Cryptic Speciation of the Oriental Greenfinch Chloris sinica on Oceanic Islands.

The Oriental greenfinch, Chloris sinica, is a small seed-eating finch that breeds in the eastern Palearctic region, an area that spans from Russia in the east to China, Korea, and Japan in the south and southwest. Several subspecies have been described based on subtle morphological characteristics, although the taxonomy varies among different authors. Although many ecological studies have been performed, there has been no phylogenetic study that encompasses the species' entire geographical range. We used four regions of mitochondrial DNA to analyze the intraspecies genetic phylogeny and diversity of the Oriental greenfinch. In addition, we performed morphometric analyses using museum specimens. Genetic analysis identified two clades that diverged approximately 1.06 million years ago. These were a population from the Ogasawara Islands, Japan (subspecies kittlitzi, Clade B), and the other populations (Clade A, which could not be subdivided according to geographic context). Morphometric analyses showed that the population on the Kuril Islands (subspecies kawarahiba) had the longest mean wing length, whereas C. s. kittlitzi had the shortest wings. Chloris s. kittlitzi also had the longest mean bill length, probably because it has adapted to feeding on the Ogasawara Islands. Based on molecular phylogeny and morphology analyses, we recommend that C. s. kittlitzi should be treated as a completely distinct species, called the Ogasawara greenfinch, Chloris kittlitzi. It is critically endangered and needs to be specially protected.

A far-red, photo- and bio-stable fluorescent marker selective to the endoplasmic reticulum and its application to tunicamycin-treated HeLa cells.

Herein, we developed an ER selective fluorescent ERp that exhibited a sharp fluorescence emission in the far-red region and high photo- and bio-stability in biological milieu. Its emission is insensitive to pH change and localized in the ER of the cells. Furthermore, it successfully demonstrated that the ER membrane is rapidly reorganized in the perinuclear region by an ER stress inducer, tunicamycin.

Spatial patterns, ecological niches, and interspecific competition of avian brood parasites: inferring from a case study of Korea.

Since obligate avian brood parasites depend completely on the effort of other host species for rearing their progeny, the availability of hosts will be a critical resource for their life history. Circumstantial evidence suggests that intense competition for host species may exist not only within but also between species. So far, however, few studies have demonstrated whether the interspecific competition really occurs in the system of avian brood parasitism and how the nature of brood parasitism is related to their niche evolution. Using the occurrence data of five avian brood parasites from two sources of nationwide bird surveys in South Korea and publically available environmental/climatic data, we identified their distribution patterns and ecological niches, and applied species distribution modeling to infer the effect of interspecific competition on their spatial distribution. We found that the distribution patterns of five avian brood parasites could be characterized by altitude and climatic conditions, but overall their spatial ranges and ecological niches extensively overlapped with each other. We also found that the predicted distribution areas of each species were generally comparable to the realized distribution areas, and the numbers of individuals in areas where multiple species were predicted to coexist showed positive relationships among species. In conclusion, despite following different coevolutionary trajectories to adapt to their respect host species, five species of avian brood parasites breeding in South Korea occupied broadly similar ecological niches, implying that they tend to conserve ancestral preferences for ecological conditions. Furthermore, our results indicated that contrary to expectation interspecific competition for host availability between avian brood parasites seemed to be trivial, and thus, play little role in shaping their spatial distributions and ecological niches. Future studies, including the complete ranges of avian brood parasites and ecological niches of host species, will be worthwhile to further elucidate these issues.