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In recent decades, Aeromonas hydrophila has emerged as a foodborne bacterial pathogen of public health concern, especially as it exhibits resistance to the major chemical sanitizers commonly used in the food industry. Meanwhile, this pathogen may be spread from diseased fish flesh through the contamination of equipment contact surfaces during food processing, thus posing a food safety risk. Thise determined the susceptibility profiles of retail fish-borne A. hydrophila isolates to 24 common antibiotics and five major sanitizers used in the food industry. The polymerase chain reaction technique was used to confirm all A. hydrophila isolates to the species level, and the agar diffusion method was applied to determine the antimicrobial susceptibility profiles. All isolates were confirmed to be A. hydrophila species. This bacterium was observed to have resistance to multiple antibiotics, with the highest resistance index being for those of the beta-lactam class. Additionally, the isolates showed high resistance to four of the five chemical sanitizers tested, with the highest resistance rate being toward sodium hypochlorite. The results suggested that A. hydrophila isolates with multiple resistance to the antimicrobials and main sanitizers used in the food industry can be found in retail fish sold in the Cuiabá region of Mato Grosso, Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Strong paleoclimatic change and few Late Quaternary megafauna extinctions make mainland Africa unique among continents. Here, we hypothesize that, compared with elsewhere, these conditions created the ecological opportunity for the macroevolution and geographic distribution of large fruits.We assembled global phylogenetic, distribution and fruit size data for palms (Arecaceae), a pantropical, vertebrate‐dispersed family with > 2600 species, and integrated these with data on extinction‐driven body size reduction in mammalian frugivore assemblages since the Late Quaternary. We applied evolutionary trait, linear and null models to identify the selective pressures that have shaped fruit sizes.We show that African palm lineages have evolved towards larger fruit sizes and exhibited faster trait evolutionary rates than lineages elsewhere. Furthermore, the global distribution of the largest palm fruits across species assemblages was explained by occurrence in Africa, especially under low canopies, and extant megafauna, but not by mammalian downsizing. These patterns strongly deviated from expectations under a null model of stochastic (Brownian motion) evolution.Our results suggest that Africa provided a distinct evolutionary arena for palm fruit size evolution. We argue that megafaunal abundance and the expansion of savanna habitat since the Miocene provided selective advantages for the persistence of African plants with large fruits. This article is part of the Special Collection 'Global plant diversity and distribution'. See https://www.newphytologist.org/global-plant-diversity for more details. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A taxonomic study of Aquifoliaceae is presented for Serra Negra, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Serra Negra is part of the Mantiqueira Complex, located in the southern portion of Zona da Mata of Minas Gerais. The floristic inventory was performed based on materials from expeditions linked to the “Estudos florísticos na Serra Negra, Minas Gerais” project. Those expeditions occurred between 2003 and 2010. In Serra Negra, Aquifoliaceae is represented by four species: Ilex dumosa, I. paraguariensis, I. subcordata, and I. theezans. Descriptions, identification key, illustrations of diagnostic characters and comments on the taxonomy, ecology and distribution of the species are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A taxonomic study of the Verbenaceae in the Serra Negra, included in the Mantiqueira Complex, located in the south of the Zona da Mata of Minas Gerais, Brazil, is presented. Four genera and five species were found: Lantana camara, L. fucata, Lippia origanoides, Stachytarpheta mexiae and Verbena rigida. The first record of the S. mexiae for the Atlantic Domain is presented. Identification keys, descriptions, illustrations, taxonomic comments, ecological and of geographic distribuition for the species are included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A taxonomic study of the Ericaceae the Espírito Santo state, Southeastern Brazil, Atlantic Forest domain, is presented. Ericaceae is represented by 12 genera and 98 species in the Brazil, with predominant distribution in the southeastern "campos rupestres" and "campos de altitude". In Espírito Santo, 11 species belonging to three genera are recorded - Agarista (two spp.), Gaultheria (two spp.) and Gaylussacia (seven spp.), of which Agarista revoluta, Gaultheria eriophylla var. eriophylla, Gaultheria serrata, Gaylussacia fasciculata and Gaylussacia caparoensis are endemic to the Atlantic Forest, latter is included in the category "Endangered" (EN) by "Livro Vermelho da Flora do Brasil". Identification keys, descriptions, illustrations of diagnostic characters, and comments of geographic distribution, ecological and taxonomic are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serra Negra is a fragment of the Mantiqueira Range located among Lima Duarte, Santa Bárbara do Monte Verde, Rio Preto and Olaria, with altitudes between 800 and 1700 m. The vegetation is represented by a mosaic of forests and field environments, of which the "campo rupestre" must be highlighted, due to its occurrence in the whole altitudinal range in the area. A wide floristic study was conducted between the years 2003 and 2014 and the collected specimens were deposited in the Herbarium Leopoldo Krieger (CESJ), of the Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora. The aim of the present study was to conduct a floristic and taxonomic inventory to the family Ericaceae of the Serra Negra. It were recorded eight species belonging to three genera, of which Gaylussacia and Agarista were the richest, with four and three species, respectively, and Gaultheria represented by just one species. Identification keys, descriptions, illustrations of diagnostic characters, and comments of geographic distribution, ecological and taxonomic are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A floristic treatment is presented for Cunoniaceae in the Caparaó National Park (PNC), located in the Mantiqueira Mountain Range, on the border of the Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo states. This conservation unit comprises the highest mountain peak in southeastern Brazil, Bandeira Peak, at 2,890 m of elevation. Its vegetation encompasses different phytophysiognomies, including Dense Ombrophilous Forests, Montane Semi-deciduous Seasonal Forests, and High-Altitude Grasslands. Cunoniaceae was represented in the PNC by four species: Lamanonia ternata, L. ulei, Weinmannia humilis, and W. paulliniifolia. To contribute to further taxonomic studies and species conservation in the Mantiqueira Mountain Range, morphological descriptions, identification keys, photographs in vivo, and comments on the taxonomy, geographic distribution of the recorded species are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Barbacenia diversification occurred from the Middle Miocene to the Pleistocene. • Atlantic Forest Inselbergs and Campos Rupestres clades emerged within Barbacenia. • Morphological dissimilarity between these two major Barbacenia lineages was found. • Barbacenia AFI clade presented a long-term morphological stasis. Atlantic Forest Inselbergs (AFI) and Campos Rupestres (CR) are mountains and highlands of eastern South America, relatively poorly studied and highly threatened, which display extraordinary levels of plant endemism and richness. In spite of their geographical and environmental differences, the origin of the flora of CR and AFI are likely linked to each other, because several plant clades are distributed across both ecosystems. In addition to these studies, little has been investigated about the historical biogeographical connections between AFI and CR and most evolutionary studies are restricted to CR. Barbacenia (Velloziaceae) is widely spread and nearly endemic to the AFI and CR outcrops and thus represent an ideal system to study the biogeographical connections between CR and AFI. Besides, given the remarkable diversity of Barbacenia in CR compared to AFI, it appears that different factors were important drivers in the diversification of Barbacenia lineages, likely leading to different patterns of morphological diversification. Here, we integrate phylogenetic, biogeographic and morphological approaches to: (i) address whether AFI species of Barbacenia are monophyletic and thus a single colonization of AFI can be inferred; (ii) understand the timing and geographical origin of CR and AFI clades; (iii) compare morphological diversity between Barbacenia from AFI and CR under the hypothesis that these two systems have experienced similar levels of morphological diversification during their evolutionary history. To this end, we presented a phylogeny inferred using plastid (atpB-rbcL , trnH-psbA and trnL-trnF) and nuclear (ITS) markers and a complete sampling of AFI Barbacenia , estimated divergence times, reconstructed the ancestral areas of Barbacenia clades and compared their morphological diversity based on a dataset of 16 characters. Our results provided evidence for a diversification of Barbacenia from the Middle Miocene to Pleistocene, as suggested in previous studies. We suggest that stepping-stone dispersal across mountaintops in interplay with paleovegetation dynamics during the global Miocene cooling and Pleistocene climatic oscillations may played an important role in the range expansion of modern AFI Barbacenia lineages. Finally, our results also showed a significant differences in morphological diversity between AFI and CR clades, suggesting a long-term morphological stasis in AFI species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]