New species of Gyrodactylus von Nordmann, 1832 (Monogenoidea: Gyrodactylidae) from Gymnodiptychus dybowskii (Kessler, 1874) (Schizothoracinae) in the Kunes River (Yili River basin), China.

Yili River system hosts a diverse fauna of fishes and parasites. Gymnodiptychus dybowskii is a rare and endangered aboriginal cold-water fish inhabit in the Yili river system. Our research identified a new species Gyrodactylus gymnodiptychi n. sp. isolated from G. dybowskii in the Kunes River (Yili River, China). Morphological comparison revealed identifiable differences between the new species and other parasites, including Gyrodactylus aksuensis, and Gyrodactylus tokobaevi, which are two known parasites living in G. dybowskii inhabit in the Aksu River west of Frunze (Kyrgyzstan), as well as Gyrodactylus montanus living in Shizothorax intermedius inhabited in the Tadzhikistan or Uzbekistan. Especially, the dorsal bar of G. gymnodiptychi n. sp. was raised at both ends with a hollow, and its hamulus roots were curved inward. The BLASTN search of GenBank did not detect any other ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 rDNA sequences same as G. gymnodiptychi's. Using the Bayesian Information and Maximum Likelihood methods to analyze the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 rDNA gene sequences, we constructed phylogenetic trees for G. gymnodiptychi n. sp. Accordingly, our morphological and molecular research indicated that G. gymnodiptychi n. sp. was not only a new species of parasites but also the first Gyrodactylus member identified in the Yili River in China.

A longitudinal resource for population neuroscience of school-age children and adolescents in China.

During the past decade, cognitive neuroscience has been calling for population diversity to address the challenge of validity and generalizability, ushering in a new era of population neuroscience. The developing Chinese Color Nest Project (devCCNP, 2013-2022), the first ten-year stage of the lifespan CCNP (2013-2032), is a two-stages project focusing on brain-mind development. The project aims to create and share a large-scale, longitudinal and multimodal dataset of typically developing children and adolescents (ages 6.0-17.9 at enrolment) in the Chinese population. The devCCNP houses not only phenotypes measured by demographic, biophysical, psychological and behavioural, cognitive, affective, and ocular-tracking assessments but also neurotypes measured with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of brain morphometry, resting-state function, naturalistic viewing function and diffusion structure. This Data Descriptor introduces the first data release of devCCNP including a total of 864 visits from 479 participants. Herein, we provided details of the experimental design, sampling strategies, and technical validation of the devCCNP resource. We demonstrate and discuss the potential of a multicohort longitudinal design to depict normative brain growth curves from the perspective of developmental population neuroscience. The devCCNP resource is shared as part of the "Chinese Data-sharing Warehouse for In-vivo Imaging Brain" in the Chinese Color Nest Project (CCNP) - Lifespan Brain-Mind Development Data Community ( https://ccnp.scidb.cn ) at the Science Data Bank.

Brief mock-scan training reduces head motion during real scanning for children: A growth curve study.

Pediatric neuroimaging datasets are rapidly increasing in scales. Despite strict protocols in data collection and preprocessing focused on improving data quality, the presence of head motion still impedes our understanding of neurodevelopmental mechanisms. Large head motion can lead to severe noise and artifacts in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies, inflating correlations between adjacent brain areas and decreasing correlations between spatial distant territories, especially in children and adolescents. Here, by leveraging mock-scans of 123 Chinese children and adolescents, we demonstrated the presence of increased head motion in younger participants. Critically, a 5.5-minute training session in an MRI mock scanner was found to effectively suppress the head motion in the children and adolescents. Therefore, we suggest that mock scanner training should be part of the quality assurance routine prior to formal MRI data collection, particularly in large-scale population-level neuroimaging initiatives for pediatrics.

The complete mitochondrial genomes of Paradiplozoon yarkandense and Paradiplozoon homoion confirm that Diplozoidae evolve at an elevated rate.

BACKGROUND: Diplozoidae are monogenean (Monogenea: Polyopisthocotylea) fish parasites characterised by a unique life history: two larvae permanently fuse into an X-shaped "Siamese" organism. Taxonomy and phylogeny of Diplozoidae and Polyopisthocotylea remain unresolved due to the unavailability of molecular markers with sufficiently high resolution. Mitogenomes may be a suitable candidate, but there are currently only 12 available for the Polyopisthocotylea (three for Diplozoidae). The only available study of diplozoid mitogenomes found unique base composition patterns and elevated evolution rates in comparison with other Monogenean mitogenomes. METHODS: To further explore their evolution and generate molecular data for evolutionary studies, we sequenced the complete mitogenomes of two Diplozoidae species, Paradiplozoon homoion and Paradiplozoon yarkandense, and conducted a number of comparative mitogenomic analyses with other polyopisthocotyleans. RESULTS: We found further evidence that mitogenomes of Diplozoidae evolve at a unique, elevated rate, which was reflected in their exceptionally long branches, large sizes, unique base composition, skews, and very low gene sequence similarity levels between the two newly sequenced species. They also exhibited remarkably large overlaps between some genes. Phylogenetic analysis of Polyopisthocotylea resolved all major taxa as monophyletic, and Mazocraeidea was split into two major clades: (Diplozoidae) + (all four remaining families: Diclidophoridae, Chauhaneidae, Mazocraeidae and Microcotylidae). It also provided further confirmation that the genus Paradiplozoon is paraphyletic and requires a taxonomic revision, so the two species may have to be renamed Indodiplozoon homoion and Diplozoon yarkandense comb. nov. CONCLUSIONS: Although our findings indicate that mitogenomes may be a promising tool for resolving the phylogeny of Polyopisthocotylea, elevated evolutionary rates of Diplozoidae may cause phylogenetic artefacts, so future studies should pay caution to this problem. Furthermore, as the reason for their elevated evolution remains unknown, Diplozoidae are a remarkably interesting lineage for other types of evolutionary mitogenomic studies.

A New Species of Paradiplozoon (Monogenea: Diplozoidae), A Gill Parasite of the Schizothorax Fish (Cyprinidae: Schizothoracinae) from the Yarkand River, Xinjiang, China.

INTRODUCTION: Monogeneans of the genus Paradiplozoon were found on the gills of specimens of five species of schizothoracid caught using fyke nets in the upper stream of the Yarkand River, Xinjiang, China in May-August 2019. METHODS: The preserved parasite were stained with boric acid magenta and hematoxylin, respectively. Morphological observations, line drawings, photomicrographs and measurements were made in Nikon ECLIPSE E200 imaging optical microscope and digitally edited. The molecular analysis included the study of the sequence of the second internal transcribed spacer (ITS 2) of the ribosomal DNA region, calculation and analysis of genetic distance, with phylogenetic reconstructions based on the Bayesian inference and Maximum Likelihood analysis. RESULTS: The natural infection rate of host fish was 10-88%. Morphological analysis indicated that the average length of the new species was 2.125 mm while the width was 0.69 mm. The anterior part was 1.387 mm in length and the average length of the posterior part was 0.545 mm. The vitellaria was well-developed and located in the front of the body. A single ovary (oval shaped) was located at the back end of the reproductive binding area. A testis (irregular mass) was located behind or parallelled to the ovary. The new species can be distinguished from all the recorded Paradiplozoon species in terms of morphological characteristics such as haptor, clamp and central hook morphology, intestine shape and body size. In addition, the second internal transcribed spacer (ITS 2) of the ribosomal DNA region of the diplozoid was compared with that of known diplozoids previously published. It indicated that there were significant differences between the new species and the published diplozoids. CONCLUSION: Both morphological and molecular analysis support that the diplozoid is a new species. Based on the sampling location, the new species was named Paradiplozoon yarkandense n. sp.