Otočec Congress and Dubrovnik

BTRG has attended Joint Congress of Slovenian Biochemical Society and Slovenian Genetic Society held in Otočec from September 20 - 23, 2009 participating four posters. Right after the congress, Anja, Urška, Gašper and Aleš proceeded to Mostar, where they visited prof. Bogut, and while sightseeing Mostar, discussed some possibilities of future cooperation between Slovenia, BiH and Croatia. After visiting Baćina lakes, they went to Dubrovnik to meet prof. Branko Glamuzina of the University of Dubrovnik and discuss with him common projects to be applied in near future.

During weekend, BTRG relaxed in cozy accommodation in the town of Zaton close to Dubrovnik, where they enjoyed boating, fishing and sea-food.

Some pics from the congress:

Some pics from Mostar, Dubrovnik and a lot of places in between:

ESEB 2009

European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB) organized 12th congress in Turin, Italy ( 24 -29 August 2009), BTRG was represented by Anja and Urška. It was Urška’s first big congress and her experience is worth posting (after some censorship). BTRG contribution was a poster: Identification of candidate genes involved in skin colouration in Salmo sp. by microarray analysis.

Check the gallery.

My ESEB 2009 experience:

Day 1: Welcome drink

The venue was Politecnico di Torino, a fascinating building with a huge inside court and a staircase from which it was possible to monitor what was going on. Drink and snacks were available. *** alcohol *** juice *** some salty fish ***, but Anja liked it. I abstained from other snacks ***. Finally reached the hotel and get some hard earned sleep.

Day 2-6: Breakfast, lectures, coffee break, lectures, lunch ***, poster session/lectures, shopping, sleep.

Lectures were a BIG disappointment. Most criticism deserve older, "experienced" speakers who had promising starts, but soon lost the tread (and consequently my attention) and finished in such a way that I couldn't understand if the results were good or bad. I can claim with 100% certainty that younger speakers were 1000× better. One of the few good senior speakers started with a one sentence hypothesis and continued with results that were totally unexpected. He concluded the results with "What went wrong?" and then discussed them. Another good speaker had a lecture: "Is life impossible?" (1st slide), No (2nd slide), Acknowledgment (3rd slide) was accompanied by laughter from the audience. Of course he did explain it, but he went on so fast it was hard to follow (well, he was a mathematician). Most of other senior speakers obviously were attending several congresses in the past, using old power point files with 40+ slides attempting to read them in half an hour. And then you hear "We will skip that one", "We don't have time,.....", I don't care how much time you have or not, be prepared for a 25 min presentation and a 5 min discussion. *** and *** are terrible speakers with some singing version of English. And then of course there are coughing speakers not intelligent enough to drink some water. *** So much about speakers.

Lunches? *** no idea *** very dry *** did not eat *** Shopping in the city, a disappointment, vacation time, most shops closed or with unusual open hours *** English language skills *** For the most part, I used my hands. Thumbs up for ice cream and chocolate.

I liked the hotel, meals there were OK, a lot of things to choose from, the room was unusually decorated, but I slept fine.

And that is all I can say about my ESEB 2009 experience.

Second trip to Morocco (August 2009)

First trip to Morocco was last year (here & here). During the second field trip two more sampling sites were added, a few more locations checked were troutless. Participants were Aleš, Saša, Johnnes & daughter. For more pictures click here.

ADDED: Just received a note from Aleš. This trip was actually the third expedition to Morocco. The first was already in June 2006, predating this blog. The participants at that time were Johannes with his daughter, Aleš with his wife and Said of the University Cadi Ayyad.

Sampling with the mayor

We have extended our collaboration to Primož Župančič, a mayor of Dol pri Ljubljani since 2003. Although he graduated in law, he spends most of his spare time studying rare cyprinid fishes from the Adriatic part of western Balkan Peninsula.

In June, we were together searching for minnows in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There we also met our friend prof. Ivan Bogut in Sovići (muncipality Grude) and spent some pleasant time sampling.

Check the gallery for more photos.

Softmouth trout from Vrljika

Several field trips and a lot of work was done near Imotski in Croatia. Softmouth trout was perhaps the most interesting fish from that area. Aleš has published a paper in Športski ribolov (Sport Fishing), presenting genetic results to the wider public. Special thanks to Daliborka Dušanić for translation to Croatian.

Another myth busted?

In the past year, BTRG has performed a comprehensive genetic analysis of dentex trout from the River Neretva. This time we applied an extended set of molecular markers and included for comparison several specimens of "real glavatica" (i.e., marmorated trout from the Neretva), which were badly missing in our preliminary study.

Contrary to our previous hypothesis, dentex trout turned out as genetically indistinct from marmorated trout of the Neretva. We assume that a phenotype characteristic of dentex trout had probably evolved as a consequence of specific local adaptation.

For more information, see the summary of already submitted manuscript below.

The dentex samples were provided by prof. Branko Glamuzina (University of Dubrovnik) and prof. Ivan Bogut (University of Osijek), and the "glavatica" samples by Naris Pojskić (Institute for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology).

Summary

The Balkan Peninsula is home to the most diverse collection of salmonids in the world. Nevertheless, many taxonomic uncertainties remain unresolved despite over a century of studies. Conservation of Balkan salmonid biodiversity hinges in large part upon addressing such uncertainties and is therefore of paramount importance. A notable example is found in the enigmatic Salmo dentex, which has been described by various authors in discontinuous populations ranging from the Aoos river in Greece to the Krka river drainage in Croatia. Current reports suggest it has disappeared from much of its previous range. At present, several contradictory opinions predominate on the taxonomic status of S. dentex without any broad consensus. To help resolve this issue we performed a rigorous molecular genetic analysis using a robust array of mtDNA, microsatellite, and nuclear gene markers of so-called S. dentex of the lower Neretva river drainage alongside other co-inhabiting endemic salmonids (i.e. S. obtusirostris, S. marmoratus, S. trutta). Our results clearly showed three genetically distinct lineages of salmonids with S. dentex being phenotypically distinct yet genetically indistinct from S. marmoratus of the lower Neretva. Based on our results and previous molecular results on Montenegrin dentex, it is clear that S. dentex is not a monophyletic lineage and should not be considered a distinct species on a genetic basis. We hypothesize S. dentex to most likely be polyphyletic assemblage of fish sharing a similar life history and unified phenotype evolved as a consequence of specific local adaptation.

Introducing Klavdija

Klavdija Bogataj is an undergraduate student of animal science and is currently preparing her graduation thesis "Genetic analysis of autochthonous brown trout (Salmo trutta) in Slovenija and identification of genetically pure populations" (working title).

Her practical working experience as a part of animal science curriculum at the Angling Club of Tržič was followed by sampling expedition with the Fisheries Research Institute of Slovenia. After realising that sampled fish are studied by Aleš Snoj she asked him for a graduation thesis mentorship. At the end, Simona Sušnik became her mentor. Klavdija started to work in the laboratory in October 2008 both for her thesis and the autochthonous brown trout project. As the later is done under a scheme similar to summer work she will probably be one of the few people actually working in the lab during the summer.