Francisco Molina-Freaner

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Verified

Francisco verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

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• PhD
• Researcher at National Autonomous University of Mexico

https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1kxDBVu809eNe

Crop wild relatives (CWR) represent important genetic resources for crop improvement. Gossypium turneri, a wild cotton species with a restricted distribution in the Sonoran Desert of northwestern Mexico, has been identified as a potential breeding resource for cotton improvement. While several agronomically important traits have been previously ide...

Mezcal, a traditional Mexican alcoholic beverage, has been a vital source of livelihood for indigenous and rural communities for centuries. However, increasing international demand is exerting pressure on natural resources and encouraging intensive agricultural practices. This study investigates the impact of management practices (wild, traditional...

Ants, a prominent insect group, play important roles in various terrestrial ecosystems, by engaging in diverse biotic interactions, such as those involving plants bearing extrafloral nectaries (EFNs). This study investigates the seasonal dynamics of this interaction throughout the dry and rainy seasons in a southern Sonoran Desert site. Results ind...

The genus Psittacanthus is distributed from Mexico to Argentina and contains ca. 110 species. The large, lipid-rich, one-seeded fruits of Psittacanthus species frequently depend on frugivorous birds for seed dispersal, however, fruit morphology of Psittacanthus (Loranthaceae) mistletoes remain poorly studied. In this study we describe the fruit mor...

For agriculture, the climate crisis will center on the key resource of fresh water. Understanding of halophytic adaptations for productivity without fresh water will open possibilities for crop production through neodomestication. Saltgrass (Distichlis spp.) is a unique genus of dioecious halophytic C4 grasses found in the PACMAD clade. They grow i...

The wild cotton, Gossypium turneri, is a rare and endemic species from the state of Sonora, Mexico, threatened by habitat destruction, tourism development, and buffelgrass invasion in the municipality of Guaymas. As a consequence, G. turneri is now classified as endangered under Mexican legislation. This study aimed to document several aspects of t...

Most Psittacanthus (Loranthaceae) mistletoes depend on frugivorous birds for seed dispersal, and the behaviour of seed dispersers strongly influences their spatial distribution. However, the timing of seed germination stages remains poorly studied. In this study, ripe fruits from nine Psittacanthus species, inhabiting contrasting habitats and host...

Mining increases environmental concentrations of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) accumulating in organisms and spreading in the human food chain—their presence in milk is of great human health concern. Pathways were identified by which these elements reach raw milk from farms within a mining area in Northwestern Mexico; health risks for dairy cat...

Cycads represent an example of the success of evolutionary stasis. Despite their early origin, they survived multiple events of mass extinction and diversified in modern tropical ecosystems during the Cenozoic without major changes in their morphology. What factors have allowed their persistence and diversification despite their conservative nature...

Yeasts are a diverse group of fungal microorganisms that are widely used to produce fermented foods and beverages. In Mexico, open fermentations are used to obtain spirits from agave plants. Despite the prevalence of this traditional practice throughout the country, yeasts have only been isolated and studied from a limited number of distilleries. T...

Buffelgrass ( Pennisetum ciliare ) has been introduced in many localities of northwestern Mexico for cattle grazing. Recent studies have documented how the conversion of natural vegetation to buffelgrass pastures affects several ecological processes that result in high levels of desertification and the subsequent abandonment of lands. However, no p...

Biochar is a carbon-rich material that can improve soil properties and has the potential for mine tailings reclamation, particularly in drylands. However, few studies have examined the effect of its production conditions (e.g., biomass and temperature) and its potential benefits in these environments. In this review, we examine its effectiveness in...

Despite the economic, ecological, and scientific importance of the genera Salix L. (willows) and Populus L. (poplars, cottonwoods, and aspens) Salicaceae, we know little about the sources of differences in species diversity between the genera and of the phylogenetic conflict that often confounds estimating phylogenetic trees. Salix subgenera and se...

Yeasts are a diverse group of fungal microorganisms that are widely used to produce fermented foods and beverages. In Mexico, open fermentations are used to obtain spirits from agave plants. Despite the prevalence of this traditional practice throughout the country, yeasts have only been isolated and studied from a limited number of distilleries. T...

Purpose Past mining activities in northwestern Mexico have left a large number of abandoned mine tailings deposits, such as in San Felipe de Jesus, Sonora, that is known to be transferring metal(oid)s to nearby agricultural fields. Given the risk and the need to implement mitigation measures, in this paper, we describe the results of two experiment...

The formation of the Baja California Peninsula (BCP) has impacted the microevolutionary dynamics of different species in ways that depend on biological traits such as dispersal capacity. Plants with relatively low levels of vagility have exhibited high genetic divergence between the BCP and Continental mainland. Brahea armata (Arecaceae) is a palm...

Despite the economic, ecological, and scientific importance of the genera Populus L. (poplars, cottonwoods, and aspens) and Salix L. Salicaceae (willows), we know little about the sources of differences in species diversity between the genera and of the phylogenetic conflict that often confounds estimating phylogenetic trees. Salix subgenera and se...

Groundwater metal pollution is a major concern in mining areas. This study proposes a new addition to the DRASTIC method (DRASTIC+Lu) to assess groundwater vulnerability to metal pollution in mining areas by combining remote sensing (to locate metal pollution sources) and the DRASTIC index. The study was performed in a mining area in northwestern M...

As mine spills are expected to increase with expanding mineral extraction, detailed studies integrating plant responses to acute spill exposure under diverse environmental conditions are increasingly important. This study examines the pattern of plant mortality caused by a mine spill that discharged 40,000 m³ of a pregnant leach solution into Tinaj...

Due to the recent increase in demand for agave-based beverages, many wild agave populations have experienced rapid decline and fragmentation, whereas cultivated plants are now managed at monocultural plantations, in some cases involving clonal propagation. We examined the relative effect of migration, genetic drift, natural selection and human acti...

Due to the recent increase in demand for agave-based beverages, many wild agave populations have experienced rapid decline and fragmentation; whereas cultivated plants are now managed at monocultural plantations, in some cases involving clonal propagation. We examined the rela-tive effect of migration, genetic drift, natural selection and human act...

We have studied the external surface (elytra) of the Sonoran Desert beetle (Eleodes eschscholtzii). Our aim was to assess whether this species has similar traits to some beetles from the Namibian Desert that are known to have hierarchical micropatterns that allow for water harvesting. We have conducted scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and apparen...

Abandoned mine wastes pollute the soil in their vicinities and threaten the health of livestock and human beings. This is the situation around San Felipe de Jesús in northwestern Mexico. We surveyed 900 ha of agricultural land to assess and map the concentrations of toxic elements in the topsoil to discover where pollution is serious, what its sour...

Simple Summary Species decline has accelerated in recent decades, with rare species often being the first to go extinct, mainly due to low population sizes. This study worked with Pachyphytum cesium (Crassulaceae), an endemic species from central Mexico threatened by human activities and climate change. To increase our knowledge of the species, we...

Groundwater metal pollution is a major concern for societies, especially in areas where the mining industry is important. Index-based techniques, as the DRASTIC index, are often used to assess the intrinsic groundwater vulnerability and could be modified to evaluate the aquifer vulnerability to specific contaminants. Mines, mining wastes and relate...

Cotton (genus Gossypium) is an important agricultural crop around the world because of its fiber. Gossypium turneri Fryxell is a wild cotton species endemic to the state of Sonora (northwestern Mexico), whose status has been recently raised to endangered in the IUCN Red List. This species has invaluable characteristics that could be useful in the c...

Latitude is correlated with environmental components that determine the distribution of biodiversity. In combination with geographic factors, latitude-associated environmental variables are expected to influence speciation, but empirical evidence on how those factors interplay is scarce. We evaluated the genetic and environmental variation among po...

Rio Sonora watershed and its aquifer-located in northwest Mexico-have been influenced by mining operations for 140 years, possibly causing emissions of potentially toxic elements (PTE) and affecting health of exposed populations. On the basis of available data from governmental surveys (2014–2017) and recent sampling (2018), this study constructed...

Manganese is ubiquitous in nature and essential for some metabolic reactions, but also it is present in the environment as a product of anthropogenic activities. Despite evidence linking high concentrations of Mn to several diseases, it is not commonly considered during environmental risk assessment of soils. Changes in chemical forms, oxidation st...

Mining operations often generate tailing dams that contain toxic residues and are a source of contamination when left unconfined. The establishment of a plant community over the tailings has been proposed as a containment strategy known as phytostabilization. Previously, we described naturally occurring mine tailing colonizing plants such as Acacia...

Past mining activities have left a legacy of abandoned mine tailing deposits whose metal contaminants poses serious risks to ecosystems and human health. While the development of a vegetated cover in mine tailings can help in mitigating these risks, the local factors limiting plant establishment in these sites are not well understood, restricting p...

BACKGROUND The synthesis gas or hydrogen‐rich gas, at longer residence times and higher temperatures, is frequently the target of pyrolysis biomass. Biochars obtained at such conditions contain less functional groups but they are more effective for longer‐term soil C storage. The aim of this study was to elucidate the adsorption mechanisms and the...

Generation, storage, and management of waste coming from industrial processes are a growing worldwide problem. One of the main contributors is the mining industry, in particular tailings generated by historical mining, which are barely maintained, especially in developing countries. Assessing the impact of a mining site to surrounding soils and eco...

Niche conservatism is the tendency of lineages to retain the same niche as their ancestors. It constrains biological groups and prevents ecological divergence. However, theory predicts that niche conservatism can hinder gene flow, strengthen drift and increase local adaptation: does it mean that it also can facilitate speciation? Why does this happ...

Buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris L.) is an African grass used as forage for livestock that is also invasive. Several methods have been evaluated to remove invasive buffel grass, but the effect of removal on establishment of native plants is poorly understood. We explore the effect of buffel grass removal treatments on the germination and establishme...

Mining is an important activity in Mexico; however, despite its economic benefits, it carries potential environmental risks, including mine spills. On August 6, 2014, ~ 40,000 cubic meters of copper sulfate acid solution was spilled from the Tinajas 1 dam of the Buenavista del Cobre mine in Cananea, Sonora, northwestern Mexico. The solution was dir...

Mining is known as one of the primary economic activities where exploitation of minerals and other materials have become essential for human development. However, this activity may represent a risk to the environment, starting from deforestation and ending with production of residues that might contain potentially toxic elements. Tailing deposits f...

Mine tailings phytostabilization has been proposed as a bioremediation strategy to constrain the contaminants dispersion using plants to limit the effects of erosion. Rhizospheric bacteria impact plant health and facilitate plant establishment through their metabolic functions, which could be relevant in bioremediation strategies. We studied both c...

Buffelgrass is an African grass commonly established in pastures in arid and semiarid regions as forage for livestock. However, once established in pastures, this grass spreads and invades adjacent habitats. We evaluated buffelgrass cover along invaded roadsides and adjacent lands in the state of Sonora, Mexico to explore how land use affect invasi...

Abandoned mine tailings are considered as one of the main sources of potentially toxic elements. Because of the lack of supervision, particularly from small-scale or artisanal mining, abandoned tailings have become part of the natural landscape, especially in rural areas from developing countries. Abandoned mine tailings represent a latent problem...

The host dependence of mistletoes suggests that they track the distributions of their hosts. However, the factors that determine the geographic distribution of mistletoes are not well understood. In this study, the phylogeography of Psittacanthus sonorae was reconstructed by sequencing one nuclear (ITS) and two plastid (trnL-F and atpB-rbcL) region...

The host-dependence of mistletoes suggests that they track the distributions of their hosts. However, the factors that determine the geographic distribution of mistletoes are not well understood. In this study, the phylogeography of Psittacanthus sonorae was reconstructed by sequencing one nuclear (ITS) and two plastid (trnL-F and atpB-rbcL) region...

Cycads are considered to be the most threatened plant group on Earth. Thus, the identification of important biological units for conservation is crucial for their management and protection. Taxonomic studies have enormously contributed to cycad conservation, since species descriptions formally recognize biodiversity components that can be considere...

The cycad genus Dioon (Zamiaceae) was described by J. Lindley in the 19th century, but most species were discovered during the late 1970s through the mid-1980s. Despite recent efforts to clarify the actual species diversity within the genus, the definition of some species is still problematic. The northernmost populations of the cycad genus Dioon i...

Agave colorata is a paniculate agave distributed along the migratory route of the nectar-feeding bat Leptonycteris yerbabuenae. In this paper, we evaluate the importance of nectar-feeding bats in the reproduction of A. colorata in a population in Sonora, Mexico, and describe the germination consequences of self-pollination. We estimated abundance u...

Background and aims: Biogeographic transition zones are promising areas to study processes of biogeographic evolution and its influence on biological groups. The Mexican transition zone originated due to the overlap of Nearctic and Neotropical biota, which promoted great biological diversification. However, since most previous studies in this area...

Interactions between extrinsic factors, such as disruptive selection, and intrinsic factors, such as genetic incompatibilities among loci, often contribute towards the maintenance of species boundaries. The relative roles of these factors in the establishment of reproductive isolation can be examined using species pairs characterized by gene flow t...

Historical factors such as climatic oscillations during the Pleistocene epoch have dramatically impacted species distributions. Studies of the patterns of genetic structure in angiosperm species using molecular markers with different modes of inheritance contribute to a better understanding of potential differences in colonization and patterns of g...

Background and aims: Aridification is considered a selective pressure that might have influenced plant diversification. It is suggested that plants adapted to aridity diversified during the Miocene, an epoch of global aridification (≈15 million years ago). However, evidence supporting diversification being a direct response to aridity is scarce, a...

Interactions between extrinsic factors, such as disruptive selection, and intrinsic factors, such as genetic incompatibilities among loci, can contribute to the maintenance of species boundaries. The relative roles of these factors in the establishment of reproductive isolation can be examined using species pairs characterized by gene flow througho...

Phytostabilization is a remediation technology that uses plants for in-situ stabilization of contamination in soils and mine tailings. The objective of this study was to identify native plant species with potential for phytostabilization of the abandoned mine tailings in Nacozari, Sonora in northern Mexico. A flora of 42 species in 16 families of a...

Raw data on the plants from the Nacozari tailings Raw data on the abundance of perennial and annual plant species, physicochemical properties of tailings, growth of Amaranthus watsonii and Prosopis velutina and metal concentration in rhizosphere and leaves of plants growing in the Nacozari tailings.

Pholisma culiacanum is a root holoparasitic plant, endemic to the Mexican states of Sinaloa and Sonora that has cultural, nutritious, biological, and evolutionary importance. This plant is an adequate agricultural model as an alternative source of nutrients and as a tool for understanding photosynthesis’ molecular changes, from autotrophism to para...

Pholisma culiacanum is a root holoparasitic plant, endemic to the Mexican states of Sinaloa and Sonora that has cultural, nutritious, biological, and evolutionary importance. This plant is an adequate agricultural model as an alternative source of nutrients and as a tool for understanding photosynthesis' molecular changes, from autotrophism to para...

Cenchrus ciliaris is one of the most important invasive plants in northwestern México and southwestern United States, threatening the conservation of desert and thorn scrub. Our knowledge about the mechanisms that underlie its capacity for invasion is limited. Here, we evaluate the effect of light, temperature, gibberellic acid, osmotic potential,...

Cacao trees have been cultivated in Mesoamerica for at least 4,000 years. In this study, we analyzed sequence variation in the chloroplast DNA trnH-psbA intergenic spacer from 28 cacao trees from different farms in the Soconusco region in southern Mexico. Genetic relationships were established by two analysis approaches based on geographic origin (...

DNA sequences of 39 Theobroma individuals Passport descriptors and sequences of chloroplast DNA trnH-psbA intergenic spacer of 39 Theobroma trees collected from Soconusco, Mexico.

DNA sequences of 39 Theobroma individuals (TXT version) Passport descriptors and sequences of chloroplast DNA trnH-psbA intergenic spacer of 39 Theobroma trees collected from Soconusco, Mexico.

The inheritance of style-morphs was investigated in tetraploid populations of tristylous Oxalis alpina (Oxalidaceae) to determine if alleles controlling style-morphs are expressed at duplicated loci. In tetraploid populations, a dominant S allele leads to expression of the short-styled phenotype at the short/non-short locus and is epistatic to the...

Previous studies have documented that flowers of some columnar cacti show equatorial orientation. However, it is unknown how general is this pattern among columnar cacti that produce lateral flowers. Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum is a species that produce lateral flowers and has a wide distribution in Mexico. In this paper we describe the pattern o...

Previous studies have documented that flowers of some columnar cacti show equatorial orientation. However, it is unknown how general is this pattern among columnar cacti that produce lateral flowers. Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum is a species that produce lateral flowers and has a wide distribution in Mexico. In this paper we describe the pattern o...

The heterostylous reproductive system of Oxalis alpina in the Galiuro Mts. of Arizona was investigated using field surveys, controlled crosses in the greenhouse, and measurements of reproductive morphs. Although populations in the Pinaleño Mts. to the immediate east and in the Santa Catalina Mts. to the immediate west have derived distylous reprodu...

In many regions of the world, land conversion of native plant communities to non-native pastures is usually associated with significant changes in soil nutrient contents. In Mexico, more than one million hectares of drylands have been converted to non-native pastures, with little knowledge on the biogeochemical consequences. We investigated the eff...

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The endemic species Dioon sonorense comprises the northernmost group of populations of Dioon, in Sonora, Mexico. Although it is endangered, only the southern populations are protected within a preservation area, while the remaining populations have not been taken into account in management plans or genealogical studies. Describing the intraspecifi...

Premise of research. Plant sexuality evolves in response to genetic and ecological pressures that shape mating systems and floral traits. Comparing such systems and traits within phylogenies can show evolutionary trends in reproduction and floral morphology without the problems posed by the nonindependence of species. We compared sexual systems in...

Una de las metas de los estudios ecológicos sobre plantas clonales es documentar la variación en el modo de reproducción entre poblaciones. Cylindropuntia fulgida es una cactácea que se propaga a través de diferentes propágulos: segmentos de tallos, frutos y semillas. En este trabajo describimos la estructura poblacional, evaluamos el potencial de...

Criollo-type cacao trees are an important pool of genes with potential to be used in cacao breeding and selection programs. For that reason, we assessed the diversity and population structure of Criollo-type trees (108 cultivars with Criollo phenotypic characteristics and 10 Criollo references) using 12 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Cultiva...

The endemic species Dioon sonorense comprises the northernmost group of populations of Dioon, in Sonora, Mexico. Although it is endangered, only the southern populations are protected within a preservation area, while the remaining populations have not been taken into account in management plans or genealogical studies. Describing the intraspecific...

Aims Plant facilitation is recognized as an important process, contributing not only to the ecology of individual species, but the diversity, organization and stability of communities as a whole. While decades of studies have enhanced our knowledge of the mechanisms contributing to plant facilitation, greater attention is now being given to the con...

We investigated the role of morph-based differences in the expression of inbreeding depression in loss of the mid-styled morph from populations of tristylous Oxalis alpina. The extent of self-compatibility (SC) of reproductive morphs, the degree of self-fertilization, and the magnitude of inbreeding depression were investigated in three populations...

Elucidating phylogenetic relationships and species boundaries within complex taxonomic groups is challenging for intrinsic and extrinsic (i.e., technical) reasons. Mexican pinyon pines are a complex group whose phylogenetic relationships and species boundaries have been widely studied but poorly resolved, partly due to intrinsic ecological and evol...

Unlabelled: • Premise of the study: Even though dioecy is a dominant sexual system among gymnosperms, little is known about its evolutionary history. Pinus johannis may represent a model system because unisexual and monoecious individuals compose its populations. The presence of unisexual individuals in other Pinus species is a consequence of se...

Background/Question/Methods Sexual systems evolve by preventing inbreeding depression and responding to ecological factors that limit fitness, such as rarity. We compared sexual systems in the monophyletic genus Ariocarpus to determine whether biogeographic rarity and reproductive traits were related. Additionally, we compared floral morphology am...