M. Leopoldina Aguirre-Macedo

Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute | Cinvestav · Departamento de Recursos del Mar (Mérida)

La diversidad de parásitos es considerada un excelente indicador de la salud del ecosistema. Debido a que un mayor número de especies de parásitos se asocia con una alta productividad e interacciones tróficas entre los organismos, lo cual resulta en una mayor transmisión de parásitos entre hospederos. El golfo de México es catalogado como una regió...

During a research of gill ectoparasites on damselfishes (Pomacentridae) and butterflyfishes (Chaetodontidae) from the Cayo Arcas reef in the Campeche Bank (Gulf of Mexico), the following monogenoids (Platyhelminthes) were found: Paraeuryhaliotrema pomacentris n. gen., n. sp. (Dactylogyridae) on beaugregory Stegastes xanthurus (Poey, 1860) (Pomacent...

We present a preliminary taxonomic survey of the metazoan parasites from meso- and bathypelagic fish hosts from the Perdido region, western Gulf of Mexico. In total, 187 individual fish were collected, belonging to five families and 12 species: Cyclothone acclinidens , Cyclothone alba , Cyclothone braueri , Cyclothone pallida , Cyclothone pseudopal...

Immature trematodes of Lecithochirium sp. are recorded for the first time as parasites of the California two-spot octopus Octopus bimaculatus from Bahía de los Ángeles, Baja California, Mexico. Thirty-nine O. bimaculatus were examined for trematodes and a total of 100 immature specimens of Lecithochirium sp. were recorded from the crop of seven inf...

Octopus maya is an endemic species of the Yucatan Peninsula. This species sustains the octopus’ fishery in the region and is the only cephalopod cultured in Mexico. It is known that O. maya harbor a large richness and abundance of metacestodes that have been tentatively identified by light microscopy alone. Since the larval stages of some orders of...

Las actividades petroleras en el Golfo de México suelen contaminar el ambiente marino con petróleo. Mediante campañas oceanográficas se obtienen las muestras de agua y sedimento de las que le analizan directamente las comunidades bacterianas nativas aplicando técnicas moleculares. Otras muestras de agua y sedimento se incuban con petróleo en el lab...

Correo-e: vvidal@cinvestav.mx La contaminación química y la salud de los organismos del Golfo de México. Para nadie es un secreto que los humanos hemos contaminado el mar por mu-chos años. En México es muy probable que ignoremos el tema porque no teníamos da-tos que nos indicaran el nivel de esa contaminación y cuán-to puede afectar nuestras vi-das...

The health status of Sciaenops ocellatus was studied by qualitative and quantitative histopathological analysis through histological damage prevalence and degree of tissue change (DTC) in response to 96 h and 9 days of exposure to 0.1, 0.8, and 8 g/L of light crude oil in seawater. The histology of the liver, spleen, kidney, and gills of the fish w...

We aimed to compare the percentage of explained variance given by the relationship of species and functional groups of metazoan parasites of the dusky flounder Syacium papillosum and environmental variables from water and sediments in the Yucatan shelf (YS). Parasite data were obtained from 127 S. papillosum specimens collected from 17 of 67 statio...

In this study, we report molecular and metabolic responses of Sciaenops ocellatus during an acute oil exposure bioassay (100, 800 and 8000 mg 1–1 of crude oil). The global DNA methylation and expression profiles of key genes of the xenobiotic biotransformation system (cytochrome P450 1A [cyp1a] and glutathione S-tranferase [gst]), oxidative stress...

Degradation efficiency of a heavy crude oil by a marine microbial consortium was evaluated in this study, with and without the addition of a chemical dispersant (Nokomis 3-F4). 15.50% of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) were removed after 15 days of incubation without dispersant, with a degradation rate of 2.39 ± 0.22 mg L⁻¹ day⁻¹. In contrast, t...

This study describes the optimization of the biodegradation of total aliphatic (tAHCs), total aromatic (tPAHs), and unresolved complex mixture (UCM) hydrocarbons from light crude oil in marine sediment. The response surface methodology (RSM), with a Box-Behnken design, was used to optimize the hydrocarbon fraction degradation, reported as degradati...

Metazoan parasites and their hosts experience the environmental influence of the seasonal presence of Western and Eastern subzones with different oceanographic conditions on the Yucatan continental shelf (YS). In addition, natural seeps and oil transport in the area lead to the presence of hydrocarbons. We hypothesized that the parasite infrapopula...

Oiling scenarios following spills vary in concentration and usually can affect large coastal areas. Consequently, this research evaluated different crude oil concentrations (10, 40, and 80 mg L−1) on the nearshore phytoplanktonic community in the southern Gulf of Mexico. This experiment was carried out for ten days using eight units of 2500 L each;...

Las comunidades planctónicas en el ambiente marino son potenciales indicadores que permiten evaluar el impacto de los hidrocarburos ante un derrame de petróleo. Esto se debe a la relación intrínseca entre bacterias y microalgas ya que estos grupos tienen un papel clave en los ciclos biogeoquímicos, en la productividad primaria y son la base de las...

We assessed the performance of taxonomic and several functional trait-based approaches in the assessment of spatial and temporal patterns of dusky flounder (Siacyum papillosum) parasite assemblages along the Yucatan shelf to determine their potential as bioindicators of marine chemical pollution. Fish specimens were collected throughout three resea...

Microbial Diversity in Coastal Ecosystems and Assessment of Elevated Water Temperature and Acidification in Microbial Mats

This study investigates the community composition, structure, and abundance of sulfate-reducing microorganisms (SRM) in surficial sediments of the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico (NWGoM) along a bathymetric gradient. For these purposes, Illumina sequencing and quantitative PCR (qPCR) of the dissimilatory sulfite reductase gene beta subunit (dsrB gene)...

Mollusk diversity in coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) has been studied extensively, but this is not the case for deep-water habitats. We present the first quantitative characterization of mollusks in shallow and deep waters of the Perdido Fold Belt. The data came from two research cruises completed in 2017. Sediment samples were collected...

En este capítulo se presenta los resultados de la evaluación de la vulnerabilidad de A. lineatus y S. ocellatus a petróleo en función de la concentración y del tiempo de exposición. El uso de curvas temporales de vulnerabilidad permitió cuantificar en una escala única los efectos de los contaminantes del petróleo sobre los diferentes niveles de org...

En este tomo se presentó información de la evaluación de vulnerabilidad ecológica de ecosistemas marinos y sus componentes en el golfo de México, además de haber cuantificado la intensidad de interacción espacial y posibles impactos potenciales de derrames de petróleo sobre estos ecosistemas desde un conjunto de pozos propuestos por Petróleos Mexic...

El golfo de México (GM) es uno de los Grandes Ecosistemas del mundo, que brinda servicios ambientales relacionados con la producción de alimento por la pesca y acuicultura, turismo, vías náuticas, y que es considerado como una de las regiones de mayor producción de petróleo del mundo (Botello, 2005; Murawski et al., 2019). Las actividades relaciona...

El golfo de México (GM) y el mar Caribe (MC) son importantes cuerpos de agua que proporcionan una fuente de recursos alimenticios; sin embargo, para algunas regiones del norte y sur de dicha zona se han detectado presencia de patógenos potenciales en organismos silvestres y cultivados. En esta revisión recopilamos toda la información disponible sob...

We present a time series of 13 years (2003–2016) of continuous monthly data on the prevalence and mean abundance of the trematode Oligogonotylus mayae for all the hosts involved in its life cycle. We aimed to determine whether annual (or longer than annual) environmental fluctuations affect these infection parameters of O. mayae in its intermediate...

Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) and increased variation in bilateral symmetry in a sample of monogeneans can indicate disturbance in developmental stability caused by environmental and/or genomic stress. This study was conducted to determine the presence of FA in the sclerotized structures of Haliotrematoides spp. (Monogenea) collected along the contine...

The oceanographic conditions of the Pacific Ocean are largely modified by El Niño (EN), affecting several ecological processes. Parasites and other marine organisms respond to environmental variation, but the influence of the EN cycle on the seasonal variation of parasitic copepods has not been yet evaluated. We analysed the relation between infect...

Adults of trematodes in the genus Xystretrum Linton, 1910 (Gorgoderidae, Gorgoderinae) are parasites found exclusively in the urinary bladders of tetraodontiform fishes. However, limited and unclear morphological data were used to describe the type species, X. solidum Linton, 1910. Here, we present the first detailed morphological information for a...

Here, we present the results of a taxonomic survey of the nematodes parasitizing fishes from the lagoon flats of Palmyra Atoll, Eastern Indo-Pacific. We performed quantitative parasitological surveys of 653 individual fish from each of the 44 species using the intertidal sand flats that border the atoll’s lagoon. We provide morphological descriptio...

The Gulf of Mexico (GoM) is exposed to a diversity of contaminants, such as hydrocarbons and heavy metal(oid)s, either from natural sources or as a result of uncontrolled coastal urbanisation and industrialisation. To determine the effect of these contaminants on the marine biota along the Mexican GoM, the biological responses of the shoal flounder...

Marine microbial communities might be subjected to accidental petroleum spills; however, some bacteria can degrade it, making these specific bacteria valuable for bioremediation from petroleum contamination. Thus, characterizing the microbial communities exposed to varying types of petroleum is essential. We evaluated five enriched microbial commun...

The southern Gulf of Mexico (sGoM) is highly susceptible to receiving environmental impacts due to the recent increase in oil-related activities. In this study, we assessed the changes in the bacterioplankton community structure caused by a simulated oil spill at mesocosms scale. The 16S rRNA gene sequencing analysis indicated that the initial bact...

Despite the diversity and ecological importance of cestodes, there is a paucity of studies on their life stages (i.e., complete lists of intermediate, paratenic and definitive hosts) and genetic variation. For example, in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) 98 species of cestodes have been reported to date; however, data on their intraspecific genetic variati...

The invasive alien species (IAS) and adult trematode parasite of reptiles, birds and mammals (including humans), Haplorchis pumilio (Looss, 1896), is recorded for the first time from Yucatán state in Mexico. The ornamental freshwater fish species, Carassius auratus ("goldfish") from pet shops from Mérida City, were necropsied to search for parasite...

Background We assessed metrics of the metazoan parasite infracommunities of the dusky flounder (Syacium papillosum) as indicators of aquatic environmental health of the Yucatan Shelf (YS) prior to oil extraction. We sampled the dusky flounder and its parasites along the YS, mostly during the 2015 north wind season (November–April). Our aims were: (...

Los parásitos son un componente importante de cualquier ecosistema ya que, regulan las poblaciones de sus hospederos, incrementan las interacciones entre las especies en la cadena alimenticia y son buenos indicadores de la estabilidad del ecosistema. El conocimiento sobre la distribución espacial y temporal de estas poblaciones parasitarias provee...

Aims The aim of this study was to investigate the dynamic changes in the bacterial structure and potential interactions of an acclimatized marine microbial community during a light crude oil degradation experiment. Methods and results The bacterial community effectively removed 76.49% of total petroleum hydrocarbons after 30 days, as evidenced by...

In this work, the characterization of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) PHB produced by Halomonas salina isolated from a hypersaline microbial mat from Guerrero Negro, Baja California Sur, Mexico, is reported. The bacterial strain was able to produce isotactic PHB biopolymer with glucose (1%) as a single carbon source. The chemical structure of the polymer o...

We surveyed copepods parasitic on the fishes at Palmyra, a remote atoll in the Central Indo-Pacific faunal region. In total, we collected 849 individual fish, representing 44 species, from the intertidal lagoon flats at Palmyra and recovered 17 parasitic copepod species. The parasitic copepods were: Orbitacolaxwilliamsi on Mulloidichthysflavolineat...

Despite the economic and ecologic importance of Mexican four-eyed Octopus maya and the jumbo squid Dosidicus gigas, the pathogens and diseases in both species remain largely unknown. This chapter covers the pathogens and diseases, mainly protozoan and metazoan parasites, of these two non-European cephalopods.

Abstract Marine microorganisms represent the greatest percentage of marine species. Since they have to adapt to changing environmental conditions, such as high or low pH, temperature, pressure and limited substrate, marine microorganisms produced a wide range of metabolites that cannot be found elsewhere. Over the years, marine bacteria have provid...

Volumen 4-Número 2 ¿Quiénes son los microorganismos? Más allá de lo que apreciamos con la mirada, todos los alrededores están repletos de pequeños seres imperceptibles. No estamos hablando, por supuesto, de hadas, troles o pitufos diminutos, sino de bacterias, microalgas y protozoarios esparcidos por el ambiente. El descubrimiento de la existencia...

The Mexican region of the Perdido Fold Belt (PFB), in northwestern Gulf of Mexico (GoM), is a geological province with important oil reservoirs that will be subjected to forthcoming oil exploration and extraction activities. To date, little is known about the native microbial communities of this region, and how these change relative to water depth....

DGGE fingerprinting and phylogenetic analysis of sequenced bands (A) DGGE band pattern from bacterial communities through the depth gradient based on the V3 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene. Triangles indicate sequenced bands. The names of the stations are indicated in the bottom. (B) Phylogenetic tree of sequenced DGGE bands (∼200 pb, in...

Relative abundances of microbial communities at genus taxonomic level

Permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) results for the identification of physicochemical variables correlated with the microbial community structure (p-value <0.05)

Number of reads that passed >Q20 per sample. The total reads passed quality filter in this study were 457,248

Pearson correlation coefficients among environmental variables: depth (m), total sulfur (TS, uM), redox (mV), total organic matter (TOM, %), total organic carbon (TOC, uM), sand (%), lime (%) and clay (%)