Marcos A. Caraballo-Ortiz

Smithsonian Institution

Background and Aims Biological aspects of haustorial parasitism have significant effects on the configuration of the plastid genome. Approximately half the diversity of haustorial parasites belongs to the order Santalales, where a clearer picture of plastome evolution in relation to parasitism is starting to emerge. However, in previous studies of...

Cassytha is the sole genus of hemiparasitic vines (ca. 20 spp.) belonging to the Cassytheae tribe of the Lauraceae family. It is extensively distributed in tropical and subtropical regions. In this study, we determined the complete plastid genome sequences of C. filiformis and C. larsenii, which do not possess the typical quadripartite structure. T...

Dendrophthora kuijtiana (Santalaceae), a new species of mistletoe endemic to the páramos and subpáramos of the Venezuelan Andes, is described and illustrated. We discuss aspects of its ecology, and taxonomic affinities with Dendrophthora davidsei. In addition, we report a new record (D. paucifolia) and two updates (D. karuaiana y D. warmingii) to D...

Apocynum pictum of the dogbane family, Apocynaceae, is a perennial semi-shrub species of ecological, medicinal, and economic value. It is mainly distributed in semi-arid, saline-alkaline, and desert regions of Xinjiang, Qinghai, and Gansu of western China and adjacent regions from Kazakhstan and Mongolia. Here, we reported the complete chloroplast...

Motivation: Building reliable phylogenies from very large collections of sequences with a limited number of phylogenetically informative sites is challenging because sequencing errors and recurrent/backward mutations interfere with the phylogenetic signal, confounding true evolutionary relationships. Massive global efforts of sequencing genomes an...

The extensive forests over limestone of the Samar Island Natural Park (SINP) on Samar Island, Philippines harbour a rich variety of unique species. In this contribution, we describe and illustrate a new Loranthaceous mistletoe, endemic to Samar Island named Decaisnina tomentosa , representing the 12th member of the genus reported to the Philippines...

Dracocephalum heterophyllum (Lamiaceae: tribe Mentheae) is an annual aromatic herb native to East Asia with a long record of human uses, including medicinal, alimentary, and ornamental values. However, no information is available about its molecular biology, and no genomic study has been performed on D. heterophyllum. Here, we report the complete c...

Motivation Building reliable phylogenies from very large collections of sequences with a limited number of phylogenetically informative sites is challenging because sequencing errors and recurrent/backward mutations interfere with the phylogenetic signal, confounding true evolutionary relationships. Massive global efforts of sequencing genomes and...

We examined predispersal granivory in common and rare bird-dispersed plants in two tropical and two temperate communities. Our results show that the prevalence and intensity of predispersal granivory are higher in tropical communities and for smaller seeds. Results also show no effect of plant species' relative abundance on granivory. Examinamos...

Global sequencing of hundreds of thousands of genomes of Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, SARS-CoV-2, has continued to reveal new genetic variants that are the key to unraveling its early evolutionary history and tracking its global spread over time. Here, we present the heretofore cryptic mutational history and spatiotemporal dynam...

Here we describe a new species of Pisonia (Caryophyllales: Nyctaginaceae) from Jamaica, named P. jamaicensis Proctor ex Caraballo, K.Campbell, & S.Cross, restricted to limestone hills in the central and western part of the island. The species description is complemented with an illustration, pictures, a distribution map, and notes on its biology an...

Family treatment of the Loranthaceae family for the book "Lianas and Climbing Plants of the Neotropics".

Ixora finlaysoniana is native to China, India and parts of Indochina. Across the tropics it is also commonly cultivated as an ornamental tree or shrub, mainly restricted to gardens and urban areas. It has the potential to spread long distances through trade as an ornamental, however natural dispersal is thought to occur only over short distances. C...

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, SARS-CoV-2, was quickly identified as the cause of COVID-19 disease soon after its earliest reports. The knowledge of the contemporary evolution of SARS-CoV-2 is urgently needed not only for a retrospective on how, when, and why COVID-19 has emerged and spread, but also for creating remedies through...

Two new species of Canellaceae from Brazil, Cinnamodendron brasiliense and Cinnamodendron catarinense, are here described. These species are known from the Atlantic Forest in the States of São Paulo (southeastern Brazil) and Santa Catarina (southern Brazil), respectively. Cinnamodendron brasiliense shares morphological similarities with C. occhioni...

Several genera of Nyctaginaceae, currently merged under Pisonia , have been described for the Indo-Pacific region. Results from a recent molecular phylogenetic study of tribe Pisonieae showed that Pisonia is non-monophyletic and comprises three well-supported lineages: one including typical Pisonia and allies ( Pisonia s.str.), a clade of species w...

Background: Pedicularis longiflora var. tubiformis (Orobanchaceae) is an abundant parasitic herb mainly found in the Xiaopohu wetland of the Qinghai Lake Basin in Northwestern China. The species has an important local medicinal value, and in this study, we evaluated the chemical profile of its stems, leaves and seeds using mass spectrometry. Method...

Two new species of Dendrophthora Eichler (Viscaceae) from northwestern Venezuela are described and illustrated. Both mistletoes, D. apiculata Canelón et al., sp. nov. and D. coronata Canelón et al., sp. nov. , are confined to subpáramo and páramo ecosystems of the Venezuelan Andes and are, at present, only known from Guaramacal National Park (Portu...

Since its description almost 40 years ago, the mistletoe Cladocolea biflora (Loranthaceae) has been considered an extraordinary species due to its combinations of unique morphological characters, which made it difficult to confidently assign it to any of the extant genera of Neotropical Loranthaceae. In this contribution, we propose that the specim...

The enigmatic ‘Spectacled Flowerpecker’—a probable new bird species from the island of Borneo—was first sighted in the Danum Valley of Sabah, Malaysia in 2009. However, the absence of a holotype specimen has prevented its formal scientific description. Since then only a handful of reports from widely disparate localities across the island have emer...

The rare Caribbean mistletoe Antidaphne wrightii was known in Puerto Rico from a single historical collection by Paul E.E. Sintenis (5347) made on October 30, 1886 at Sierra de Naguabo on the eastern side of the island. Since then, this mistletoe has been considered extremely rare and possibly extirpated. Here we report the rediscovery of the speci...

Premise of the Study The fossil record of Agathis historically has been restricted to Australasia. Recently described fossils from the Eocene of Patagonian Argentina showed a broader distribution than found previously, which is reinforced here with a new early Paleocene Agathis species from Patagonia. No previous phylogenetic analyses have include...

We sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of Panthera pardus from Northern China by the shotgun genome skimming methods. The mitogenome of P. pardus is 16,962 bp in length with a base composition of 31.8% A, 27.1% T, 26.5% C and 14.6% G, and consists of 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, two rRNA genes, and one non-coding con...

Buchnera aphidicola is a primary symbiotic bacterium which provides essential amino acids to aphids. In this study, we sequenced nuclear 16s rDNA and atpAGD genes for 156 individuals of B. aphidicola from eight geographically distant populations to investigate the genetic diversity and structure of B. aphidicola associated to the sumac gall aphid S...

In this paper, we describe two endemic tree species of Pisonia (Caryophyllales: Nyctaginaceae) from Puerto Rico that were erroneously catalogued under the single name Pisonia subcordata var. typica f. gigantophylla, misidentified as P. albida or P. subcordata, and informally named as " P. borinquena " and " P. woodburyana ". The species here named...

This datasheet on Ixora finlaysoniana covers Identity, Overview, Distribution, Dispersal, Diagnosis, Biology & Ecology, Environmental Requirements, Impacts, Uses, Further Information.

The interplay between dispersal and adaptation to local environments ultimately determines the distribution of plant species, but their relative contribution remains little understood. Tropical mistletoes provide the opportunity to dissect these contributions of dispersal and adaptation, because as hemiparasitic plants, they are typically adapted t...

Parasitic plants, especially living examples that challenge standard botanical teachings of what parts and processes comprise a plant, are also extremely interesting to students of any age. This article will highlight cultivation methods for parasites from three plant families (Orobanchaceae, Convolvulaceae and Loranthaceae) that are grown and stud...

Eugenia fragrans var.? fajardensis was described in 1895 and raised to species status in 1923 as E. fajardensis. In 1925, it was relegated to the synonymy of Anamomis fragrans (Myrcianthes fragrans). Since 2001, we have re-discovered wild plants and herbarium specimens, including a previously unidentified isotype of E. fajardensis, supporting the v...

In this contribution the rediscovery of the lianas Arrabidaea chica (Bignoniaceae) and Entada polystachya var. polyphylla (Fabaceae-Mimosoideae) in Puerto Rico is reported. These species were first collected during the 1880s and subsequently considered extirpated. Their current status in Puerto Rico is discussed, and recommendations for their conse...

The dispersal and survival of seeds are two of the main factors limiting forest regeneration in tropical pastures of anthropogenic origin. Here we report on the quantity, diversity, and predation rates of seeds dispersed by birds in a pasture in northern Puerto Rico. From May through August of 2009, we sampled the bird-generated seed rain under iso...

On 25 November 1885 German botanist Paul Ernst Emil Sintenis collected a species of mistletoe in a coffee plantation in Aibonito, a municipality located in the central mountain range of Puerto Rico (Sintenis 2856, GOET). Ignatius Urban examined the specimen and name it Dendropemon sintenisii Krug & Urban (Urban 1897: 25) in honor of its collector....

Pollinator visits to flowers of self-incompatible tropical trees are critical for plant fecundity. However, few studies have examined how much of the variance in tropical tree fecundity is explained by individual attributes of trees (e.g. number of flowers), and how much is due to contextual variables such as distances to nearest flowering neighbou...

The impact of introduced species on native organisms is one of the main conservation concerns around the world. To fully understand the effect of introduced pollinators on native plants, it is important to know the reproductive biology of the focal species, especially its pollination biology. In this study we examined the breeding system of the end...

Land-use history and large-scale disturbances interact to shape secondary forest structure and composition. How introduced species respond to disturbances such as hurricanes in post-agriculture forest recovery is of particular interest. To examine the effects of hurricane disturbance and previous land use on forest dynamics and composition, we revi...