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- Shiryaeva, Liudmila, 1970-, et al.
(author)
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Pair-wise multicomparison and OPLS analyses of cold-acclimation phases in Siberian spruce
- 2012
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In: Metabolomics. - : Springer. - 1573-3882 .- 1573-3890. ; 8:Suppl 1, s. 123-130
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Analysis of metabolomics data often goes beyond the task of discovering biomarkers and can be aimed at recovering other important characteristics of observed metabolomic changes. In this paper we explore different methods to detect the presence of distinctive phases in seasonal-responsive changes of metabolomic patterns of Siberian spruce (Picea obovata) during cold acclimation occurred in the period from mid-August to January. Multivariate analysis, specifically orthogonal projection to latent structures discriminant analysis (OPLSDA), identified time points where the metabolomic patterns underwent substantial modifications as a whole, revealing four distinctive phases during acclimation. This conclusion was re-examined by a univariate analysis consisting of multiple pair-wise comparisons to identify homogeneity intervals for each metabolite. These tests complemented OPLS-DA, clarifying biological interpretation of the classification: about 60% of metabolites found responsive to the cold stress indeed changed at one or more of the time points predicted by OPLS-DA. However, the univariate approach did not support the proposed division of the acclimation period into four phases: less than 10% of metabolites altered during the acclimation had homogeneous levels predicted by OPLS-DA. This demonstrates that coupling the classification found by OPLS-DA and the analysis of dynamics of individual metabolites obtained by pair-wise multicomparisons reveals a more correct characterization of biochemical processes in freezing tolerant trees and leads to interpretations that cannot be deduced by either method alone. The combined analysis can be used in other ‘omics’-studies, where response factors have a causal dependence (like the time in the present work) and pairwise multicomparisons are not conservative.
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2. |
- Zamora, Juan Carlos, et al.
(author)
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Considerations and consequences of allowing DNA sequence data as types of fungal taxa
- 2018
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In: IMA Fungus. - : INT MYCOLOGICAL ASSOC. - 2210-6340 .- 2210-6359. ; 9:1, s. 167-185
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Nomenclatural type definitions are one of the most important concepts in biological nomenclature. Being physical objects that can be re-studied by other researchers, types permanently link taxonomy (an artificial agreement to classify biological diversity) with nomenclature (an artificial agreement to name biological diversity). Two proposals to amend the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN), allowing DNA sequences alone (of any region and extent) to serve as types of taxon names for voucherless fungi (mainly putative taxa from environmental DNA sequences), have been submitted to be voted on at the 11th International Mycological Congress (Puerto Rico, July 2018). We consider various genetic processes affecting the distribution of alleles among taxa and find that alleles may not consistently and uniquely represent the species within which they are contained. Should the proposals be accepted, the meaning of nomenclatural types would change in a fundamental way from physical objects as sources of data to the data themselves. Such changes are conducive to irreproducible science, the potential typification on artefactual data, and massive creation of names with low information content, ultimately causing nomenclatural instability and unnecessary work for future researchers that would stall future explorations of fungal diversity. We conclude that the acceptance of DNA sequences alone as types of names of taxa, under the terms used in the current proposals, is unnecessary and would not solve the problem of naming putative taxa known only from DNA sequences in a scientifically defensible way. As an alternative, we highlight the use of formulas for naming putative taxa (candidate taxa) that do not require any modification of the ICN.
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