Mauricio Bacci Junior - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Mauricio Bacci Junior

Research paper thumbnail of Organization of the <i>A. laevigata</i> mitogenome compared with those of the ancestor and other ants

<p>All protein and rRNA-coding genes are in the same direction and position found in other ... more <p>All protein and rRNA-coding genes are in the same direction and position found in other Hymenoptera and hypothetical pancrustacean ancestral sequences. Genes encoded by the N strand are underlined; the remaining genes are encoded by the J strand. The control region of <i>A. laevigata</i> (gray) is incomplete. Shaded genes in pancrustacean ancestral sequence indicate rearrangements and arrows indicate position shifts of tRNA genes compared to it. Black arrow: <i>trnV</i> translocation from the <i>lrRNA-srRNA</i> junction to the <i>srRNA-ND2</i> junction; grey arrow: <i>trnI-trnQ-trnM</i> became <i>trnM-trnI-trnQ</i>; blue arrow: <i>trnK</i> and <i>trnD</i> swapped positions; red arrow: <i>trnN</i> translocation from the <i>trnA-trnR-trnN-trnS<sub>1</sub>-trnE-trnF</i> cluster to a position upstream of <i>srRNA</i>, with an inversion. This figure was adapted from Gotzek et al. <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0097117#pone.0097117-Gotzek1&quot; target="_blank">[13]</a>.</p

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Research paper thumbnail of Phylogenomic reconstruction reveals new insights into the evolution and biogeography of Atta leaf‐cutting ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Systematic Entomology, 2021

Atta Fabricius is an ecologically dominant leaf‐cutting ant genus, the major herbivore of the Neo... more Atta Fabricius is an ecologically dominant leaf‐cutting ant genus, the major herbivore of the Neotropics, and an agricultural pest of great economic importance. Phylogenetic relationships within Atta have until now remained uncertain, and the delimitation and identification of a subset of Atta species are problematic. To address these phylogenetic uncertainties, we reconstruct the most comprehensive phylogenetic estimate to date of Atta by employing ultraconserved elements (UCEs). We recovered 2340 UCE loci from 224 Atta specimens, which include 14 out of the 15 identifiable species from across their geographic distributions, and 49 outgroup specimens. Our results strongly support the monophyly of Atta and of the four clades that coincide with the previously recognized subgenera Archeatta Gonçalves, Atta s.s. Emery, Epiatta Borgmeier, and Neoatta Gonçalves. The Archeatta clade contains three species occurring in North and Central America and the Caribbean and is the sister group of ...

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Research paper thumbnail of Three phylogenetically distinct and culturable diazotrophs are perennial symbionts of leaf‐cutting ants

Ecology and Evolution, 2021

The obligate mutualistic basidiomycete fungus, Leucocoprinus gongylophorus, mediates nutrition of... more The obligate mutualistic basidiomycete fungus, Leucocoprinus gongylophorus, mediates nutrition of leaf-cutting ants with carbons from vegetal matter. In addition, diazotrophic Enterobacteriales in the fungus garden and intestinal Rhizobiales supposedly mediate assimilation of atmospheric nitrogen; and Entomoplasmatales in the genus Mesoplasma, as well as other yet unidentified strains, supposedly mediate ant assimilation of other compounds from vegetal matter, such as citrate, fructose and aminoacids. Together, these nutritional partners would support the production of high yields of leafcutter biomass. In the present investigation, we propose that three phylogenetically distinct and culturable diazotrophs in the genera Ralstonia, Methylobacterium and Pseudomonas integrate this symbiotic nutrition network, facilitating ant nutrition on nitrogen. Strains in these genera were often isolated and directly sequenced in 16S rRNA libraries from the ant abdomen, together with the non-diazotrophs Acinetobacter and Brachybacterium. These five isolates were underrepresented in libraries, suggesting that none of them is dominant in vivo. Libraries have been dominated by four uncultured Rhizobiales strains in the genera Liberibacter, Terasakiella and Bartonella and, only in Acromyrmex ants, by the Entomoplasmatales in the genus Mesoplasma. Acromyrmex also presented small amounts of two other uncultured Entomoplasmatales strains, Entomoplasma and Spiroplasma. The absence of Entomoplasmatales in Atta workers implicates that association with these bacteria is not mandatory for ant biomass production. Most of the strains that we detected in South American ants were genetically similar with strains previously described in association with leafcutters from Central and North America, indicating wide geographic dispersion, and suggesting fixed ecological services.

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Research paper thumbnail of Morphological details of <i>Mycetophylax asper</i>, SEM images

<p>a) Worker, mandibles; b) queen, mandibles; c) worker, propleural plates; d) worker, dors... more <p>a) Worker, mandibles; b) queen, mandibles; c) worker, propleural plates; d) worker, dorsal view of petiole, postpetiole, and gastral tergite I; e) worker, hind leg showing the ventral femoral carina.</p

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Research paper thumbnail of Rediscovery of the enigmatic fungus-farming ant "<i>Mycetosoritis" asper</i> Mayr (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): Implications for taxonomy, phylogeny, and the evolution of agriculture in ants - Sheet 1

Rediscovery of the enigmatic fungus-farming ant "<i>Mycetosoritis" asper</i&gt... more Rediscovery of the enigmatic fungus-farming ant "<i>Mycetosoritis" asper</i> Mayr (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): Implications for taxonomy, phylogeny, and the evolution of agriculture in ants - Sheet

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Research paper thumbnail of Worker, queen, and male of <i>Mycetophylax asper</i>

<p>a) Worker, lateral profile; b) worker, dorsal view; c) queen, lateral profile; d) queen,... more <p>a) Worker, lateral profile; b) worker, dorsal view; c) queen, lateral profile; d) queen, dorsal view; e) male, lateral profile; f) male, dorsal view; g) worker, full-face view; h) queen, full-face view; i) male, full-face view.</p

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Research paper thumbnail of The queen (holotype) and first-described worker of <i>Mycetophylax asper</i>

<p>a) Queen, full-face view; b) worker, full-face view; c) queen, lateral profile; d) worke... more <p>a) Queen, full-face view; b) worker, full-face view; c) queen, lateral profile; d) worker, lateral profile; e) queen, dorsal view; f) worker, dorsal view; g) queen, specimen labels; h) worker, specimen labels.</p

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Research paper thumbnail of Worker, queen, and male of <i>Mycetophylax asper</i>, SEM images

<p>a) Worker, full-face view; b) queen, full-face view; c) male, full-face view; d) worker ... more <p>a) Worker, full-face view; b) queen, full-face view; c) male, full-face view; d) worker head, lateral view; e) queen head, lateral view; f) male head, lateral view; g) worker mesosoma, lateral profile; h) queen mesosoma, lateral profile; i) male mesosoma, lateral profile; j) worker, dorsal view; h) queen, dorsal view; i) male, dorsal view.</p

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Research paper thumbnail of Rediscovery of the enigmatic fungus-farming ant "<i>Mycetosoritis" asper</i> Mayr (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): Implications for taxonomy, phylogeny, and the evolution of agriculture in ants - Sheet 2

Rediscovery of the enigmatic fungus-farming ant "<i>Mycetosoritis" asper</i&gt... more Rediscovery of the enigmatic fungus-farming ant "<i>Mycetosoritis" asper</i> Mayr (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): Implications for taxonomy, phylogeny, and the evolution of agriculture in ants - Sheet

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Research paper thumbnail of Phylogeny of fungus-farming ants based on Bayesian analysis of five nuclear protein-coding genes

<p><i>Mycetophylax asper</i> is indicated in red. Red box indicates our newly e... more <p><i>Mycetophylax asper</i> is indicated in red. Red box indicates our newly expanded definition of the genus <i>Mycetophylax</i> (see text for details).</p

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Research paper thumbnail of <i>Mycetophylax asper</i>, field images

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Research paper thumbnail of Wings of <i>Mycetophylax asper</i>

<p>a) Queen, fore and hind wings; b) male, fore and hind wings. Scale bars in figures repre... more <p>a) Queen, fore and hind wings; b) male, fore and hind wings. Scale bars in figures represent 1.0 mm in length.</p

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Research paper thumbnail of Prepupal worker larva of <i>Mycetophylax asper</i>, SEM images

<p>a) Lateral profile; b) and c) head, full-face view; d) mouthparts; e) thorax, ventral vi... more <p>a) Lateral profile; b) and c) head, full-face view; d) mouthparts; e) thorax, ventral view; f) ventral view; g) anal opening (venter at top).</p

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Research paper thumbnail of Data from: Rediscovery of the enigmatic fungus-farming ant "Mycetosoritis" asper Mayr (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): Implications for taxonomy, phylogeny, and the evolution of agriculture in ants

We report the rediscovery of the exceedingly rarely collected and enigmatic fungus-farming ant sp... more We report the rediscovery of the exceedingly rarely collected and enigmatic fungus-farming ant species Mycetosoritis asper. Since the description of the type specimen in 1887, only four additional specimens are known to have been added to the world's insect collections. Its biology is entirely unknown and its phylogenetic position within the fungus-farming ants has remained puzzling due to its aberrant morphology. In 2014 we excavated and collected twenty-one colonies of M. asper in the Floresta Nacional de Chapecó in Santa Catarina, Brazil. We describe here for the first time the male and larva of the species and complement the previous descriptions of both the queen and the worker. We describe, also for the first time, M. asper biology, nest architecture, and colony demographics, and identify its fungal cultivar. Molecular phylogenetic analyses indicate that both M. asper and M. clorindae are members of the genus Cyphomyrmex, which we show to be paraphyletic as currently defined. More precisely, M. asper is a member of the Cyphomyrmex strigatus group, which we also show to be paraphyletic with respect to the genus Mycetophylax. Based on these results, and in the interest of taxonomic stability, we transfer the species M. asper, M. clorindae, and all members of the C. strigatus group to the genus Mycetophylax, the oldest available name for this clade. Based on ITS sequence data, Mycetophylax asper practices lower agriculture, cultivating a fungal species that belongs to lower-attine fungal Clade 2, subclade F

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Research paper thumbnail of Trachymyrmex_Fungus_153x1385_MB_Dryad

Data matrix for the fungal phylogenetic data

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Research paper thumbnail of Data from: The molecular phylogenetics of Trachymyrmex ants and their fungal cultivars provide insights into the origin and co-evolutionary history of 'higher-attine' ant agriculture

The fungus‐growing ants and their fungal cultivars constitute a classic example of a mutualism th... more The fungus‐growing ants and their fungal cultivars constitute a classic example of a mutualism that has led to complex coevolutionary dynamics spanning c. 55–65 Ma. Of the five agricultural systems practised by fungus‐growing ants, higher‐attine agriculture, of which leaf‐cutter agriculture is a derived subset, remains poorly understood despite its relevance to ecosystem function and human agriculture across the Neotropics and parts of North America. Among the ants practising higher‐attine agriculture, the genus Trachymyrmex Forel, as currently defined, shares most‐recent common ancestors with both the leaf‐cutter ants and the higher‐attine genera Sericomyrmex Mayr and Xerolitor Sosa‐Calvo et al. Although previous molecular‐phylogenetic studies have suggested that Trachymyrmex is a paraphyletic grade, until now insufficient taxon sampling has prevented a full investigation of the evolutionary history of this group and limited the possibility of resolving its taxonomy. Here we describe the results of phylogenetic analyses of 38 Trachymyrmex species, including 27 of the 49 described species and at least 11 new species, using four nuclear markers, as well as phylogenetic analyses of the fungi cultivated by 23 species of Trachymyrmex using two markers. We generated new genetic data for 112 ants (402 new gene sequences) and 95 fungi (153 new gene sequences). Our results corroborate previous findings that Trachymyrmex, as currently defined, is paraphyletic. We propose recognizing two new genera, Mycetomoellerius gen.n. and Paratrachymyrmex gen.n., and restricting the continued use of Trachymyrmex to the clade of nine largely North American species that contains the type species [Trachymyrmex septentrionalis (McCook)] and that is the sister group of the leaf‐cutting ants. Our fungal cultivar phylogeny generally corroborates previously observed broad patterns of ant–fungus association, but it also reveals further violations of those patterns. Higher‐attine fungi are divided into two groups: (i) the single species Leucoagaricus gongylophorus (Möller); and (ii) its sister clade, consisting of multiple species, recently referred to as Leucoagaricus Singer ‘clade B’. Our phylogeny indicates that, although most non‐leaf‐cutting higher‐attine ants typically cultivate species in clade B, some species cultivate L. gongylophorus, whereas still others cultivate fungi typically associated with lower‐attine agriculture. This indicates that the attine agricultural systems, which are currently defined by associations between ants and fungi, are not entirely congruent with ant and fungal phylogenies. They may, however, be correlated with as yet poorly understood biological traits of the ants and/or of their microbiomes

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Research paper thumbnail of Relationships among Pratylenchus jaehni and P. coffeae populations from Brazil

Nematologia …, 2008

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Research paper thumbnail of Nuclear mitochondrial-like sequences in ants: evidence from Atta cephalotes (Formicidae: Attini)

Insect Molecular Biology, 2007

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Research paper thumbnail of Study of anti-microbial and anti-pectinase activity of extracts and compounds isolated from Siphoneugena densiflora (Myrtaceae) and Vitex polygama (Lamiaceae)

Revista Fitos

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Research paper thumbnail of De novo transcriptome assembly: a new laccase multigene family from the marine-derived basidiomycete Peniophora sp. CBMAI 1063

AMB Express, Jan 20, 2017

Laccases are multicopper oxidases that are able to catalyze reactions involving a range of substr... more Laccases are multicopper oxidases that are able to catalyze reactions involving a range of substrates, including phenols and amines, and this ability is related to the existence of different laccases. Basidiomycetes usually have more than one gene for laccase, but until now, this feature has not been demonstrated in a marine-derived fungus. Peniophora sp. CBMAI 1063 is a basidiomycete fungus isolated from a marine sponge that exhibits the ability to secrete significant amounts of laccase in saline conditions. In the present study, we identified laccase sequences from the transcriptome of Peniophora sp. CBMAI 1063 and used them to perform different molecular in silico analyses. The results revealed the presence of at least eight putative genes, which may encode ten different laccases with peptide lengths ranging from 482 to 588 aa and molecular weights ranging from 53.5 to 64.4 kDa. These laccases seem to perform extracellular activities, with the exception of one that may represent ...

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Research paper thumbnail of Organization of the <i>A. laevigata</i> mitogenome compared with those of the ancestor and other ants

<p>All protein and rRNA-coding genes are in the same direction and position found in other ... more <p>All protein and rRNA-coding genes are in the same direction and position found in other Hymenoptera and hypothetical pancrustacean ancestral sequences. Genes encoded by the N strand are underlined; the remaining genes are encoded by the J strand. The control region of <i>A. laevigata</i> (gray) is incomplete. Shaded genes in pancrustacean ancestral sequence indicate rearrangements and arrows indicate position shifts of tRNA genes compared to it. Black arrow: <i>trnV</i> translocation from the <i>lrRNA-srRNA</i> junction to the <i>srRNA-ND2</i> junction; grey arrow: <i>trnI-trnQ-trnM</i> became <i>trnM-trnI-trnQ</i>; blue arrow: <i>trnK</i> and <i>trnD</i> swapped positions; red arrow: <i>trnN</i> translocation from the <i>trnA-trnR-trnN-trnS<sub>1</sub>-trnE-trnF</i> cluster to a position upstream of <i>srRNA</i>, with an inversion. This figure was adapted from Gotzek et al. <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0097117#pone.0097117-Gotzek1&quot; target="_blank">[13]</a>.</p

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Research paper thumbnail of Phylogenomic reconstruction reveals new insights into the evolution and biogeography of Atta leaf‐cutting ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Systematic Entomology, 2021

Atta Fabricius is an ecologically dominant leaf‐cutting ant genus, the major herbivore of the Neo... more Atta Fabricius is an ecologically dominant leaf‐cutting ant genus, the major herbivore of the Neotropics, and an agricultural pest of great economic importance. Phylogenetic relationships within Atta have until now remained uncertain, and the delimitation and identification of a subset of Atta species are problematic. To address these phylogenetic uncertainties, we reconstruct the most comprehensive phylogenetic estimate to date of Atta by employing ultraconserved elements (UCEs). We recovered 2340 UCE loci from 224 Atta specimens, which include 14 out of the 15 identifiable species from across their geographic distributions, and 49 outgroup specimens. Our results strongly support the monophyly of Atta and of the four clades that coincide with the previously recognized subgenera Archeatta Gonçalves, Atta s.s. Emery, Epiatta Borgmeier, and Neoatta Gonçalves. The Archeatta clade contains three species occurring in North and Central America and the Caribbean and is the sister group of ...

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Research paper thumbnail of Three phylogenetically distinct and culturable diazotrophs are perennial symbionts of leaf‐cutting ants

Ecology and Evolution, 2021

The obligate mutualistic basidiomycete fungus, Leucocoprinus gongylophorus, mediates nutrition of... more The obligate mutualistic basidiomycete fungus, Leucocoprinus gongylophorus, mediates nutrition of leaf-cutting ants with carbons from vegetal matter. In addition, diazotrophic Enterobacteriales in the fungus garden and intestinal Rhizobiales supposedly mediate assimilation of atmospheric nitrogen; and Entomoplasmatales in the genus Mesoplasma, as well as other yet unidentified strains, supposedly mediate ant assimilation of other compounds from vegetal matter, such as citrate, fructose and aminoacids. Together, these nutritional partners would support the production of high yields of leafcutter biomass. In the present investigation, we propose that three phylogenetically distinct and culturable diazotrophs in the genera Ralstonia, Methylobacterium and Pseudomonas integrate this symbiotic nutrition network, facilitating ant nutrition on nitrogen. Strains in these genera were often isolated and directly sequenced in 16S rRNA libraries from the ant abdomen, together with the non-diazotrophs Acinetobacter and Brachybacterium. These five isolates were underrepresented in libraries, suggesting that none of them is dominant in vivo. Libraries have been dominated by four uncultured Rhizobiales strains in the genera Liberibacter, Terasakiella and Bartonella and, only in Acromyrmex ants, by the Entomoplasmatales in the genus Mesoplasma. Acromyrmex also presented small amounts of two other uncultured Entomoplasmatales strains, Entomoplasma and Spiroplasma. The absence of Entomoplasmatales in Atta workers implicates that association with these bacteria is not mandatory for ant biomass production. Most of the strains that we detected in South American ants were genetically similar with strains previously described in association with leafcutters from Central and North America, indicating wide geographic dispersion, and suggesting fixed ecological services.

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Research paper thumbnail of Morphological details of <i>Mycetophylax asper</i>, SEM images

<p>a) Worker, mandibles; b) queen, mandibles; c) worker, propleural plates; d) worker, dors... more <p>a) Worker, mandibles; b) queen, mandibles; c) worker, propleural plates; d) worker, dorsal view of petiole, postpetiole, and gastral tergite I; e) worker, hind leg showing the ventral femoral carina.</p

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Research paper thumbnail of Rediscovery of the enigmatic fungus-farming ant "<i>Mycetosoritis" asper</i> Mayr (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): Implications for taxonomy, phylogeny, and the evolution of agriculture in ants - Sheet 1

Rediscovery of the enigmatic fungus-farming ant "<i>Mycetosoritis" asper</i&gt... more Rediscovery of the enigmatic fungus-farming ant "<i>Mycetosoritis" asper</i> Mayr (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): Implications for taxonomy, phylogeny, and the evolution of agriculture in ants - Sheet

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Research paper thumbnail of Worker, queen, and male of <i>Mycetophylax asper</i>

<p>a) Worker, lateral profile; b) worker, dorsal view; c) queen, lateral profile; d) queen,... more <p>a) Worker, lateral profile; b) worker, dorsal view; c) queen, lateral profile; d) queen, dorsal view; e) male, lateral profile; f) male, dorsal view; g) worker, full-face view; h) queen, full-face view; i) male, full-face view.</p

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Research paper thumbnail of The queen (holotype) and first-described worker of <i>Mycetophylax asper</i>

<p>a) Queen, full-face view; b) worker, full-face view; c) queen, lateral profile; d) worke... more <p>a) Queen, full-face view; b) worker, full-face view; c) queen, lateral profile; d) worker, lateral profile; e) queen, dorsal view; f) worker, dorsal view; g) queen, specimen labels; h) worker, specimen labels.</p

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Research paper thumbnail of Worker, queen, and male of <i>Mycetophylax asper</i>, SEM images

<p>a) Worker, full-face view; b) queen, full-face view; c) male, full-face view; d) worker ... more <p>a) Worker, full-face view; b) queen, full-face view; c) male, full-face view; d) worker head, lateral view; e) queen head, lateral view; f) male head, lateral view; g) worker mesosoma, lateral profile; h) queen mesosoma, lateral profile; i) male mesosoma, lateral profile; j) worker, dorsal view; h) queen, dorsal view; i) male, dorsal view.</p

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Research paper thumbnail of Rediscovery of the enigmatic fungus-farming ant "<i>Mycetosoritis" asper</i> Mayr (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): Implications for taxonomy, phylogeny, and the evolution of agriculture in ants - Sheet 2

Rediscovery of the enigmatic fungus-farming ant "<i>Mycetosoritis" asper</i&gt... more Rediscovery of the enigmatic fungus-farming ant "<i>Mycetosoritis" asper</i> Mayr (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): Implications for taxonomy, phylogeny, and the evolution of agriculture in ants - Sheet

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Research paper thumbnail of Phylogeny of fungus-farming ants based on Bayesian analysis of five nuclear protein-coding genes

<p><i>Mycetophylax asper</i> is indicated in red. Red box indicates our newly e... more <p><i>Mycetophylax asper</i> is indicated in red. Red box indicates our newly expanded definition of the genus <i>Mycetophylax</i> (see text for details).</p

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Research paper thumbnail of <i>Mycetophylax asper</i>, field images

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Research paper thumbnail of Wings of <i>Mycetophylax asper</i>

<p>a) Queen, fore and hind wings; b) male, fore and hind wings. Scale bars in figures repre... more <p>a) Queen, fore and hind wings; b) male, fore and hind wings. Scale bars in figures represent 1.0 mm in length.</p

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Research paper thumbnail of Prepupal worker larva of <i>Mycetophylax asper</i>, SEM images

<p>a) Lateral profile; b) and c) head, full-face view; d) mouthparts; e) thorax, ventral vi... more <p>a) Lateral profile; b) and c) head, full-face view; d) mouthparts; e) thorax, ventral view; f) ventral view; g) anal opening (venter at top).</p

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Research paper thumbnail of Data from: Rediscovery of the enigmatic fungus-farming ant "Mycetosoritis" asper Mayr (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): Implications for taxonomy, phylogeny, and the evolution of agriculture in ants

We report the rediscovery of the exceedingly rarely collected and enigmatic fungus-farming ant sp... more We report the rediscovery of the exceedingly rarely collected and enigmatic fungus-farming ant species Mycetosoritis asper. Since the description of the type specimen in 1887, only four additional specimens are known to have been added to the world's insect collections. Its biology is entirely unknown and its phylogenetic position within the fungus-farming ants has remained puzzling due to its aberrant morphology. In 2014 we excavated and collected twenty-one colonies of M. asper in the Floresta Nacional de Chapecó in Santa Catarina, Brazil. We describe here for the first time the male and larva of the species and complement the previous descriptions of both the queen and the worker. We describe, also for the first time, M. asper biology, nest architecture, and colony demographics, and identify its fungal cultivar. Molecular phylogenetic analyses indicate that both M. asper and M. clorindae are members of the genus Cyphomyrmex, which we show to be paraphyletic as currently defined. More precisely, M. asper is a member of the Cyphomyrmex strigatus group, which we also show to be paraphyletic with respect to the genus Mycetophylax. Based on these results, and in the interest of taxonomic stability, we transfer the species M. asper, M. clorindae, and all members of the C. strigatus group to the genus Mycetophylax, the oldest available name for this clade. Based on ITS sequence data, Mycetophylax asper practices lower agriculture, cultivating a fungal species that belongs to lower-attine fungal Clade 2, subclade F

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Research paper thumbnail of Trachymyrmex_Fungus_153x1385_MB_Dryad

Data matrix for the fungal phylogenetic data

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Research paper thumbnail of Data from: The molecular phylogenetics of Trachymyrmex ants and their fungal cultivars provide insights into the origin and co-evolutionary history of 'higher-attine' ant agriculture

The fungus‐growing ants and their fungal cultivars constitute a classic example of a mutualism th... more The fungus‐growing ants and their fungal cultivars constitute a classic example of a mutualism that has led to complex coevolutionary dynamics spanning c. 55–65 Ma. Of the five agricultural systems practised by fungus‐growing ants, higher‐attine agriculture, of which leaf‐cutter agriculture is a derived subset, remains poorly understood despite its relevance to ecosystem function and human agriculture across the Neotropics and parts of North America. Among the ants practising higher‐attine agriculture, the genus Trachymyrmex Forel, as currently defined, shares most‐recent common ancestors with both the leaf‐cutter ants and the higher‐attine genera Sericomyrmex Mayr and Xerolitor Sosa‐Calvo et al. Although previous molecular‐phylogenetic studies have suggested that Trachymyrmex is a paraphyletic grade, until now insufficient taxon sampling has prevented a full investigation of the evolutionary history of this group and limited the possibility of resolving its taxonomy. Here we describe the results of phylogenetic analyses of 38 Trachymyrmex species, including 27 of the 49 described species and at least 11 new species, using four nuclear markers, as well as phylogenetic analyses of the fungi cultivated by 23 species of Trachymyrmex using two markers. We generated new genetic data for 112 ants (402 new gene sequences) and 95 fungi (153 new gene sequences). Our results corroborate previous findings that Trachymyrmex, as currently defined, is paraphyletic. We propose recognizing two new genera, Mycetomoellerius gen.n. and Paratrachymyrmex gen.n., and restricting the continued use of Trachymyrmex to the clade of nine largely North American species that contains the type species [Trachymyrmex septentrionalis (McCook)] and that is the sister group of the leaf‐cutting ants. Our fungal cultivar phylogeny generally corroborates previously observed broad patterns of ant–fungus association, but it also reveals further violations of those patterns. Higher‐attine fungi are divided into two groups: (i) the single species Leucoagaricus gongylophorus (Möller); and (ii) its sister clade, consisting of multiple species, recently referred to as Leucoagaricus Singer ‘clade B’. Our phylogeny indicates that, although most non‐leaf‐cutting higher‐attine ants typically cultivate species in clade B, some species cultivate L. gongylophorus, whereas still others cultivate fungi typically associated with lower‐attine agriculture. This indicates that the attine agricultural systems, which are currently defined by associations between ants and fungi, are not entirely congruent with ant and fungal phylogenies. They may, however, be correlated with as yet poorly understood biological traits of the ants and/or of their microbiomes

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Research paper thumbnail of Relationships among Pratylenchus jaehni and P. coffeae populations from Brazil

Nematologia …, 2008

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Research paper thumbnail of Nuclear mitochondrial-like sequences in ants: evidence from Atta cephalotes (Formicidae: Attini)

Insect Molecular Biology, 2007

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Research paper thumbnail of Study of anti-microbial and anti-pectinase activity of extracts and compounds isolated from Siphoneugena densiflora (Myrtaceae) and Vitex polygama (Lamiaceae)

Revista Fitos

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Research paper thumbnail of De novo transcriptome assembly: a new laccase multigene family from the marine-derived basidiomycete Peniophora sp. CBMAI 1063

AMB Express, Jan 20, 2017

Laccases are multicopper oxidases that are able to catalyze reactions involving a range of substr... more Laccases are multicopper oxidases that are able to catalyze reactions involving a range of substrates, including phenols and amines, and this ability is related to the existence of different laccases. Basidiomycetes usually have more than one gene for laccase, but until now, this feature has not been demonstrated in a marine-derived fungus. Peniophora sp. CBMAI 1063 is a basidiomycete fungus isolated from a marine sponge that exhibits the ability to secrete significant amounts of laccase in saline conditions. In the present study, we identified laccase sequences from the transcriptome of Peniophora sp. CBMAI 1063 and used them to perform different molecular in silico analyses. The results revealed the presence of at least eight putative genes, which may encode ten different laccases with peptide lengths ranging from 482 to 588 aa and molecular weights ranging from 53.5 to 64.4 kDa. These laccases seem to perform extracellular activities, with the exception of one that may represent ...

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