Two centuries of ornithological exploration of the Rio Doce basin, southeastern Brazil. Part IA history of the landscape, its explorers, and their collections.

The Rio Doce Hydrographic Basin (RDB) was once covered by magnificent tropical forest, which remained untouched by Europeans for three centuries after the arrival of the Portuguese colonists in the Brazilian coast in 1500. Nevertheless, a dramatic change in land use occurred throughout the entire RDB after the turn of the 19th century. Currently, the RDB is one of the most degraded regions in southeastern Brazil and, recently, it was the scenario of the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history. In this series of papers, we aim to construct a baseline biodiversity assessment that documents the changes in bird communities within the RDB throughout the last two centuries. In this first part, we present the history of the RDB landscape, its explorers, and their collections based on an extensive literature review and museum data. Early biological surveys in the RDB only started at the beginning of the 19th century and were conducted mostly by German and French naturalists. During the first eight decades of ornithological exploration, foreign field naturalists conducted expeditions to the RDB and collected hundreds of bird specimens. Unfortunately, labelling and curatorial procedures were often poor and despite the prodigious efforts of those naturalists, results obtained were often meagre. The second phase of exploration occurred from the 1900s to the 1960s and was dominated by expeditions conducted by Brazilian natural history museums. During this phase, labelling and curatorial procedures improved considerably and the material collected significantly advanced our knowledge about the RDB avifauna The third phase occurred from the 1970s to the first decade of the 21st century, when collection of specimens decreased sharply and the research activity slowly shifted from museums to universities, with a focus on ecology and natural history. We are now in a fourth, more pluralistic phase, in which research continues to be done by universities, Brazilian natural history museums have resumed their collection activity, and birdwatching has emerged as a popular activity in Brazil, producing a tremendous amount of data in a short period of time.

Characterization of the microbiota dynamics associated with Moniliophthora roreri, causal agent of cocoa frosty pod rot disease, reveals new viral species.

Introduction: Theobroma cacao, the cocoa tree, is a target for pathogens, such as fungi from the genera Phytophthora, Moniliophthora, Colletotrichum, Ceratocystis, among others. Some cacao pathogens are restricted to specific regions of the world, such as the Cacao swollen shoot virus (CSSV) in West African countries, while others are expanding geographically, such as Moniliophthora roreri in the Americas. M. roreri is one of the most threatening cacao pathogens since it directly attacks the cacao pods driving a significant reduction in production, and therefore economic losses. Despite its importance, the knowledge about the microenvironment of this pathogen and the cocoa pods is still poorly characterized. Methods: Herein we performed RNA sequencing of spores in differential stages of culture in a medium supplemented with cacao pod extract and mycelium collected of the susceptible variety ICT 7121 naturally infected by the pathogen to evaluate the diversity and transcriptional activity of microorganisms associated with the in vitro sporulation of M. roreri. Results: Our data revealed a great variety of fungi and bacteria associated with M. roreri, with an exceptional diversity of individuals from the genus Trichoderma sp. Interestingly, the dynamics of microorganisms from different kingdoms varied proportionally, suggesting they are somehow affected by M. roreri culture time. We also identified three sequences similar to viral genomes from the Narnaviridae family, posteriorly confirmed by phylogenetic analysis as members of the genus Narnavirus. Screening of M. roreri public datasets indicated the virus sequences circulating in samples from Ecuador, suggesting a wide spread of these elements. Of note, we did not identify traces of the viral sequences in the M. roreri genome or DNA sequencing, restricting the possibility of these sequences representing endogenized elements. Discussion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of viruses infecting the fungus of the genus Moniliophthora and only the third description of viruses that are able to parasite elements from the Marasmiaceae family.