Publications by authors named "Manuel Vera"

The development of parasite cultures has long been pivotal in advancing parasitology, with broad applications in medicine, veterinary science, and biology. Laboratory cultures are invaluable tools for studying parasite biology, host-parasite interactions, and the development of treatments and vaccines. However, cultures of digenean trematodes under laboratory conditions remain a challenging yet critical endeavour in parasitology.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study explores the differences in gut microbiota and fiber digestion between lower termites (LT), which have cellulolytic flagellates, and higher termites (HT), which do not.
  • It identifies specific bacterial lineages responsible for fiber breakdown, revealing that Bacteroidota and Spirochaetota dominate the lignocellulolytic activity in LT, while Fibrobacterota and Spirochaetota take over in HT.
  • The findings highlight the importance of oxygen in the breakdown of cellulose and lignin in termite guts, suggesting a more complex symbiotic relationship than previously understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Multiple parasites can infect a single host, creating a dynamic environment where each parasite must compete over host resources. Such interactions can cause greater harm to the host than single infections and can also have negative consequences for the parasites themselves. In their first intermediate hosts, trematodes multiply asexually and can eventually reach up to 20% of the host's biomass.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The common cockle is a valuable bivalve species inhabiting the Atlantic European coasts. The parasite has devastated cockle beds in the southern Galician (NW Spain) rias since 2012. Previous data suggested that cockles from Ría de Arousa acquired some resilience to this parasite through natural selection after consecutive annual marteiliosis outbreaks and candidate markers associated with marteiliosis resilience were identified using population genomics and transcriptomics approaches.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Knowledge of genetic structure at the finest level is essential for the conservation of genetic resources. Despite no visible barriers limiting gene flow, significant genetic structure has been shown in marine species. The common cockle (Cerastoderma edule) is a bivalve of great commercial and ecological value inhabiting the Northeast Atlantic Ocean.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Raphidascarid nematodes have been the focus of several studies, mainly due to the zoonotic potential of some species, even though the cases are underreported. Due to the difficulty in identifying their larvae, the use of diagnostic techniques involving morphological and molecular analyses has grown in the last 20 years. The present study had as objective the morphological and molecular characterization of the L3 larval types of Hysterothylacium collected in Pomatomus saltatrix and Pagrus pagrus from the Brazilian coast, close to the municipality of Santos, State of São Paulo.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The European brown trout, Salmo trutta, is a cold-adapted fish reported as a Least Concern species in the IUCN Red List. This species colonized new territories from southern refuges during the last glacial melting, but during the 20th century suffered from anthropic impacts on its habitats. The long-time survival of the species relies on the genetic diversity within and among populations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

European flat oyster () is an ecologically and economically important marine bivalve, that has been severely affected by the intracellular parasite . In this study, a flat oyster SNP array (~14,000 SNPs) was used to validate previously reported outlier loci for divergent selection associated with exposure in the Northeast Atlantic Area. A total of 134 wild and hatchery individuals from the North Sea, collected in naïve (NV) and long-term affected (LTA) areas, were analysed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In this study, we quantified the three key biological processes, growth, recruitment, and dispersal pattern, which are necessary for a better understanding of the population dynamics of the blue and red shrimp Aristeus antennatus. This marine exploited crustacean shows sex-related distribution along the water column, being females predominate in the middle slope. The present study attempts to fill the existing gap in the females’ genetic demography, as scarce knowledge is available despite being the most abundant sex in catches.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Tambaqui or cachama () is one of the most important neotropical freshwater fish used for aquaculture in South America, and its production is concentrated at low latitudes (close to the Equator, 0°), where the water temperature is warm. Therefore, understanding how selection shapes genetic variations and structure in farmed populations is of paramount importance in evolutionary biology. High-throughput sequencing to generate genome-wide data for fish species allows for elucidating the genomic basis of adaptation to local or farmed conditions and uncovering genes that control the phenotypes of interest.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Understanding the environmental factors affecting genome divergence in marine species, like the edible cockle, is essential for sustainable fisheries management and conservation efforts.
  • A population genomics study examined over 9,000 SNPs in 536 cockles from 14 locations in the Northeast Atlantic, revealing significant genetic differentiation and environmental influences such as sea temperature and salinity.
  • The analysis identified two main genetic groups and finer subdivisions related to larval dispersal patterns, providing crucial insights for developing conservation strategies and managing cockle populations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Brown trout ( L.) populations have been restocked during recent decades to satisfy angling demand and counterbalance the decline of wild populations. Millions of fertile brown trout individuals were released into Mediterranean and Atlantic rivers from hatcheries with homogeneous central European stocks.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The introduction of Next-generation sequencing (NGS) and RAD-seq has dramatically improved the identification and genotyping of molecular markers for various aquatic species, especially those with limited genomic resources.
  • A comparison was made between two bioinformatics pipelines, STACKS 2 and Meyer's 2b-RAD v2.1, using five different species, to evaluate SNP panels, revealing that while there were variations in results, overall genetic diversity within species remained consistent.
  • Although the choice of pipeline had minimal influence on population genetics conclusions, distinct discrepancies were noted between de novo methods and reference genomes, prompting further exploration of different bioinformatic tools.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The population biology of the deep-sea shrimp , as with other exploited demersal species, is usually studied using data from fishery statistics. Such statistical analyses have shown female-biased sex ratios during the spawning season in this species. Because the abundance of males increases at greater depths that are not exploited by fisheries (virgin grounds), knowledge on their recruitment is limited.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Syngnathid fishes (Actinopterygii, Syngnathidae) are flagship species strongly associated with seaweed and seagrass habitats. Seahorses and pipefishes are highly vulnerable to anthropogenic and environmental disturbances, but most species are currently Data Deficient according to the IUCN (2019), requiring more biological and ecological research. This study provides the first insights into syngnathid populations in the two marine Spanish National Parks (PNIA-Atlantic- and PNAC-Mediterranean).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Temporal variability of the genetic structure and connectivity patterns of the blue and red shrimp Aristeus antennatus in the seven most important fishing grounds of the Western Mediterranean Sea, were assessed using twelve microsatellite loci during 2 consecutive years (2016 and 2017), in a total of 1403 adult individuals. A high level of geographical connectivity among groups was observed in the two studied years. In fact, no significant geographical differentiation was found in 2016 (F = 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Among several marine pelagic species of the Brazilian coast, Scomber colias Gmelin, 1789 (Perciformes: Scombridae) stands out for having great economic importance, since it is widely used as a food resource and presents moderate vulnerability. Twenty specimens of S. colias were purchased from October 2015 to October 2016 from the coast of Santa Catarina, Brazil.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In spite of its toxic effects, N-acetyl-p-aminophenol (APAP), also commonly known as acetaminophen or paracetamol, is one of the most widely used analgesic and antipyretic agents. It can be obtained without a medical prescription. To test the effect over the zebrafish embryonic development, a Fish Embryo acute Toxicity (FET) test was carried out with acetaminophen to establish the range of concentrations that cause a harmful effect on the zebrafish development.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The population of Mobula birostris ("giant manta ray") found in the waters of northern Peru and Ecuador is believed to be the largest in the world (Harding Beirwagen, 2009). This species is considered to be the largest within the group of manta rays, as they attains at least 670 cm disc width (reported to 910 cm) (White et al., 2006) and there is a record of an individual weighing 2000 kg (Kunjipalu Boopendranath, 1981).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The .ERL Theory predicts that a student's own self-regulation and the regulatory nature of the context are factors that jointly determine the student's level of motivational-affective variables. However, this principle has not yet been verified in the case of achievement emotions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cockles are highly appreciated mollusks and provide important services in coastal areas. The two European species, edible () and lagoon () cockles, are not easily distinguishable, especially when young. Interestingly, the species show different resistance to , the parasite responsible for marteiliosis outbreaks, which is devastating cockle production in some areas.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The European flat oyster () is a highly appreciated mollusk with an important aquaculture production throughout the 20th century, in addition to playing an important role on coastal ecosystems. Overexploitation of natural beds, habitat degradation, introduction of non-native species, and epidemic outbreaks have severely affected this important resource, particularly, the protozoan parasite which is the main concern affecting its production and conservation. In order to identify genomic regions and markers potentially associated with bonamiosis resistance, six oyster beds distributed throughout the European Atlantic coast were sampled.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The blue and red shrimp Aristeus antennatus is a demersal marine species harvested by bottom trawling in the Mediterranean Sea, the adjacent Atlantic Ocean (AO) waters, and the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean (IO). As it is considered to be a priority species for sustainable fishing, identification of its genetic stocks and the connectivity between them is essential. Using 12 microsatellite loci we detected at least four genetic stocks distributed in the Western Mediterranean (WM), Eastern Mediterranean (EM), AO, and IO and signals for a possible fifth stock in the Alborán Sea.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The proliferation of research production in Psychology as a science has been increasing exponentially. This situation leads to the necessity of organizing the research production into different levels of analysis that make it possible to delimit each research domain. The objective of this analysis is to clearly distinguish the different levels of research: micro-analysis, molecular, and molar.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The pacu () is a Neotropical fish with remarkable productive performance for aquaculture. Knowledge of genetic resources in Neotropical fish is essential for their applications in breeding programs. The aim of this study was to characterize the genetic diversity of seven farmed populations of pacu which will constitute the basis for a broodstock foundation for coming breeding programs in Brazil.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF