Taxonomic Tool Research Articles

Otoliths of Caspian gobies (Teleostei: Gobiidae): Morphological diversity and phylogenetic implications.

Otoliths (ear stones) of the inner ears of teleost fishes, which develop independently from the skeleton and are functionally associated with hearing and the sense of equilibrium, have significantly contributed to contemporary understanding of teleost fish systematics and evolutionary diversity. The sagittal otolith is of particular interest, since it often possesses distinctive morphological features that differ significantly among species, and have been shown to be species- and genus-specific, making it an informative taxonomic tool for ichthyologists. The otolith morphology of the Caspian Sea gobiids has not been thoroughly studied yet, with data available for only a few species. The aim of the present paper is to examine the qualitative and quantitative taxonomic and phylogenetic information in the sagittal otoliths of these species. A total of 118 otoliths representing 30 gobiid species (including 53.5% of the Caspian gobiofauna) in three gobiid lineages (i.e., Gobius, Pomatoschistus, and Acanthogobius) and 11 genera (i.e., all Ponto-Caspian gobiid genera except Babka) were analysed at taxonomic levels using an integrated descriptive and morphometric approach. The results indicated high taxonomic efficiency of otolith morphology and morphometry at taxonomic levels for the Ponto-Caspian gobiids. Our qualitative and quantitative otolith data also (i) support the monophyly of neogobiin gobies, (ii) along with other morphological and ecological data, offer a new perspective on the systematics of Neogobius bathybius, (iii) suggest the reassignment of Hyrcanogobius bergi to the genus Knipowitschia, and (iv) question the phylogenetic integrity of the four phenotypic groups previously defined in the tadpole-goby genus Benthophilus; however, more studies are needed to complete these evaluations and confirm our otolith study findings.

Identification of microbial community in the urban environment: The concordance between conventional culture and nanopore 16S rRNA sequencing.

Microbes in the built environment have been implicated as a source of infectious diseases. Bacterial culture is the standard method for assessing the risk of exposure to pathogens in urban environments, but this method only accounts for <1% of the diversity of bacteria. Recently, full-length 16S rRNA gene analysis using nanopore sequencing has been applied for microbial evaluations, resulting in a rise in the development of long-read taxonomic tools for species-level classification. Regarding their comparative performance, there is, however, a lack of information. Here, we aim to analyze the concordance of the microbial community in the urban environment inferred by multiple taxonomic classifiers, including ARGpore2, Emu, Kraken2/Bracken and NanoCLUST, using our 16S-nanopore dataset generated by MegaBLAST, as well as assess their abilities to identify culturable species based on the conventional culture results. According to our results, NanoCLUST was preferred for 16S microbial profiling because it had a high concordance of dominant species and a similar microbial profile to MegaBLAST, whereas Kraken2/Bracken, which had similar clustering results as NanoCLUST, was also desirable. Second, for culturable species identification, Emu with the highest accuracy (81.2%) and F1 score (29%) for the detection of culturable species was suggested. In addition to generating datasets in complex communities for future benchmarking studies, our comprehensive evaluation of the taxonomic classifiers offers recommendations for ongoing microbial community research, particularly for complex communities using nanopore 16S rRNA sequencing.

ClassGraph: Improving Metagenomic Read Classification with Overlap Graphs.

Current technologies allow the sequencing of microbial communities directly from the environment without prior culturing. One of the major problems when analyzing a microbial sample is to taxonomically annotate its reads to identify the species it contains. Most methods that are currently available focus on the classification of reads using a set of reference genomes and their k-mers. While in terms of precision these methods have reached percentages of correctness close to perfection, in terms of sensitivity (the actual number of classified reads), the performance is often poor. One reason is that the reads in a sample can be very different from the corresponding reference genomes; for example, viral genomes are usually highly mutated. To address this issue, in this article, we propose ClassGraph, a new taxonomic classification method that makes use of the read overlap graph and applies a label propagation algorithm to refine the results of existing tools. We evaluated its performance on simulated and real datasets with several taxonomic classification tools, and the results showed an improved sensitivity and F-measure, while maintaining high precision. ClassGraph is capable of improving the classification accuracy, especially in difficult cases such as virus and real datasets, where traditional tools can classify <40% of reads.

Abstract 5895: Analysis of microbiome in gastric MALT lymphoma

Abstract Gastric MALT (mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue) lymphoma is found at a rate of 50% or more among the types of MALT lymphoma. Majority of patients with gastric MALT lymphoma are infected with Helicobacter pylori and also have clinical improvement with eradication therapy. However, it is unclear how H. pylori cause gastric MALT lymphoma. To explore it, we prospectively collected 13 patients who are newly diagnosed with gastric MALT lymphoma with H. pylori. We gathered samples from normal regions and lesions during endoscopy for diagnosis. Samples of lesion were harvested again after eradication of H. pylori. we sequenced 10 of WES (whole exome sequencing) and 13 of WTS (whole transcriptome sequencing) with these samples. With sequencing data, we aligned the sequenced reads to human reference genome (hg19) using BWA and called the variants with Mutect2. We aligned the reads and calculated TPM (Transcripts Per Million) from WTS with STAR and RSEM. We performed DEG (Differentially Expressed Genes) and GSEA (Gene Set Enrichment Analysis) for three comparison groups which are divided into normal, lesion, and after eradication. Gene fusions were detected using STAR-Fusion and Arriba with WTS. To detect potential microbiome from the samples, we used Kraken2, a taxonomic classification tool. We found that MUC6 was mutated from all samples and some samples have mutated MUC3A, KMT2C, ZNF595, CDC27, etc., and two have BIRC3-MALT1 fusion. From DEG and GSEA analysis, G protein-coupled receptor activity was activated in the group of lesion samples and suppressed in normal samples and eradication samples. Lymphocyte activation and immune response were also activated in the cancerous lesion. Kraken2 classified the reads which were not aligned to the human reference genome as reads from microbiota including H. pylori. The reads of H. pylori were more abundant in the lesion group than the other groups. According to the result of differentially expressed species analysis between the groups of lesion and eradication, the following species were also more abundant in the lesion group; Veillonella dispar, Helicobacter hepaticus, Helicobacter winghamensis, etc. We analyzed genetic alterations and differentially expressed genes and also classified non-human reads as microbiome with sequencing data from gastric MALT lymphoma. Our results suggest how H.pylori infection is related to carcinogenesis of gastric MALT lymphoma. Citation Format: SeungJoo Yoo, Dong-Yeop Shin, Ja Min Byun, Junshik Hong, Hongseok Yun, Youngil Koh, Sung-Soo Yoon. Analysis of microbiome in gastric MALT lymphoma [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 5895.

Deep-sea Ophiuroidea (Echinodermata) collected during the TALUD cruises in western Mexico

Deep-sea ophiuroids from western Mexico have been documented since 1899, but mostly by non-Mexican expeditions. TALUD is a Mexican project designed to study the deep-sea fauna from Mexico. As part of it, the present contribution provides for the first time detailed information about the taxonomy and distribution, as well as images, of deep-sea ophiuroids from western Mexico, representing a useful taxonomic identification tool for Ophiuroidea from the eastern Pacific. A total of 38 species of ophiuroid (35 identified at species level, one at genus level, and two as confer) were collected from 83 stations located at 123‒2,309 m depth. At a regional scale, several new species records are presented: six for western Baja California, five for western Baja California Sur, two for the Gulf of California, four for Jalisco, 14 for Colima, and five for Guerrero. Geographic (six) and bathymetric (seven) distribution ranges of species are extended. An updated list of deep-sea ophiuroids (61 species) from western Mexico is provided together with an identification key to species collected during this survey. In addition, nine records of deep-sea ophiuroids for the Mexican Pacific are unproven, doubtful or invalid. We corroborated the presence of Ophiacantha eurypoma and Ophiacantha pacifica in the study area and added Amphiura gymnogastra as the first record for Mexico. We propose to transfer Ophiacantha phragma to Ophiolimna on account of it having both granules and spines on the dorsal disc and striated arm plates. TALUD cruises collected 57 % of the total deep-sea species known to occur off Mexico, making it the most important survey of deep-sea Ophiuroidea carried out in western Mexico to date.

Micromorphological Characters in Wild Medicinal Species of Dioscorea (Dioscoreaceae)

Adulteration, misidentification, and substitution of wild Dioscorea species are common in Nigeria's herbal market and among traditional herbal practitioners. The present investigation reports a comparative micromorphological study of three wild species of Dioscorea L. used in ethnomedicine in South-western Nigeria to elucidate taxonomically significant characters, which would aid species identification. Physical and chemical methods were used in obtaining the epidermal leaf surfaces of the Dioscorea species. Leaves of D. hirtiflora Benth. and D. bulbifera L. were amphistomatic, whereas D. dumetorum (Kunth) Pax were hypostomatic. Diagnostic foliar epidermal characters include striated cell wall; presence of raphides in D. hirtiflora and D. dumetorum and secretory glands in D. dumetorum (wild) and D. hirtiflora. Glandular trichomes were observed in all species in addition to simple, elongated, unicellular trichomes in D. dumetorum and stellate trichomes in D. hirtiflora. Epidermal cells mainly were polygonal, straight to slightly wavy but deeply undulating in D. dumetorum. The largest and smallest mean epidermal cell sizes were obtained on the adaxial surfaces of D. bulbifera (mauve) and D. dumetorum (wild), respectively. Micromorphological characters in the Dioscorea species studied are taxonomically significant for species identification and could serve as diagnostic taxonomic tools for their standardization. A key for the identification of species is provided.

DL-TODA: A Deep Learning Tool for Omics Data Analysis.

Metagenomics is a technique for genome-wide profiling of microbiomes; this technique generates billions of DNA sequences called reads. Given the multiplication of metagenomic projects, computational tools are necessary to enable the efficient and accurate classification of metagenomic reads without needing to construct a reference database. The program DL-TODA presented here aims to classify metagenomic reads using a deep learning model trained on over 3000 bacterial species. A convolutional neural network architecture originally designed for computer vision was applied for the modeling of species-specific features. Using synthetic testing data simulated with 2454 genomes from 639 species, DL-TODA was shown to classify nearly 75% of the reads with high confidence. The classification accuracy of DL-TODA was over 0.98 at taxonomic ranks above the genus level, making it comparable with Kraken2 and Centrifuge, two state-of-the-art taxonomic classification tools. DL-TODA also achieved an accuracy of 0.97 at the species level, which is higher than 0.93 by Kraken2 and 0.85 by Centrifuge on the same test set. Application of DL-TODA to the human oral and cropland soil metagenomes further demonstrated its use in analyzing microbiomes from diverse environments. Compared to Centrifuge and Kraken2, DL-TODA predicted distinct relative abundance rankings and is less biased toward a single taxon.

The devil is in the details: Problems in DNA barcoding practices indicated by systematic evaluation of insect barcodes

In recent years, DNA barcoding has rapidly developed as a powerful tool in taxonomy, demonstrating its value in species identification and discovery of cryptic diversity. The number of barcoding sequences of various species continues to grow in the GenBank and BOLD databases; however, the accuracy of sequences and related raw information in public repositories is often questionable. In the present study, based on a dataset of 68,089 Hemiptera COI barcode sequences covering 3,064 species, 1,072 genera, and 48 families, we analyzed genetic differences within and between species and evaluated possible data errors in the insect barcodes. The results showed that errors in the barcode data are not rare, and most of them are due to human errors, such as specimen misidentification, sample confusion, and contamination. A significant portion of these errors can be attributed to inappropriate and imprecise practices in the DNA barcoding workflow. Herein, suggestions are provided to improve the practical operations and workflow of DNA barcoding to reduce human errors.

Aliphatic hydrocarbons in the lichen class Lecanoromycetes and their potential use as chemotaxonomic indicators and biomarkers

Lichens are found in a wide range of terrestrial habitats and have important roles in terrestrial ecosystems. However, because lichens are easily decomposed and are rarely preserved as fossils, their paleoenvironmental ecology and evolutionary history remain a mystery. We performed lipid analyses on 29 lichen samples belonging to Lecanoromycetes, the largest class of lichens, from several locations in Japan, to determine their potential for use as taxonomic tools and biomarkers. We found that the lichens contained aliphatic hydrocarbons, including n-alkanes, alkenes, and long-chain branched alkanes, fernenes, diploptene, and hop-21-ene. Lichens with a green algal photobiont (photosynthetic symbiotic algae) contained 1,8-heptadecadiene or 6,9-heptadecadiene and 8- and 7-heptadecene, whereas lichens with cyanobacteria as a photobiont did not contain the heptadecadienes but did contain octadecene, nonadecene and nonadecadiene. These differences in characteristics could be attributed to phylogenetic differences in the photobionts that comprised the lichens, indicating that the alkene composition could be used for lichen chemotaxonomy. Although additional research is needed to confirm that this signal gets preserved in sedimentary archives, our results suggest a previously unknown origin for the C17–C19 alkenes in sediments and imply that these components could be used to reconstruct the past composition of lichens.

The genus Vates Burmeister, 1838, in French Guiana, with the description of two new species (Mantodea, Mantidae, Vatinae)

Vates marmorata n. sp. and Vates patrinata n. sp. (Mantidae, Vatinae) are described from French Guiana. The new species are close to V. biplagiata and V. festae, all exhibiting strong tubercles along pronotal margins but differing in male genital structures. Description, images, and measurements of anatomical parts are presented, along with distributional, natural history, and DNA barcoding data. A key to species of Vates known in French Guiana is formulated. This study highlights the value of DNA barcoding in disclosing hidden diversity in Mantodea, especially when coupled with traditional taxonomic tools.

Bacterial Sequencing Reads in Blood Exome Files from Melanoma and Cervical Cancer Patients are Associated with Cancer Recurrence.

Bacteremia poses great risk for morbidity and mortality for immunocompromised cancer patients. Although the presence of bacteria within solid tumors is gaining greater attention, few studies have analyzed species of bacteria in the blood and their effect on cancer clinical outcomes. Using the Kraken 2 taxonomic profiling tool, we classified bacteria present in blood and primary tumors of cervical cancer and melanoma cases. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) melanoma blood exome files with Pseudomonas species were found to represent a worse disease-free survival (DFS) probability, while a worse overall survival (OS) result was evidenced for both the TCGA and Moffitt Cancer Center melanoma datasets. Cervical cancer cases with reads representing the Bradyrhizobium genus and Bradyrhizobium sp. BTAi1 found in blood and tumor exome files were found to have lower DFS. Additionally, reduced DFS and OS were observed for cervical cancer cases positive for Bacteroides species including Bacteroides fragilis. This study provides novel evidence and a novel approach for indicating that bacteria in blood is associated with cancer recurrence. These findings may guide the development of more efficient prognostic and screening tools related to bacterial blood infections of melanoma and cervical cancer patients.

TRADITIONAL PLANTS OF FAMILY SOLANACEAE FACING THE PROBLEM OF ADULTERATION: A CRITICAL ISSUE

Authenticated identification of medicinal plants always had been an issue because of their local names misunderstanding and multiple morphological similarities. Hence the present study was an effort to provide some authenticated taxonomic tools for identification of three valuable selected medicinal plants of the family Solanaceae. i.e., Datura stramonium L., Solanum nigrum L. and Withania somnifera L. This study was based on multiple parameters (morphology, anatomy (Light Microscopy &amp; Scanning electron microscopy), palynology (LM &amp; Scanning Electron Microscopy), Organoleptography, UV (ultra violet) and IR (infra-red) analysis, solubility, fluorescence and chemical analysis, so as to establish some reiliable taxonomic tools for recognition of these plants. Anatomical studies were carried out to identify the species from the taxonomic point of view. A variety of characters like epidermal cells, subsidiary cells, guard cells, trichomes, macro-hairs, micro-hairs and stomata were used as a tool for the taxonomic grouping of different species. Pollen characters in all the three taxa were helpful to distinguish the taxa at species as well as at generic level. The organoleptic, ultra violet, infra red and chemical analysis of the taxa showed a lot of variation among them. The present research work provided a comprehensive detail of the systematics along with the pharmacognosy of selected taxa which can be used as an aid in the identification and exploration of the medicinal wealth of the Pakistan.

ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFICIENCY OF THE USE OF BASIC RESOURCES USING THE TOOLS OF TAXONOMIC ANALYSIS

In the article uses taxonomy tools to evaluate the effectiveness of the use of fixed assets on the example of a strategically important state enterprise. The stimulators and disincentives of the impact on the capacity of using the company's assets have been determined: capital returns have a disincentive effect on the efficiency of the use of fixed assets of SE «Ukrvodshlyakh», all other indicators (factors of depreciation of fixed assets, suitability of fixed assets, capital adequacy, capital capacity) are defined as stimulators of influence.&#x0D; A negative trend towards a reduction of the integral indicator of the taxonomy (the efficiency of the use of fixed assets) was revealed in four years, almost fivefold to a critically low level; the technical condition of fixed assets at the enterprise is dynamically deteriorating, which is also evidenced by the increase in the wear rate and the decrease in the suitability ratio of fixed assets. Such a situation is a clear signal for the managers of a strategically important state-owned enterprise regarding the need to find new management solutions and review the existing system of efficiency in the use of fixed assets. it was found out that the technical condition of fixed assets in SE «Ukrvodshlyakh» is deteriorating dynamically, which is also evidenced by the increase in the wear rate and, accordingly, the decrease in the suitability ratio of fixed assets. It is positive that the rate of renewal of fixed assets at the enterprise is increasing dynamically. In order to increase the level of the company's return on capital, it is suggested to ensure one hundred percent utilization of the equipment. Also, a possible solution may be the sale of part of the unused fixed assets of the enterprise.&#x0D; The successful functioning of fixed assets and production facilities depends on intensive and extensive factors of improving their use. The intensive direction of improving the efficiency of the use of fixed assets and production capacities involves increasing the degree of loading of equipment and machines per unit of time by modernizing equipment, establishing optimal modes of its loading, etc. Improving the structure of fixed assets is also an important direction for increasing the efficiency of the use of production facilities; improvement of planning, management and organization of work and production; reduction of capital intensity, increase of return on capital and labor productivity at the enterprise.

Palynomorphometry in ferns: Ctenitis (Dryopteridaceae), a case of study in the Southern Cone of America

Abstract The morphometric knowledge about the spores of the Ctenitis has not yet been deepened. Considering the folded spores of this genus which inhabit the Southern Cone of America the aims were to increase infrageneric knowledge, to evaluate the relationship among the morphometric characters of the folded spores in these Ctenitis species and to verify the spore’s morphometry as a taxonomic tool. This study was performed with herbarium material. The spores were analyzed with light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The variables analyzed were: major and minor equatorial diameter, polar diameter, length of the laesura and length, width and height of the folds. The test chosen to analyze the study variables was ANOVA. Four spore sets are proposed. The “elongate-type” is made up of C. aspidioides and C. nervata. The “medium-type” is made up of C. anniesii, C. distans, C. falciculata and C. paranaensis. The “handle shape-type” is represented by C. bigarellae, C. eriocaulis and C. submarginalis. Finally, the “short-type”, consists only of C. deflexa. The morphometric data of spores together with the statistical analysis provided useful information for the distinction of some Ctenitis species studied in the Southern Cone of America. These results contribute to the studies aeropalynologycal and palaeopalynological.

Bridging community and metacommunity perspectives in benthic photosynthetic organisms (Serranía de Cuenca, Central Spain)

We analysed summer assemblages and the metacommunity structure of benthic microalgae and Cyanobacteria (BMC) living in pristine ecosystems in the Serranía de Cuenca (Central Spain), whose flora is not well-known. Our analyses were focused on both overall samples and some site subgroups (two large catchments, lotic vs lentic environments, plant vs mineral substrates). 379 taxa were recorded, with Diatoms, Chlorophytes and Cyanobacteria being the richest groups. The flora composition de-pended on conductivity and the percentage of forests in each sub-basin; even so, the composition was spatially homogeneous, reflecting the relatively low variability of the landscape. Taxonomic richness did not differ between inventory subgroups, but it was vulnerable to the somewhat higher values of low concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds. Two groups of BMC assemblages emerged in the territory: one of cosmopolitan Diatoms and Cyanobacteria, and another of Cyanobacteria, Diatoms and Chlorophytes associated with travertine. The structure of the metacommunity was governed by the contributions of space, catchment features and the local environment (chemical and biological); the relevance of biological factors, which are not usually analysed, was highlighted. Finally, we suggest the joint study of local ecology and metacommunity that is feasible with the many occurrence databases of many benthic organisms. Soon artificial intelligence and new taxonomic tools will allow faster and more comprehensive processing of the huge number of freshwater datasets already in existence, which will be a huge leap in ecological knowledge of benthic assemblages in the coming years.

Insights of Otoliths Morphology to Reveal Patterns of Teleostean Fishes in the Southern Atlantic

The sagitta otoliths of teleostean fishes are usually used in diverse studies. Their shapes are species-specific, and the qualitative description of their morphological features seems to be a simple task, despite its subjectivity. On the other hand, morphometric techniques have been developed with a focus on objectivity, reproducibility, and accuracy. Considering this, the otoliths morphology was reviewed and evaluated in terms of robustness as a taxonomic tool and to highlight ecomorphological patterns. The otoliths morphology of 179 teleostean fishes from the Southern Atlantic were analyzed. For each species, the fish total length range, eighteen otolith morphological features (OMFs), and relative proportions were annotated. Species habitat and habit were also recorded. Data analyses were based on exploratory analysis, correlation, nonmetric multidimensional scaling, and a two-way permutational analysis of variance. The most descriptive OMFs were: colliculum, sulcus acusticus (morphology, position, orientation, and opening), and otolith profile. The otolith morphology was significantly related to species habitat and habit, with a new pattern described for deep-ocean pelagic species. In conclusion, otoliths morphology is robust whenever it is based on the comparative method application (otoliths among otoliths), considering the constant updates of fishes’ taxonomy and the use of proper sample sizes linked to morphometric techniques.

Leaf Anatomical Characteristics of Nepenthes Species in Western Sarawak, Borneo

The dimorphism and phenotypic plasticity of genus Nepenthes is taxonomically challenging. They depicted a variety of pitcher morphological features that often lead to difficulty in the species delineation. However, there is an alternative that could aid to distinguish the Nepenthes species which is by observing the anatomical characteristics of their leaves. Despite few researches had reported the comparative study on leaf anatomy of certain Nepenthes species, yet, there are very scarce data showing other distinct anatomical characteristics that could be used to differentiate the Nepenthes species especially in the western of Sarawak. Hence, this research was performed to identify anatomical characteristics that could be useful taxonomic tools for Nepenthes species identification. There are nine species with one variety and three natural hybrids were included in the study namely, Nepenthes albomarginata Lobb, N. ampullaria Jack, N. gracilis Korth, N. hirsuta Hook. f., N. hispida Beck, N. mirabilis (Lour.) Druce, N. mirabilis var. echinostoma (Hook. f.) J. H. Adam &amp; Wilcock, N. nazreeana sp. nov. ined., N. rafflesiana Jack, N. reinwardtiana Miq., N. x trichocarpa Miq, N. x hookeriana Lindl, and N. x kuchingensis Sh. Kurata. The anatomical data of leaves, i.e stomatal complex type, stomatal size and density, type of anticlinal walls, type of glandular structures and others were analysed, tabulated and discussed.

Phage family classification under Caudoviricetes: A review of current tools using the latest ICTV classification framework.

Bacteriophages, which are viruses infecting bacteria, are the most ubiquitous and diverse entities in the biosphere. There is accumulating evidence revealing their important roles in shaping the structure of various microbiomes. Thanks to (viral) metagenomic sequencing, a large number of new bacteriophages have been discovered. However, lacking a standard and automatic virus classification pipeline, the taxonomic characterization of new viruses seriously lag behind the sequencing efforts. In particular, according to the latest version of ICTV, several large phage families in the previous classification system are removed. Therefore, a comprehensive review and comparison of taxonomic classification tools under the new standard are needed to establish the state-of-the-art. In this work, we retrained and tested four recently published tools on newly labeled databases. We demonstrated their utilities and tested them on multiple datasets, including the RefSeq, short contigs, simulated metagenomic datasets, and low-similarity datasets. This study provides a comprehensive review of phage family classification in different scenarios and a practical guidance for choosing appropriate taxonomic classification pipelines. To our best knowledge, this is the first review conducted under the new ICTV classification framework. The results show that the new family classification framework overall leads to better conserved groups and thus makes family-level classification more feasible.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ПІДГОТОВКИ ІНТЕГРОВАНОЇ ЗВІТНОСТІ ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКИХ КОМПАНІЙ

European legislation in accordance with Directive 2014/95/EU obligeslarge companies and entities of public interest to publish in reports information about policies, risks and results related to important areas of influence on the natural environment, respect for freedoms and human rights, compliance with diversity, anti-corruption and social responsibility. The need to obtain additional non-financial information creates a demand for the preparation of integrated reporting and the development of integrated thinking among specialists who prepare such reports and stakeholders. The prospects for the implementation of integrated reporting depend on the development of uniform rules and requirements, standards for compiling integrated reporting, the use of taxonomy tools, tagging and digitization of reporting information, blockchain technology and cloud services. In European countries, the demand for integrated reporting is observed both in the private and public sectors. Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Great Britain have the most experience in regulatory regulation of requirements for the preparation of integrated reporting. It has been established that among the guiding materials, the key documents for the preparation of integrated reporting in the EU are: the Integrated Reporting Framework, the Global ReportingInitiative, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the United Nations Global Compact. The combination of indicators and recommendations of these documents creates a complementary effect in the presentation of comprehensive information. The expansion of internationalstandards is inevitable not only in the field of integrated reporting but also in conducting external and internal auditingof non-financial information. The use of an integrated reporting structure reveals the capabilities and prospects of thereporting entity in creating value in the short, medium and long term, helps in combating fraud and corruption, data manipulation, presents reporting on the company's activities in a more transparent and holistic manner, satisfying the information needs of all interested parties.

Scales surface topography: Comparative ultrastructural and decorative characteristics of a modern elasmoid fish scales in a cyprinid fish, Garra shamal (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) using digital optical light and scanning electron microscope imaging.

The complex architecture of fish scale has been investigated for several decades to show an existing link between scale morphology/microstructure and systematic/evolutionary relationships of fishes. In the present study, the surface architecture structure associated with the scales of a hill stream cyprinid fish Garra shamal restricted to the Hajar Mountains of the Arabian Peninsula was examined by optical light and scanning electron microscopy; (i) to describe the whole morphology, architectural design and hidden microstructures of scales in an endemic fish of the Arabian Peninsula, G. shamal, (ii) to investigate the phenotypic plasticity of scales in six selected regions of the fish body, (iii) to show an ontogenetic pattern of scale morphology in different size classes, and (iv) to study morphometric parameters for scales, and determine the most valuable indices for differentiating the scales of different body regions and the different size groups of studied species. For this purpose, scales were removed from six body regions of three size classes. The scale of G. shamal, as an ossified platelet and hard structure covering the outer part of fish in different body parts and size groups, demonstrated numerous hidden morphological and structural characteristics, and sculptural design, for example, type, shape, and size in general term, and circuli (thickness, arrangement, and relative spacing of circuli around the focus), radii (number, shape, its origin from focus), lepidonts (the texture, shape, size, orientation, and type of its attachment), and granules (shape, size, number, and configurations) in a specific term, that can contribute efficiently in fish identification and classification at the genus and species levels. Position of focus, presence of radii in all four fields of scales (anterior, posterior, and laterals) and thus tetra-sectioned type, presence of specific tubercle arrangement on the posterior region, and some scale indices can be used as a taxonomic tool in Garra identification. Moreover, scales in G. shamal demonstrated plasticity in different fish size classes, and the origin of scales on the fish body, revealing a kind of ontogenetic variation, and the importance of key scales (scales below the dorsal fin) in the lepidological studies. The quantitative and qualitative traits described here based on the optical light microscopy and electron scanning microscopy can be implemented along with other morphological and molecular characteristics to have a better taxonomic resolution of the genus Garra. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: The optical light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques enhanced our knowledge of scale morphology in a cyprinid fish restricted to the Arabian Peninsula. The scale of G. shamal, in different body parts and size groups, demonstrated numerous hidden morphological and structural characteristics, and sculptural design that can contribute efficiently in fish identification and classification at the genus and species levels. Tetra-sectioned cycloid type, position of focus, presence of specific tubercle arrangement on the posterior region, and some scale indices can be used as a taxonomic tool for identification of the genus Garra. The scales showed plasticity in different fish size classes, and the origin of scales on the fish body, revealing a kind of ontogenetic variation.