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The Gracilariaceae are important in the biotechnology industry and microbiology research. Some Gracilaria species are difficult to identify morphologically and molecular phylogenetic data hold a key role in species level identification. In this study, the chloroplast genomes of G. changii and G. salicornia from the Peninsular Malaysia were sequenced to compare with the published taxa in order to gain a better understanding of the phylogenetic questions regarding the red algae, particularly G. changii and G. firma. Phylogenetic analysis for 66 plastid genes showed that G. changii from Malaysia formed a sister lineage with G. firma with a genetic distance of 0.43 %. However, there was a genetic distance of p = 4.32 % between the Malaysian and Philippine samples of G. changii, indicating they are genetically distinct. Five chloroplast genes (petF, rps12, rps14, rpl18 and petB) showed higher variation of genetic distance between Malaysian G. changii and G. firma (p = 1.23–2.00 %) and the intraspecific variation in G. salicornia from Peninsular Malaysia and Hawaii varies from p = 0–0.31 %. The lack of overlap between the intraspecific genetic distance of Malaysian G. changii and interspecific genetic distance of Malaysian G. changii-G. firma indicates that G. changii and G. firma are not conspecific.

A two-stage screening approach of chemical inducers was carried out to evaluate the positive effect on enhancing astaxanthin and lipid production in mixotrophic Chromochloris zofingiensis. The results demonstrated that oxidants were able to increase the astaxanthin content high up to 11.4 mg g−1 biomass, while pyruvic acid promoted the cell growth and increased the contents of astaxanthin and lipids up to 10.7 mg g−1 and 66.1% dry weight. The highest yield (87.0 mg L−1) and productivity (7.3 mg L−1 day−1) of astaxanthin were obtained in parallel with high lipid productivity (459.0 mg L−1 day−1). The correlations between the dosage effect of chemical inducers and metabolites variation were further examined by statistical analyses. Additionally, C. zofingiensis-derived lipids were estimated to be more viable and feasible as edible oils based on fatty acid characteristics assessment. The present work highlights the effective screening strategy of chemical inducers for enhancing astaxanthin and lipid production and the potential application in mixotrophic C. zofingiensis.

The chrysomelid beetles Podontia affinis and Silana farinosa are members of the subfamilies Galerucinae and Cassidinae, respectively. This study, based on 16S rRNA gene-targeted metagenomics sequencing, reports the core members and differential abundance of bacterial communities in the larvae and adult beetles of P. affinis and the adult S. farinosa. Cyanobacteria/Melainabacteria group was the predominant phylum in the larvae of P. affinis, while Proteobacteria was the predominant phylum in adult P. affinis and S. farinosa. The number of Order, Family, Genus and Species OTUs in the adult stage of P. affinis was higher than that in the larval stage. The bacterial species richness of adult P. affinis was significantly higher than that of adult S. farinosa. Betaproteobacteria was the predominant class in adult P. affinis, Cyanobacteria in the larvae of P. affinis and Gammaproteobacteria in S. farinosa. The larvae and adult beetles of P. affinis and adult S. farinosa had a low number of unique and shared bacterial OTUs (> 5% relative abundance). The differences in the microbiota indicate possible differences in nutrient assimilation, host taxonomy and other stochastic processes. These findings provide new information to our understanding of the bacteria associated with specialist phytophagous chrysomelid beetles and beetles in general.

5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-induced intestinal mucositis (IM) often makes chemotherapy patients suffer from physical and psychological suffering. Kappaphycus alvarezii (KA) is known for its potent multip...

All authors were supported by funding from UKRI for the GlobalSeaweedSTAR project (BB/P027806/1).

Rattus tiomanicus is a murid rodent of considerable agricultural and public health importance in Southeast Asia. The whole mitochondrial genome of R. tiomanicus was sequenced by the Ion Torrent PGM platform. It had a total length of 16,309 bp, consisting of 13 protein-coding genes, two rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes and two non-coding regions (L-strand replication origin and control region). Only TAA and incomplete T-stop codons were represented in the protein-coding genes. Of the tRNAs, tryptophan (W) had ACU anticodon. The cloverleaf structure for serine S1 (AGN) tRNA lacked the entire D-arm, while in lysine (K) tRNA, the DHU arm lacked the D-loop. Molecular phylogeny based on 15 mt-genes indicated R. tiomanicus having closest genetic affinity to R. rattus complex (R. rattus, R. tanezumi). There were two major clades for the Murinae subfamily namely the Rattini tribe and the Apodemini, Murini and Hydromyini tribes. The whole mitogenome of R. tiomanicus will serve as a useful dataset for studying the systematics and phylogenetic relationships of the murid rodents.

This study utilizes criteria and indicators to propose a set of sustainable evaluation methods for ecotourism destinations based on perception. The questionnaires are designed according to the index system of sustainable evaluation. Taking Malaysia's Pulau Perhentian and China's Weizhou Island as examples, the method is verified and the coordinated development path of island resource protection and ecotourism in two marine parks is proposed according to the results of sustainability evaluation. In this study, 126 valid questionnaires were gotten from Weizhou Island Marine Park (WZMP) in China and 125 from Pulau Perhentian Marine Park (PPMP) in Malaysia. The outcomes show that PPMP has a higher sustainable development index, and both resource protection index and ecotourism development index are higher than WZMP. To the extent the subtypes of coordinated development are concerned, PPMP is underdeveloped, that is, the broadness and profundity of the tourism industry advancement are insufficient to coordinate its resource level, while WZMP belongs to over-development type. In the decision of development path, WZMP ought to adopt a protection priority mode, while PPMP is suitable for the development priority mode. The effects of this study give valuable information for the planning and management of marine parks and establish a framework for effective management.

Human emissions of carbon dioxide are causing irreversible changes in our oceans and impacting marine phytoplankton, including a group of small green algae known as picochlorophytes. Picochlorophytes grown in natural phytoplankton communities under future predicted levels of carbon dioxide have been demonstrated to thrive, along with redistribution of the cellular metabolome that enhances growth rate and photosynthesis. Here, using next-generation sequencing technology, we measured levels of transcripts in a picochlorophyte Chlorella, isolated from the sub-Antarctic and acclimated under high and current ambient CO

Funding Information: This work was supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC, Programme Oceans 2025, WP 4.5 and grant NE/D521522/1). This work also received support from the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland pooling initiative. MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions. FCK is grateful to faculty, staff and students at the Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences of the University of Malaya for hosting his visits in November-December 2007 and November-December 2008. Dr. Akira F. Peters (Bezhin Rosko, 29250 Santec, Brittany, France) is acknowledged for his laboratory assistance. The University of Melbourne, School of Biosciences and the facilities provided by Prof. Geoffrey McFadden for 25 years have been invaluable for JAW’s culture programs and publications since 1994.

Length-weight relationship provides basic information of a fish’s condition while the morphometric data of otolith has been traditionally used to determine the range of fish sizes for various purposes. The length-weight relationship of Terapon jarbua (Forskal, 1775) was examined from 165 specimens, while 132 specimens were used in sagittal otolith biometry measurements. Fish specimens were obtained from various locations in Malaysia including Pahang, Selangor, Sarawak, and Sabah. The total length of fish ranged 12.5-32.5 cm, while the total weight ranged 26.28-444.30 g. The otolith length ranged 0.423-1.070 cm, and the otolith weight was 0.010 3-0.157 2 g. The specimens displayed a mixture of positive and negative allometry growth as indicated by fluctuating b values between 2.74 and 3.15. The overall coefficient of determination (R 2 ) between fish length and weight was 0.972 9, which implies a strong correlation. All regressions between the fish length and otolith dimensions were highly significant (P

Microalgae, the primary producers in aquatic ecosystems, are highly susceptible to heavy metal contamination. In this study, the interactive effects of warming and copper (Cu) toxicity on the physiology (cell density, photosynthetic efficiency, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and metal uptake in the biomass) and biochemistry (metabolite) of a freshwater green microalga, Chloromonas augustae (UMACC246), were elucidated. The microalgae were exposed to culture media supplemented with copper (II) sulfate pentahydrate (CuSO4·5H2O) at different concentrations (50, 150, 250 μM) at two temperatures, 25 °C (control) and 30 °C (sub-optimal), for 24 h. The results indicated that C. augustae exhibited a concentration- and temperature-dependent decrease in the cell density. Copper greatly affected the photosynthetic efficiency of C. augustae by reducing the maximum rate of relative electron transport (rETRm), light harvesting efficiency (α), and saturation irradiance (Ek). Warming increased ROS production remarkably in the microalga. Untargeted metabolomics indicated that temperature contributed to the most significant variations in the cultures (p

Grazing, which leads to losses in biomass and drastic declines in total crop production, is one of the main concerns in seaweed aquaculture. This is also thought to affect the composition of the associated bacterial communities which are believed to play a crucial role in determining the host’s health and development. Apart from morphological impairment, studying changes in the prokaryotic microbiome composition and predicted functional responses to grazing will allow us to understand the underlying effects of grazing on the seaweed host. This study is the first report of the effect of grazing on the prokaryotic microbiome of two economically important agarophytes, Gracilaria firma and Gracilaria salicornia, by high-throughput sequencing targeting the V3-V4 variable region of the 16S rRNA gene. The results indicated that for G. firma, the microbiome composition of tissues grazed by marine herbivores had significantly more agarolytic bacteria Marinagarivorans sp. and Algisphaera sp. than in ungrazed tissues. The predictive functional metagenomics for this species revealed that grazing escalated the pathway activities related to nucleotide degradation, aromatic compound degradation and aerobic sugar metabolism, while pathways associated with cell wall synthesis, aerobic respiration, vitamin biosynthesis and amino acid biosynthesis were reduced. However, for G. salicornia, the bacterial communities were not significantly affected by grazing. Nevertheless, pathways relating to anaerobic respiration and amino acid, coenzyme and vitamin B-6 biosynthesis in this species were predicted to be more active in grazed tissues, whereas the microbiome of ungrazed tissues had higher activities in bacteriochlorophyll a, fatty acid, secondary metabolite and heme biosynthesis.

Studies have shown that cultivars of the carrageenophytes Kappaphycus and Eucheuma are clones of a limited number of strains originally domesticated from wild populations. For the development and selection of new cultivars, it is important that a comprehensive record of available variants exists. This study was conducted to provide up-to-date analysis and compilation of the current state of cultivars as the last list of cultivars was compiled nearly a decade ago. The present study analyzed the cox2–3 spacer and cox1 (1356 bp) genetic diversity of cultivars collected from 2019 to 2020 from the east coast of Sabah where the seaweed farms are concentrated. These data were compared with cultivars reported from 2010 to 2012 to assess changes, if any, to the gene pool of farmed eucheumatoid in Malaysia. Kappaphycus alvarezii, K. striatus, and K. malesianus are currently cultivated while Eucheuma denticulatum is no longer an important cultivar compared to a decade ago, probably due to its lower price. Analysis of the cox2–3 spacer revealed a new haplotype, LBT10, and, by including published GenBank data, a further four previously unnamed haplotypes were recognized from Sabah. This study confirms that there is a limited gene pool within cultivars in Malaysia and suggests the need for new or genetically diverse cultivars which can adapt to a changing environment, to ensure a more sustainable carrageenan industry.

While previous research has demonstrated that multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) can be a cost-effective approach to detect various genes in crops, the availability of multiplex assays to simultaneously screen both grain quality and biotic stress resistance traits in rice (Oryza sativa) is limited. In this work, we report six novel multiplex assays that use a universal protocol to detect major rice grain quality (amylose content and fragrance) and biotic stress (blast, sheath blight, and bacterial leaf blight) traits with amplified products consisting of up to four primer pairs that can be analyzed using a standard agarose-based gel electrophoresis system. Recent studies have suggested that weedy rice has novel sources of disease resistance. However, an intensive screening of weedy biotypes has not been reported in Malaysia. Accordingly, we employed one of the developed multiplex assays to screen reported genes or quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with blast, sheath blight, and bacterial leaf blight diseases in 100 weedy rice biotypes collected from five local fields, with phenotyping performed to validate the genotyping results. In conclusion, our universal multiplex protocol is effective for the large-scale genotyping of rice genetic resources, and it can be employed in routine molecular laboratories with limited resources.

5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-induced intestinal mucositis (IM) often makes chemotherapy patients suffer from physical and psychological suffering.

Background Numerous studies have shown that stress induction and genetic engineering can effectively increase lipid accumulation, but lead to a decrease of growth in the majority of microalgae. We previously found that elevated CO2 concentration increased lipid productivity as well as growth in Phaeodactylum tricornutum, along with an enhancement of the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway (OPPP) activity. The purpose of this work directed toward the verification of the critical role of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH), the rate-limiting enzyme in the OPPP, in lipid accumulation in P. tricornutum and its simultaneous rapid growth rate under high-CO2 (0.15%) cultivation. Results In this study, G6PDH was identified as a target for algal strain improvement, wherein G6PDH gene was successfully overexpressed and antisense knockdown in P. tricornutum, and systematic comparisons of the photosynthesis performance, algal growth, lipid content, fatty acid profiles, NADPH production, G6PDH activity and transcriptional abundance were performed. The results showed that, due to the enhanced G6PDH activity, transcriptional abundance and NAPDH production, overexpression of G6PDH accompanied by high-CO2 cultivation resulted in a much higher of both lipid content and growth in P. tricornutum, while knockdown of G6PDH greatly decreased algal growth as well as lipid accumulation. In addition, the total proportions of saturated and unsaturated fatty acid, especially the polyunsaturated fatty acid eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; C20:5, n-3), were highly increased in high-CO2 cultivated G6PDH overexpressed strains. Conclusions The successful of overexpression and antisense knockdown of G6PDH well demonstrated the positive influence of G6PDH on algal growth and lipid accumulation in P. tricornutum. The improvement of algal growth, lipid content as well as polyunsaturated fatty acids in high-CO2 cultivated G6PDH overexpressed P. tricornutum suggested this G6PDH overexpression-high CO2 cultivation pattern provides an efficient and economical route for algal strain improvement to develop algal-based biodiesel production.

To date there is only a single report on the complete mitochondrial genome of the Dacus fruit flies. We report here the whole mitogenome of Dacus conopsoides with first report of tRNA gene duplication in tephritid fruit flies determined using next-generation sequencing and discuss the molecular phylogeny of Dacini tribe. It had a total length of 15,852 bp, comprising 13 protein coding genes, 2 rRNA genes, 23 tRNA genes, and a non-coding region (A + T-rich control region). The 65-bp trnF gene was duplicated, and the 68-bp trnE gene was partially duplicated resulting in a 31-bp pseudogene. The cloverleaf structure for trnN, trnH, and trnF lacked the TΨC-loop, while trnS lacked the D-stem. The start codons for the protein coding genes included 6 ATG, 3 ATC, 2 ATA, and 1 each of ATT and TCG. Seven PCGs had TAA stop codon, two had TAG and four had incomplete T stop codon. Molecular phylogeny based on 15 mt-genes (13 PCGs +2 rRNA genes) and 30 taxa of Tephritidae indicated D. conopsoides forming a monophyletic sister group with D. longicornis supported by high bootstrap value. The lineage containing also the monophyletic genus Zeugodacus. The Dacini and Ceratitidini tribes of the subfamily Dacinae were monophyletic but the subfamilies Dacinae and Trypetinae were paraphyletic. A broader taxa sampling of the Tephritidae is needed to better elucidate the phylogenetics and systematics of the tribes and subfamilies of tephritid fruit flies.

Changes in photosynthetic efficiency of Photosystem II can be used as an early stress indicator in phototrophs. In this study, chlorophyll fluorescence, measured by a Pulse-Amplitude Modulated Fluorometer (PAM), was used to determine the photosynthetic performance of tropical, temperate, Antarctic and Arctic Chlorella in response to short-term acute ultraviolet radiation (UVR) stress, with measurements of maximum quantum yield (Fv/Fm), photosynthetic efficiency (α), maximum electron transport rate (rETRm) and photoadaptive index (Ek). Three light treatments were conducted over a continuous, five-hour duration: (i) control subjected only to photosynthetic active radiation (PAR), (ii) PAR + UVA (UVA) and (iii) PAR + UVA + UVB (UVR). Tropical Chlorella showed better adaptive ability to UVA stress compared to strains from temperate and polar regions. UVB stress caused significant photosynthetic dysfunction in all samples, with polar strains showing a lower inhibition (about 40%) compared to the tropical strain (about 98%). Photosynthetic responses in Chlorella towards UVR are possibly origin dependent. DNA mutation induced by both UVA and UVR treatments was revealed by Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis. Out of sixty RAPD primers tested, two primers: S33 (polymorphism degree 44.83%) and S90 (polymorphism degree 38.71%) were chosen as potential primers to conduct genomic study of UV stress in microalgae.

The paper analyzes problems in Marine Park management and put forward suggestions for improvement based on differences of social value about Marine Park ecosystem services between Pulau Payar Marine Park (PPMP) in Malaysia and Gili Matra Marine Park (GMMP) in Indonesia. The purpose is to construct the connectivity of ecology, social economy, culture and system, and to study the management of marine protected areas (MPAs) from a broader perspective. The survey method used in this study is similar to that of ‘SolVES’ method, which aims to assess relative importance of social value for Marine Park and discuss people's attitudes towards the future development of Marine Park and management of Marine Park. We selected purposive sampling survey according to the occupation category, and obtained 109 and 102 valid questionnaires in PPMP and GMMP respectively. In this study, four sets of questions, including familiarity with Marine Park, attitude toward use of Marine Park, understanding of social-value of Marine Park and personal profile, were designed to analyze differences between PPMP in Malaysia and GMMP in Indonesia. For both Marine Parks Biological Diversity Value (B) was scored the highest among all ten social-values. The participation rate of marine education in both Marine Parks are relatively low; both of them are no more than 35%. Compared with locals, tourists value biodiversity more, and while comparison among different occupations, civil servants value biodiversity more than other occupations. Through on-the-spot investigation and sorting out the management problems of marine parks reflected by respondents, we found that: (a) the weakness of basic education and lack of popular science publicity and education activities have caused the level of public's awareness of environmental protection to be not high enough; (b) the relative insufficiency of tourism infrastructure and increase in number of tourists in recent years, might have caused many problems such as destroying coral reef resources and littering. Some suggestions were put forward to solve the problem: (a) promote public awareness of environmental protection through popular science publicity and education; (b) for PPMP, the restriction on the number of tourists will benefit the protection of coral, while improving infrastructure, such as garbage collection, will help improve environmental pollution; (c) for GMMP, strengthening the synergy between local and central governments will help to deal with the relationship between land use and environmental protection and highlight environmental protection functions.

Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillet) is one of the most significant and widespread tephritid pest species of agricultural crops. This study reports the bacterial communities associated with Z. cucurbitae from three geographical regions in Southeast Asia (Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, and Sarawak). The bacterial microbiota were investigated by targeted 16S rRNA gene (V3–V4 region) sequencing using the Illumina Mi-Seq platform. At 97% similarity and filtering at 0.001%, there were seven bacterial phyla and unassigned bacteria, comprising 11 classes, 23 orders, 39 families and 67 genera. The bacterial diversity and richness varied within and among the samples from the three geographical regions. Five phyla were detected for the Sarawak sample, and six each for the Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia samples. Four phyla—Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria—were represented in all the fruit fly specimens, forming the core members of the bacterial community. Proteobacteria was the predominant phylum, followed by Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Actinobacteria. Fifty-three genera were represented in the Thailand sample, 56 in the Peninsular Malaysia sample, and 55 in the Sarawak sample. Forty-two genera were present in all the three geographical regions. The predominant core members were order Enterobacteriales (Proeteobacteria), and family Enterobacteriaceae (Enterobacteriales). Klebsiella (Enterobacteriaceae) was the predominant genus and K. oxytoca the predominant species with all specimens having > 10% relative abundance. The results indicate the presence of a great diversity as well as core members of the bacterial community associated with different populations of Z. cucurbitae.

The extensive coastline and numerous islands of Malaysia provide various habitats suitable for the growth of a diversity of the marine macroalgae (seaweeds). Since the last checklist of the Malaysian seaweeds was published in 2006, there has been an increase of 17 families, 32 genera, and 75 species. Seven new species were described. The present tally stands at 459 taxa in 72 families; with 35 species in 12 families of Cyanophyta; 113 species in 16 families of Chlorophyta; 95 species in 8 families of Ochrophyta; and 216 species in 36 families of Rhodophyta. Only three species, Kappaphycus alvarezii, Eucheuma denticulatum and Gracilaria manilaensis, are being cultivated commercially. A small seaweed industry centered in Sabah, produces semi-refined carrageenan, which is mainly exported. Some of the biomass is brought over to Peninsular Malaysia, where seaweed products like desserts, health drinks, soaps and air-fresheners, are manufactured and sold. In 2016, Malaysia produced 205,989 tonnes wet weight seaweeds valued at US$24.83 million. The seaweed industry, can be enhanced by increasing the number of farms and farmers, strengthening local seaweed cooperatives and including them in decision-making, as well as by technological advances in the form of new and improved strains, more efficient seed supply and products.

Bactrocera carambolae Drew & Hancock is an agricultural pest that causes considerable damage to various fruit crops in Southeast Asia and South America. We report here the bacterial communities associated with field-caught male and female adult flies from University Malaya campus. The microbiota was determined by targeted 16S rRNA gene (V3–V4 region) sequencing using the Illumina MiSeq. At 97% similarity, four bacterial phyla (with relative abundance of ≥1% in at least one specimen) – Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, and Tenericutes – were recovered from the adult flies. Proteobacteria was the predominant phylum in all the samples, with the female flies (86.81 ± 6.57%) having higher mean relative abundance than the male flies (71.57 ± 18.37%). The Firmicutes was more abundant in the male flies (14.47 ± 17.30%) than female flies (0.69 ± 1.25%). There were in total seven classes, nine orders, 13 families, 23 genera, and 31 putative species. Thirteen genera had higher mean relative abundance in male flies, and nine in female flies. Klebsiella was the predominant genus in female flies, while Desulfovibrio was more abundant in some male flies. The mean relative abundances of the putative species Orbus sasakiae and Enterococcus moraviensis were significantly higher in male than female flies, while female flies had significantly higher mean relative abundance for Escherichia fergusonii and Klebsiella variicola. Alpha diversity indices indicated that the bacterial diversity varied within and between male and female flies, and the mean bacterial diversity was significantly higher in male flies. The differences in bacterial diversity and relative abundance may be reasonably attributed to stochastic processes, in part to environmental factors such as food resources and habitats. It is significant that several putative bacterial species recovered in the present study have not been reported in Bactrocera fruit flies. Sixteen of the 31 detected putative bacterial species are potential opportunistic pathogens of medical/public health importance.