Carlos Lado

Ecological characterization of a tropical myxomycete assemblage—Maquipucuna Cloud Forest Reserve, Ecuador

The assemblage of myxomycetes (plasmodial slime molds) associated with cloud forests of the Maquipucuna Cloud Forest Reserve in the western Andes was investigated. Within three study sites located along a gradient extending from 1200 to 2700 m above sea level, a clear pattern of decreasing myxomycete diversity and productivity with elevation was apparent. As such, these data conform to the pattern of “reverse diversity” for myxomycetes in the neotropics, with higher diversity for less mesic forest types than for more mesic forest types. Canonical correspondence analysis of myxomycete abundances in relation to microhabitat parameters revealed three major ecological assemblages: wood-, litter- and inflorescence-inhabiting species. All three assemblages include a number of specialized species, with the assemblage associated with litter being the most diverse and the one associated with inflorescences being the most distinctive. In addition, samples from the microhabitat represented by the cover of epiphyllic liverworts on living leaves regularly produce myxomycetes in moist chamber culture but with few sporocarps and no evidence of any specialized species. At least near ground level, bark-inhabiting (corticolous) myxomycetes are uncommon in the cloud forests sampled in the present study.

Using environmental niche models to test the 'everything is everywhere' hypothesis for Badhamia

It is often discussed whether the biogeography of free-living protists is better explained by the ‘everything is everywhere’(EiE) hypothesis, which postulates that only ecology drives their distribution, or by the alternative hypothesis of ‘moderate endemicity’ in which geographic barriers can limit their dispersal. To formally test this, it would be necessary not only to find organisms restricted to a geographical area but also to check for their presence in any other place with a similar ecology. We propose the use of environmental niche models to generate and test null EiE distributions. Here we have analysed the distribution of 18S rDNA variants (ribotypes) of the myxomycete Badhamia melanospora (belonging to the protozoan phylum Amoebozoa) using 125 specimens from 91 localities. Two geographically structured groups of ribotypes congruent with slight morphological differences in the spores can be distinguished. One group comprises all populations from Argentina and Chile, and the other is formed by populations from North America together with human-introduced populations from other parts of the world. Environmental climatic niche models constructed separately for the two groups have significant differences, but show several overlapping areas. However, only specimens from one group were found in an intensively surveyed area in South America where both niche models overlap. It can be concluded that everything is not everywhere for B. melanospora. This taxon constitutes a complex formed by at least two cryptic species that probably diverged allopatrically in North and South America.

Description and life cycle of a new Didymium (Myxomycetes) from arid areas of Argentina and Chile

A new species of Didymium (Myxomycetes), D. infundibuliforme, is described herein, and details are provided on its life cycle as observed in spore to spore culture on agar. The new species was recorded during intensive studies of areas of the Monte Desert in Argentina and the Atacama Desert in Chile. It has been collected directly in the field in both countries on several occasions over 4 y and isolated in moist chamber cultures prepared with material from native plant species. The characters that make this species unique in the genus are its funnel-shape sporocarps with white stalks, the apical circumscissile dehiscence of the sporotheca that causes the base to resemble a calyculus and the ornamentation on the spores. The morphology of specimens of this new myxomycete was examined with scanning electron microscopy and light microscopy, and micrographs of relevant details are included in this paper.

The biodiversity of myxomycetes in central Chile

The results obtained from two expeditions to survey the biodiversity of myxomycetes in Central Chile are reported in this paper. The surveys were carried out as part of Global Biodiversity of Eumycetozoans project funded by the National Science Foundation (USA) and the Myxotropic project funded by the Spanish Government. The expeditions were made to the temperate zone of the central part of the country between 23° and 39° South latitudes, which is characterized by Mediterranean vegetation, as well as to the transition areas between the arid and semi-arid regions of northern Chile, and the humid, cold Valdivian and Andean-Patagonian forests of the far South. Eight of the fifteen regions of the country, from Antofagasta to Araucanía, in selected areas where the native vegetation is well preserved, were included in these surveys. Over 600 collections were obtained, and a total of 110 species of myxomycetes representing 29 genera have been identified. Two of these (Dianema succulenticola, Didymium chilense) are species new to science and are described in this paper, 12 species (Collaria nigricapillitia, Comatricha alta, Cribraria oregana, Dianema depressum, Didymium eximium, D. nivicolum, Enerthenema melanospermum, Lepidoderma chailletii, Macbrideola ovoidea, Physarum clavisporum, Ph. newtonii and Trichia alpina) were previously unknown for either the Neotropics or South America, and 49 additional species are new records for Chile. Comments are provided on the morphology, distribution and ecology of selected species and light and SEM micrographs of the most significant species are included. An evaluation of the biodiversity of myxomycetes in Chile, with special emphasis on the endemic plants that provided the substrates with which they were associated, and a comparative analysis of our results with those from other countries of South America is presented.

Biodiversity of myxomycetes in subantarctic forests of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

A biodiversity survey for myxomycetes was carried out in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego (Argentina) in late January and early February 2005. Specimens were collected from six National Parks, located in five different provinces between 39° and 55°S latitude. Nothofagus forests represented the primary vegetation type investigated, but Valdivian temperate rainforests also were included in the survey, as were coniferous forests dominated by species of Araucaria, Astrocedrus and Fitzroya. More than four hundred (442) specimens of myxomycetes representing 67 different species in 23 genera were collected either in the field, or from moist chamber cultures prepared with samples of bark and litter obtained from the same collecting sites. The total species list generated from both the field and laboratory components of the survey includes six new records for South America and 13 new records for Argentina. Two species of the genus Diderma, D. gracile and D. robustum, described originally from Tierra del Fuego 35 years ago and not reported since, were among the more interesting collections. A third species of the genus, D. antarcticum, found only once since its description in 1887, was found for the third time in the world during the survey. These collections were compared to the type material deposited in La Plata, Argentina (LPS) and the first photographs of these species by LM and SEM are included. Ecological comments are made on how macroenvironmental factors as well as microhabitats, influence patterns of myxomycete distribution.

Myxomycetes collected in the first phase of a North-South transect of Chile

M.M. is funded by the Conselleria d’Innovaci´o, Recerca i Turisme of the Government of the Balearic Islands and the European Social Fund with grant code FPI/2090/2018. J.A., M.M., S.M. and J.J.R. also acknowledge funding from the project Distancia-COVID (CSIC-COVID-19) of the CSIC funded by a contribution of AENA, from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, the AEI and FEDER (EU) under the grant PACSS (RTI2018-093732-B-C22) and the Maria de Maeztu program for Units of Excellence in R&D (MDM-2017-0711). A.B. and V.N. acknowledge support from the UK EPSRC New Investigator Award Grant No. EP/S027920/1. GG, SH and SM acknowledge support from from NSF Grant IIS-2029095 and the US Army Research Office under Agreement Number W911NF-18-1-0421. A.K. is supported by the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship through the Department of Defense.Trabajo presentado en la Plant and Animal Genome XXII Conference, celebrada en San Diego del 11 al 15 de enero de 2014.Chinchilla-Rodriguez, Zaida; Lariviere, Vincent; Costas, Rodrigo; Robinson-Garcia, Nicolas and Sugimoto, Cassidy Rose. (2017). Building ties across countries: International collaboration, field specialization, and global leadership. 23th International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators, STI2018. Leiden, The Netherlands, 12-14 September 2018, p. 1509-1518.Resumen del trabajo presentado al APS March Meeting, celebrado en Baltimore, Maryland (USA) del 14 al 18 de marzo de 2016.The results of the first sampling of myxomycetes from the North of Chile are reported in this paper. The survey forms part of the project Global Biodiversity of Eumycetozoans and is the first of a three phase north-south (more than 5,000 km), transect of the country. This phase was between 18o and 30o South latitudes and encompassed the arid and semi-arid regions known as the Atacama Desert. A total of 24 species of Myxomycetes from 11 genera have been identified from these extreme environments, 14 are new records for Chile and 4 (Badhamia dubia, Didymium synsporon, Echinostelium fragile and Physarum spectabile) are previously unknown for South America. Comments are provided on morphology, distribution and ecology.We introduce a new game to the experimental literature and use it to study how behavioral phenomena affect the tradeoffs between centralized and decentralized management. Our game models an organization with two divisions and one central manager. Each division must choose or be assigned a product. Ignoring asymmetric information, the underlying game is an asymmetric coordination game related to the Battle of the Sexes. In equilibrium, the divisions coordinate on identical products. Each division prefers an equilibrium where the selected products are closest to its local tastes while central management prefers the efficient equilibrium, determined by a randomly state of the world, which maximizes total payoffs. The state of the world is known to the divisions, but the central manager only learns about it through messages from the divisions who have incentives to lie. Contrary to the theory, overall performance is higher under centralization, where the central manager assigns products to divisions after receiving messages from the divisions, than under decentralization where the divisions choose their own products. Underlying this, mis-coordination is common under decentralization and divisions fail to use their information when they do coordinate. Mis-coordination is non-existent under centralization and there is a high degree of truth-telling by divisions as well. Performance under centralization is depressed by persistent sub-optimal use of information by center managers.Trabajo presentado en el Workshop: Groups, Inequality, and Conflict, organizado por el Centre for the Study of Equality, Social Organization and Performance (ESOP), en Oslo durante el 6 de julio de 2017Trabajo presentado al XII Scientific Meeting of the Spanish Astronomical Society (SEA), celebrado en Bilbao del 18 al 22 de julio de 2016.Trabajo presentado a la ORCID-CASRAI Joint Outreach Conference & Codefest (Consortia Advancing Standards in Research Administration Information), celebrada en Barcelona (Espana) del 18 al 19 de mayo de 2015.4 pags.; 4 figs.; ILRC27, City College of New York, New York City, July 5 - July 10, 2015; http://ilrc27.org/VI Simposio Internacional de Ciencias del Mar - VI International Symposium of Marine Sciences (ISMS 2018), 20- 22 June 2018, Vigo.-- 2 pages16 pages, 9 figures, 6 tables, 44 references.-- E-mail: delrio@irnase.csic.es (J.C. del Rio)Financial support from Mobility Program ‘Salvador de Madariaga 2016’ and State Programme of Research, Development and Innovation oriented to the Challenges of the Society (CSO2014-57770-R) funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain and the Science of Science Innovation and Policy program of the National Science Foundation in the United States (NSF #1561299).

Morphology and life cycle of a new species of Didymium (Myxomycetes) from arid areas of Mexico.

A new species of myxomycete, Didymium umbilicatum, isolated from the bark of Agavaceae, is described from arid zones of Mexico. This species was obtained from moist chamber cultures of Yucca spp. bark, collected in four different years from two states (Puebla and Querétaro) in central Mexico and found in the field from Hidalgo, Oaxaca and Puebla on the dead remains of Agave sp. The new species has small, flat, white sporocarps or short plasmodiocarps, 0.2–1.3 mm diam, and 0.15–0.4 mm tall. They are sessile on a reduced base or have a short, calcareous pale stalk and warted spores, warts fused in an irregular subreticulum by SEM. It is the sixth species of Didymium recently described from arid areas. The stability of the taxonomic characters of the species was confirmed by spore-to-spore culture on agar. Life cycle events are described from germination to sporulation. The morphology of the myxomycete specimens was examined with scanning electron microscopy and light microscopy, and micrographs of relevant details are included.

Molecular Systematics of Dictyostelids: 5.8S Ribosomal DNA and Internal Transcribed Spacer Region Analyses

ABSTRACT The variability and adaptability of the amoebae from the class Dictyosteliomycetes greatly complicate their systematics. The nucleotide sequences of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacers and the 5.8S ribosomal DNA gene have been determined for 28 isolates, and their utility to discriminate between different species and genera has been shown.

Primers are designed for amplification and direct sequencing of ITS region of rDNA from Myxomycetes

Four new primers were designed, based on comparison of Physarum polycephalum sequences retrieved from Genbank (primers PHYS-5 and PHYS-4) and our own sequences (primers PHYS-3 and PHYS-2), to amplify the ITS regions of rDNA, including the 5.8S gene segment from Lamproderma species. Sequencing analysis shows that Lamproderma contains ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 regions of approximately 900 bp, which is similar in size to most eukaryotes. However, the corresponding region in another common myxomycete, Fuligo septica, is more than 2000 bp due to the presence of large direct-repeat motifs in ITS1. Myxomycete rDNA ITS regions are interesting both as phylogenetic markers in taxonomic studies and as model sequences for molecular evolution.

Spore to spore culture of Didymium operculatum, a new Myxomycete from the Atacama Desert of Chile

A new species of Didymium (Myxomycetes), D. operculatum, is described in this paper, and details of its life cycle are provided. The new species was recorded during studies of the Atacama Desert in Chile. It has been collected directly in the field and isolated in moist chamber cultures prepared with material from an endemic cactus. The distinguishing characters of this species are its dehiscence by means of an apical operculum combined with a whitish calcareous stalk and the banded reticulate ornamentation of the spores. The morphology of this new myxomycete was examined with scanning electron microscopy and light microscopy, and micrographs of relevant details are included in this paper. Some comments are made on the patterns of distribution of Didymium species in arid lands and adaptive characters enabling this genus to colonize such extreme environments. It is proposed that a longer cycle and the ability to resort to resistant forms many times during their development reflect the response of these myxomycetes to the largely unfavorable conditions of their environment.