CV Lattes
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Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Instituto de Biociências (IB) (Institutional affiliation from the last research proposal) Birthplace: Brazil
PhD in Sciences (Biochemistry) at USP, Ribeirão Preto, Post-Doctorate in Molecular Evolution in the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, Associate Professor in Biochemistry and Full Professor in Biophysics at UNESP, Rio Claro. Works with symbiosis and evolution, using leaf-cutter ants and microorganisms as main study models and tools in genomics, systematics, phylogeny, and molecular genetics. Coordinated research projects in the FAPESP programs "Genome" and "Biota" and PI in the FAPESP CEPID Project Center for Research on Biodiversity Dynamics and Climate Change cooperation between CAPES-University of Texas, UNESP-University of Antioquia (Colombia), courses of the Brazilian-Argentine Center for Biotechnology, in addition to other individual research projects. At Unesp, in the Institute of Biosciences, Rio Claro, he was the coordinator of the Undergraduate Course in Biological Sciences, vice-coordinator of the Undergraduate Program in Biological Sciences (Cellular and Molecular Biology), Supervisor of the Center for Studies of Social Insects, President of the Research Committee, and Coordinator of the Graduate Program in Biological Sciences (Cellular, Molecular Biology and Microbiology). He teaches "Biochemistry" in undergraduate courses and "Genomics" in graduate programs. He holds a Research Productivity Scholarship level 2 from CNPq, in "Genetics. Advisor to the Vice-Presidency of Graduate Studies at Unesp and Executive Coordinator of the UNESP-Capes-PrInt Program from 2017 to 2020. Coordinator of the International Cooperation Project "Biodiversity: prospecting, conservation and use" (UNESP/CAPES-PrInt Program). Advisor for Internationalization Programs at FAPESP since 2025. (Source: Lattes Curriculum)
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The gut of honey bees, stingless bees and solitary bees contain similar bacteria, showing a functional symbiosis. Additionally, each harbors a divergent subgroup of bacteria, indicating adaptive specializations associated with the environment. Thus, probably the replacement of native vegetation by agroecosystems affects the adaptive microbiota. In the meantime, the abusive use of pesticid…
The unprecedented loss of biodiversity and the imminent threats of climate and environmental changes are among the most important challenges faced by humanity. Biodiversity continues to decline worldwide, mainly in response to urban and agriculture expansion over natural areas. In addition, climate change is projected to commit over one-third of the Earth's animal and plant species to ext…
Overview: Species interactions can drive diversification. This is particularly true in cases of coevolved symbioses, where coevolutionary processes can lead to the generation and maintenance of novel functional and genetic diversity as organisms respond to each over microevolutionary timescales. Furthermore, such evolutionary coupling can lead to taxonomic diversification, as one or more …
Leafcutter ants (genus Atta Fabricius, 1804) have a wide geographical distribution and are the dominant herbivores in the Neotropical region. Some species are important agricultural pests, with great economic impact in Brazil. The morphological delimitation between Atta species is very difficult, because the smaller workers do not have morphological characters useful for species different…
Recent speciation of leaf-cutting ants has resulted voracious herbivores which are agricultural pests widely distributed throughout the Americas. It has also resulted, in at least two cases, inconspicuous herbivores, restricted inhabitants of fields or restinga which are rarely, if ever, referred as pests. The present research proposal will characterize the genetic alterations underlying …
The amount of plant biomass processed by Attini ants is comparable to that consumed by livestock or produced by agriculture held by humans. The massive capacity for converting plant material in animal biomass is the result of 50 million years coevolution of ants with plant digesting microbes. The main microbes involved with digestion are mutualistic basidiomycete fungi cultivated by the a…
(Only some records are available in English at this moment)
The speciation of leaf-cutter ants has resulted in Atta sexdens and Atta laevigata, voracious herbivores that have become widespread agricultural pests in the Americas (Hölldobler & Wilson, 2010). Rapid colonization of vast areas resulted in three natural groups for each species, which may constitute new yet not described species for Science (Bacci et al., 2009; Barrera et al., 2022). On …
This project aims to characterize the functional diversity of the microbiome across six Brazilian biomes: Atlantic Forest, Cerrado, Pampas, Amazon, Pantanal, and Caatinga. Using techniques such as metatranscriptomics, the study will evaluate the impacts of environmental changes on microbial communities and identify genes and metabolic pathways essential for soil and plant health. The find…
(Only some records are available in English at this moment)
Ants from the Attina subtribe (Formicidae: Myrmicinae), the attinas, are distributed in the American continent, with most species in South America. They occur in 15 genera and more than 250 species, which depend for their nutrition, on mutualistic fungi. that digest a variety of substrates in the "fungus gardens" in their nests. We manipulate the garden of the Atta bisphaerica cutter, whi…
Attini ants are dependent upon cultivation of fungi for food and grouped into different types according to the cultivated fungus. All species of the basal group and the majority of the derived group use dead organic material as well as leaves, flowers, seeds and feces of arthropods to cultivate their mutualistic fungi as pest leaf-cutter ants cut and use fresh leaves. It was proposed that…
Symbiotic relationships with microorganisms are described as a form of evolutionary innovation that allows some animals to access nutrients from plant biomass otherwise unavailable. The ants of the Attini tribe cultivate mutualistic fungi present in the nest chambers. In derived attines that harvest plant leaves, the fungus is fundamental for ants to feed on the hydrolysis products of pla…
(Only some records are available in English at this moment)
Recent work established that the fungus-farming ants (subtribe Attina) are a sister group of non-fungus-farming ants (subtribe Dacetina) and that both clades belong the Attini tribe. The first group encompasses species that maintain an obligatory mutualism with fungi for food. On the other hand, non-fungus-farming ants are specialized predators that do not cultivate fungi and with limited…
Attini ants are dependent upon cultivation of fungi for food. This ancient dependence may have been stimulated by early ant loss of arginine biosynthesis genes, so ants counterbalanced this deficiency by feeding on fungi. Ants specialized in digesting fungal hyphae, continuously increasing expression of positively selected chitinase genes. Other yet unknown ant adaptations to fungiculture…
| 3 / 3 | Ongoing grants |
| 16 / 7 | Completed research grants |
| 7 / 7 | Ongoing scholarships in Brazil |
| 27 / 10 | Completed scholarships in Brazil |
| 3 / 2 | Completed scholarships abroad |
| 56 / 29 | All research grants and scholarships |
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