Coccidae is one of the major families of scale insects, with many species considered to be serious agricultural or horticultural pests. However, the phylogenetic relationships among coccid subfamilies, tribes and genera are poorly understood because the previous hypotheses are based only on morphological characters and cladistic analysis. Here, we present the first molecular phylogeny of the family based on DNA fragments of a mitochondrial gene (COI), nuclear ribosomal RNA genes (18S and 28S), and elongation factor-1α (EF-1α). We recover a monophyletic family Coccidae with strong support. However, some genera (Coccus and Pulvinaria), tribes (Coccini, Paralecaniini, Pulvinariini and Saissetiini) and subfamilies (Coccinae and Filippiinae) within the family found to be paraphyletic- or polyphyletic. Moreover, particular types of wax formation, which have been used as important taxonomic characters in Coccidae, were found in several unrelated taxa.

We carry out three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of the supernova remnants (SNRs) produced inside molecular clouds (MCs) near their surface using the HLL code (Harten et al. 1983). We explore the dynamical evolution and the X-ray morphology of SNRs after breaking through the MC surface for ranges of the explosion depths below the surface and the density ratios of the clouds to the intercloud media (ICM). We find that if an SNR breaks out through an MC surface in its Sedov stage, the outermost dense shell of the remnant is divided into several layers. The divided layers are subject to the Rayleigh-Taylor instability and fragmented. On the other hand, if an SNR breaks through an MC after the remnant enters the snowplow phase, the radiative shell is not divided to layers. We also compare the predictions of previous analytic solutions for the expansion of SNRs in stratified media with our one- dimensional simulations. Moreover, we produce synthetic X-ray surface brightness in order to research the center-bright X-ray morphology shown in thermal composite SNRs. In the late stages, a breakout SNR shows the center-bright X-ray morphology inside an MC in our results. We apply our model to the observational results of the X-ray morphology of the thermal composite SNR 3C 391.

Cordyceps sensu lato is known as one of the largest genera in hypocrealean fungi and largest group of entomopathogenic fungi in Ascomycota. Approximately 400 species are members of Cordyceps s. l. and most of them are obligate symbionts of 10 orders of arthropods and false truffles specifically parasitizing Elaphomyces spp. Recently, Cordyceps s. l. was reclassified into Cordyceps sensu stricto, Elaphocordyceps, MetaCordyceps, and OphioCordyceps in three families (i.e., Clavicipitaceae, Cordycipitaceae, Ophiocordycipitaceae) with the evidence of recent multigene phylogenetic analyses coupled with morphological and ecological characters. With the closely related animal, plant and fungal associated genera (e.g., Balansia, Claviceps, Hypocrella and Torrubiella) of Cordyceps s. l., Cordyceps s. l. and its related genera in Hypocreales have been considered as one of the model systems in understanding the evolution of host affiliation in Kingdom Fungi. Here the overview of molecular systematic of Cordyceps was presented with its evolutionary hypotheses of host affiliation based on the ancestral state reconstruction from 162-taxon data set. In our results, the evolution of its host affiliation is largely characterized by frequent interkingdom host-jumps and ergot and grass endophytes (e.g., Balansia, Claviceps, Epichloe and Neotyphodium) are hypothesized to be derived from an ancestor that parasitized arthropods. Around 350 taxa have been included in the molecular phylogeny of Cordyceps s. l. after the new classification was proposed. Therefore, the progress and problems in current molecular phylogeny are also presented with introduction of the future research direction in molecular systematics and genomics of Cordyceps and its related genera.

We present the first comprehensive cladistic analysis of Miridae, the plant bugs, based on analysis of 3935 base pairs of mitochondrial (16S, COI) and nuclear (18S, 28SD3) DNA for 91 taxa in seven subfamilies. We analyzed the data using maximum likelihood (ML), maximum parsimony (MP), and Bayesian inference (BI) phylogenetic frameworks. A Bayesian relaxed molecular clock was used to examine divergence times, and ancestral feeding habits were reconstructed using parsimony and a Bayesian approach. Clades recovered in all analyses are as follows: Cimicomorpha, Miroidea, and Miridae; Bryocorinae: Bryocorini; Stenodemini; Mirinae; Deraeocorinae (Clevinemini + Deraeocorini); Cylapinae; Isometopinae; Bryocorinae: Dicyphini; Orthotylini; Phylinae (Phylini + Pilophorini), and Phylinae is sister-group to all the remaining mirid taxa. These results are largely congruent with former hypotheses based on morphological data with respect to the monophyly of various subfamilies and tribes however, our results indicate that the subfamily Bryocorinae is not a monophyletic group as the two tribes, Dicypini and Bryocorini, were separated in our phylogeny. Ancestral feeding state reconstructions based on Bayesian and parsimony inference were largely congruent and both reconstructed phytophagy at the root of the Miridae.

Upon mating, females of many animal species undergo dramatic changes in their behavior. In Drosophila melanogaster, post-mating behaviors are triggered by sex peptide (SP), a key modulatory substance produced in the male seminal fluid and transferred to female during copulation. SP modulates female behaviors by acting on the sex peptide receptor (SPR) located in a small subset of internal sensory neurons that innervate the female uterus and project to the central nervous system (CNS). Interestingly, however, SPR is also expressed broadly in the CNS of both sexes. Moreover, SPR is also encoded in the genomes of insects that lack obvious SP orthologs. Based on these observations, we speculated that SPR may have additional ligands that are only distantly related to SP, if at all. If so, then this also raises questions on the evolution of SP-SPR signaling. To begin to address these questions, we set out to identify additional ligands for SPR. Here, we identify myoinhibitory peptides (MIPs) as a second family of SPR ligands that is conserved across a wide range of invertebrate species. MIPs are potent agonists for Drosophila, Aedes and Aplysia SPRs in vitro, yet are unable to trigger post-mating responses in vivo. In contrast to SP, MIPs are not produced in male reproductive organs, and are not required for post-mating behaviors in Drosophila females. We conclude that MIPs are evolutionarily conserved ligands for SPR, which are likely to mediate functions other than the regulation of female reproductive behaviors. Therefore, we propose that SPR has a different ancestral function, with a role in post-mating behavior arising only recently in Drosophila evolution, concomitant with the emergence of its novel SP ligand.

The abundances of simple molecules are examined in terms of the time-dependent cloud evolution. The formation and destruction mechanisms of H 2 C O are reviewed. The average value of the fractional abundance of H 2 C O is derived to be in the range of 10 − 10 t o 5 × 10 − 9 . This is comparable to the observed values. The expected variations of the molecules formed from or destroyed by CO, CI, and C + whose abundances depend on the evolutionary state of the cloud are discussed.

Asterales are dicotyledonous flowering plants and are one of the Asterid clade, incuding many species as well as Codonopsis and Platycodon. Here, we have determined the complete chloroplast genome sequences of C. lanceolata and P. grandiflorus by using the targeted denovo assembly method of short reads derived from whole genome resequencing. The total lengths of each chloroplast genome sequence are 156,180 bp for C. lanceolata and 155,453 bp for P. grandiflorus. In their chloroplast genomes, 106 genes (75 protein-coding genes, 4 rRNA genes, 23 tRNA genes, and 4 hypothetical chloroplast open reading frames [ycfs]) exhibited the relatively similar positions. Also, 7 protein-coding genes commonly showed to contain introns in both C. lanceolata and P. grandiflorus chloroplast genome, while psaA gene contain intragenic regions only in P. grandiflorus chloroplast genome. In further analysis, we identified the codon usage bias to A or T and found the different simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci of each chloroplast genome (18 SSR loci of C. lanceolata and 16 SSR loci of P. grandiflorus). In the phylogenetic trees based on 72 protein-coding genes, C. lanceolata is more closely related to P. grandiflorus than the other plant species order Asterales. Also, we found the highest sequence diversities of 12 protein-coding genes in small single copy (SSC) region than in the inverted repeat (IRs) and large single copy (LSC) region, and 3 genes such as rpoC2 (LSC region), ndhB (IRs region), and ndhF (SSC region) showed the highest number of segregating sites in each region. Additionally, we developed the molecular markers for phylogenetic applications of C. lanceolata and P. grandiflorus chloroplast genome.