Heron Hilário

Federal University of Minas Gerais | UFMG · Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia

Four yeast isolates were obtained from rotting wood and galleries of passalid beetles collected in different sites of the Brazilian Amazonian Rainforest in Brazil. This yeast produces unconjugated allantoid asci each with a single elongated ascospore with curved ends. Sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer‐5.8 S region and the D1/D2 d...

O objetivo deste protocolo é orientar sobre a coleta de amostras de água para empregar a técnica de DNA ambiental (eDNA) metabarcoding. Nesta metodologia empregamos os filtros Sterivex, que permitem uma filtragem no local de coleta, com fácil manuseio, menor risco de contaminação e uma melhor preservação de DNA ambiental nas amostras. Este protocol...

The study of ichthyoplankton is paramount to understanding fish assemblages' reproductive dynamics. DNA metabarcoding has been applied as a rapid, cost‐effective, and accurate taxonomy tool, allowing the identification of multiple individuals simultaneously. However, there remain significant challenges when using DNA metabarcoding, such as molecula...

In South America, knowledge of major spawning sites is crucial for maintaining migratory fish populations. In this study, we aimed to understand the spatio-temporal distribution of fish eggs in the upper São Francisco River using high sampling frequency and DNA metabarcoding identification. We evaluated the possible effects of the non-molecular ide...

Despite the increasing popularity of DNA metabarcoding in the assessment of aquatic ecosystems using fish eDNA or ichthyoplankton, challenges have hampered its broader application in the Neotropical freshwaters. Using five mock communities composed of fish species from two Neotropical River basins, we evaluated the influence of DNA concentration an...

The study of ichthyoplankton is paramount to understanding fish assemblages’ reproductive dynamics. DNA metabarcoding has been applied as a rapid, cost-effective, and accurate taxonomy tool, allowing the identification of multiple individuals simultaneously. However, there remain significant challenges when using DNA metabarcoding, such as molecula...

Gaining knowledge on bees is of the utmost importance due to the paramount role that they play in angiosperm pollination. Herein, we provide the first genome assembly of Colletes collaris, a pan-Eurasian cellophane bee. We sequenced 50.53 Gbp of long-read data plus 57.36 Gbp of short-read data in Oxford Nanopore Technologies and Illumina platforms,...

In a previous study, we found that Positive Reinforcement Training reduced cortisol of wolves and dogs; however, this effect varied across trainer–animal dyads. Here we investigate whether and how the trainers’ use of speech may contribute to this effect. Dogs’ great interest in high-pitched, intense speech (also known as Dog Directed Speech) has a...

Despite the increasing popularity of DNA metabarcoding in the assessment of aquatic ecosystems using fish eDNA or ichthyoplankton, challenges have hampered its broader application in the Neotropical freshwaters. Using five mock communities composed of fish species from two Neotropical river basins, we evaluated the influence of DNA concentration an...

The following protocol covers the steps for extracting environmental DNA from MCE and Sterivex filters (Merck, cat. no. SVGP01050) using the Dneasy PowerWater Sterivex kit (Qiagen, cat. no. 14600-50-nf). This protocol has been adapted from the kit manufacturer to improve eDNA recovery. This protocol was developed and tested, and proved to be succes...

Bioinformatics is a fast-evolving research field, requiring effective educational initiatives to bring computational knowledge to Life Sciences. Since 2017, an organizing committee composed of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Brazil) promotes a week-long event named Summer Course in Bioin...

Devido ao advento da pandemia de COVID-19, eventos acadêmicos passaram a ocorrer em plataformas online. Entretanto, diferente dos eventos presenciais, eventos pela internet limitam a interação entre participantes. Aqui, é apresentada uma estratégia de gamificação usada para ampliar o engajamento dos participantes durante o I Workshop Online de Bioi...

The Neotropical fish genus Prochilodus includes five species occurring in the main drainages of the eastern Brazilian Shield: P. argenteus, P. costatus, P. lineatus, P. harttii, and P. vimboides. Multi and single locus phylogenies have questioned the monophyly of P. costatus and P. lineatus, and the biogeographic history of these species in the Bra...

Species richness is a metric of biodiversity usually used in fish community assessment for monitoring programs. This metric is often obtained using traditional fisheries methods that rely on capture of target organisms, resulting in underestimation of fish species. DNA metabarcoding has been recognized as a powerful noninvasive alternative tool for...

The study of ichthyoplankton composition, abundance and distribution is paramount to understand the reproductive dynamics of local fish assemblages. The analysis of these parameters allows the identification of spawning sites, nursery areas and migration routes. However, due to the lack of characters in early life stages, the morphological identifi...

Yeast communities associated with cacti were studied in three ecosystems of Southeast, Central and North Brazil. A total of 473 yeast strains belonging to 72 species were isolated from 190 samples collected. Cactophilic yeast species were prevalent in necrotic tissues, flowers, fruits and insects of cacti collected in Southeast and North Brazil. Pi...

Antarctica is a reservoir of microbial biodiversity that has only partially been characterized. The same extreme conditions that hinder the scientific investigation of the continent have also selected organisms with remarkable adaptations and promising biotechnological applications. Fungi are widely recognized as being capable of producing a variet...

Here we report the draft genome sequence of Metschnikowia australis strain UFMG-CM-Y6158, a yeast endemic to Antarctica. We isolated the strain from the marine seaweed Acrosiphonia arcta (Chlorophyta). The genome is 14.3 Mb long and contains 4,442 predicted protein-coding genes. T he genus Metschnikowia comprises a clade consisting of approximately...

We present the draft genome sequence of the type strain of the yeast Sugiyamaella xylanicola UFMG-CM-Y1884T (= UFMG-CA-32.1T = CBS 12683T), a xylan-degrading species capable of fermenting d-xylose to ethanol. The assembled genome has a size of ~ 13.7 Mb and a GC content of 33.8% and contains 5971 protein-coding genes. We identified 15 genes with si...

Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease, is extremely resistant to ionizing radiation, enduring up to 1.5 kGy of gamma rays. Ionizing radiation can damage the DNA molecule both directly, resulting in double-strand breaks, and indirectly, as a consequence of reactive oxygen species production. After a dose of 500 Gy of gamma rays, t...

The enrichment analysis is a standard procedure to interpret ‘omics’ experiments that generate large gene lists as outputs, such as transcriptomics and protemics. However, despite the huge success of enrichment analysis in these classes of experiments, there is a surprising lack of application of this methodology to survey other categories of large...