Gabriela Castellanos-Morales

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• Ph.D.
• Researcher at El Colegio de la Frontera Sur

The hypothesis that endemic species could have originated by the isolation and divergence of peripheral populations of widespread species can be tested through the use of ecological niche models (ENMs) and statistical phylogeography. The joint use of these tools provides complementary perspectives on historical dynamics and allows testing hypothese...

Knowledge of the role of geographical and ecological events associated to the divergence process of wild progenitors is important to understand the process of domestication. We analysed the temporal, spatial and ecological patterns of the diversification of Cucurbita, an American genus of worldwide economic importance. We conducted a phylogenetic a...

Molecular data is useful to determine the taxonomic identity and origin of invasive species. A reliable identification and a complete reference database are key for the adequate management of invasive species. South American suckermouth armored catfish (Pterygoplichthys spp.) are invasive species that cause severe environmental and socioeconomic im...

This preprint is available for download at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4770266. Abstract: The Merriam’s long-tongued bat, Glossophaga mutica, and the Western long-tongued bat, Glossophaga morenoi, are two of nine species in the genus Glossophaga within the speciose neotropical family Phyllostomidae. In this study, we devel...

Social Impact Statement The genetic variation of crop wild relatives will be key for our survival, as environmental change represents an increasing global threat for agriculture and food security. Cucurbita lundelliana and Cucurbita okeechobeensis subsp. martinezii are wild relatives of cultivated squashes and pumpkins that could be used for crop i...

Los murciélagos nectarívoros salen al atardecer y buscan flores para alimentarse. Cuando visitan varias flores, transfieren polen entre ellas, y así facilitan la reproducción de muchas plantas que dependen de esta interacción. Como polinizadores clave, contribuyen al equilibrio y la diversidad de los ecosistemas en los que habitan...

Length-weight relationship and condition factor (K) are descriptors of the biology of fish populations, providing fundamental information on growth strategies, nutritional status, and reproduction. These parameters are used to compare the condition of fish populations in aquatic systems with different degrees of anthropogenic intervention. This stu...

Background Genomic resource development for non-model organisms is rapidly progressing, seeking to uncover molecular mechanisms and evolutionary adaptations enabling thriving in diverse environments. Limited genomic data for bat species hinder insights into their evolutionary processes, particularly within the diverse Myotis genus of the Vespertili...

Guava (Psidium guajava L.) is a semi-domesticated fruit tree of moderate importance in the Neotropics, utilized for millennia due to its nutritional and medicinal benefits, but its origin of domestication remains unknown. In this study, we examine genetic diversity and population structure in 215 plants from 11 countries in Mesoamerica, the Andes,...

Cucurbita ficifolia is a squash grown from Mexico to Bolivia. Its ancestor is unknown, but it has limited compatibility with wild xerophytic Cucurbita from Mexico’s highlands. We assembled the reference genome of C. ficifolia and assessed the genetic diversity and historical demography of the crop in Mexico with 2524 nuclear single nucleotide polym...

Despite multiple conservation efforts of the Mexican government, the leatherback turtle is at serious risk of extinction. In this study, we investigated the possible presence of a genetic bottleneck that could prevent the recovery of this species and compared these findings with those of the olive ridley turtle, which is in true recovery. Our resul...

The recent emergence of the pathogen Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) is associated with rapid population declines of salamanders in Europe and its arrival to new areas could cause dramatic negative effects on other amphibian populations and species. Amphibian species, present in areas with high amphibian diversity such as Mexico, could be...

Plant genomes contain huge troves of information, and nowadays molecular tools to analyze genomes are less expensive and keep improving. In this review, we aimed to produce a “roadmap” to take advantage of this explosion of molecular methods and opportunities. We explain how to decide which strategies are adequate for a given evolutionary or taxono...

The most recent glacial cycles of the Pleistocene affected the distribution, population sizes, and levels of genetic structure of temperate-forest species in the main Mexican mountain systems. Our objective was to investigate the effects these cycles had on the genetic structure and distribution of a dominant species of the “mexical” vegetation acr...

Ensuring food security is one of the world's most critical issues as agricultural sys�tems are already being impacted by global change. Crop wild relatives (CWR)—wild plants related to crops—possess genetic variability that can help adapt agriculture to a changing environment and sustainably increase crop yields to meet the food security challenge....

Leptonycteris yerbabuenae , the lesser long-nosed bat is an abundant migratory nectar-feeding bat found in most of Mexico, and in some areas of northern Central America and small sections of southwestern USA. We analyzed the distribution of the maternal and paternal lineages of this species with phylogeographic methods based on two mitochondrial ma...

Societal Impact Statement Crop wild relatives (CWR) are plant taxa closely related to crops and are a source of high genetic diversity that can help adapt crops to the impacts of global change, particularly to meet increasing consumer demand in the face of the climate crisis. CWR provide vital ecosystem services and are increasingly important for f...

Gene flow among crops and their wild relatives is an active study area in evolutionary biology and horticulture, because genetic exchange between them may impact their evolutionary trajectories and increase the genetic variation of the cultivated lineages. Mexico is a center of diversity for the genus Cucurbita that includes pumpkins, squash and go...

Despite their economic importance and well-characterized domestication syndrome, the genomic impact of domestication and the identification of variants underlying the domestication traits in Cucurbita species (pumpkins and squashes) is currently lacking. Cucurbita argyrosperma, also known as cushaw pumpkin or silver-seed gourd, is a Mexican crop co...

With more than 200 species, the genus Agave is one of the most interesting and complex groups of plants in the world, considering for instance its great diversity and adaptations. The adaptations include the production of a single, massive inflorescence (the largest among plants) where after growing for many years, sometimes more than 30, the roset...

Despite their economic importance and well-characterized domestication syndrome, the genomic impact of domestication and the identification of variants underlying the domestication traits in Cucurbita species (pumpkins and squashes) is currently lacking. Cucurbita argyrosperma, also known as cushaw pumpkin or silver-seed gourd, is a Mexican crop co...

IUCN red list Cucurbita foetidissima

Premise: Domestication usually involves local adaptation to environmental conditions. Cucurbita species are a promising model for studying these processes. Cucurbita moschata is the third major crop in the genus because of its economic value and because it displays high landrace diversity, but research about its genetic diversity, population struc...

Ex situ conservation aims to maintain healthy captive populations that eventually can be used as source populations for reintroductions to the wild. It is fundamental to develop adequate breeding and reproduction programs that minimize the loss of genetic variation, but in many cases a studbook is lacking or unavailable. Nevertheless, molecular dat...

Genetic depletion is one of the main problems associated with biodiversity loss affecting the adaptation and survival of populations and species to rapidly changing conditions. In this contribution, we approximate expected loss of genetic variation in black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) colonies from the Janos Biosphere Reserve (norther...

Twenty-nine DNA regions of plastid origin have been previously identified in the mitochondrial genome of Cucurbita pepo (pumpkin; Cucurbitaceae). Four of these regions harbor homolog sequences of rbcL, matK, rpl20–rps12 and trnL–trnF, which are widely used as molecular markers for phylogenetic and phylogeographic studies. We extracted the mitochond...

INTRODUCCIÓN Y JUSTIFICACIÓN. Chirostoma humboldtianum Valenciennes 1835, es un pez blanco, lacustre que habita de manera discontinua en sistemas lénticos, desde el Estado de México hasta Nayarit, México, a lo largo de la cuenca del Río Lerma-Santiago, región caracterizada por un alto grado de urbanización e industrialización, afectando en diferent...

Cucurbita pepo is an economically important crop, which consists of cultivated C. pepo ssp. pepo, and two wild taxa (C. pepo ssp. fraterna and C. pepo ssp. ovifera). We aimed at understanding the domestication and the diversity of C. pepo in Mexico. We used two chloroplast regions and nine nuclear microsatellite loci to assess the levels of genetic...

The Cuatro Ciénegas Basin (CCB) in the state of Coahuila, Mexico, is a very diverse ecosystem with high endemism of flora and fauna. It is included in the Ramsar list of wetlands and considered as a priority area for conservation by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). This site is located within the Chihuahuan Desert (CD) in an isolated area surrounded...

La domesticación de plantas y animales permite estudiar diferentes procesos evolutivos, como la selección, adaptación y especiación. En este artículo se describen avances recientes en el estudio de las calabazas, las cuales constituyen el género Cucurbita (Cucurbitaceae) siendo un grupo de plantas herbáceas americanas que incluyen entre 12 y 15 esp...

Studies in evolutionary biology have commonly been focused on insular systems because of their natural geographic isolation and relatively simpler biotas. Using mitochondrial DNA sequences of 4 passerine bird species distributed in the Tres Marías Archipelago (TMA) and the nearby mainland of western Mexico-Cardinalis cardinalis, Turdus rufopalliatu...

Analyses of genetic variation allow understanding the origin, diversification and genetic resources of cultivated plants. Domesticated taxa and their wild relatives are ideal systems for studying genetic processes of plant domestication and their joint is important to evaluate the distribution of their genetic resources. Such is the case of the dom...

An important step in species conservation is to identify populations that significantly contribute to it. Considering both in situ and ex situ populations provides an integrated approach to the preservation of a species’ evolutionary potential. The joint use of molecular and environmental analyses allows conservation schemes to be implemented when...

CONCLUSIONES: • Se encontraron dos linajes con el marcador de cloroplasto, apoyando la hipótesis de dos eventos de domesticación ya que existe una división genética entre las poblaciones comerciales y silvestres del sur de E.U.A. y las de México • En México existe poca variación genética, debido a un efecto de cuello de botella asociado a un even...

Aim The history of Agave lechuguilla , a characteristic and dominant plant of the Chihuahuan Desert, was reconstructed in order to determine the importance of the Neogene orogenic uplift and the Quaternary glacial–interglacial climatic changes on the genetic patterns of a native Chihuahuan Desert species. Location Chihuahuan Desert, Mexico and Uni...

Species of restricted distribution are considered more vulnerable to extinction because of low levels of genetic variation relative to widespread taxa. Species of the subgenus Cynomys are an excellent system to compare genetic variation and degree of genetic structure in contrasting geographic distributions. We assessed levels of genetic variation,...

Across North America, anthropogenically induced habitat fragmentation has led to a severe decline in populations of black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus). Although the area occupied by black-tailed prairie dogs in Chihuahua, northwestern Mexico, also has recently declined, this site remains comparatively unaffected by human disturbance....

ABSTRACT: Habitat fragmentation is one of the main causes of biodiversity loss, and when effective population size decreases and gene flow is interrupted, loss of genetic variability is promoted by the effect of inbreeding and genetic drift, which increases the extinction probability of populations and species. The objective of this study was to as...

The ringtail cat (Bassariscus astutus) and the gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) are generalist species which are often found in urban environments. In this study we evaluated the use of resources by both species in the Reserva Ecológica del Pedregal de San Ángel de Ciudad Universitaria, in the south of Mexico City. The average home range size, e...

The “El Pedregal de San Angel” Ecological Reserve is the last relict of a malpais originated with the eruption of the Xitle. This 147 ha reserve is located within one of the largest cities of the world, Mexico City, and harbors a population of ring-tailed cat (Bassariscus astutus). Species for which little has been published, despite its wide distr...

The “El Pedregal de San Angel” Ecological Reserve is the last relict of a malpais originated with the eruption of the Xitle volcano. This 237 ha reserve is located within Mexico City, one of the largest cities of the world, and harbors a population of ring-tailed cat (Bassariscus astutus). Species for which little has been published, despite its wi...