As part of a large international Arctic biodiversity expedition (Tundra Northwest '99), we examined the distribution of members of the arctic Daphnia pulex complex (Cladocera, Anomopoda) from 121 tundra ponds, spread across 16 sites spanning a large portion of arctic Canada (i.e. from 62 degrees 22' N to 79 degrees 01' N; 66 degrees 45' W to 139 degrees 37' W). Using allozyme electrophoresis an...

Many notorious invasive plants are clonal, living in heterogeneous or homogeneous habitats. To understand how clonal integration affects the performance of these plants in different habitat conditions, an 8-week greenhouse experiment was conducted: ramet pairs of A. philoxeroides were grown in two habitats, either heterogeneous or homogeneous in water availability, with the stolon connections e...

While seed-propagated crops have contributed many evolutionary insights, evolutionary biologists have often neglected clonally propagated crops. We argue that widespread notions about their evolution under domestication are oversimplified, and that they offer rich material for evolutionary studies. The diversity of their wild ancestors, the diverse ecologies of the crop populations themselves, ...

BACKGROUND To compare the epidemiological and clinical features and outcome in clonal group O25b/ST131 and non-clonal group O25b/ST131 in adult patients with non-extended-spectrum B-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteraemia. METHODS We collected 371 consecutive isolates with community-onset non-ESBL producing E. coli bloodstream infection in 2010 in a 1200-bed hospital...

Clonal reproduction characterizes a wide range of species including clonal plants in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and clonal microbes such as bacteria and parasitic protozoa, with a key role in human health and ecosystem processes. Clonal organisms present a particular challenge in population genetics because, in addition to the possible existence of replicates of the same genotype in a ...

To afford the greatest possible immune protection, candidate human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) vaccines must generate diverse and long-lasting CD8(+) T lymphocyte responses. In the present study, we evaluate T-cell receptor Vbeta (variable region beta) gene usage and a CDR3 (complementarity-determining region 3) sequence to assess the clonality of epitope-specific CD8(+) T lymphocytes generate...

The genetic and morphological development of colorectal cancer is a paradigm for tumorigenesis. However, the dynamics of clonal evolution underpinning carcinogenesis remain poorly understood. Here we identify multipotential stem cells within human colorectal adenomas and use methylation patterns of nonexpressed genes to characterize clonal evolution. Numerous individual crypts from six colonic ...

Spatial patchiness and temporal variability in water availability are common in nature under global climate change, which can remarkably influence adaptive responses of clonal plants, i.e. clonal integration (translocating resources between connected ramets). However, little is known about the effects of spatial patchiness and temporal heterogeneity in water on growth and clonal integration bet...

Clonal instability of a tumor cell population in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) may complicate the monitoring of a minimal residual disease (MRD) by means of patient-specific targets identified at the disease onset. Most of the data concerning the possible instability of rearranged clonal TCR and IG genes during disease recurrence were obtained for ALL in children. The appropriate features ...

Phylogenetic and phylogeographic studies suggest that a majority of asexual organisms are evolutionarily recent offshoots of extant sexual taxa and that old clonal lineages tend to be isolated from their sexual and younger asexual counterparts. These observations have often been interpreted as support for the long-term disadvantages of asexuality resulting from the mechanisms of clonal decay. A...