Papuan phonebook helps scientists describe 101 new beetle species

DNA analysis helps to rapidly discover new species in order to beat their extinction rates

2013-03-27

(Press-News.org) Tropical rainforests are known for their high biodiversity of countless species, many of them unknown and not named by scientists yet. A large proportion of this undiscovered life on earth is formed by insects, especially beetles.

German researchers Alexander Riedel (Natural History Museum Karlsruhe) and Michael Balke (Zoological State Collection Munich), know this well, being experts for faunas of remote tropical countries such as the wilderness of New Guinea. Now they came across a special case, the weevil genus Trigonopterus which is truly "hyperdiverse". Hundreds of distinct species roam the jungles of this tropical island and most of them have never been recorded by scientists.

To describe this huge diversity using traditional approaches would take more than a lifetime, but there is no time to waste! Forests disappear for the sake of ever expanding palm oil plantations, and good arguments are needed in the battle for the conservation of each hectare of primary forest.

"This called for a new approach", said Dr Riedel. "A portion of each weevil species' DNA was sequenced, which helped to sort out and diagnose species efficiently. Besides, we have taken high-resolution photographs of each weevil that will be uploaded to Species ID, along with a short scientific description. More than 100 species were brought to the light of science and public attention this way right now – about five times faster than possible with traditional techniques!" added Dr Riedel.

Another problem was tackled with an equally innovative idea: To find suitable names, Papua New Guinea´s phonebook was used as a helpful resource. Many species were named for Papuan families found in the yellow pages, for example Trigonopterus moreaorum which is based on the popular name "Morea". Some of them may not even guess of their honor - a weevil species with their own name in the backyard!

The new species and the general idea of how to get biodiversity better known before it becomes extinct are described in the journals ZooKeys and Frontiers in Zoology, both of them open access under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution License. As such, the research is open to anyone with internet access for free – in fact, the Papuan people who donated their names may learn about it that way.

INFORMATION:

Original Sources:

Riedel A, Sagata K, Surbakti S, Tänzler R & Balke M (2013) One hundred and one new species of Trigonopterus weevils from New Guinea. Zookeys , 280: 1. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.280.3906

Alexander Riedel, Katayo Sagata, Yayuk R. Suhardjono, Rene Tänzler and Michael Balke: Integrative taxonomy on the fast track - towards more sustainability in biodiversity research. Frontiers in Zoology (2013), 10:15. DOI: 10.1186/1742-9994-10-15

Further Contacts:

Alexander Riedel
Email: riedel@smnk.de

Michael Balke
Email: Coleoptera-ZSM@zsm.mwn.de

Licensing:

This press release is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. It is thus expected to link back to the original article.

Posted by Pensoft Publishers.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Young, hot and blue

2013-03-27

The Universe is an old neighbourhood -- roughly 13.8 billion years old. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is also ancient -- some of its stars are more than 13 billion years old (eso0425). Nevertheless, there is still a lot of action: new objects form and others are destroyed. In this image, you can see some of the newcomers, the young stars forming the cluster NGC 2547. But, how young are these cosmic youngsters really? Although their exact ages remain uncertain, astronomers estimate that NGC 2547's stars range from 20 to 35 million years old. That doesn't sound all that young, ...

Researchers successfully map fountain of youth

2013-03-27

In collaboration with an international research team, University of Copenhagen researchers have for the first time mapped telomerase, an enzyme which has a kind of rejuvenating effect on normal cell ageing. The findings have just been published in Nature Genetics and are a step forward in the fight against cancer. Mapping the cellular fountain of youth – telomerase. This is one of the results of a major research project involving more than 1,000 researchers worldwide, four years of hard work, DKK 55 million from the EU and blood samples from more than 200,000 people. ...

5 genetic variations increase risk of ovarian cancer

2013-03-27

DURHAM, N.C. -- An international research collaboration has found five new regions of the human genome that are linked to increased risks for developing ovarian cancer. Duke Medicine researchers played a leading role analyzing genetic information from more than 40,000 women. The findings are published in four studies, two appearing in the journal Nature Communications and two in Nature Genetics on March 27, 2013. The research is being published as part of a coordinated release of new data from the Collaborative Oncological Gene-environment Study (COGS), an international ...

York scientists discover driving force behind prostate cancer

2013-03-27

SCIENTISTS at the University of York have discovered the driving force behind the development of prostate cancer. Their research, published in Nature Communications today (Wednesday)* and funded by the charity Yorkshire Cancer Research, reveals the existence of a cancer inducing DNA re-alignment in stem cells taken from human prostate cancers. This opens the way to the development of drugs that target the stem cells, leading to more effective therapies that work against the root cause of the disease. Professor Norman Maitland, Director of the YCR Cancer Research ...

Tarsiers' bulging eyes shed light on evolution of human vision

2013-03-27

After eons of wandering in the dark, primates developed highly acute, three-color vision that permitted them to shift to daytime living, a new Dartmouth College study suggests. The findings challenge the prevailing view that trichromatic color vision, a hallmark of primate evolution, evolved only after they started getting up with the sun, a shift that gave rise to anthropoid (higher) primates, which, in turn, gave rise to the human lineage. The results are published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. The authors based their findings ...

Pesticide combination affects bees' ability to learn

2013-03-27

Two new studies have highlighted a negative impact on bees' ability to learn following exposure to a combination of pesticides commonly used in agriculture. The researchers found that the pesticides, used in the research at levels shown to occur in the wild, could interfere with the learning circuits in the bee's brain. They also found that bees exposed to combined pesticides were slower to learn or completely forgot important associations between floral scent and food rewards. In the study published today (27th March 2013) in Nature Communications, the University of ...

Sex discrimination begins in the womb

2013-03-27

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Women in India are more likely to get prenatal care when pregnant with boys, according to groundbreaking research that has implications for girls' health and survival. The study by Leah Lakdawala of Michigan State University and Prashant Bharadwaj of the University of California, San Diego, suggests sex discrimination begins in the womb in male-dominated societies. "It paints a pretty dire picture of what's happening," said Lakdawala, MSU assistant professor of economics. In studying the national health-survey data of more than 30,000 Indians, ...

New DNA test identifies ingredients in foods

2013-03-27

Almost all foodstuffs contain the genetic material of those animal and plant species that were used in their preparation. Scientists at the Institute of Molecular Genetics, Genetic Security Research and Consulting at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have developed a novel screening procedure that provides for highly sensitive, quantifiable analysis of animal, plant, and microbial substances present in foodstuffs. For this, the researchers have adapted the latest techniques of DNA sequencing, which are otherwise currently employed in human genetics to unravel the ...

Quebec researcher catches DNA 'spelling mistakes' linked to breast cancer

2013-03-27

Working with an international consortium conducting research on breast, ovarian and prostate cancer among 200,000 people, Professor Jacques Simard, holder of the Canada Research Chair in Oncogenetics at Laval University, was actively involved in the discovery of DNA "spelling mistakes" linked to breast cancer. These mistakes – known as genetic variations – are directly involved in the risk of developing breast cancer. The research was part of an international study on an unprecedented scale performed by the largest international consortia, the Collaborative Oncological ...

Transmission routes of spreading protein particles

2013-03-27

Bonn, Germany 27 March 2013 – In diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's endogenous proteins accumulate in the brain, eventually leading to the death of nerve cells. These deposits, which consist of abnormally formed proteins, are supposed to migrate between interconnected areas of the brain, thereby contributing to the development of the illness. Now, a new laboratory study by scientists from Germany and the US shows that certain protein particles are indeed capable of multiplying and spreading from one cell to the next. The investigation was conducted by researchers ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Tech Extension Co. and Tech Extension Taiwan to build next-generation 3D integration manufacturing lines using Tokyo Tech's BBCube Technology

The threat of polio paralysis may have disappeared, but enterovirus paralysis is just as dangerous and surveillance and testing systems are desperately needed

Study shows ChatGPT failed when challenging ESCMID guideline for treating brain abscesses

Study finds resistance to critically important antibiotics in uncooked meat sold for human and animal consumption

Global cervical cancer vaccine roll-out shows it to be very effective in reducing cervical cancer and other HPV-related disease, but huge variations between countries in coverage

Personalised “cocktails” of antibiotics, probiotics and prebiotics hold great promise in treating a common form of irritable bowel syndrome, pilot study finds