Biology subjects

Batista, C.

Publications and source records attributed to Batista, C..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Evolution of increased longevity and slowed ageing in a genus of tropical butterfly

Evolution has given rise to lifespans in extant species ranging from days to centuries. Given that mechanisms of ageing are highly conserved, studying long-lived lineages across the animal kingdom could yield insights relevant for healthy ageing in humans. However, typical models of extended lifespan often live for decades, making them impractical for longitudinal studies. Ideal model systems would be organisms that are naturally long-lived compared to their close relatives, but have lifespans on experimentally tractable scales. Here, we present the Neotropical butterfly genus Heliconius as a novel model system for the evolution of extended longevity. We collate data from 27 species across the Heliconiini tribe to reveal a 25-fold variation in lifespan within the group, with our 348-day maximum for Heliconius hewitsoni longer than any butterfly species previously recorded in the scientific literature. While previous work has attributed this lifespan extension to a plastic response to enhanced nutrition, we conduct detailed survival and functional senescence analyses on two species representative of shorter- and longer-lived clades to show evidence of evolved, heritable mechanisms of slowed ageing in Heliconius. Our results add a new case study to the canon of noteworthy agers, and provide valuable insights into the evolution of increased longevity.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2021

Filling gaps: fishing, genetics, and conservation of groupers, especially the comb grouper (badejo) (Mycteroperca acutirostris), in SE Brazil (2013-2020)

There are large gaps in our knowledge of the biology of important fish consumed by people in tropical countries, which makes conservation difficult. Small-scale fisheries are difficult to study and regulate, especially in countries with no systematic species monitoring. It is even more difficult to estimate the influence of these fisheries on vulnerable fish species and to diagnose possible damage to local fish populations. In this study, 490 individuals of badejo, or comb grouper (Mycteropeca acutirostris), were observed at the Posto 6 fishery in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, for the periods of 2013-2014 and 2018-2020. A pattern of decreasing catches was observed for comb grouper. Therefore, provided that the fishing gear and the number of fish have remained the same, the apparent decrease in comb grouper needs to be further investigated. The results provide information regarding the reproduction of comb grouper, with major spawning season around spring (September-December) and additional spawning during April in SE Brazil. Samples from 96 groupers along the coast of Brazil were obtained, and genetic analyses were conducted. The genetic information obtained for grouper species enabled us to determine the relative genetic proximity of M. acutirostris and Mycteroperca bonaci and to obtain information that can be useful for aquaculture and conservation.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2018

Improving Metagenomic Assemblies Through Data Partitioning: a GC content approach

Assembling metagenomic data sequenced by NGS platforms poses significant computational challenges, especially due to large volumes of data, sequencing errors, and variations in size, complexity, diversity and abundance of organisms present in a given metagenome. To overcome these problems, this work proposes an open-source, bioinfor-matic tool called GCSplit, which partitions metagenomic sequences into subsets using a computationally inexpensive metric: the GC content. Experiments performed on real data show that preprocessing short reads with GCSplit prior to assembly reduces memory consumption and generates higher quality results, such as an increase in the N50 metric and the reduction in both the L50 value and the total number of contigs produced in the assembly. GCSplit is available at https://github.com/mirand863/gcsplit.

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2017

A mechanistic model for the evolution of multicellularity

Through a mechanistic approach we investigate the formation of aggregates of variable sizes, accounting mechanisms of aggregation, dissociation, death and reproduction. In our model, cells can produce two metabolites, but the simultaneous production of both metabolites is costly in terms of fitness. Thus, the formation of larger groups can favor the aggregates to evolve to a configuration where division of labor arises. It is assumed that the states of the cells in a group are those that maximizes organismal fitness. In the model it is considered that the groups can grow linearly, forming a chain, or compactly keeping a roughly spherical shape. Starting from a population consisting of single-celled organisms, we observe the formation of groups with variable sizes and usually much larger than two-cell aggregates. Natural selection can favor the formation of large groups, which allows the system to achieve new and larger fitness maxima.

evolutionary biology↗