Publications by authors named "Marcos A Soares"

Leishmaniasis is a worldwide disease caused by more than 20 species of parasites. and are among the main causative agents of cutaneous leishmaniasis, presenting a broad spectrum of clinical forms. As these pathologies lead to unsatisfactory treatment outcomes, the discovery of alternative chemotherapeutic options is urgently required.

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Many countries widely use pesticides to increase crop productivity in agriculture. However, their excessive and indiscriminate use contaminates soil and other environments and affects edaphic microbial communities. We aimed to examine how the pesticides carbofuran and picloram affect the structure and functionality of soil microbiota using cultivation-independent methods.

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Article Synopsis
  • Toxic metal pollution, specifically cadmium and mercury, significantly impacts the Amazon rainforest by degrading water, soil, and air quality, which harms both the environment and human health.
  • The study focuses on the effects of these metals on the bacterial community associated with a newly identified species of millipede, Brachyurodesmus albus, highlighting the diversity of bacteria and their potential metabolic pathways altered by metal contamination.
  • Findings reveal that the presence of cadmium and mercury changes the composition and abundance of bacteria in B. albus, which could provide insights into developing strategies to mitigate metal toxicity in plants.
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Our previous studies indicated that endophyte M7SB41 ( sp.) can significantly enhance host plants powdery mildew (PM) resistance. To recover the mechanisms, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were compared between E+ (endophte-inoculated) and E- (endophyte-free) plants by transcriptomics.

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Investigation of the endophytic fungi , , and MeOH fractions isolated from the leaves of , a medicinal species from the Brazilian Pantanal, led to the identification of five compounds, namely a new compound (1,8)-10,11-dihydroxy-5,5,8-trimethyl-4-oxocycloundeca-1,8-diene-1-carbaldehyde () and four known compounds: 5-methylmellein (), sclerone (), daldinone A (), and lasiodiplodin (). All compounds were identified using spectroscopic methods, and was corroborated with mass spectrometry, while the known compounds were compared with data in the literature. The relative configuration of compound was determined based on theoretical conformational studies as well as the experimental values between the hydroxymethyne hydrogens.

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Mercury is a non-essential and toxic metal that induces toxicity in most organisms, but endophytic fungi can develop survival strategies to tolerate and respond to metal contaminants and other environmental stressors. The present study demonstrated the potential of mercury-resistant endophytic fungi in phytoremediation. We examined the functional traits involved in plant growth promotion, phytotoxicity mitigation, and mercury phytoremediation in seven fungi strains.

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Article Synopsis
  • Trichoderma is a fungi known for producing nonribosomal peptides called peptaibols, which have strong antimicrobial and anticancer properties, and can help plants resist pathogens.
  • Researchers analyzed peptaibols from a newly identified marine strain of Trichoderma using advanced mass spectrometry, identifying it as a unique species not previously seen in marine environments.
  • The study highlighted the discovery of various biosynthetic gene clusters related to these peptides, leading to the identification of two new series of peptaibols called "endophytins," showcasing the effective use of genome mining and mass spectrometry in natural product research.
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Pelidnota luridipes Blanchard (1850) is a tropical beetle of the family Scarabaeidae, whose larvae live on wood without parental care. Microbiota of mid- and hindgut of larvae was evaluated by culture-dependent and independent methods, and the results show a diverse microbiota, with most species of bacteria and fungi shared between midgut and hindgut. We isolated 272 bacterial and 29 yeast isolates, identified in 57 and 7 species, respectively, while using metabarcoding, we accessed 1,481 and 267 OTUs of bacteria and fungi, respectively.

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Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) has been produced worldwide as a relevant source of food and sustainable energy. However, the constant need to increase crop yield has led to excessive use of synthetic agrochemical inputs such as inorganic fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides in plant cultures.

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Unlabelled: Actinobacteria is a phylum composed of aerobic, Gram-positive, and filamentous bacteria with a broad spectrum of biological activity, including antioxidant, antitumor, and antibiotic. The crude extract of R132 was fractionated on a C18 silica column and the isolated compound was identified by H and C nuclear magnetic resonance as 3-(phenylprop-2-enoic acid), also known as -cinnamic acid. Antimicrobial activity against human pathogens was assayed in vitro (disk-diffusion qualitative test) and in vivo using larvae (RT-qPCR).

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Endophytic fungi are an important class of microorganisms, able to interact with a host plant via a mutualistic mechanism without visible symptoms of the fungal colonization. The synergy between endophytic fungi and their host plant can promote morphological, physiological and biochemical changes through the expression of bioactive metabolites. This work aims to correlate metabolic changes in the Combretum lanceolatum plant metabolome with its endophytic fungi Diaporthe phaseolorum (Dp) and Trichoderma spirale (Ts), and to discover corresponding metabolite-biomarkers, with the principal focus being on its primary metabolism.

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Aspergillus sp. A31 and Curvularia geniculata P1 are endophytes that colonize the roots of Aeschynomene fluminensis Vell. and Polygonum acuminatum Kunth.

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Aquatic plants are considered to be important remedial agents in aquatic environments contaminated by metals. The Salvinia biloba macrophyte was evaluated in relation to its removal kinetics, adsorption capacity, and toxicology, aiming at its application in the removal of Cd and Pb ions from aqueous solutions. A batch-type system was used, in which the plants were cultivated in microcosms containing nutritive solution and metallic ions, stored in a controlled environment (pH, temperature, and luminosity).

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The genus Absidia is widely used in the biotransformation of different classes of natural products. This study evaluates the ability of the Absidia coerulea 3A9 marine derived strain isolated from the ascidian Distaplia stilyfera to perform biotransformations by conducting assays with (-)-cubebin, as substrate. The experiment was optimized using the experimental design proposed by Plackett-Burman for seven factors and eight experiments, to establish the biotransformation conditions that would allow maximum production of biotransformed dibenzylbutyrolactone (-)-hinokinin.

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Plant-associated microbiomes have been a target of interest for the prospection of microorganisms, which may be acting as effectors to increase agricultural productivity. For years, the search for beneficial microorganisms has been carried out from the characterization of functional traits of growth-promotion using tests with a few isolates. However, eventually, the expectations with positive results may not be realized when the evaluation is performed in association with plants.

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The growing spread of dengue, chikungunya and Zika viruses demand the development of new and environmentally safe control methods for their vector, the mosquito Aedes aegypti. This study aims to find novel larvicidal agents from mutualistic (endophytic and rhizospheric) or edaphic bacteria that have no action against non-target organisms. Eleven out of the 254 bacterial strains tested were able to kill Ae.

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Introduction: Aedes aegypti (L.) is the major vector of arboviruses that causes serious public health concerns in tropical and subtropical countries.

Methods: We examined the larvicidal activity of 1,2-diphenyldiselenide [(PhSe)2] and 1,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl) diselenide [(p-ClPhSe)2] and determine its toxicity to different non-target organisms.

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Background: The expansion of Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) population has increased the number of cases of arboviruses, in part due to the inefficiency and toxicity of the chemical control methods available to control this vector. We synthesized 19 chalcone derivatives and examined their activity against Ae. aegypti larvae in order to select larvicidal compounds that are non-toxic to other organisms.

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The quantification, efficiency, and possible mechanisms of mercury phytoremediation by endophytic bacteria are poorly understood. Here we selected 8 out of 34 previously isolated endophytic bacterial strains with a broad resistance profile to metals and 11 antibiotics: Acinetobacter baumannii BacI43, Bacillus sp. BacI34, Enterobacter sp.

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This study examined how soil mercury contamination affected the structure and functionality of rhizobacteria communities from Aeschynomene fluminensis and Polygonum acuminatum and how rhizobacteria mediate metal bioremediation. The strains were isolated using culture-dependent methods, identified through 16S rDNA gene sequencing, and characterized with respect to their functional traits related to plant growth promotion and resistance to metals and antibiotics. The bioremediation capacity of the rhizobacteria was determined in greenhouse using corn plants.

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A central pillar of modern weed control is the discovery of new herbicides which are nontoxic to humans and the environment and which have low application dosage. The natural products found in plants and microorganisms are well suited in this context because they are generally nontoxic and have a wide variety of biological activities. In this work, (), () and () (methanolic extracts) were evaluated as photosynthesis and plant growth inhibitors in and .

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Endophytes improve the host performance in areas of high plant endemicity. Paullinia cupana is an Amazonia plant species of economic and social importance due to the high caffeine concentration in its seeds. An interesting strategy to identify endophytic microorganisms with potential biotechnological application is to understand the factors that influence the endophytic community to rationalize the host management programs.

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The association of plant with microorganisms, such as dark septate endophytic fungi, has mitigated the harmful effects of chemical, physical, and biological agents on the host. The objective of this work was to evaluate the interaction of the dark septate endophytic fungi with cowpea plants under salt stress. Endophytic fungi were isolated from Vochysia divergens root system, and molecular identification of fungi was performed by sequencing the ITS region.

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The present study proposes the use of endophytic fungi for mercury bioremediation in in vitro and host-associated systems. We examined mercury resistance in 32 strains of endophytic fungi grown in culture medium supplemented with toxic metal concentrations. The residual mercury concentrations were quantified after mycelial growth.

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Fractionation of extracts from the culture broth of the marine-derived fungus, sp. 7A22, resulted in the isolation of the harzialactone A (), a known compound previously isolated from fungi of marine environments. The chemical structure of was determined by spectroscopic analyses.

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