BackgroundThe date palm is one of the oldest cultivated fruit trees. It is critical in many ways to cultures in arid lands by providing highly nutritious fruit while surviving extreme heat and environmental conditions. Despite its importance from antiquity, few genetic resources are available for improving the productivity and development of the dioecious date palm. To date there has been no genetic map and no sex chromosome has been identified.ResultsHere we present the first genetic map for date palm and identify the putative date palm sex chromosome. We placed ~4000 markers on the map using nearly 1200 framework markers spanning a total of 1293 cM. We have integrated the genetic map, derived from the Khalas cultivar, with the draft genome and placed up to 19% of the draft genome sequence scaffolds onto linkage groups for the first time. This analysis revealed approximately ~1.9 cM/Mb on the map. Comparison of the date palm linkage groups revealed significant long-range synteny to oil palm. Analysis of the date palm sex-determination region suggests it is telomeric on linkage group 12 and recombination is not suppressed in the full chromosome.ConclusionsBased on a modified gentoyping-by-sequencing approach we have overcome challenges due to lack of genetic resources and provide the first genetic map for date palm. Combined with the recent draft genome sequence of the same cultivar, this resource offers a critical new tool for date palm biotechnology, palm comparative genomics and a better understanding of sex chromosome development in the palms.

Strain B66T was isolated from a marine water sample collected at Al Ruwais, located on the northern tip of Qatar. Cells were Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic and short- rod-shaped with a polar flagellum. The isolate was able to grow at 15–45 °C (optimum, 30 °C), at pH 5–11 (optimum, pH 6.5–8) and with 0–6 % NaCl. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that strain B66T was affiliated with the family Alteromonadaceae , sharing the highest sequence similarities to the genera Alteromonas (93.7–95.4 %), Aestuariibacter (94.0–95.1 %), Agaribacter (93.3–93.7 %), Glaciecola (92.0–93.7 %), Marisendiminitalea (93.2–93.3 %) and Planctobacterium (92.9 %). In the phylogenetic trees, strain B66T demonstrated the novel organism formed a distinct lineage closely associated with Aestuariibacter and Planctobacterium . Major fatty acids were C16 : 0, summed feature 3 (C16 : 1  ω7c/C16 : 1  ω6c/iso-C15 : 0 2-OH and iso-C15 : 0 3-OH. The major respiratory quinone was ubiquinone-8 and the major polar lipids are phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine. The DNA G+C content derived from the genome was 43.2 mol%. Based on the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, phylogenetic and genomic data, strain B66T is considered to represent a novel species and genus for which the name Ningiella ruwaisensis gen. nov., sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain is B66T (=QCC B003/17T=LMG 30288 T=CCUG 70703T).

The hypersaline Inland Sea in Qatar constitutes a unique ecosystem characterized by salinities up to saturation, extreme temperature fluctuations, and limited rainfall. To reveal the fungal diversity of this environment, we isolated fungi from water samples collected at the Inland Sea. Taxonomic identification of the isolates was done via DNA barcoding of the ITS1 and ITS2 ribosomal DNA (rDNA) domains and the D1/D2 domains of the nuclear large subunit rDNA. Additional genes, including glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (gapdh) and translation elongation factor 1-alpha (tef1), were included for isolates of Alternaria, actin (Act) for Cladosporium, part of the beta-tubulin (BenA) and calmodulin (CaM) genes for Aspergillus and Penicillium. In total, 159 fungal isolates, including 85 Ascomycota and 74 Basidiomycota, were obtained from the water samples collected during four samplings in the winter and summer seasons. About 14% (22/159) of the strains, presumably novel species, were preliminarily identified to the genus level. This is the first report highlighting the diversity of fungi from the hypersaline Inland Sea in Qatar.

Diversity within and among the populations of Prosopis cineraria and

Information on genetic relatedness can be used to control the rate of inbreeding by applying the sib-avoidance mating strategy. Estimation of genetic relatedness based on molecular markers is a potential technique to infer the degree of genetic relationships among individuals identified as parent–offspring, full-sib, half-sib, and unrelated pairs. The objectives of the study were to assess the genetic variation, the population structure, and the level of inbreeding and relatedness in seven different collections of Oryx leucoryx based on the analysis of 13 polymorphic microsatellite loci, in order to provide information about the impact of captive breeding management. The analysis revealed that the mean number of alleles per locus, the polymorphic information content, and the observed and expected heterozygosity across the loci were 6.46 ± 0.95, 0.523 ± 0.028, 0.391 ± 0.032, and 0.583 ± 0.031, respectively. The inbreeding coefficient was found to be significant in five of the seven collections. The structure analysis identified two groups among the 96 individuals. The pairwise relatedness (rXYW) in the combined sample followed the distributions expected under the unrelated category. A low level of heterozygosity and a high level of inbreeding and relatedness were found in the samples of O. leucoryx collected from Qatar. As individual animals can be identified by tags, this relatedness information can be used to control the rate of inbreeding by avoiding mating between close relatives.