Publications by authors named "I Giffard-Mena"

Premise: Clines-or the geographic sorting of phenotypes across continual space-provide an opportunity to understand the interaction of dispersal, selection, and history in structuring polymorphisms.

Methods: In this study, we combine field-sampling, genetics, climatic analyses, and machine learning to understand a flower color polymorphism in the wide-ranging desert annual Encelia farinosa.

Results: We find evidence for replicated transitions in disk floret color from brown to yellow across spatial scales, with the most prominent cline stretching ~100 km from southwestern United States into México.

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Studying how phylogeny influences the composition and functions of microbiotas within animal hosts is essential for gaining insights into the connection between genetics, ecology, and health in the animal kingdom. However, due to limited comprehensive studies, this influence remains unclear for many wild mammals, including Mexican pinnipeds. We employed 16S rRNA gene deep-sequencing to investigate the impact of phylogeny on the gut microbiota of four pinniped species inhabiting Mexican shores: the Pacific harbor seal (), the northern elephant seal (), the California sea lion (), and the Guadalupe fur seal ().

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Climate change and the associated environmental temperature fluctuations are contributing to increases in the frequency and severity of disease outbreaks in both wild and farmed aquatic species. This has a significant impact on biodiversity and also puts global food production systems, such as aquaculture, at risk. Most infections are the result of complex interactions between multiple pathogens, and understanding these interactions and their co-evolutionary mechanisms is crucial for developing effective diagnosis and control strategies.

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Salinity and temperature influence growth, survival, and reproduction of crustacean species such as Penaeus vannamei where Na /K-ATPase plays a key role in maintaining osmotic homeostasis in different salinity conditions. This ability is suggested to be mediated by other proteins including neuropeptides such as the crustacean hyperglycemic hormones (CHHs), and heat shock proteins (HSPs). The mRNA expression of Na/K-ATPase, HSP60, HSP70, CHH-A, and CHH-B1, was analyzed by qPCR in shrimp acclimated to different salinities (10, 26, and 40 PSU) and temperature conditions (20, 23, 26, 29, and 32 °C) to evaluate their uses as molecular stress biomarkers.

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Numerous strategies have been investigated to combat viral infections in shrimp, specifically targeting the white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) that has caused outbreaks worldwide since the 1990s. One effective treatment involves intramuscular application of dsRNA-mediated interference against the viral capsid protein VP28. However, this approach presents challenges in terms of individual shrimp management, limiting its application on a large scale.

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