Mabel Gonzalez

All Publications

• Why Do These Yeasts Smell So Good? Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) Produced by Malassezia Species in the Exponential and Stationary Growth Phases MOLECULES Rios-Navarro, A., Gonzalez, M., Carazzone, C., Ramirez, A. 2023; 28 (6)

  Abstract

  Malassezia synthesizes and releases volatile organic compounds (VOCs), small molecules that allow them to carry out interaction processes. These lipid-dependent yeasts belong to the human skin mycobiota and are related to dermatological diseases. However, knowledge about VOC production and its function is lacking. This study aimed to determine the volatile profiles of Malassezia globosa, Malassezia restricta, and Malassezia sympodialis in the exponential and stationary growth phases. The compounds were separated and characterized in each growth phase through headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). We found a total of 54 compounds, 40 annotated. Most of the compounds identified belong to alcohols and polyols, fatty alcohols, alkanes, and unsaturated aliphatic hydrocarbons. Unsupervised and supervised statistical multivariate analyses demonstrated that the volatile profiles of Malassezia differed between species and growth phases, with M. globosa being the species with the highest quantity of VOCs. Some Malassezia volatiles, such as butan-1-ol, 2-methylbutan-1-ol, 3-methylbutan-1-ol, and 2-methylpropan-1-ol, associated with biological interactions were also detected. All three species show at least one unique compound, suggesting a unique metabolism. The ecological functions of the compounds detected in each species and growth phase remain to be studied. They could interact with other microorganisms or be an important clue in understanding the pathogenic role of these yeasts.

  View details for DOI 10.3390/molecules28062620

  View details for Web of Science ID 000959802200001

  View details for PubMedID 36985592

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC10056951

• Decoupled auditory perception from acoustic signal divergence hinders species recognition in territorial poison frogs BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY AND SOCIOBIOLOGY Gonzalez-Santoro, M., Palacios-Rodriguez, P., Gonzalez, M., Hernandez-Restrepo, J., Mejia-Vargas, D., Amezquita, A. 2023; 77 (1)

  View details for DOI 10.1007/s00265-022-03281-8

  View details for Web of Science ID 000901794000001

• Conspicuousness, color resemblance, and toxicity in geographically diverging mimicry: The pan-Amazonian frog <i>Allobates femoralis</i> EVOLUTION Amezquita, A., Ramos, O., Cristina Gonzalez, M., Rodriguez, C., Medina, I., Simoes, P., Lima, A. 2017; 71 (4): 1039-1050

  Abstract

  Predation risk is allegedly reduced in Batesian and Müllerian mimics, because their coloration resembles the conspicuous coloration of unpalatable prey. The efficacy of mimicry is thought to be affected by variation in the unpalatability of prey, the conspicuousness of the signals, and the visual system of predators that see them. Many frog species exhibit small colorful patches contrasting against an otherwise dark body. By measuring toxicity and color reflectance in a geographically variable frog species and the syntopic toxic species, we tested whether unpalatability was correlated with between-species color resemblance and whether resemblance was highest for the most conspicuous components of coloration pattern. Heterospecific resemblance in colorful patches was highest between species at the same locality, but unrelated to concomitant variation in toxicity. Surprisingly, resemblance was lower for the conspicuous femoral patches compared to the inconspicuous dorsum. By building visual models, we further tested whether resemblance was affected by the visual system of model predators. As predicted, mimic-model resemblance was higher under the visual system of simulated predators compared to no visual system at all. Our results indicate that femoral patches are aposematic signals and support a role of mimicry in driving phenotypic divergence or mimetic radiation between localities.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/evo.13170

  View details for Web of Science ID 000398545200018

  View details for PubMedID 28067425