Deputy Director of the Center for Parasitology of the IEE RAS Mikhail Viktorovich Pridannikov took part in the Annual Meeting Indian Society of Plant Pathologysts & National Symposium program "Plant Pathology: Sustainable Approaches for Food Security and Human Health", held on December 8-9, 2023. The inviting party was the Institute of Agricultural Science Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Utar Pradesh, India - one of the oldest universities in India. During the visit M.V. Pridannikov gave a plenary report “Economically dangerous species of plant parasitic nematodes on agricultural crops in the Russian Federation today” on the topic of studying the diversity of parasitic nematodes on agricultural crops in Russia. The report aroused keen interest from Indian colleagues, including discussions of joint scientific research and student exchange within the framework of possible bilateral projects. During a discussion with the President of the Indian Society of Plant Pathology Dr. Chakrabarty of various problems with parasitic organisms on plants in both Russia and India questions were raised about the impact of climate change and increased mutual exchange of food products between the two countries on the spread of certain types of plant pathogenic organisms. An increase in the harmfulness of certain types of plant pathogens was noted, such as rust fungi on cereal crops, root-knot nematodes on vegetable crops, etc. The development of a biological method for controlling the number and harmfulness of parasitic nematodes on agricultural crops was discussed. During a trip to New Delhi, M.V. Pridannikov visited ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India. M.V. Pridannikov got acquainted with the work of the Department of Nematology and held a meeting with the Director of the Department of Nematology, Dr. Pankaj. Issues of mutual cooperation were discussed.

Guests of the Rosneft pavilion at the “Russia” exhibition and forum were able to learn a lot about amazing creatures - walruses. Researcher at the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS Svetlana Artemyeva gave an educational lecture to the guests of the pavilion, during which she spoke about the process of scientific expeditions, about the peculiarities of the life and behavior of walruses, as well as about their favorite habitats. Three interesting facts from the lecture: - During the expeditions, detailed mapping of known walrus rookeries was carried out.- During the one-time “census” of walruses, more than 7,000 individuals were recorded for the first time.- The largest concentration of walruses was discovered on the island of Eva Liv - more than 2000 animals. At the end of the event, there was a thematic quiz dedicated to marine mammals. The winner of the quiz received a unique book “Rediscovering the Arctic”, dedicated to the 10th anniversary of Rosneft’s research in the Arctic. If you want to learn more about how Walrus Day went at the company’s stand, visit the website. Photo and video: Rosneft

Figure 1. Formed F. gardneri embryos before emerging from the eggs. (a-c) appearance; (d) cartilaginous skeleton; (e) bony skeleton; (f,g) muscles. Annular (annual or seasonal) fish of the killifish group from the order Cyprinodontiformes are widespread in the tropics, where they often inhabit small drying up reservoirs. These fish stand out among all vertebrates for their unique ability to fall into states of embryonic diapause - a temporary phenomenon of complete or partial stoppage of development and metabolism of the embryo. Killifish are characterized by a short (usually less than a year) life cycle, and their embryos are exceptionally resistant to negative environmental factors. During periods of drought, killifish eggs remain viable for several months or even years in the ground. These features make killifish popular model objects for studying vertebrate diapause, the biology of aging, stress tolerance, and life history evolution. Many comparative studies often use a popular aquarium species, the West African steelhead Fundulopanchax gardneri, as a popular model for “out-of-season” killifish. However, its development has been largely unstudied, and it remains unclear whether it involves diapauses. Figure 2. Diagram showing the results of factor analysis. The size of the markers is proportional to the number of somites in the embryo. Individuals with “fast” (green) and “slow” (red) developmental trajectories initially do not differ in head size with a small (< 15) number of somites (third quarter of the graph) and begin to differ significantly when more than 15 somites are formed. For the first time, we studied in detail the embryonic development of the steel-blue aphyosemion, focusing on the formation of somites, sensory organs, skeleton, color pigments, muscles and the circulatory system (Fig. 1). It was found that in the early ontogeny of F. gardneri, there are one or two facultative arrests of developmental processes, similar to those for the unconditionally annual killifish species Austrofundulus limnaeus. Embryos of the same age and from the same clutch of eggs can differ significantly in body size and appearance, demonstrating “fast” (with direct development) and “slow” (with diapauses) ontogenetic trajectories (Fig. 2). Such a difference is of great biological importance for survival: hatching from eggs occurs at different times, which increases the chance that at least some of the fry will find themselves in environmental conditions favorable for survival. However, compared to A. limnaeus, these stops appear more like “less pronounced” versions of diapause and completely disappear with increasing water temperature. Thus, steel-blue aphyosemion appears to be more of an “intermediate link” between seasonal and non-seasonal killifish species. This finding supports the old hypothesis that F. gardneri is close to the ancestor of modern annual species. At the same time, recognition of F. gardneri as a representative annual/nonannual model seems premature. The work was published in the authoritative scientific journal “Developmental Dynamics”. V. Borisov, F. Shkil, D. Seleznev, S. Smirnov. (2023). Is African non-annual killifish Fundulopanchax gardneri (Teleostei; Cyprinodontiformes; Nothobranchiidae) true non-annual? DOI: 10.1002/dvdy.668

© RIA News / Maxim Deminov Ilya Mordvintsev, candidate of biological sciences, leading researcher at the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, spoke about the preliminary results of the program this year and plans for the next period. In September, scientists conducted aerial research from a Mi-8MTV helicopter. Experts assessed the frequency of occurrence, distribution and condition of polar bears during the ice-free period on Bely Island and the coast of the Yamal Peninsula. "Meetings of 10 single individuals were recorded. An adult male polar bear was caught on the island, a set of biological samples was taken and morphometry was carried out,” said Ilya Mordvintsev. From July to August, during the expedition “Arctic Floating University - 2023”, organized by the Northern (Arctic) Federal University (NAFU), ship and helicopter observations of encounters and distribution of polar bears and their food sources were carried out on the helicopter-carrying scientific expedition vessel (RV) “Mikhail Somov”. From July 4 to August 16, encounters of 11 bears were recorded on the islands of Franz Josef Land, Vaigach, Uedineniya and the coast of the Yenisei Bay. “Our employees conducted round-the-clock surveillance to register not only polar bears, but also all marine mammals encountered along the route of the RV Mikhail Somov. In addition, we conducted lectures and seminars for students of the Arctic Floating University,” the scientist noted. A comprehensive joint expedition of the Russian Geographical Society and the Ministry of Defense with the support of the Russian Arctic National Park also took place in September. Experts conducted field route observations to assess the occurrence and condition of polar bears on the island of Alexandra Land in the Franz Josef Land archipelago. This year’s results indicate a high number of animals on land during the summer ice-free period and the good condition of bears in the areas where we were able to work, emphasized Ilya Mordvintsev. “This year, for a number of reasons, we were unable to carry out one very important expedition to the Bear Islands archipelago in the East Siberian Sea, so plans for 2024 include continuing polar bear research on the islands of this archipelago and the coast of the Nizhnekolymsky region of Yakutia, which were started us in 2022,” he said. Related materials: Arctic Universe: "Summary of preliminary results of the polar bear program for the current year"

Dibamus tropcentr / © Zootaxa Employees of the Joint Russian-Vietnamese Tropical Research and Technology Center (Tropical Center), a branch of the A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, discovered a new species of lizards. It was named Dibamus tropcentr, or "blind skink of Ninh Thuan." Ninh Thuan blind skinks have a worm-like body that can reach 11.5 centimeters in length. Their eyes are vestigial and completely covered in scales. Dibamus tropcentr are limbless, and only males possess vestigial hindlimbs that form patchwork structures near their tails. This species has a pinkish-brown body, lighter near the head and darker near the tail. The skink is very similar to an earthworm, but has a smooth, scaly texture. The study was published in the journal Zootaxa. Related materials: CryptoZoo: "A new species of lizards that look like worms were discovered"

The visit of the Corresponding Member of RAS Professor A.A. Kotov to China as part of the Foreign Expert Project 2023 program has ended. The inviting organization was Shanghai Ocean University, the oldest university in China. During the visit A.A. Kotov gave a series of public lectures on various aspects of hydrobiology, as well as a series of lectures for master's and undergraduate students at Shanghai Ocean University. A series of practical exercises were conducted to identify freshwater zooplankton, including those collected during a three-day field trip across the provinces of Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. A program of co-supervision by two Chinese master's degree students was initiated. This visit is the beginning of a cooperation program between the Laboratory of Ecology of Aquatic Communities and Invasions of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Shanghai Ocean University. In addition to the latter, A.A. Kotov also gave lectures at Fudan University in Shanghai and Nanjin University in Nanjing, with which it is also planned to establish cooperation in subsequent years in the field of studying the phylogeography of freshwater invertebrates and environmental DNA (eDNA).

The family relationships of mammals have been studied in great detail. Of course, there are still species that have not been studied using modern phylogenetic methods, but the relationships of all modern families of mammals have long been known. However, there is a small Mediterranean group of lagomorphs: the prolagus, which became extinct only recently, the relationships of which remained unclear. Prolagus are small animals, similar either to a small rabbit or to a large pika. There are legends that the Prolagus survived until the time of the Hellenes and, even moreover, live to this day on one of the Italian islands. So far these are just legends, but for a long time it was not clear exactly how deep the family ties between modern pikas and prolagus are. Some scientists believed that prolagus were one of the pikas, others that they were an independent family that had long diverged from the pikas. To a large international team, including a senior researcher at the Laboratory of Microevolution of Mammals, Ph.D. Lisovsky A.A., using next-generation sequencing methods, it was possible to study part of the mitogenome of a fossil prolagus from Sardinia. The results of the analysis confirmed the correctness of the unpopular point of view of Russian paleontologists about the rank of prolagus as an independent family. Thus, prolagids became a “new” family of mammals. Utzeri V.J., Cilli E., Fontani F., Zoboli D., Orsini M., Ribani A., Latorre A., Lissovsky A.A., Pillola G.L., Bovo S., Gruppioni G., Luiselli D., Fontanesi L., 2023. Ancient DNA re-opens the question of the phylogenetic position of the Sardinian pika Prolagus sardus (Wagner, 1829), an extinct lagomorph. Scientific Reports, 13(1): 13635. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-40746-w

Fig.1. Russian and Philippine sides of the project participants During the implementation of the project “Development of technologies for the control of parasitic organisms in tropical ecosystems based on Omics approaches”, supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, a trip to the Philippines was carried out in November-December 2023. 6 people took part in the expedition - parasitologists, zoologists and soil biologists: project leader Dr. Spiridonov S.E., Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Biological Sciences; A.V. Tiunov, Head of the Laboratory of Phytoparasitology, Institute of Ecological Ecology, Russian Academy of Sciences; Ph.D. Pridannikov M.V.; junior researcher Efeikin B.D.; leading engineer Krapivin V.A. and graduate student Sotnikov I.V. Fig.2. Collection of soil samples by employees of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences On the first day of the team's stay at the Mindanao State University - Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT), a brief meeting was held with representatives of the Philippine side - Dr. Joey Martinez (J.J. Martinez) and Hopi Dr. Nanette Sumaya (H.N. Sumaya), about the rough plan for research in the area Iligan. It was decided to distribute the days available to the Russian group in such a way as to give all participants the opportunity to collect the material that interests them. Fig.3. While working at Iligan Technological University as project manager S.E. Spiridonov gave a series of lectures. When planning the first trip, the Russian participants asked the host party to take them to a point near the city of Iligan (Lanao del Norte province), where in the relatively recent past there had been a severe flood with a significant amount of sand and sandy soil being carried ashore and sediments forming on the shores. Moreover, this place of flooding should have been covered with herbaceous and shrubby vegetation. Philippine colleagues proposed such a place near the city of Iligan - the Abuno district on the banks of the Tabod River (Abuno Iligan City Lanao-del-Norte, Philippines, coordinates 8.182 N, 124.258 E). At this point, on both sides of the bridge over the river, 38 soil samples were collected, each weighing from one to two kilograms. The soil surface was covered with herbaceous vegetation, with small bushes in some places. On the other side of the bridge, samples were collected under the canopy of palm trees, with almost no herbaceous vegetation due to the very low illumination of the ground surface (almost complete closure of the palm canopy). A total of 8 samples turned out to be positive, of which three were selected for further study. Nematodes from all these samples were identified by morphological characteristics as representatives of the genus Heterorhabditis. Fig.4. Collection of marine mollusks by employees of the IEE RAS In the following days, two trips were made to the area of ​​the Mandulog River. The main points for collecting material were in the area of ​​the Dodiongan Bridge (8.258 N, 124.302 E). This part of the province of Lanao del Norte is quite densely populated and used for agricultural purposes. More than 30 soil and water samples were collected from the beds of small streams flowing into the Mandulog River. The infestation of endoparasites in Philippine bovids (family Bovidae) was studied. The material for the work was freshly excreted excrement of goats, dairy cows, beef bulls and buffaloes collected during the expedition. Samples were collected wet and stored frozen. As a result, endoparasites from two large taxonomic groups were discovered: helminths and protists. Among the first to be identified were the eggs of nematodes of the order Strongylida, which parasitize the gastrointestinal tract. In particular, the so-called small strongylids, as well as representatives of the genus Nematodirus. In addition, trematode eggs were discovered, presumably from the genus Paramphistomum. The isolated protists are represented by coccidia oocysts from the genus Eimeria. Strongylids and Eimeria parasitize in the small intestine of bovids, and the detected trematodes live in the rumen (forestomach). Next, a trip was made to the island of Tawi-Tawi with the aim of searching for and collecting marine mollusks - intermediate hosts of various parasites, including those dangerous to humans. As part of the study of marine molluscs around the island, samples were collected from a variety of locations, including intertidal zones and coral reef areas. The study aimed to examine the composition, diversity and abundance of shellfish, and their relation to environmental environmental parameters such as water quality, total organic matter and calcium carbonate content. During the study, 43 species of mollusks were identified, of which 41 species belonged to the class of gastropods (Gastropoda), represented by 18 families, and 2 species belonged to the class of bivalve mollusks (Bivalvia) from 2 families. Diversity analysis showed high values ​​of diversity and evenness in the two study stations. One of the stations turned out to be dominant in the number of gastropods Cerithium stercusmuscarum, which accounted for almost a third of the total population. Canonical correspondence analysis indicated that total organic matter and calcium carbonate in sediment may have influenced the abundance of the mollusk community at this station. During the opening of the collected mollusks, flukes were discovered, which, apparently, represent new species. This discovery makes an important contribution to the understanding of the biodiversity and ecology of Mindanao's marine molluscs, and expands knowledge of parasitic relationships in marine ecosystems.

In September 2023, the results of a competition among graduate students to receive a scholarship from the President of the Russian Federation to study abroad were announced. From the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, this prestigious scholarship was won by Margarita Danilova, a graduate student in the laboratory for studying the ecological functions of soils. During the winter semester of 2023, Margarita will undergo a scientific internship in the city of Changchun (China), at the Northeast Normal University and the Key Laboratory of Ecology of Humid Ecosystems and the Environment of the Institute of Geography and Agroecology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, under the guidance of Professor Donghui Wu. During her stay in China, Margarita plans to establish partnerships with young Chinese colleagues - soil ecologists, and also give a series of lectures for Chinese undergraduate and graduate students on the diversity and ecology of soil-dwelling protozoa. She will conduct a master class on methods for isolating and identifying soil ciliates using modern laboratory equipment. In addition, Margarita continues to work on her PhD thesis and, as part of her internship, is mastering advanced methods of molecular genetic analysis of soil ecosystems. “This internship is the first step towards establishing a long-term strategic partnership between IEE RAS, the Institute of Geography and Agroecology and the North-Eastern Pedagogical University in the field of studying soil ecology,” Margarita Danilova’s scientific advisor at IEE RAS, leading researcher A.S. Zaitsev, shares her plans. In 2024, Russian and Chinese specialists plan to expand scientific cooperation, and Margarita’s internship is an important part of the planned joint research program.

Screenshot of a video from the State Budgetary Institution of the Astrakhan Region “Stepnoy Wildlife Sanctuary” In December, the relict antelope goes through its rut (breeding period). Now in the reproduction zone, which occupies more than 54 thousand hectares of the territory of the Stepnoy nature reserve in the Limansky district, male saiga antelopes are actively forming harems, reports the environmental management service of the Astrakhan region. Last week, the reserve was visited by Vyacheslav Rozhnov, academician, scientific director of environmental and environmental projects and international programs of the A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences. For several years, employees of the institute, under his leadership, have been studying the behavioral ecology of saigas in the reserve. In their research, scientists use remote monitoring data. Vyacheslav Rozhnov assessed the conditions of the rutting season positively and noted that thanks to the efforts of the reserve management team, restoration of the saiga population of the North-Western Caspian region has began. The number of artiodactyls in Stepnoye has grown from a minimum of 2.5 thousand to 20 thousand individuals. The total population size is estimated at 26 thousand individuals. Related materials: Komsomolskaya Pravda: “Restoration of the saiga population has begun in the Astrakhan region” EcoTourismExpert: "The saiga population of the North-Western Caspian region has begun to recover" Southern Wave: “In the Astrakhan Stepnoy Nature Reserve, the number of saigas has increased to 20 thousand individuals” Zen. Southern Wave: “In the Astrakhan Stepnoy Nature Reserve, the number of saigas has increased to 20 thousand individuals” ArbuzToday: "The rarest animals risk their lives in the Astrakhan region" News from Astrakhan: “The breeding season of relict antelopes is underway in the Astrakhan nature reserve”