Bruno Garcia Ferreira

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• PhD in Plant Biology
• Professor at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro

The plant cell walls are dynamic structures, whose pectin composition varies according to the developmental and functional stages and in response to external factors. Gall inducers change the functional profiles of their host organs, and herein, we explore how stem cell walls respond to gall development, particularly in the nutritive tissues consum...

Numerous Eriophyoidea species (Acari) can induce galls on various host plant species. They are typically characterized by their small size and a reduced number of legs. The eriophyid female fundatrix initiates gall formation on species-specific host plants, typically targeting young plant organs. Additionally, the female can oviposit within the gal...

Lepidoptera galls are induced by micromoths of distinct unrelated families. Galling Lepidoptera appear to have evolved from mining or boring insects, and their larvae exhibit chewing and voracious feeding behavior on the host plant tissues. Primarily considered as simple galls, several works have demonstrated distinct levels of complexity in lepido...

Aphid-induced galls provide the gall-inducing organisms with shelter from climatic adversities, safe places from predators, and access to the elaborated sap that circulates through the phloem. These galls are formed by tissue hyperplasia and cell hypertrophy, especially in the vascular bundles. They are induced by a single wingless individual, whic...

Gall induction involves the reprogramming of plant meristematic cells, changing the rates and patterns of division, expansion, and differentiation, culminating in gall morphogenesis. As apical and axillary meristems determine plant organogenesis, gall morphogenesis also requires the involvement of meristems through their overactivation or impairmen...

Galls are unique plant structures that emerge as a result of interactions with various organisms, mainly gall-inducing insects. These insects induce galls through a combination of mechanical and chemical stimuli, triggering the development of new plant tissues distinct from those of the host organ. The continuous stimuli provided by the gall-induci...

Gall induction requires the contact of the female ovipositor or mouthparts of gall-inducing herbivores with plant epidermal cells, the first line of contact between the two interactive organisms. Plant epidermal cells may react, emitting chemical defenses or isolating a small group of cells to eliminate invaders. Evidences indicate that tentative c...

Structure and function are strongly related in bromeliad leaves. Some species do not develop tank rosettes and must rely on other structural and physiological attributes to deal with environmental stressors. Three species of Bromeliaceae without tanks were compared according to their leaf structure (anatomy and pectin composition), water retention...

Galls are plant neoformations induced by specialized parasites. Since gall inducers rely on reactive plant sites for gall development, variations in abiotic factors that affect plant phenology are expected to impact the life cycle of gall inducers. To test the hypothesis that different light conditions affect both host plant and gall inducer life c...

The gall-host Eugenia uniflora (Myrtaceae) is adaptable to different light conditions, enabling leaf production and survival in both sun and shade. Leaves of E. uniflora in shaded environments have more mesophyll layers, and galls of Clinodiplosis profusa (Cecidomyiidae) are larger and wider. Based on these previous observations, this study investi...

Microgramma vacciniifolia, an epiphyte fern, hosts of two stem galls. One is induced by Tortrimosaica polypodivora (Lepidoptera), which can also induce galls in M. squamulosa and M. mortoniana. The alterations induced by T. polypodivora on M. vacciniifolia stem were compared to non-galled organs to evaluate the anatomical potentials of host ferns i...

Galls are products of anatomical, metabolic, and chemical alterations in host plant tissues, caused by parasitic organisms named gall inducers. Gall inducers can potentiate chemical and structural specializations of their host plants for their own benefit, such as the accumulation of bioactive and antioxidant secondary metabolites, which should be...

Leaf-galling Eriophyidae (Acarina) may promote simple or complex alterations in the organs of their host plants, such as an increase in indumentum density or the reorganization of epidermis and ground system tissue patterns. To test if hairy galls of Eriophyidae on Avicennia schaueriana (Acanthaceae) are related to complex changes, leaf galls in di...

Ferns have two types of trichomes (i.e., induments of protodermal origin): hairs and scales, which are frequently found on the surface of stems and leaves. Scales are flattened, not stratified, with different shapes. The presence of glandular cells associated with the margins and apex of the scales has been reported in taxonomic studies, as for Asp...

Gall-inducing insects stimulate their host plants, leading to the formation of distinct structures, such as the fusiform galls induced by Clinodiplosis profusa Maia, 2001 (Cecidomyiidae) on leaves of Eugenia uniflora L. (Myrtaceae). The influence of different light conditions on infestation rates, establishment, and morphogenesis of galls is little...

Context Galls are products of an intrinsic relationship between specific parasites and their host plants. Gall formation involves alterations in the developmental pattern of the host organs in which environmental conditions may also impose constraints. Aims We hypothesised that the adaptive features of the host plants reflect the stressors of the...

Intralaminar galls of Meunieriella result from ground tissue proliferation in leaves of Avicennia schaueriana , a typical halophytic mangrove. We tested if the preferred sites of gall induction were the midribs and secondary veins (SV) at the basal leaf portion, where the galls were expected to be largest; and if the vascular system in galls and ad...

Symphytum officinale, comfrey, is a medicinal plant known for its healing properties. On the growing conditions and physiological responses of this plant to stress are scarce. We aimed to assess the morphophysiological responses of comfrey to short-term severe water restriction (seven days) and to a control treatment under irrigation. Climatologica...

The microscopic morphology of the leaves of six varieties of Vitis vinifera taken in the León Denomination of Origin is studied: the varieties Albarín Blanco, Malvasía, Mencía, Prieto Picudo, Tempranillo and Verdejo Blanco. The morphology is studied in two leaf fragments (basal and distal) related to the midvein, and parameters such as the thicknes...

Gall cytological, metabolic, and structural traits are established due to the feeding habits of the associated galling herbivores, and sometimes are influenced by other organisms involved in the interaction. We tested this assumption on three gall morphotypes, the globoid, the lenticular, and the fusiform, induced by Cecidomyiidae on leaflets of In...

Premise of the study: Gall-inducing organisms change the development of their host plant organs, showing ontogenetical patterns not observed in the non-galled plants. In current work, ontogenetic studies on galls induced by Eucecidoses minutanus on Schinus engleri revealed novelties in plant developmental responses to the galling stimuli. Methods...

Dryocosmus kuriphilus (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae), the Asian chestnut gall wasp (ACGW), is an invasive pest that threatens native stands and orchards of European Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.). ACGW induces galls in stems, petioles, and midribs. These galls cause inhibition of tree growth and fruit production. An understanding of morphogenetic...

Plant cell and tissue responses to the attack of mining herbivores may be diagnosed by anatomical and histochemical analyses, herein investigated regarding the mining activity of Phyllocnistis hemera larvae in the leaf lamina of Daphnopsis fasciculata. The larva enters the leaf lamina through the adaxial epidermis, and feeds on palisade parenchyma...

Jatropha curcas plants were cultivated during 4 months in pots containing soil at 90% of field capacity (FC), in permanent drought at 30% of FC and in extreme drought without any irrigation. The permanent drought clearly resulted in significant reductions of 43% on spongy parenchyma thickness and increase of 170% on stomatal index and 80% in photos...

The galls induced by hemipterans generally show hypertrophy of the phloem; these insects usually feed on the sap in the sieve tube elements, occasioning phloem bundle hypertrophy. However, there are some exceptions; for example, the phylloxerids feed on the gall wall parenchyma. It has remained unknown, however, whether Daktulosphaira vitifoliae (t...

Globoid leaf galls with an abaxial concavity are induced by an undescribed species of Meunieriella Kieffer, 1909 (Cecidomyiidae) in Avicennia schaueriana Stapf & Leechm. ex Moldenke (Acanthaceae), a plant extremely adapted to mangroves. The gall-inducers may potentiate anatomical adaptations of host plants for producing a better shelter and food. W...

Aphids (Hemiptera, Aphididae) feed on the phloem and some of them induce the formation of conspicuous galls on their primary hosts. Histological studies were proposed to elucidate the evolutionary history of galling habit in Pemphigini tribe, assessing if gall complexity indicates the phylogenetic relations among gall inducers. Nine Eriosomatinae g...

Root growth is reduced in soils with low pH [H⁺] and abundant soluble aluminum [Al³⁺], which can be a consequence of the interaction between Al³⁺ and cell wall composition. The competition between Al³⁺ and Ca²⁺ toward binding to pectin molecules was evaluated in roots of Urochloa decumbens, an African grass highly adapted to acidic Al-rich soils. V...

Cell walls and protoplast may work together or distinctly in the establishment of the functional profiles of gall tissue compartments. This presumption is herein evaluated in three gall systems by immunocytochemical and ultrastructural analyses. The common storage tissues (CSTs) of leaf galls induced by Eriophyidae on Miconia ibaguensis leaves and...

The expression of plant secondary metabolism is strongly controlled by plant both in time and space. Although the variation of secondary metabolites, such as soluble and structural phenolics (e.g., lignins), has been largely observed in gall-inducing insects, and compared to their non-galled host organs, only a few datasets recording such variation...

The galls induced by Ditylenchus gallaeformans (Nematoda) on leaves of Miconia albicans have unique features when compared to other galls. The nematode colonies are surrounded by nutritive tissues with promeristematic cells, capable of originating new emergences facing the larval chamber, and providing indeterminate growth to these galls. Consideri...

Environmental cadmium (Cd) sources have increased in mangrove sediments in recent decades, inducing cellular damages in plants. Avicennia schaueriana is abundant in mangrove sites and are subjected to Cd contamination. The possible effects of Cd toxicity and the structural and physiological disturbances to this constraint were studied. Can this pla...

Galls are neoformed structures induced by specific animals, fungi, bacteria, virus or some parasitic plants on their host plant organs. Developmental processes are well known in Agrobacterium tumefasciens galls, but the animal-induced galls have a striking anatomical diversity, concerning several patterns, which were reunited herein. Anatomical tra...

Animal-induced galls are considered extended phenotypes of their inducers, and therefore plant morphogenesis and metabolism may vary according to the species of gall inducers. The alterations in vacuolar and apoplastic polyphenols, carotenoids, chlorophyll fluorescence rates, PSII quantum yield, and phospholipid peroxidation were studied in galls i...

Environment, plant, and gall-inducing insect genotypes are key factors in determining the morphogenesis of galls. However, the exact roles of these factors have not been clarified. We used anatomical and histochemical methods to evaluate the determining factors in the final structure of galls induced by Calophya mammifex on leaves of Schinus polyga...

Galling herbivores induce structural and chemical alterations in their host plant's tissues. These insects have been the focus of little study in the case of Australian taxa. Leptocybe invasa, a native Australian galling hymenopteran associated with Eucalyptus species, causes economic damage to plantation eucalypts in many countries around the worl...

Smilax campestris Griseb. (Smilacaceae) is a superhost of galling insects, adapted to xeric environments such as those of the restingas of the Parque Estadual do Acaraí, Santa Catarina, Brazil. Currently, we evaluate the structural and histochemical changes induced by a Cecidomyiidae on S. campestris leaves, originating globoid midrib galls. We hyp...

The success of galling insects could be determined by synchronisation with host plant phenology and climate conditions, ensuring suitable oviposition sites for gall induction and food resources for their survival. The anatomical, histochemical and phenological synchronisation strategies between Calophya rubra (Blanchard) (Hemiptera: Psylloidea) and...

Leaf water uptake (LWU) has been observed in plants of different ecosystems and this process is distinct among different species. Four plant species from the Brazilian fog mountain fields were evaluated in order to detect if leaf water uptake capacity is related to the cell wall composition of leaf epidermis. LWU measurements and their relation to...

Galhas são estruturas vegetais oriundas de alterações induzidas nos tecidos das plantas hospedeiras por organismos de diversos grupos taxonômicos, como Insecta, Acari, Nematoda, Bacteria, Fungi ou mesmo Plantae (MANI, 1964). Entre as galhas, aquelas causadas por insetos são as mais abundantes, com uma riqueza global média estimada em 132 mil espéci...

The majority of gall-inducing nematodes lives in the soil, and induces galls on roots. Nevertheless, some nematodes are able to climb up the stems and induce galls on aerial plant organs. This is the case of Ditylenchus gallaeformans (Oliveira et al. 2013), which induces galls on the inflorescences of Miconia albicans (Sw.) Steud. (1841) and Miconi...

Arthropod gall super-hosts have distinct developmental responses to each gall inducer species. The taxa and feeding habits of the gall inducers determine each gall’s histological patterns, but the host plant imposes histological constraints on gall differentiation. Mikania glomerata Spreng. (Asteraceae) is a gall super-host, presenting at least six...

Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is a low-cost and advantageous embedding medium, which maintains the majority of cell contents unaltered during the embedding process. Some hard or complex plant materials are better embedded in PEG than in other usual embedding media. However, the histochemical tests for phenolics and lignins in PEG-embedded plant tissues...

Gall-inducing Aphididae may feed directly on phloem, whereas Eriophyidae and Nematoda feed on cells lining the gall chambers. We assume that a variation in structural complexity will occur within galls induced by each taxon, and that the complexity of the galls could be related to the types of storage tissue they have. Histological, histometric, an...

The modulation of plant development has been the focus of research on insect galls because galling insects induce distinct shapes to acquire the same necessities, shelter and food. Due to the variety of gall morphotypes, it can be assumed that the key processes for their development rely on plant cells’ morphogenetical potentialities. In the presen...

Marcetia taxifolia (A. St.-Hil.) DC. hosts two gall morphotypes, a pistil-shaped gall induced by a Cecidomyiidae (Diptera) and a fusiform stem gall induced by a Lepidoptera. The cytological study of these galls aimed to answer how the difference in nutritive tissues of Diptera and Lepidoptera galls could be explained on cytological basis. The nutri...

Histochemical analyses in plants are commonly performed on hand-made sections of fresh materials. The disadvantages of embedding in historesin, paraffin or paraplast® are the alterations of cellular contents, high costs and few evident results, depending on the test. The polyethylene-glycol (PEG), as a low cost, hydrophilic medium, that maintains m...

The galls induced by Cecidomyiidae, Diptera, are very diverse, with conspicuous evidence of tissue manipulation by the galling herbivores. Bud galls, as those induced by an unidentified Cecidomyiidae species on Marcetia taxifolia, Melastomataceae, can be considered as one of the most complex type of prosoplasma galls. The gall-inducer manipulate th...

Insect galls may be study models to test the distribution of pectins and arabinogalactan-proteins (AGPs) and their related functions during plant cell cycles. These molecules are herein histochemically and immunocitochemically investigated in the kidney-shaped gall induced by Baccharopelma dracunculifoliae (Psyllidae) on leaves of Baccharis dracunc...

The developmental anatomy of the stems of Marcetia taxifolia (A. St.-Hil.) DC. fits the patterns described for other Melastomataceae. The galling effect of the Lepidoptera caused discrete structural alterations and conspicuous histochemical profiles. Epidermis and cortical parenchyma were hyperplasic with hypertrophied cells. The vascular system sh...

Insect galls may present nutritive tissues with distinct cytological features related to the order of the gall inducer. Galling Lepidoptera larvae chew plant cells and induce the redifferentiation of parenchymatic cells into nutritive ones. The nutritive cells in the galls induced by a microlepidoptera on the leaves of Tibouchina pulchra (Cham.) Co...

One of the galling herbivores associated to the superhost Schinus polygamus (Cav.) Cabrera (Anacardiaceae) is Calophya duvauae Scott (Hemiptera: Calophyidae). The galls are located on the adaxial surface of leaves and vary from red to green. The levels of their pigments were herein investigated in relation to age. Samples were collected between Jun...

Galling sap-feeding insects are presumed to cause only minor changes in host plant tissues, because they usually do not require development of nutritive tissues for their own use. This premise was examined through comparison of the histometry, cytometry and anatomical development of non-galled leaves and galls of Calophya duvauae (Scott) (Hemiptera...

Galls induced by insects develop through a complex series of plant cell responses. Bauhinia ungulata L. (Fabaceae: Caesalpinioideae) has leaf-folding galls, which were studied by means of anatomical and histochemical approaches. These approaches compared the non-galled leaves, non-parasitoidized galls, and parasitoidized galls by addressing two que...

The pectic composition of cell wall is altered during the processes of cell differentiation, plant growth, and development. These alterations may be time-dependent, and fluctuate in distinct regions of the same cell or tissue layer, due to the biotic stress caused by the activity of the gall inducer. Among the roles of the pectins in cell wall, ela...