scholarly journals General Microbiota of the Soft Tick Ornithodoros turicata Parasitizing the Bolson Tortoise (Gopherus flavomarginatus) in the Mapimi Biosphere Reserve, Mexico

Biology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 275
Author(s):  
Sergio I. Barraza-Guerrero ◽  
César A. Meza-Herrera ◽  
Cristina García-De la Peña ◽  
Vicente H. González-Álvarez ◽  
Felipe Vaca-Paniagua ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Defense Mechanisms ◽  
Chihuahuan Desert ◽  
Biosphere Reserve ◽  
Abundant Species ◽  
Soft Tick ◽  
Operational Taxonomic Units ◽  
Bacterial Microbiota ◽  
Host Competence ◽  
Mapimí Biosphere Reserve ◽  
Zoonotic Bacteria

The general bacterial microbiota of the soft tick Ornithodoros turicata found on Bolson tortoises (Gopherus flavomarginatus) were analyzed using next generation sequencing. The main aims of the study were to establish the relative abundance of bacterial taxa in the tick, and to document the presence of potentially pathogenic species for this tortoise, other animals, and humans. The study was carried-out in the Mapimi Biosphere Reserve in the northern-arid part of Mexico. Bolson tortoises (n = 45) were inspected for the presence of soft ticks, from which 11 tortoises (24.4%) had ticks in low loads (1–3 ticks per individual). Tick pools (five adult ticks each) were analyzed through 16S rRNA V3–V4 region amplification in a MiSeq Illumina, using EzBioCloud as a taxonomical reference. The operational taxonomic units (OTUs) revealed 28 phyla, 84 classes, 165 orders, 342 families, 1013 genera, and 1326 species. The high number of taxa registered for O. turicata may be the result of the variety of hosts that this tick parasitizes as they live inside G. flavomarginatus burrows. While the most abundant phyla were Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Firmicutes, the most abundant species were two endosymbionts of ticks (Midichloria-like and Coxiella-like). Two bacteria documented as pathogenic to Gopherus spp. were registered (Mycoplasma spp. and Pasteurella testudinis). The bovine and ovine tick-borne pathogens A. marginale and A. ovis, respectively, were recorded, as well as the zoonotic bacteria A. phagocytophilum,Coxiella burnetii, and Neoehrlichia sp. Tortoises parasitized with O. turicata did not show evident signs of disease, which could indicate a possible ecological role as a reservoir that has yet to be demonstrated. In fact, the defense mechanisms of this tortoise against the microorganisms transmitted by ticks during their feeding process are still unknown. Future studies on soft ticks should expand our knowledge about what components of the microbiota are notable across multiple host–microbe dynamics. Likewise, studies are required to better understand the host competence of this tortoise, considered the largest terrestrial reptile in North America distributed throughout the Chihuahuan Desert since the late Pleistocene.

Individual variation in mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) habitat and home range in the Chihuahuan Desert, Mexico

2016 ◽  
Vol 97 (4) ◽  
pp. 1228-1237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luz Adriana Pérez-Solano ◽  
Sonia Gallina-Tessaro ◽  
Gerardo Sánchez-Rojas
Keyword(s):  
Home Range ◽  
Chihuahuan Desert ◽  
Mule Deer ◽  
Young Male ◽  
Biosphere Reserve ◽  
Odocoileus Hemionus ◽  
Home Range Size ◽  
Range Size ◽  
Distribution Area ◽  
Mapimí Biosphere Reserve

Abstract Historically, mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) had a distribution area as large as the Chihuahuan Desert in Mexico, but in recent years, its populations have decreased and distribution areas have become isolated. This species exhibits a high degree of intraspecific variation in its use of habitat resources and home range size. In the Mapimí Biosphere Reserve, where the southernmost population of mule deer is located, over the course of 3 years, 7 females and 1 young male mule deer were monitored using radiotelemetry. Based on the deer location data, home range and habitat use were estimated for each deer. The mean (± SD) home range size for females was 14.70 km2 (± 5.89), the home range of the male was 18.05 km2. These estimates are among the smallest reported for the species. During the dry season, the use of certain topographic characteristics of the habitat was more similar among the individual deer than it was during the rainy season. The group of deer we sampled did not show preference for any particular type of vegetation, but rather used the majority of plant associations, depending on their availability. Preference was only exhibited by individual deer. The young male made use of the habitat similar to that of most of the females. El venado bura (Odocoileus hemionus) históricamente tenía un área de distribución tan grande como el Desierto Chihuahuense de México, sin embargo, en los últimos años sus poblaciones y áreas de distribución se han visto reducidas y aisladas. Se sabe que la especie exhibe gran variación intraespecífica en el uso de los recursos del hábitat y en los ámbitos hogareños. Dentro de la Reserva de Biosfera de Mapimí donde se encuentra la población más sureña de los venados buras, a lo largo de 3 años se monitorearon mediante radiotelemetría, 7 hembras y 1 macho joven de venado bura. Utilizando las localizaciones se estimaron los ámbitos hogareños y el uso del hábitat de cada animal. El promedio (± DE) del tamaño del ámbito hogareño para las hembras fue de 14.70 km2 (± 5.89), el tamaño del ámbito hogareño del macho fue de 18.05 km2. Estas estimaciones son de las áreas más pequeñas reportadas para la especie. Durante la temporada de secas el uso de las características topográficas del hábitat entre individuos fue más parecido entre ellos que en lluvias. Entre el conjunto de venados que muestreamos, no se presentó preferencia por alguna asociación vegetal en particular, los individuos usan la mayoría de las asociaciones vegetales de acuerdo a su disponibilidad, las preferencias únicamente se observaron a nivel individual. El macho joven hizo un uso del hábitat similar al que hicieron la mayoría de las hembras.

scholarly journals Responses of Bat Communities (Mammalia: Chiroptera) to Forest Loss and Habitat Conversion in Southern Cameroon

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 194008292110103
Author(s):  
Patrick Jules Atagana ◽  
Eric Moïse Bakwo Fils ◽  
Sevilor Kekeunou
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Forest ◽  
Biosphere Reserve ◽  
Abundant Species ◽  
Primary Forest ◽  
Habitat Types ◽  
Habitat Transformation ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Southern Cameroon ◽  
Habitat Conversion ◽  
Species Specific

We aimed to assess how bats are affected by habitat transformation by comparing bat assemblages in four habitat types: primary forest, secondary forest, cocoa plantations and human habitations in the Dja Biosphere Reserve of southern Cameroon. Bats were sampled in the four habitat types using mist nets. During 126 nights, a total of 413 bats were captured, belonging to four families, 16 genera and 24 species. Ninety three individuals (17 species) were captured in the primary forest, followed by plantations (105 individuals, 14 species), human habitations (159 individuals, 10 species), and secondary forest (55 individuals, eight species). Megaloglossus woermanni was recorded in all the four habitats, and was the most abundant species (105 individuals). The analysis of bat assemblage between habitat types showed a statistically significant difference in species composition. The distribution of the six most abundant species ( Epomops franqueti, Megaloglossus woermanni, Rousettus aegyptiacus, Dohyrina cyclops, Hipposideros cf. caffer and Hipposideros cf. ruber) was influenced by habitat types. Our results suggest that the decrease in species richness observed in disturbed habitats may be due to habitat perturbations of primary forest habitats. Therefore, it is important to examine the effects of habitat conversion at species level, as responses are often species-specific.

The Mule Deer of the Mapimí Biosphere Reserve

2019 ◽  
pp. 43-70
Author(s):  
Sonia Gallina-Tessaro ◽  
Gerardo Sánchez-Rojas ◽  
Dante Hernández-Silva ◽  
Luz A. Pérez-Solano ◽  
Luis García-Feria ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mule Deer ◽  
Biosphere Reserve ◽  
Mapimí Biosphere Reserve

scholarly journals Alteration of the Ileal Microbiota of Weanling Piglets by the Growth-Promoting Antibiotic Chlortetracycline

2009 ◽  
Vol 75 (17) ◽  
pp. 5489-5495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Rettedal ◽  
S�bastien Vilain ◽  
Stacy Lindblom ◽  
Kelly Lehnert ◽  
Clay Scofield ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Growth Promotion ◽  
Pcr Amplification ◽  
Growing Pigs ◽  
Rrna Gene ◽  
Significant Shift ◽  
Growth Promoters ◽  
Antibiotic Resistant ◽  
Operational Taxonomic Units ◽  
Bacterial Microbiota ◽  
Antibiotic Growth Promoters

ABSTRACT Antibiotics such as chlortetracycline (CTC) have been used to promote growth of pigs for decades, but concerns over increased antibiotic-resistant infections in humans have prompted the development of alternative strategies. Developing alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) could be informed by information on the mechanisms of growth promotion, notably, how AGPs affect the microbial populations of the gastrointestinal tract. Pigs from three sows were aseptically delivered by cesarean section. Six piglets were distributed to each of two foster mothers until weaning, when piglets were fed a diet with or without 50 mg/kg CTC for 2 weeks. The ileal bacterial microbiota was characterized by using a cultivation-independent approach based on DNA extraction, PCR amplification, cloning, and sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene pool. The ileal and mucosal communities of these growing pigs were dominated by Lactobacillus bacteria, various members of the family Clostridiaceae, and members of the poorly known genus Turicibacter. Overall, CTC treatment resulted in three shifts: a decrease in L actobacillus johnsonii, an increase in L. amylovorus, and a decrease in Turicibacter phylotypes. The composition of the microbiota varied considerably between individual pigs, as revealed by shared operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and similarity (SONS) analysis (θYC values). While the observed variation between untreated pigs obscured the possible effect of CTC, ∫-LIBSHUFF and SONS analyses of pooled libraries indicated a significant shift due to CTC in both the lumen and the mucosa, with some OTUs unique to either treated or control ileum. DOTUR analysis revealed little overlap between control and treated communities at the 3% difference level, indicating unique ileal communities in the presence of CTC.

scholarly journals Limited initial impacts of biomass harvesting on composition of wood-inhabiting fungi within residual stumps

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e8027
Author(s):  
Cédric Boué ◽  
Tonia DeBellis ◽  
Lisa A. Venier ◽  
Timothy T. Work ◽  
Steven W. Kembel
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Woody Debris ◽  
Its Region ◽  
Abundant Species ◽  
Operational Taxonomic Units ◽  
Tree Length ◽  
High Throughput Dna Sequencing ◽  
Differential Abundance Analysis ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Tree Harvesting

Growing pressures linked to global warming are prompting governments to put policies in place to find alternatives to fossil fuels. In this study, we compared the impact of tree-length harvesting to more intensive full-tree harvesting on the composition of fungi residing in residual stumps 5 years after harvest. In the tree-length treatment, a larger amount of residual material was left around the residual stumps in contrast to the full-tree treatment where a large amount of woody debris was removed. We collected sawdust from five randomly selected residual stumps in five blocks in each of the tree-length and full-tree treatments, yielding a total of 50 samples (25 in each treatment). We characterized the fungal operational taxonomic units (OTUs) present in each stump using high-throughput DNA sequencing of the fungal ITS region. We observed no differences in Shannon diversity between tree-length and full-tree harvesting. Likewise, we observed few differences in the composition of fungal OTUs among tree-length and full-tree samples using non-metric multidimensional scaling. Using the differential abundance analysis implemented with DESeq2, we did, however, detect several associations between specific fungal taxa and the intensity of residual biomass harvest. For example, Peniophorella pallida (Bres.) KH Larss. and Tephromela sp. were found mainly in the full-tree treatment, while Phlebia livida (Pers.) Bres. and Cladophialophora chaetospira (Grove) Crous & Arzanlou were found mainly in the tree-length treatment. While none of the 20 most abundant species in our study were identified as pathogens we did identify one conifer pathogen species Serpula himantioides (Fr.) P. Karst found mainly in the full-tree treatment.

scholarly journals Endophytic Microbes Are Tools to Increase Tolerance in Jasione Plants Against Arsenic Stress

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia González-Benítez ◽  
Irene Martín-Rodríguez ◽  
Isabel Cuesta ◽  
Manuel Arrayás ◽  
James Francis White ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Vertical Transmission ◽  
Maternal Inheritance ◽  
Horizontal Transmission ◽  
Ecological Traits ◽  
Functional Roles ◽  
Operational Taxonomic Units ◽  
Bacterial Microbiota ◽  
Arsenic Stress ◽  
As Stress

Seed microbiota is becoming an emergent area of research. Host plant microbial diversity is increasingly well described, yet relatively little is known about the stressors driving plant endomicrobiota at the metaorganism level. The present work examines the role of horizontal and vertical transmission of bacterial microbiota in response to abiotic stress generated by arsenic. Horizontal transmission is achieved by bioaugmentation with the endophyte Rhodococcus rhodochrous, while vertical transmission comes via maternal inheritance from seeds. To achieve this goal, all experiments were conducted with two Jasione species. J. montana is tolerant to arsenic (As), whereas J. sessiliflora, being phylogenetically close to J. montana, was not previously described as As tolerant. The Jasione core bacterial endophytes are composed of genera Pseudomonas, Ralstonia, Undibacterium, Cutibacterium, and Kocuria and family Comamanadaceae across different environmental conditions. All these operational taxonomic units (OTUs) coexisted from seeds to the development of the seedling, independently of As stress, or bioaugmentation treatment and Jasione species. R. rhodochrous colonized efficiently both species, driving the endomicrobiota structure of Jasione with a stronger effect than As stress. Despite the fact that most of the OTUs identified inside Jasione seeds and seedlings belonged to rare microbiota, they represent a large bacterial reservoir offering important physiological and ecological traits to the host. Jasione traits co-regulated with R. rhodochrous, and the associated microbiota improved the host response to As stress. NGS-Illumina tools provided further knowledge about the ecological and functional roles of plant endophytes.

Vascular epiphyte diversity in two forest types of the “El Cielo” Biosphere Reserve, Mexico

Botany ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 95 (6) ◽  
pp. 599-610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edilia de la Rosa-Manzano ◽  
Antonio Guerra-Pérez ◽  
Glenda Mendieta-Leiva ◽  
Arturo Mora-Olivo ◽  
José Guadalupe Martínez-Ávalos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Type ◽  
Geographic Distance ◽  
Biosphere Reserve ◽  
Abundant Species ◽  
Forest Types ◽  
Semideciduous Forest ◽  
Host Trees ◽  
Variation Explained ◽  
El Cielo Biosphere Reserve ◽  
Vascular Epiphyte

We assessed the diversity, vertical distribution, and the effect of structural and geographical factors on the diversity of vascular epiphyte assemblages (VEAs) in two forest types in the “El Cielo” Biosphere Reserve. We found 2839 epiphyte individuals from 15 species on 240 host trees (27 species) in the semideciduous forest and 5085 individuals from 8 species on 215 host trees (12 species) in the pine–oak forest. Epiphytes showed a preference for the middle zone of the host trees. The diversity of VEAs was uneven in both forest types, although the VEA in the semideciduous forest was the most diverse. VEAs across forests were slightly similar in their composition (30% mean overlap), but very different in their structure (i.e., they did not share very abundant species). The variation in species richness among VEAs was influenced by forest structure, independently of forest type. Compositional differences of VEAs among forest types were explained by geographic distance and host-tree identity (31% and 28% variation explained, respectively). By characterizing the diversity of VEAs we provide a basic understanding of the factors influencing epiphyte diversity in these understudied ecosystems.

scholarly journals Streptococcus australis and Ralstonia pickettii as Major Microbiota in Mesotheliomas

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 297
Author(s):  
Rumi Higuchi ◽  
Taichiro Goto ◽  
Yosuke Hirotsu ◽  
Sotaro Otake ◽  
Toshio Oyama ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Progression ◽  
Pcr Amplification ◽  
16S Rrna Gene Sequencing ◽  
Abundant Species ◽  
Rrna Gene ◽  
Tissue Samples ◽  
Ralstonia Pickettii ◽  
Operational Taxonomic Units ◽  
Rrna Gene Sequencing ◽  
Almost All

The microbiota has been reported to be correlated with carcinogenesis and cancer progression. However, its involvement in the pathology of mesothelioma remains unknown. In this study, we aimed to identify mesothelioma-specific microbiota using resected or biopsied mesothelioma samples. Eight mesothelioma tissue samples were analyzed via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The operational taxonomic units (OTUs) of the effective tags were analyzed in order to determine the taxon composition of each sample. For the three patients who underwent extra pleural pneumonectomy, normal peripheral lung tissues adjacent to the tumor were also included, and the same analysis was performed. In total, 61 OTUs were identified in the tumor and lung tissues, which were classified into 36 species. Streptococcus australis and Ralstonia pickettii were identified as abundant species in almost all tumor and lung samples. Streptococcus australis and Ralstonia pickettii were found to comprise mesothelioma-specific microbiota involved in tumor progression; thus, they could serve as targets for the prevention of mesothelioma.

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