Sylvia Hofmann

• PhD
• The Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change

The biodiversity of the Himalaya remains significantly understudied and, at the same time, is increasingly threatened by habitat loss due to rising anthropogenic pressures and climate change. Lazy Toads of the genus Scutiger are endemic to the Himalaya-Tibet orogen and form a diverse and characteristic component of the Himalayan montane zone. In ou...

Animal translocations provide striking examples of the human footprint on biodiversity. Combining continental-wide genomic and DNA-barcoding analyses, we reconstructed the historical biogeography of the Asian black-spined toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus), a toxic commensal amphibian that currently threatens two biodiversity hotspots through biolog...

Recent phylogenetic studies in Himalayan lazy toads of the genus Scutiger Theobald, 1868 revealed the presence of genetically deeply divergent lineages. The taxonomy of S. nepalensis sensu lato was re-assessed based on museum material considering molecular and morphological data. The results strongly support the recognition of a new species, S. kan...

Amphibians face global threats, and their conservation necessitates accurate and coherent classification. Last year, Southeast Asian spiny frogs (Nanorana) were the focus of a surge of new species descriptions and taxonomic revisions, despite little new evidence. In this article, we re-evaluate available genetic data and discuss flaws in the interp...

The Cenozoic topographic development of the Himalaya‐Tibet orogen (HTO) substantially affected the paleoenvironment and biodiversity patterns of High Asia. However, concepts on the evolution and paleoenvironmental history of the HTO differ massively in timing, elevational increase and sequence of surface uplift of the different elements of the orog...

Influenced by rapid changes in climate and landscape features since the Miocene, widely distributed species provide suitable models to study the environmental impact on their evolution and current genetic diversity. The dice snake Natrix tessellata, widely distributed in the Western Palearctic is one such species. We aimed to resolve a detailed phy...

The Baluch Mountain Frog, Chrysopaa sternosignata (Dubois and Khan 1979), is one of the least known amphibian species in the Hindu Kush–Himalayan region. It is endemic to an area on the edge of the Palearctic region with harsh environment and with the long-term complicated security situation, where biodiversity research is difficult or virtually im...

The trechine beetle fauna (Coleoptera, Carabidae) of the Ethiopian Highlands is known to be highly diverse in species, and many species groups were recognized to be characterized by unusual character states of external and genital morphology. Earlier authors described several genera and subgenera of Ethiopian Trechina endemic to certain high mounta...

Abstract The trechine beetle fauna (Coleoptera, Carabidae) of the Ethiopian Highlands is known to be highly diverse in species, and many species groups were recognized to be characterized by unusual character states of external and genital morphology. Earlier authors described several genera and subgenera of Ethiopian Trechina endemic to certain hi...

The timing, sequence, and scale of uplift of the Himalayan–Tibetan Orogen (HTO) are controversially debated. Many geoscientific studies assume paleoelevations close to present-day elevations and the existence of alpine environments across the HTO already in the late Paleogene, contradicting fossil data. Using molecular genetic data of ground beetle...

The relict, endemic taxa Allopaa and Chrysopaa are key elements of the Hindu Kush–Himalayan amphibian fauna and potentially share a similar biogeographic evolution, making them important proxies for the reconstruction of the palaeoenvironmental and palaeotopographic history of the Himalaya–Tibet–Orogen. However, little is known about the taxonomy,...

The relict, endemic taxa Allopaa and Chrysopaa are key elements of the Hindu Kush-Himalayan amphibian fauna and potentially share a similar biogeographic evolution, making them important proxies for the reconstruction of the palaeoenvironmental and palaeotopographic history of the Himalaya-Tibet-Orogen. However, little is known about the taxonomy,...

The timing, sequence, and scale of uplift of the Himalayan-Tibetan Orogen (HTO) are controversially debated. Many geoscientific studies assume paleoelevations close to present-day elevations and the existence of alpine environments across the HTO already in the late Paleogene, contradicting fossil data. Using molecular genetic data of ground beetle...

The common Asian toad Duttaphrynus melanostictus (Schneider, 1799) complex has a wide distribution ranging from western foothills of the Himalaya to the easternmost range of the Wallacea, with the evidence of human-mediated introductions to some other areas. In the entire distribution range, the complex is formed by several evolutionary clades, dis...

Little is known about the distribution, biology, and ecology of the rare, endemic Szechwan ratsnake. Here, molecular data of the species are provided from a habitat at 3370 m a.s.l., the so far highest record of this snake. Genetic analysis (mtDNA and nDNA) confirmed the identity of the specimen as E. perlaceus and its close relationship to E. mand...

Molecular clocks have become powerful tools given increasing sequencing and fossil resources. However, calibration analyses outcomes depend on the choice of priors. Here, we revisited the seminal dating study published by Andújar and coworkers of the genus Carabus proposing that prior choices need re-evaluation. We hypothesized that reflecting foss...

The Himalayan Arc is recognized as a global biodiversity hotspot. Among its numerous cryptic and undiscovered organisms, this composite high-mountain ecosystem harbors many taxa with adaptations to life in high elevations. However, evolutionary patterns and genomic features have been relatively rarely studied in Himalayan vertebrates. Here, we prov...

While the diversity of Scutiger is high in the central and eastern parts of the Himalaya-Tibet orogen, only a single species, Scutiger occidentalis Dubois, 1978, can be found in the westernmost regions, in Northwest India and Pakistan. Little is known about its genetic variation, ecology, and distribution and far less about its larval morphology. H...

Little is known about the life history, ecology, and distribution of the genus Allopaa (Dicroglossidae) and far less recent data are available about the larvae of this taxon. Here, we provide data on the larval stage of Allopaa hazarensis (Dubois & Khan, 1979) from northern Pakistan based on the examination of three tadpoles. Specimens were obtaine...

Knowledge about species’ distributions is central to diverse applications in ecology, biogeography, and conservation science. Hot-spring snakes of the genus Thermophis share a distribution restricted to geothermal sites at the Tibetan Plateau (T. baileyi) and in the Hengduan Mountains (T. zhaoermii, T. shangrila). Although the suture zones of these...

Background The Himalaya-Tibet orogen (HTO) presents an outstanding geologically active formation that contributed to, and fostered, modern Asian biodiversity. However, our concepts of the historical biogeography of its biota are far from conclusive, as are uplift scenarios for the different parts of the HTO. Here, we revisited our previously publis...

Heretofore, the populations of the genus Sphaerotheca Günther, 1859 (Dicroglossidae) in their northern and western borders laying in Pakistan have been assigned to two species, S. breviceps (Schneider, 1799) and S. strachani (Murray, 1884). The genus originated in the Oriental zoogeographic region and comes to close geographic proximity with the Pa...

Little is known about the life history, ecology, and distribution of the genus Allopaa (Dicroglossidae) and far less recent data is available about the larvae of this taxon. Here, we provide data on the larval stage of Allopaa hazarensis (Dubois and Khan, 1979) from northern Pakistan based on the examination of three tadpoles. Specimens were obtain...

Background The Himalaya-Tibet orogen (HTO) presents an outstanding geologically active formation that contributed to, and fostered, modern Asian biodiversity. However, our concepts of the historical biogeography of its biota are far from conclusive, as are uplift scenarios for the different parts of the HTO. Here, we revisited our previously publis...

In this article, we identify possibilities and limits of processing as yet unused data sources for spatio-temporal biodiversity trend analyses in Germany. The sMon synthesis project (https://www.idiv.de/smon) of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig is a joint working group of federal and state authoritie...

Reproductive mode, ancestry, and climate are hypothesized to determine body size variation in reptiles but their effects have rarely been estimated simultaneously, especially at the intraspecific level. The common lizard (Zootoca vivipara) occupies almost the entire Northern Eurasia and includes viviparous and oviparous lineages, thus representing...

Numerous studies showed that habitat fragmentation can affect the constitution of species by impairing living conditions, impeding gene flow and thereby reducing genetic variability. However, populations of the same species may react less sensitive to fragmentation in the core than in the periphery of its distribution range. In the core they are as...

Gloydius strauchi is a venomous pit viper, which is known from Sichuan, Eastern Xizang, Qinghai, Ningxia, and Shaanxi provinces. Here I report a new, genetically verified record of G. strauchi from a high-altitude area of Dêgê County, Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, and provide information on a mild envenomation case of that...

The ball python ( Python regius ) is the world’s most commonly traded python species for the “exotic” pet industry. The majority of these live snakes are produced via a number of python farms in West Africa that have been in operation since the 1960s and involved with “ranching” operations since the 1990s. However, to date no thorough taxonomic rev...

Background: Molecular clocks have become powerful tools given increasing sequencing and fossil resources. However, outcome of calibration analyses depend on choosing priors. Here we revisit a seminal dating study of the genus Carabus by Andujar et al. proposing that their prior choices need re-evaluation with the hypothesis that reflecting fossil e...

Recent advances in the understanding of the evolution of the Asian continent challenge the long‐held belief of a faunal immigration into the Himalaya. Spiny frogs of the genus Nanorana are a characteristic faunal group of the Himalaya–Tibet orogen (HTO). We examine the phylogeny of these frogs to explore alternative biogeographic scenarios for thei...

The Himalayas are one of earth’s hotspots of biodiversity. Among its many cryptic and undiscovered organisms, including vertebrates, this complex high-mountain ecosystem is expected to harbour many species with adaptations to life in high altitudes. However, modern evolutionary genomic studies in Himalayan vertebrates are still at the beginning. Mo...

Scutiger occidentalis is considered extinct in India. This species has been last reported from India about 40 years ago. We describe a new, genetically confirmed record of S. occidentalis obtained in October 2017 from Himachal Pradesh (India), representing the so far southernmost locality for the species. Based on 16 previously known localities of...

Based on morphological characteristics, two subspecies of the Transcaucasian rat snake (Zamenis hohenackeri) are currently recognized, namely Z. h. tauricus and Z. h. hohenackeri. Both subspecies are repeatedly considered to be conspecific colour morphs, or have even been confused with Z. situla. Although, few studies involved the Transcaucasian ra...

Suppl. Info of Open Access Paper "Profound genetic divergence and asymmetric parental genome contributions as hallmarks of hybrid speciation in polyploid toads".

The evolutionary causes and consequences of allopolyploidization, an exceptional pathway to instant hybrid speciation, are poorly investigated in animals. In particular, when and why hybrid polyploids versus diploids are produced, and constraints on sources of paternal and maternal ancestors, remain underexplored. Using the Palearctic green toad ra...

Sarcoidosis is a granulomatous disease that mainly affects the lung. A role of microbial factors in disease pathogenesis is assumed, but has not been investigated systematically in a large cohort. This cross-sectional study compared the lung microbiota of 71 patients with sarcoidosis, 15 patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (non-infectious c...

Assessing species richness and diversity on the basis of standardised field sampling effort represents a cost- and time-consuming method. Satellite remote sensing (RS) can help overcome these limitations because it facilitates the collection of larger amounts of spatial data using cost-effective techniques. RS information is hence increasingly anal...

Pearsons’s correlation coefficients between the test variables (a) and remaining variables after removing variables with coefficients │c│≥ 0.7 (b). (DOCX)

Pearsons’s correlation coefficients for all pairs of remaining test variable and distance class (100 and 1000 m). (DOCX)

Differences between years (upper two rows) and locations (lower two rows) within the biodiversity variables per data set (df). (DOCX)

Spline correlograms for the global fitted models as per model selection for each response variable of (a) the bumble-bees data set (bb), (b) the solitary-bees data set (sb), and (c) the wild bee data set (nohb). (DOCX)

Workflow of the study. (DOCX)

Pearsons’s correlation coefficients for all pairs of distance classes per test variable. (DOCX)

Pearson’s correlation of the early and late trapping season for the biodiversity variables per data frame (df). (DOCX)

Correlation between bee count (BC), Shannon’s diversity (SD) and species richness (SpR) variables. (DOCX)

Differences between trapping seasons (2010–23013) within the biodiversity variables per data set (df). (DOCX)

Model comparison for predictors of biodiversity in bumble bees (bb), solitary bees (sb), and all wild bees (nohb). (DOCX)

The Himalaya presents an outstanding geologically active orogen and biodiversity hotspot. However, our understanding of the historical biogeography of its fauna is far from comprehensive. Many taxa are commonly assumed to have originated from China-Indochina and dispersed westward along the Himalayan chain. Alternatively, the " Tibetan-origin hypot...

We describe and illustrate a new subspecies of the Indian trinket snake, Coelognathus helena (Daudin) from India. The new taxon has long been confused with Coelognathus helena monticollaris (Schulz, 1992), but it differs diagnosable in morphology and geographic distribution. The new subspecies occurs in the northern Eastern Ghats and in the mountai...

The genus Thermophis includes the two species, T. baileyi and T. zhaoermii, which differ morphologically, geographically and molecularly. Recently, a third Thermophis species was described from Shangri-La, northern Yunnan Province, China, and named T. shangrila. The new species was based on morphological and genetic data derived from three specimen...

The analysis of structural variants, in particular of copy-number variations (CNVs), has proven valuable in unraveling the genetic basis of human diseases. Hence, a large number of algorithms have been developed for the detection of CNVs in SNP array signal intensity data. Using the European and African HapMap trio data, we undertook a comparative...

To define further genetic risk loci for sarcoidosis, we used the Immunochip for a candidate gene association study of immune-associated loci. Altogether the study population comprised over 19,000 individuals. In a two-stage design, 1726 German sarcoidosis cases and 5482 controls were genotyped for 128,705 SNPs using the Illumina Immunochip for the...

Aim Our aims were to investigate the geographical distribution, population history and demographics of the hot‐spring snake T hermophis baileyi , and to examine how the Pleistocene glacial stages and geomorphological configurations resulting from the uplift of the T ibetan– H imalayan orogen shaped the genetic diversity and evolutionary history of...

The European common lizard, Zootoca vivipara, is the most widespread terrestrial reptile in the world. It occupies almost the entire Northern Eurasia and includes four viviparous and two oviparous lineages. We analysed how female snout-vent length (SVL), clutch size (CS), hatchling mass (HM), and relative clutch mass (RCM) is associated with the re...

Dispersal is a key factor in shaping the genetic structure and population dynamics of species; thus, its understanding is a fundamental requirement in formulating appropriate conservation strategies. Higher rates of dispersal in one sex than the other are widespread in vertebrate species and often attributed to the genetic advantages of reduced inb...

Sarcoidosis is a complex inflammatory disease with a heterogeneous clinical picture. Amongst others, an acute and chronic clinical course can be distinguished, for which specific genetic risk factors are known. In order to identify additional risk loci for sarcoidosis and its acute and chronic subforms, we analyzed imputed data from a genome-wide a...

Sarcoidosis is a systemic inflammatory disease of unknown aetiology, influenced by genetic and environmental factors. However, the loci so far identified for sarcoidosis explain only a part of its assumed heritability. To identify further susceptibility loci, we performed a genome-wide association analysis using the Affymetrix 6.0 Human GeneChip fo...

Rationale: Sarcoidosis is a complex inflammatory disease with a heterogeneous clinical picture. Among others, an acute and chronic clinical course can be distinguished, for which specific genetic risk factors are known. Objectives: To identify additional risk loci for sarcoidosis and its acute and chronic subforms, we analyzed imputed data from...

The endangered hot spring snake (Thermophis baileyi) is endemic to the Tibetan Plateau and restricted to a few sites at high altitudes (>3500 m a.s.l.). Its strong preference for habitats with hot springs might be an early adaptation to the cooling climate during the plateau uplift. Some of these thermal sites may have been free of ice during the l...

In a multicenter study, we determined the expression profiles of 863 microRNAs by array analysis of 454 blood samples from human individuals with different cancers or noncancer diseases, and validated this 'miRNome' by quantitative real-time PCR. We detected consistently deregulated profiles for all tested diseases; pathway analysis confirmed disea...

Sarcoidosis is a complex systemic inflammatory disease of unknown aetiology that is influenced by a variety of genetic and environmental factors. To identify further susceptibility loci for sarcoidosis, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) was conducted in 381 patients and 392 control individuals based on Affymetrix 100k GeneChip data. The top 25...

Sarcoidosis is a complex granulomatous inflammatory disorder that shares several clinical and pathogenic features with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Postulating a common genetic basis of inflammatory diseases, we tested 106 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are known or have been suggested to be associated with IBD for a potential ass...

This article documents the addition of 396 microsatellite marker loci to the Molecular Ecology Resources Database. Loci were developed for the following species: Anthocidaris crassispina, Aphis glycines, Argyrosomus regius, Astrocaryum sciophilum, Dasypus novemcinctus, Delomys sublineatus, Dermatemys mawii, Fundulus heteroclitus, Homalaspis plana,...

This article documents the addition of 396 microsatellite marker loci to the Molecular Ecology Resources Database. Loci were developed for the following species: Anthocidaris crassispina, Aphis glycines, Argyrosomus regius, Astrocaryum sciophilum, Dasypus novemcinctus, Delomys sublineatus, Dermatemys mawii, Fundulus heteroclitus, Homalaspis plana,...

Sarcoidosis (SA) is a systemic granulomatous inflammatory disorder with complex etiology and strong clustering in families. Genome-wide association studies have been successful in the identification of common risk variants for the disease. To reveal susceptibility variants with low frequencies but strong effects, we performed a genome-wide linkage...

Correspondance: Molecular Ecology Resources Primer Development Consortium, E-mail: editorial.office@molecol.com

This article documents the addition of 396 microsatellite marker loci to the Molecular Ecology Resources Database. Loci were developed for the following species: Anthocidaris crassispina, Aphis glycines, Argyrosomus regius, Astrocaryum sciophilum, Dasypus novemcinctus, Delomys sublineatus, Dermatemys mawii, Fundulus heteroclitus,Homalaspis plana, J...

Sarcoidosis is a multifactorial and polygenic disorder. The current knowledge of its genetics will be presented and discussed in the context of other granulomatous disorders of known and unknown aetiology. The differing and common features of these disorders lead to the perspective that in near future it will be possible to establish genotype-pheno...

Die Sarkoidose ist eine multifaktorielle und polygene Erkrankung. Der aktuelle genetische Kenntnisstand wird dargestellt und im Kontext anderer granulomatoser Erkrankungen bekannter und unbekannter Atiologie diskutiert. Unterschiede und Gemeinsamkeiten fuhren zu dem Ausblick, dass es in naher Zukunft moglich sein wird, Genotyp-Phanotyp-Korrelatione...

Sarcoidosis is a complex chronic inflammatory disorder with predominant manifestation in the lung. In the first genome-wide association study (>440,000 SNPs) of this disease, comprising 499 German individuals with sarcoidosis and 490 controls, we detected a series of genetic associations. The strongest association signal maps to the ANXA11 (annexin...

Sarcoidosis is a multigenic and multifactorial disease. Predisposing genes have been identified and fast progress in molecular technologies including systematic genome-wide association studies and large-scale resequencing will aid the discovery of further risk loci and variants. The exploration of the molecular epidemiology of genetic variants in t...

Sarcoidosis is a complex chronic inflammatory disorder with predominant manifestation in the lung. In the first genome-wide association study (> 440,000 SNPs) of this disease, comprising 499 German individuals with sarcoidosis and 490 controls, we detected a series of genetic associations. The strongest association signal maps to the ANXA11 (annexi...

Crohn's disease (CD) and sarcoidosis (SA) are chronic inflammatory barrier diseases that share several clinical and immunological features, including the occurrence of granulomas. A 100k genome-wide association study with 83,360 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) was performed on 382 CD patients, 398 SA patients, and 394 control individuals. Th...

Several lizard species have been shown to exhibit kin recognition, including green iguanas (Iguana iguana), three Australian Scincid species (Egernia stokesii, E. striolata and Tiliqua rugosa) and common lizards (Lacerta vivipara). Thus, observations of close neighboured individuals of the common lizard that consist of differently or same-aged indi...