PEER Workshop 2012 | evolutionary biology

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Tree continues

By bsoto On August 15, 2012 · Add Comment · In Plasmodium Evolution

Chelsea and Eduardo’s Plasmodium Research

By eponcemo On August 15, 2012 · Add Comment · In Plasmodium Evolution

Effects of wildlife protection on plasmodium diversity

By hwoo On August 15, 2012 · Add Comment · In Plasmodium Evolution

by Hannah and Keerthana

Hypothesis: Does wild life protection have an effect on the the plasmodium diversity within PTT primates of the western region?

We assume that wildlife protected areas are less effected by human population. Possible mechanisms of an relationship include humans applying pesticides to kill the mosquito populations, deforestation to harm the monkey population, industry outputting chemicals that kill either population, etc.

Hence, our study would benefit from additional knowledge of the human population, proximity of each sampling site to human communities, how industrialized are these areas, are pesticides ever used to control mosquito populations etc. This can better inform on the selection of samplings sites to compare in order to best maximize the possible effect of human life on monkeys mosquitoes, and plasmodium diversity.

To test our hypothesis, we compared 5 plasmodium from a wild life and non-wild life within the western region. These sites were geographically close to minimize the effect of distance on phylogenetic diversity.

As control cases, we compared two wild-life population and two non-wildlife population against each other to see if the diversity were equal to that between wildlife and non-wild populations. This would essentially work against our hypothesis and make it unlikely that the diversity observed between wildlife and non-wildlife pouplations are significant.

Figure 1. Wildlife protection site (BB) vs. nonwildlife (BQ)

Figure 2. Two nonwildlife populations (BQ, DQ)

Figure 3. Two wildlife populations (BB, ME)

The populations for the test case and the [...]

Another Phylo Tree

By mcclela On August 15, 2012 · Add Comment · In Plasmodium Evolution

Geographical plasmodium analysis

By astaffo5 On August 15, 2012 · Add Comment · In Plasmodium Evolution

Andrew, Willy, Kelly

Question:

Does the geographical location of the sample site have any influence on the sequences found in the sample?

First Analysis: Ocean vs Inland

We ran samples from regions ND and MM and found no significant difference in sequences whether they were collected from samples by the coast or further inland.

Second Analysis: Ocean vs Inland

We also ran samples from regions ND and CP and again there was no significant difference in the sequences.

Third Analysis: Inland vs Inland

We compared two different inland regions DD and KG and found more of a correlation between sequences from one region being on one branch of the tree.

With each analysis each region had the same species compared to each other.

Additional Resources:

We would have needed more information on the geography of the habitats like latitude and longitude, standing water in the region, differences in elevation, and the human activity in the area.

Plasmodium saves mosquito !!

By keerthanaw On August 15, 2012 · Add Comment · In Plasmodium Evolution

Plasmodium post

By bsoto On August 15, 2012 · Add Comment · In Plasmodium Evolution

Crisis at the Okapi Wildlife Reserve

By kabraha2 On August 15, 2012 · Add Comment · In Plasmodium Evolution

Question: How different are plasmodium cyt. b in Pan troglodyte schenfurthii from the Okapi Wildlife Reserve?

Figure 1, below, was generated from a random sampling of data sets from camps KA, ON, and BA.

We found that the plasmodium between sites KA, BA, and ON are surprisingly diverse. We must point out that the sites were chosen first from the Okapi Wildlife reserve and then we discovered that the samples were unique to the P.t. schweinfurthii species. Wow! In fact, when viewing the radial tree, we saw that BApts1373_SGA10.1_cytb was the most distantly related sample. To see if this held true, we took another random sampling from the same three sites (below)

Again, BApts1373_SGA10.1_cytb was the most distantly related to the rest of the plasmodium! WHY? In the future, we could see if the mutation was more severe.

To further elucidate the cause of diversity among these plasmodium species, we could research the range P.t. schweinfurthii and what kind of environment they live in.

Phylo Tree- across subspecies

By abernalg On August 15, 2012 · Add Comment · In Plasmodium Evolution

Plasmodium phylogenetic tree