Publication Search Results

ID: 157072
Type: article
Authors: Castellanos-Galindo, Gustavo; Robertson, D. Ross
Keywords: STRI

ID: 156941
Type: article
Authors: Castillo, Anakena M.; Saltonstall, Kristin; Arias, Carlos F.; Chavarria, Karina A.; Ramírez-Camejo, Luis A.; Mejía, Luis C.; De León, Luis F.
Keywords: STRI
Abstract: Insects host a highly diverse microbiome, which plays a crucial role in insect life. However, the composition and diversity of microbiomes associated with Neotropical freshwater insects is virtually unknown. In addition, the extent to which diversification of this microbiome is associated with host phylogenetic divergence remains to be determined. Here, we present the first comprehensive analysis of bacterial communities associated with six closely related species of Neotropical water striders in Panama. We used comparative phylogenetic analyses to assess associations between dominant bacterial linages and phylogenetic divergence among species of water striders. We found a total of 806 16S rRNA amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), with dominant bacterial taxa belonging to the phyla Proteobacteria (76.87%) and Tenericutes (19.51%). Members of the α- (e.g., Wolbachia) and γ- (e.g., Acinetobacter, Serratia) Proteobacteria, and Mollicutes (e.g., Spiroplasma) were predominantly shared across species, suggesting the presence of a core microbiome in water striders. However, some bacterial lineages (e.g., Fructobacillus, Fluviicola and Chryseobacterium) were uniquely associated with different water strider species, likely representing a distinctive feature of each species' microbiome. These findings indicate that both host identity and environmental context are important drivers of microbiome diversity in water striders. In addition, they suggest that diversification of the microbiome is associated with diversification in water striders. Although more research is needed to establish the evolutionary consequences of host-microbiome interaction in water striders, our findings support recent work highlighting the role of bacterial community host-microbiome codiversification.

ID: 155488
Type: article
Authors: Chaverri, Gloriana; Araya-Ajoy, Yimen; Sagot, Maria
Keywords: STRI

ID: 156868
Type: article
Authors: Chollett, Iliana; Robertson, D. Ross
Keywords: STRI

ID: 154731
Type: article
Authors: Christian, Natalie; Sedio, Brian E.; Florez-Buitrago, Ximena; Ramírez-Camejo, Luis A.; Rojas, Enith I.; Mejía, Luis C.; Palmedo, Sage; Rose, Autumn; Schroeder, John W.; Herre, Edward Allen
Keywords: STRI
Abstract: PREMISE: Interactions between fungal endophytes and their host plants present useful systems for identifying important factors affecting assembly of host-associated microbiomes. Here we investigated the role of secondary chemistry in mediating host affinity of asymptomatic foliar endophytic fungi using Psychotria spp. and Theobroma cacao (cacao) as hosts. METHODS: First, we surveyed endophytic communities in Psychotria species in a natural common garden using culture-based methods. Then we compared differences in endophytic community composition with differences in foliar secondary chemistry in the same host species, determined by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Finally, we tested how inoculation with live and heat-killed endophytes affected the cacao chemical profile. RESULTS: Despite sharing a common environment and source pool for endophyte spores, different Psychotria host species harbored strikingly different endophytic communities that reflected intrinsic differences in their leaf chemical profiles. In T. cacao, inoculation with live and heat-killed endophytes produced distinct cacao chemical profiles not found in uninoculated plants or pure fungal cultures, suggesting that endophytes, like pathogens, induce changes in secondary chemical profiles of their host plant. CONCLUSIONS: Collectively our results suggest at least two potential processes: (1) Plant secondary chemistry influences assembly and composition of fungal endophytic communities, and (2) host colonization by endophytes subsequently induces changes in the host chemical landscape. We propose a series of testable predictions based on the possibility that reciprocal chemical interactions are a general property of plant-endophyte interactions.

ID: 157256
Type: article
Authors: Collareta, Alberto; Lambert, Olivier; de Muizon, Christian; Benites Palomino, Aldo Marcelo; Urbina, Mario; Bianucci, Giovanni
Keywords: STRI
Abstract: Nowadays, the odontocete family Kogiidae is monotypic and only includes two species of diminutive relatives of the great sperm whale Physeter Linnaeus, 1758. Conversely, a growing body of extinct species indicates that kogiids were diverse and disparate during the late Neogene. The fossil record of Kogiidae is, to date, represented by several cranial specimens from Mio-Pliocene localities of the Northern Hemisphere, with the significant Southern Hemisphere exception of the Pisco Formation of Peru, from which two genera were known so far, including Scaphokogia Muizon, 1988, a highly idiosyncratic form characterised by a distinctly spoon-shaped dorsal surface of the neurocranium and a downturned semicylindrical rostrum, which is even placed in its own subfamily Scaphokogiinae. Here, we report on two skulls of Kogiidae from the Messinian (upper Miocene) portion of the Pisco Formation exposed in the East Pisco Basin. These two skulls are referred to the new taxon Platyscaphokogia landinii n. gen., n. sp., which our phylogenetic analysis recovers as sister group of Scaphokogia, within the subfamily Scaphokogiinae. Although Platyscaphokogia n. gen. shares with Scaphokogia a remarkably spoon-like dorsal aspect of the neurocranium, it retains a non-pachyostotic, dorsoventrally thin rostrum that distinctly points anteriorly; as such, Platyscaphokogia n. gen. might be regarded as testifying an early stage in the evolution of the scaphokogiine cranial anatomy. Morphofunctional and palaeoecological considerations allow for hypothesising that Platyscaphokogia n. gen. was a raptorial physeteroid that foraged along the water column in relatively open-sea palaeoenvironments. In conclusion, our finds expand the palaeodiversity of Kogiidae, as well as our knowledge on the late Miocene sperm whales of the southeastern Pacific, and further suggest that the fossil content of the East Pisco Basin is crucial for reconstructing the Neogene evolutionary history of physeteroids.

ID: 157075
Type: article
Authors: Collin, Rachel; Shishido, Caitlin M.; Cornejo, Anabell J.; Lesoway, Maryna P.
Keywords: STRI
Abstract: Mode of development (MOD) is a key feature that influences the rate and direction of evolution of marine invertebrates. Although many groups include species with different MODs, the evolutionary loss of feeding larvae is thought to be irreversible as the complex structures used for larval feeding and swimming are lost, reduced, or modified in many species lacking feeding larvae. This view is largely based on observations of echinoderms. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that feeding larvae have been re-gained in at least one species of calyptraeid gastropod. Further, its sister species has retained the velum, the structure used for larval feeding and swimming. Here, we document velar morphology and function in calyptraeids with 4 different MODs. Embryos of Crepidula navicella, Crepidula atrasolea, Bostrycapulus aculeatus, Bostrycapulus odites, Bostrycapulus urraca, Crepipatella dilatata, Crepipatella occulta, Crucibulum quiriquinae and Crepidula coquimbensis all hatch as crawling juveniles, yet only Crepidula coquimbensis does not make a well-formed velum during intracapsular development. The velar dimensions of 6 species with non-planktotrophic development were similar to those of planktotrophic species, while the body sizes were significantly larger. All of the species studied were able to capture and ingest particles from suspension, but several non-planktotrophic species may ingest captured particles only occasionally. Video footage suggests that some species with adelphophagic direct development capture but frequently fail to ingest particles compared to species with the other MODs. Together these lines of evidence show that, among calyptraeids at least, species that lack planktotrophic larvae often retain the structures and functions necessary to successfully capture and ingest particles, reducing the barriers to the re-evolution of planktotrophy.

ID: 155887
Type: article
Authors: Collin, Rachel; Venera-Ponton, Dagoberto E.; Driskell, Amy C.; Macdonald, Kenneth S.; Geyer, Laura B.; Lessios, Harilaos A.; Boyle, Michael J.
Keywords: STRI; NMNH; NH-LAB; NH-SMS
Abstract: Surveys of larval diversity consistently increase biodiversity estimates when applied to poorly documented groups of marine invertebrates such as phoronids and hemichordates. However, it remains to be seen how helpful this approach is for detecting unsampled species in well-studied groups. Echinoids represent a large, robust, well-studied macrofauna, with low diversity and low incidence of cryptic species, making them an ideal test case for the efficacy of larval barcoding to discover diversity in such groups. We developed a reference dataset of DNA barcodes for the shallow-water adult echinoids from both coasts of Panama and compared them to DNA sequences obtained from larvae collected primarily on the Caribbean coast of Panama. We sequenced mitochondrialcytochrome c oxidase subunit I(COI) for 43 species of adult sea urchins to expand the number and coverage of sequences available in GenBank. Sequences were successfully obtained forCOIand16Sribosomal DNA from 272 larvae and assigned to 17 operational taxonomic units (OTUs): 4 from the Pacific coast of Panama, where larvae were not sampled as intensively, and 13 from the Caribbean coast. Of these 17 OTUs, 13 were identified from comparisons with our adult sequences and belonged to species well documented in these regions. Another larva was identified from comparisons with unpublished sequences in the Barcode of Life Database (BOLD) as belonging toPseudoboletia, a genus scarcely known in the Caribbean and previously unreported in Panama. Three OTUs remained unidentified. Based on larval morphology, at least two of these OTUs appeared to be spatangoids, which are difficult to collect and whose presence often goes undetected in standard surveys of benthic diversity. Despite its ability to capture unanticipated diversity, larval sampling failed to collect some species that are locally common along the Caribbean coast of Panama, such asLeodia sexiesperforata,Diadema antillarum, andClypeaster rosaceus.

ID: 157258
Type: article
Authors: Collin, Rachel; Venera-Ponton, Dagoberto E.; Paulay, Gustav; Boyle, Michael J.
Keywords: NMNH; NH-SMS; STRI; NH-LAB
Abstract: The identity of wild cloning sea star larvae has been a mystery since they were first documented in the Caribbean. The most commonly collected cloning species was thought to belong to the Oreasteridae, on the basis of similarity with sequences fromOreaster reticulatusandOreaster clavatus. This larval form has recently been linked to a rare benthic juvenile. As part of two larger DNA barcoding projects, we collected cloning asteroid larvae from the Caribbean coast of Panama and compared them to a large reference database of tropical echinoderms. Morphological and DNA barcode data from the cytochromecoxidase subunit I gene demonstrated that Panamanian larvae belonged to the same operational taxonomic unit as those recovered in previous studies of cloning larvae from the Caribbean. Much to our surprise, sequences from these larvae clearly identified them as belonging toValvaster striatus, a species typically considered to be endemic to the Indo-West Pacific. A lineage ofMithrodia clavigerathat occurs in both the Caribbean and the Indo-West Pacific also has cloning larvae, suggesting that this unusual life history has allowed larvae to pass around the Cape of Good Hope and the Benguela upwelling region, which is a barrier to dispersal for most tropical marine invertebrates.

ID: 157060
Type: article
Authors: Cook-Patton, Susan; Leavitt, Sara M.; Gibbs, David; Harris, Nancy L.; Lister, Kristine; Anderson-Teixeira, Kristina; Briggs, Russell D.; Chazdon, Robin L.; Crowther, Thomas W.; Ellis, Peter W.; Griscom, Heather P.; Herrmann, Valentine; Holl, Karen D.; Houghton, Richard A.; Larrosa, Cecilia; Lomax, Guy; Lucas, Richard; Madsen, Palle; Malhi, Yadvinder; Paquette, Alain; Parker, John D.; Paul, Keryn; Routh, Devin; Roxburgh, Stephen; Saatchi, Sassan; van den Hoogen, Johan; Walker, Wayne S.; Wheeler, Charlotte E.; Wood, Stephen A.; Xu, Liang; Griscom, Bronson W.
Keywords: SERC; STRI; NZP

ID: 156943
Type: article
Authors: Cooper, Jack A.; Pimiento, Catalina; Ferrón, Humberto G.; Benton, Michael J.
Keywords: STRI
Abstract: Inferring the size of extinct animals is fraught with danger, especially when they were much larger than their modern relatives. Such extrapolations are particularly risky when allometry is present. The extinct giant shark †Otodus megalodon is known almost exclusively from fossilised teeth. Estimates of †O. megalodon body size have been made from its teeth, using the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) as the only modern analogue. This can be problematic as the two species likely belong to different families, and the position of the †Otodus lineage within Lamniformes is unclear. Here, we infer †O. megalodon body dimensions based on anatomical measurements of five ecologically and physiologically similar extant lamniforms: Carcharodon carcharias, Isurus oxyrinchus, Isurus paucus, Lamna ditropis and Lamna nasus. We first assessed for allometry in all analogues using linear regressions and geometric morphometric analyses. Finding no evidence of allometry, we made morphological extrapolations to infer body dimensions of †O. megalodon at different sizes. Our results suggest that a 16 m †O. megalodon likely had a head ~ 4.65 m long, a dorsal fin ~ 1.62 m tall and a tail ~ 3.85 m high. Morphometric analyses further suggest that its dorsal and caudal fins were adapted for swift predatory locomotion and long-swimming periods.

ID: 156747
Type: article
Authors: Corraliza-Gómez, Miriam; Gallardo, Amalia B.; Díaz-Marrero, Ana R.; de la Rosa, José M.; D'Croz, Luis; Darias, José; Arranz, Eduardo; Cózar-Castellano, Irene; Ganfornina, María D.; Cueto, Mercedes
Keywords: STRI
Abstract: Neurodegenerative diseases are age-related disorders caused by progressive neuronal death in different regions of the nervous system. Neuroinflammation, modulated by glial cells, is a crucial event during the neurodegenerative process; consequently, there is an urgency to find new therapeutic products with anti-glioinflammatory properties. Five new furanocembranolides (1−5), along with leptolide, were isolated from two different extracts of Leptogorgia sp., and compound 6 was obtained from chemical transformation of leptolide. Their structures were determined based on spectroscopic evidence. These seven furanocembranolides were screened in vitro by measuring their ability to modulate interleukin-1β (IL-1β) production by microglial BV2 cells after LPS (lipopolysaccharide) stimulation. Leptolide and compounds 3, 4 and 6 exhibited clear anti-inflammatory effects on microglial cells, while compound 2 presented a pro-inflammatory outcome. The in vitro results prompted us to assess anti-glioinflammatory effects of leptolide in vivo in a high-fat diet-induced obese mouse model. Interestingly, leptolide treatment ameliorated both microgliosis and astrogliosis in this animal model. Taken together, our results reveal a promising direct biological effect of furanocembranolides on microglial cells as bioactive anti-inflammatory molecules. Among them, leptolide provides us a feasible therapeutic approach to treat neuroinflammation concomitant with metabolic impairment.

ID: 156593
Type: article
Authors: Cox, Christian L.; Alexander, Sean; Casement, Brianna; Chung, Albert K.; Curlis, John David; Degon, Zachariah; Dubois, Madeline; Falvey, Cleo; Graham, Zackary A.; Folfas, Edita; Gallegos Koyner, Maria A.; Neel, Lauren K.; Nicholson, Daniel J.; Perez, Dylan J. Padilla; Ortiz-Ross, Xochitl; Rosso, Adam A.; Taylor, Quinn; Thurman, Timothy J.; Williams, Claire E.; McMillan, W. O.; Logan, Michael L.
Keywords: STRI

ID: 155571
Type: article
Authors: Cramer, Katie L.; Jackson, Jeremy B. C.; Donovan, Mary K.; Greenstein, Benjamin J.; Korpanty, Chelsea A.; Cook, Geoffrey M.; Pandolfi, John M.
Keywords: STRI; NMNH; NH-Paleobiology
Abstract: The mass mortality of acroporid corals has transformed Caribbean reefs from coral- to macroalgal-dominated habitats since systematic monitoring began in the 1970s. Declines have been attributed to overfishing, pollution, sea urchin and coral disease, and climate change, but the mechanisms are unresolved due to the dearth of pre-1970s data. We used paleoecological, historical, and survey data to track Acropora presence and dominance throughout the Caribbean from the prehuman period to present. Declines in dominance from prehuman values first occurred in the 1950s for Acropora palmata and the 1960s for Acropora cervicornis, decades before outbreaks of acroporid disease or bleaching. We compared trends in Acropora dominance since 1950 to potential regional and local drivers. Human population negatively affected and consumption of fertilizer for agriculture positively affected A. palmata dominance, the latter likely due to lower human presence in agricultural areas. The earlier, local roots of Caribbean Acropora declines highlight the urgency of mitigating local human impacts.

ID: 153282
Type: article
Authors: Cramer, Katie L.; O'Dea, Aaron; Leonard‐Pingel, Jill S.; Norris, Richard D.
Keywords: STRI
Abstract: Caribbean coral reefs have transformed into algal-dominated habitats over the past half-century, but the role of specific anthropogenic drivers is unresolved due to the lack of ecosystem-level data predating human disturbance. To better understand the extent and causes of long-term Caribbean reef declines, we produced a continuous 3000-yr record of the ecosystem state of three reefs in Bocas del Toro, Caribbean Panama. From fossils and sediments obtained from reef matrix cores, we tracked changes in reef accretion rates and the taxonomic and functional group composition of fish, coral, urchin, bivalve and benthic foraminifera. This dataset provided a comprehensive picture of reef community and environmental change. At all sites, reefs shifted from systems with greater relative abundance of herbivorous fish, epifaunal suspension feeding bivalves and Diadema urchins to systems with greater relative abundance of micropredator fish, infaunal bivalves and Echinometra urchins. These transitions were initiated a millennium ago at two less-degraded reefs fringing offshore islands and 250 yr ago at a degraded patch reef near the continental coast. Ecosystem shifts were accompanied by a decline in reef accretion rates, and at the patch reef, a decline in water quality since the 18th century. Within all cores, synchronous increases in infaunal bivalves and declines in herbivorous fish regardless of water quality suggest a loss of hard substrate and increasingly hypoxic sediment conditions related to herbivore loss. While the early timing of ecosystem transitions at the fringing reefs implicates large-scale hydrological change, the more recent timing of change and loss of water quality at the patch reef implicates terrigenous runoff from land-clearing. Our whole-ecosystem reconstruction reveals that reef ecosystem deterioration appears to follow a predictable trajectory whether driven by natural or anthropogenic disturbances and that historical local human activities have quickly unraveled reefs at a scale similar to longer-term natural environmental change.

ID: 156597
Type: article
Authors: Crespo-Pérez, Verónica; Kazakou, Elena; Roubik, David W.; Cárdenas, Rafael,E.
Keywords: STRI

ID: 154291
Type: article
Authors: Crumière, Antonin J. J.; Stephenson, Calum J.; Nagel, Manuel; Shik, Jonathan Z.
Keywords: STRI
Abstract: Insects face many cognitive challenges as they navigate nutritional landscapes that comprise their foraging environments with potential food items. The emerging field of nutritional geometry (NG) can help visualize these challenges, as well as the foraging solutions exhibited by insects. Social insect species must also make these decisions while integrating social information (e.g., provisioning kin) and/or offsetting nutrients provisioned to, or received from unrelated mutualists. In this review, we extend the logic of NG to make predictions about how cognitive challenges ramify across these social dimensions. Focusing on ants, we outline NG predictions in terms of fundamental and realized nutritional niches, considering when ants interact with related nestmates and unrelated bacterial, fungal, plant, and insect mutualists. The nutritional landscape framework we propose provides new avenues for hypothesis testing and for integrating cognition research with broader eco-evolutionary principles.

ID: 155776
Type: article
Authors: Curran, Emma V.; Stankowski, Sean; Pardo-Diaz, Carolina; Salazar, Camilo; Linares, Mauricio; Nadeau, Nicola J.
Keywords: STRI
Abstract: Hybrid zones, where distinct populations meet and interbreed, give insight into how differences between populations are maintained despite gene flow. Studying clines in genetic loci and adaptive traits across hybrid zones is a powerful method for understanding how selection drives differentiation within a single species, but can also be used to compare parallel divergence in different species responding to a common selective pressure. Here, we study parallel divergence of wing colouration in the butterflies Heliconius erato and H. melpomene, which are distantly related Müllerian mimics that show parallel geographic variation in both discrete variation in pigmentation, and quantitative variation in structural colour. Using geographic cline analysis, we show that clines in these traits are positioned in the roughly the same geographic region for both species, which is consistent with direct selection for mimicry. However, the width of the clines varies markedly between species. This difference is explained in part by variation in the strength of selection acting on colour traits within each species, but may also be influenced by differences in the dispersal rate and total strength of selection against hybrids between the species. Genotyping-by-sequencing also revealed weaker population structure in H. melpomene, suggesting the hybrid zones may have evolved differently in each species; which may also contribute to the patterns of phenotypic divergence in this system Overall, we conclude that multiple factors are needed to explain patterns of clinal variation within and between these species, although mimicry has probably played a central role.

ID: 154738
Type: article
Authors: D'Andrea, Rafael; Guittar, John; O'Dwyer, James P.; Figueroa, Hector; Wright, S. Joseph; Condit, Richard S.; Ostling, Annette
Keywords: STRI
Abstract: Tropical forests challenge us to understand biodiversity, as numerous seemingly similar species persist on only a handful of shared resources. Recent ecological theory posits that biodiversity is sustained by a combination of species differences reducing interspecific competition and species similarities increasing time to competitive exclusion. Together, these mechanisms counterintuitively predict that competing species should cluster by traits, in contrast with traditional expectations of trait overdispersion. Here, we show for the first time that trees in a tropical forest exhibit a clustering pattern. In a 50 ha. plot on Barro Colorado Island in Panama, species abundances exhibit clusters in two traits connected to light capture strategy, suggesting that competition for light structures community composition. Notably, we find four clusters by maximum height, quantitatively supporting the classical grouping of Neotropical woody plants into shrubs, understory, midstory, and canopy layers.

ID: 156598
Type: article
Authors: Darragh, Kathy; Montejo‐Kovacevich, Gabriela; Kozak, Krzysztof M.; Morrison, Colin R.; Figueiredo, Clarisse M. E.; Ready, Jonathan S.; Salazar, Camilo; Linares, Mauricio; Byers, Kelsey J. R. P.; Merrill, Richard M.; McMillan, W. O.; Schulz, Stefan; Jiggins, Chris D.
Keywords: STRI