd-GPL and their associated amphibian hosts when assessing the spread and impact of Bd-GPL on worldwide amphibian populations.

An anti-solvent for graphene oxide (GO), hexane, is introduced to increase the surface area and the pore volume of the non-stacked GO/reduced GO 3D structure and allows the formation of a highly crumpled non-stacked GO powder, which clearly shows ideal supercapacitor behavior.

Nonvolatile memory devices using gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sheets were fabricated in both horizontal and vertical structures. The horizontal memory device, in which a singly and doubly overlayered semiconducting rGO channel was formed by simply using a spin-casting technique to connect two gold electrodes, was designed for understanding the origin of charging effects. AuNPs were chemically bound to the rGO channel through a π-conjugated molecular linker. The π-conjugated bifunctional molecular linker, 4-mercapto-benzenediazonium tetrafluoroborate (MBDT) salt, was newly synthesized and used as a molecular bridge to connect the AuNPs and rGOs. By using a self-assembly technique, the diazonium functional group of the MBDT molecular linker was spontaneously immobilized on the rGOs. Then, the monolayered AuNPs working as capacitors were covalently connected to the thiol groups of the MBDT molecules, which were attached to rGOs (AuNP-frGO). These covalent bonds were confirmed by XPS analyses. The current-voltage characteristics of both the horizontal and vertical AuNP-frGO memory devices showed noticeable nonlinear hysteresis, stable write-multiple read-erase-multiple read cycles over 1000 s, and a long retention time over 700 s. In addition, the vertical AuNP-frGO memory device showed a large current ON/OFF ratio and high stability.

The disease chytridiomycosis, caused by the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), has caused dramatic amphibian population declines and extinctions in Australia, Central and North America, and Europe. Bd is associated with >200 species extinctions of amphibians, but not all species that become infected are susceptible to the disease. Specifically, Bd has rapidly emerged in some areas of the world, such as in Australia, USA, and throughout Central and South America, causing population and species collapse. The mechanism behind the rapid global emergence of the disease is poorly understood, in part due to an incomplete picture of the global distribution of Bd. At present, there is a considerable amount of geographic bias in survey effort for Bd, with Asia being the most neglected continent. To date, Bd surveys have been published for few Asian countries, and infected amphibians have been reported only from Indonesia, South Korea, China and Japan. Thus far, there have been no substantiated reports of enigmatic or suspected disease-caused population declines of the kind that has been attributed to Bd in other areas. In order to gain a more detailed picture of the distribution of Bd in Asia, we undertook a widespread, opportunistic survey of over 3,000 amphibians for Bd throughout Asia and adjoining Papua New Guinea. Survey sites spanned 15 countries, approximately 36° latitude, 111° longitude, and over 2000 m in elevation. Bd prevalence was very low throughout our survey area (2.35% overall) and infected animals were not clumped as would be expected in epizootic events. This suggests that Bd is either newly emerging in Asia, endemic at low prevalence, or that some other ecological factor is preventing Bd from fully invading Asian amphibians. The current observed pattern in Asia differs from that in many other parts of the world.

Speciation remains a fundamental issue in biology. Herein, we report an investigation into speciation in the Rana chensinensis species complex using DNA sequence data from one mitochondrial and five nuclear genes. A phylogenetic analysis of the data revealed four major clades in the complex, and each of them was found to likely represent a species, including one cryptic species. Ecological niche models were generated from 19 climatic variables for three of the four major clades, which were represented by widespread sampling, including R. chensinensis, Rana kukunoris and the potential cryptic species. Each clade is associated with a unique ecological unit, and this indicates that ecological divergence probably drove speciation. Ecological divergence is likely related to the late Cenozoic orogenesis of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. In addition, gene flow between species was detected but only in peripheral portions of the ranges of the four major clades, thus likely had little influence on the speciation processes. Discordances between mitochondrial and nuclear genes were also found; the nominal species, R. chensinensis, contains multiple maternal clades, suggesting potential mitochondrial introgression between R. chensinensis and R. kukunoris.

True frogs of the genus Rana are widely used as model organisms in studies of development, genetics, physiology, ecology, behavior, and evolution. Comparative studies among the more than 100 species of Rana rely on an understanding of the evolutionary history and patterns of diversification of the group. We estimate a well-resolved, time-calibrated phylogeny from sequences of six nuclear and three mitochondrial loci sampled from most species of Rana, and use that phylogeny to clarify the group's diversification and global biogeography. Our analyses consistently support an "Out of Asia" pattern with two independent dispersals of Rana from East Asia to North America via Beringian land bridges. The more species-rich lineage of New World Rana appears to have experienced a rapid radiation following its colonization of the New World, especially with its expansion into montane and tropical areas of Mexico, Central America, and South America. In contrast, Old World Rana exhibit different trajectories of diversification; diversification in the Old World began very slowly and later underwent a distinct increase in speciation rate around 29-18 Ma. Net diversification is associated with environmental changes and especially intensive tectonic movements along the Asian margin from the Oligocene to early Miocene. Our phylogeny further suggests that previous classifications were misled by morphological homoplasy and plesiomorphic color patterns, as well as a reliance primarily on mitochondrial genes. We provide a phylogenetic taxonomy based on analyses of multiple nuclear and mitochondrial gene loci. [Amphibians; biogeography; diversification rate; Holarctic; transcontinental dispersal.