From January to the end of March, André, Gabriel and I worked quite a lot to obtain mangrove samples across > 2000 km of coastline. Our plane/car/boat trips were not always smooth. We drove > 4000 km to get to the sampling sites, stayed away from home for more than 40 days, and faced many challenges like heavy rain, insatiable mosquitos, and sites that were hard to access. The effort will pay off!

Thanks Gabriel and André for the sharing so many experiences. Our mangrove expedition has ended successfully! We will continue to work smart (and hard) to best explore what we obtained during this journey.

... many great things are happening!

In early January, Gustavo visited Tadashi Kajita (Tropical Biosphere Research Center - University of the Ryukyus) in the beautiful Iriomote island to work on environmental DNA (eDNA) from Brazilian mangrove forests/rivers.

Later in January, André Madeira and Gustavo were out in field (NE Brazil) to sample mangrove trees for André's PhD project on mangrove adaptation and phenotypic plasticity.

The past six months have been quite busy as Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, Portuguese: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico) opened some calls for grant proposals.

Few weeks ago, CNPq announced the accepted proposals for the "Universal Call 2023", and ours was accepted in the "Emerging Groups" section! Although the final result is yet to be officially published, our team it eager to start working on the project entitled "Mangroves and mangrove forests in a changing world: A multi-scale, multi-taxonomic integrative approach" .  Fingers crossed for the next announcements by CNPq!

We definitely celebrated this achievement in our biweekly lab meeting with three (!!!!!!) cakes!!!

Our recently published paper on the dispersal and connectivity of red mangroves was covered by UNESP's news and Agência FAPESP!

- Estudo revela novas conexões entre áreas de mangue de diferentes regiões do Brasil - Jornal da UNESP (Portuguese only)

 - O Abismo genético dos manguezais - Ciência Brasil (Portuguese only)

- Como manguezais podem 'economizar' R$ 500 milhões do Brasil? Entenda - Ecoa UOL (Portuguese only)

- Manguezais evitam absorção de carbono pela atmosfera, apontam estudos - Agência Brasil (Portuguese only)

 - Estudo avalia a conexão genética entre manguezais brasileiros - Canal Rural (Portuguese only)

 - How the Genetic Structure of Mangroves Is Maintained - Technology Networks

- Agência FAPESP:

- Eventos raros de dispersão por longas distâncias ajudam a manter estrutura genética de manguezais (Portuguese).

- Eventos raros de dispersión a largas distancias ayudan a mantener la estructura genética de los manglares (Español)

- Rare long-distance dispersal events help maintain genetic structure of mangroves (English)

Below, a few pictures of André giving his interview to Phelipe Janning and Daniel Antonio (Agência FAPESP).

Great great job, André!

We have just started a pilot experiment with black mangroves (Avicennia schaueriana) to investigate the role of genetics, epigenetics, and phenotypic plasticity on the colonization of new environments! Soon, we will be measuring physiological traits and constructing genomic and 'epigenomic' sequencing libraries.

Thanks André and all the team for putting the energy and effort to grow >100 plants in our green house.

Trees are usually perceived as immobile organisms. However, they do move! Sometimes, they travel quite long distances! Their movement, however, is different from ours. As babies, we do not have much capacity to move around. Baby-trees, on the other hand, may be transported many kilometers away from home.

Mangrove trees are especially good at dispersing! These plants have propagules (seeds and fruits) that are usually transported by the water. When these seeds of fruits reach open ocean, they may travel thousands of km such that there is evidence that they may even cross oceans! See below an example of a floating propagule!

However, researchers who obtained such evidences (including our team) usually obtained and analyzed data from one source (like genetic variation, oceanographic simulations, or propagules release and recapture experiments) and existing studies that combined more than one source of data dealt with scales of a few hundred km.

To combine different sources of information, André G. Madeira led a group of researchers from Brazil and Japan in a study in which we used oceanographic biophysical simulation and red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) genomic data in an integrated approach.  We observed that, although ocean currents are key drivers of red mangrove's propagules movement, geographic and coastal distances are also important factors that shape how these plants disperse. We expect that approaches like ours are used to effectively plan and manage marine or coastal protected areas.

Our paper on carpenter ants natural history in an Atlantic Forest coastal protected area was featured on Agência FAPESP Check the full history here (only in  Portuguese) on February 2023.

In the last few days,  this study has also been featured on TV UNESP (only in Portuguese) and the Insectes Sociaux Blog as two interviews.

Environmental DNA (AKA eDNA) is originated from cells released from organisms into the water, air or sediments. This genetic material may then be sampled using appropriate methods that allow the biodiversity monitoring. Although this approach usage by environmental agencies (for example: US Department of the Interior, UK Environmental Agency), mainly in industrialized countries.

To learn about this technique (field, wet lab and dry lab methods) and gain insights about how it may be used, I attended the '4th International Workshop for Mangrove Biodiversity Studies by eDNA Metabarcoding' held in Malaysia. Also, by attending the 'International Symposium on Environmental DNA for Conservation and Biomonitoring in Southeast Asia 2023 (ISEDCAB, 2023)', I could share some recent findings on Brazilian mangrove molecular ecology and how eDNA could be added to our molecular toolkit.

Photos by Mr Khrisyhniven Ganakumaran - @_thelightbulb

As 2022 comes to its end and 2023 approaches, it is a great opportunity to remember and reflect on what our group has achieved in the past few weeks. Since November, our team has had quite intensive days.

From mid- to late-November, besides working on DNA isolation of cataia (Pimenta pseudocaryophyllus), Erick and Gustavo traveled to Japan to build and sequence genotyping (MIG-seq) and phylogenetic markers (MPM-seq) libraries. Also, we had the chance to present our current research at the 20th International Symposium on Integrated Field Science "Biodiversity and Phylogeography".

There are many challenges of reducing the size of objects. We have seen this process with cell phones and other devices, and it is called Miniaturization.

In living beings, being small, really small, has also imposed some challenges to their functioning and how they cope with the environment. A group of remarkable vertebrates whose size is often smaller than 2.5cm are toadlets that only occupy the forest floor of the Atlantic Rainforest is the genus Brachycephalus.

Brachycephallus toadlets are beautiful from their outside (and their inside), are they? The pictured species above, B. ephippium, remains to be anatomically studied regarding its mineralized dermal layer. (Photo by GM)

Many people ask fortune tellers, seers, clairvoyants, or even prophets to reveal what the future holds. Skeptics in turn, turn to the scientific method to predict possible outcomes of future conditions. Recently, we have asked ourselves how could mangrove trees possibly adapt to a rapidly changing climate?

Populations often occupy habitats with contrasting environments,  creating the opportunity for local adaptation to happen. Such adaptive process may be facilitated, when gene flow between populations is limited. This is likely the case of black mangroves (Avicennia germinans and A. schaueriana) in the Brazilian coast.

After nearly two years,  full vaccination, and countless Google Meets sessions, we have finally me each other again!

This week, our team gathered at the beach to have an afternoon open-air picnic and discuss non-formal education in Brazil and how can we improve how and what kids, teens and undergrads learn.

After discussing, we could test our frescobol (~beach tennis) and volleyball skills and have a great time!

Unfortunately, Erick and Marília could not attend this meeting, but, next time, I hope they may join us!

2020 and 2021 have been (or are been) strange times. Despite the challenges of attending virtual scientific meetings, our team has engaged quite well in presenting their researches!

• André presented the preliminary results of his MSc. project in the abstract/poster "Integration of population genomics and modelling of dispersal by ocean currents to infer mangrove connectivity" at the 66th Brazilian Congress of Genetics.
• Gabriel has presented the work "Modelo de Distribuição de duas formigas carpinteiras neotropicais usando o algoritmo de Máxima Entropia" (Species distribution modelling of two Neotropical carpenter ants using Maximum Entropy algorithm) at Simpósio de Biodiversidade de Ambientes Costeiros (SIBAC).
• Henrique showed the results of his undergraduate research at IUSSI's (International Union for the Study of Social Insects) V Workshop on Social Insects in the work "How colony structure, environment and genetic diversity relate to ant fitness: a study on Odontomachus chelifer (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)". 🏆
• Miguel, like Henrique, presented at IUSSI's V Workshop on Social Insects the findings of his undergraduate research "Investigating the relationship between behavior, environment, genetic diversity, and fitness in queens of the neotropical ants, Camponotus renggeri and C. rufipes (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)".🏆

🏆denotes that Henrique and Miguel were awarded the Best Presentation Prize at Undergraduate Level at the V Workshop on Social Insects! Great great job!!!!!

Curious?! Find below three of the four presentations below! Enjoy!

Thanks to the efforts of two hardworking and dedicated undergraduates students, Gabriel T. Vanin and Miguel P. Pereira-Romeiro, we now are able to compare the natural history of two carpenter ants, Camponotus renggeri and C. rufipes. Jointly, for many months, they lead a team of voluntaries (nature-enthusiasts friends) to study how these insects nest and to describe their home-ranges and activity schedule. The results are now out as a preprint here, and we will soon submit it to a peer-reviewed journal.

Not reported elsewhere are the reasons why we could not continue the work in the field. As countless projects worldwide, we were negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this was not the main nor the first obstacle that blocked our efforts. Our team lead by both students faced not only the rainiest season in the last 27 years, but they were approached by people carrying firearms. Twice! To secure the safety we had to halt our project.

Despite all possible planning, during fieldwork, countless challenges appear. Unfortunately, not all of them we are able to manage, and deal with. The outcomes of our project on natural history of these ants were not as complete as we planned, but, certainly, they are the best results we could obtain.

Great great job, Miguel and Gabriel!!! Also, Marianne has played a key role co-advising them, coming up with the scientific question we addressed, and working in the field with us.

As a teacher, I sometimes forget how good it is to sit, focus (unfortunately on a screen) and being the learnee. Although, I have taken some trainings and MOOCs in the last years, I really missed how it was to feel motivated to improve my own skills. In contrast to my past experiences, in 2021, I have been focusing mostly on soft skills as I attend the International Mentoring Partnership Programme led by professionals from Stirling University (Scotland).

For some weeks now, I have been joining colleagues from Stirling Univeristy, Tribhuvan University (Nepal) and UNESP to learn, for instance, how to deal with cultural, personal, and professional differences. This program will carry on for approximately two years, and I hope that the improved skills help me better navigate the academic maze and support students and 'earlier' career researchers on their path.

@lizandmollie

Sure?!

Well.... maybe, it is less what the eyes see, and more what genetics shows.

Defining species boundaries is not a straightforward task. Many factors may complicate our capacity to tell apart whether two or more individuals belong to the same species. They may look like the same from the outside, but, from a more intimate perspective, they may be quite different. This is likely the case for red mangrove (Rhizophora) from the western hemisphere and south Pacific islands. Despite their external (morphological) similarities, plants identified as R. racemosa from the Atlantic basin are quite different genetically from "R. racemosa" distributed in the other side of the American continent. Similarly, plants that have intermediate morphological features between R. racemosa and R. mangle have likely originated, and are maintained independently in both oceanic basins.

This study was the outcome of André-san's undergraduate research and it is his first paper published! Keep up the great work!

If you want to know more, these findings are out now! Check it here!

"You have to know the past to understand the present"

(Carl Sagan, on Cosmos 2nd Episode - One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue).
 

In a recent (really) short paper, Erick and I extended the findings presented by Ledo and colleagues (2020). They studied a forest-dwelling lizard from the South American Dry Diagonal and observed that it is a recently derived lineage with strong connections between populations. These findings suggest that forests that occur in the river networks could allow the interchange of species between the wet regions like the Amazon and the Atlantic forest.

We hope to see future studies that test this hypothesis using many taxa, including understudied organisms like plants! Luckily, Erick will be able to use 'cataia' (Pimenta pseudocaryophylus) to test this hypothesis.

By the way, this paper (here) is Erick's first contribution as a member of our group! Great job, Erick!

A comic by @Lunarbaboon to remember that it is OK to be feel a bit broken and unproductive.

We will take some time to recover our strengths and  find joy in our activities, if we need to.

No! We will not give up. 'No matter what'.

Recently, I had the opportunity to join minds and efforts to describe the functions of a protein that was known to be in high quantities in a plant bacterial pathogen (Xylella fastidiosa) that causes huge impacts in agriculture. We could show that X. fastidiosa Glutaredoxin-like protein plays an important role in cyanide and sulfur metabolisms, which could allow these plant killing bacteria to resist its host immune system. Because we did not records of similar genes in organisms like plants, fungi and animals (eukaryotes), it could be target for new plant disease treatment.

This collaboration reminded how much I enjoy learning different facets of nature and such efforts are hard, but they also bring me joy. More details about this work, you may find them here, freely!

Collaborative work is crucial for many research areas. For me (GM), it is much more than a way to advance what us humans know about the overwhelmingly diverse and complicated aspects of nature. It is a pleasure. A multi-factor delight:

1) The process of discovering is delightful. And finding something that I have never imagined to find out is remarkably fun.

2) Working with researchers with a different expertise, even within biology, is enriching! Having to learn methods I never used, making sense of the results obtained from these approaches and integrating them with the findings I could contribute with, is an indescribable experience. Specially, when all fits together really well!

3) Cooperative work is usually challenging (that is one reason social animals are so intriguing).  Jargons need to be be replaced by plain language, techniques and their results need clear explanation, a reasonable strategy to answer a scientific question requires consensus. But collaboration also allows one to spend working time with competent scientists (who are usually also nice people), it improves our communication, organizational and cultural/interpersonal awareness skills.

Great news!

Our two-year proposal on the phylogeography of a widespread plant has been accepted by CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel) and JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science)! It will allow our team to strengthen our collaborative links and Erick Willy Weisenberg to research at Tohoku University for one year. Professor Yoshihisa Suyama and I will coordinate this bilateral project, whose team is composed by professors from UNESP, Univesity of Tsukuba and University of the Ryukyus.

This acceptance was covered here (UNESP's Communication Agency)!

頑張りましょう!!

(Photo by Mariana Vargas Cruz and Gustavo M. Mori)

Trees cannot move. At least once they establish and grow. So, environmental changes pose important challenges to these organisms. These changes may be through time (i.e. climate changes) or the surroundings of a given place may be quite different compared to difference spots! Sometimes, even across the road! In two recent papers lead by Mariana Vargas Cruz (Mari), we described how two black mangroves, Avicennia germinans and A. schaueriana have responded to different conditions. We discovered that natural selection have likely acted such that plants that better coped with freshwater deprivation (and solar radiation differences) have had better chances of survival or have produced more seeds. Do you want to know more! If you are curious, check the details of the papers regarding A. schaueriana and A. germinans!

If you are facing a paywall, please directly contact me or any of the authors, or check my ResearchGate.

A few weeks ago (lat September and early October 2019), our "Ant team" presented its findings at UNESP Undergraduate Research Congress and at the XXIV Symposium on Myrmecology held in São Vicente and in Belo Horizonte, respectively. It was a great opportunity to show both our local academic community and international-level myrmecologist what we are discovering regarding carpenter ants ecology and genetic diversity. Also, at "Mirmeco", we were happy to learn cutting-edge research on ants that is being carried out world-wide besides meeting great established and young myrmecologists (and some of them are our friends!!!)!

Great job, Gabriel, Miguel and Ivan!!!

After three years, I was quite fortunate to attend another Mangrove Macrobenthos and Management Meeting series, now in Southeast Asia, Singapore - MMM5. It was the biggest MMM so far, gathering in a single space-time more than 300 mangrove specialists, managers, policy makers and students!

It was a great opportunity to meet so some old fellows (as those in the first picture) as well as new ones (also in the first and third picture). Also, it was a week of intense learning, planning and networking! 

I hope the findings we presented in Singapore will be already published by 2022, when MMM6 will take place in Colombia, so that we may present new ones!

Nos vemos en Colombia en trés años!

Jurgen Appelo (CC BY 2.0)

Species are crucial units to Biology and determining their boundaries has many consequences conservation and management efforts - for instance, Endangered species list. Depending on the organism, it is not so simple to determine whether an animal, a microorganism or a plant belongs to a species X or Y. 

It is exactly the case of a plant endemic to the Atlantic rainforest and Cerrado (Brazilian savanna). Clusia criuva complex is a 'species' with two subspecies (C. criuva subsp. parviflora and C. criuva subps. criuva) but whose differences are solely based on flower morphology and geographic origin. To test whether these subspecies could be independently evolving lineages, therefore different species, we used molecular markers and ecological modelling.  Our results showed that indeed we may be dealing with two species! This species complex may be not that complicated!

Curious?! Click for more info here! 

Giardia duodenalis imago and cystis (public domain -  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - CDC PHIL #3394)

These "happy" parasites are not as nice guys as they seem! Giardia duodenalis causes giardiasis, which affects millions of humans and many domestic and wild mammals.  To discover contamination sources as food or water, high resolution genetic markers are valuable tools because they allow researchers, sanitation companies and diagnostic institutions to carry out fine-scale population genetics-based epidemiological studies. In a recently published paper, Mauricio Durigan (a former colleague at State University of Campinas, now an US Food and Drug Administration researcher - and a great friend) led a group of Brazilian researchers to develop these molecular tools.

Since the publication of our paper on the genetic diversity of red mangroves, the findings published in Ecology and Evolution has caught the attention of some journalists! All of them covered the very same article in interestingly different ways!

Check them out!!!

There is dramatic genetic variability among mangroves in Brazil

(Agência Brasileira de Divulgação Científica - English, Português, Español)

Scientists find surprising genetic differences between Brazil’s mangroves

(Mongabay - English only)

Manguebeat de Darwin

(Folha de São Paulo - Portuguese only)

Como caprichos do mar determinaram a cara dos manguezais  brasileiros

(Época - Portuguese only)

Genomics and conservation seem quite unrelated, right!?

Well... not really!

With new technologies, namely high-throughput DNA sequencing, vast amounts of genetic information may be obtained from beautiful, long-lived (and non-model) organisms as mangrove trees. You may reasonably ask: OK, so what?

Well, sometimes, only by looking at mangrove trees it is quite hard to tell different species apart! Sometimes, there may even be inter-species hybrids (as in Brazilian red- or black-mangroves)!  Because species are one of the basic units for management and conservation plans, genetic (and genomic) tools help us properly identify them. Besides, these tools may help national and international stakeholders and policy makers to better identify and design across-borders conservation units based not only on species distribution but also on genetic/genomic diversity. This is particularly important for a rapidly changing world as there may be evolutionary 'winners' and 'losers' of climate changes (as we are currently studying).  Want to know what some colleagues from Brazil, China, Mexico and Japan and I think about it? Check it out here. 

André is leaving us for a while! He was awarded a FAPESP Research Internships Abroad fellowship to study red mangroves (Rhizophora) from the New World and South Pacific islands, using genetic markers (SNPs) obtained by high throughput sequencing.  He will live in Ueda and work at the  Sugadaira Montane Research Center (Tsukuba University) under the supervision of Yoshiaki Tsuda, a great plant molecular ecologist.

I am sure André will enjoy this life changing experience!

I wish you a great time in Japan, André-san! GM

Next Monday (March 12th, 2018) We will host at our Unesp campus a lunch talks day (Portuguese only) about the research projects we are developing on Mangrove molecular ecology. For more info, check the folder below (also in Portuguese).