Perception about biotechnology in university students in Costa Rica

A survey was carried out to determine the perception and knowledge about biotechnology and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in a sample (n=750) of university students from three public universities in Costa Rica: Universidad de Costa Rica, Universidad Nacional and Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica. The study revealed that 88% of the students showed a satisfactory level of knowledge about modem biotechnology and 79% of them reported a favorable opinion and good acceptance of this technology. Students would accept some risks associated to biotechnology if it represents an improvement to the competitiveness of Costa Rica. Some differences were detected in the opinions from students of the three universities that can be associated to the area of study. Students from social disciplines showed a higher percentage of negative acceptances to biotechnology and GMOs when their opinions were compared with those of students from life sciences and technologies.     

Checklist of the helminth parasites of vertebrates in Costa Rica

Helminth parasites of vertebrates have been studied in Costa Rica for more than 50 years. Survey work on this group of parasites is far from complete. We assembled a database with all the records of helminth parasites of wild and domestic vertebrates in Costa Rica. Information was obtained from different sources such as literature search (all published accounts) and parasite collections. Here we present a checklist with a parasite-host list as well as a host-parasite list. Up to now, 303 species have been recorded, including 81 species of digeneans, 23 monogeneans, 63 cestodes, 12 acanthocephalans, and 124 nematodes. In total, 108 species of vertebrates have been studied for helminths in Costa Rica (31 species of fishes, 7 amphibians, 14 reptiles, 20 birds, and 36 mammals). This represents only 3.8% of the vertebrate fauna of Costa Rica since about 2,855 species of vertebrates occur in the country. Interestingly, 58 species (19.1 %) were recorded as new species from Costa Rica and most of them are endemic to particular regions. Considering the valuable information that parasites provide because it is synergistic with all the information about the natural history of the hosts, helminth parasites of vertebrates in Costa Rica should be considered within any initiatives to accomplish the national inventory of biological resources. Starting with this compilation work, the Colección de Helmintos de Costa Rica (CHCR), hosted at the Facultad de Microbiología, Universidad de Costa Rica, has re-emerged and it is our hope that it will have the standards of quality to assure that it will become the national depository of helminths in the country.     

Development and enhancement of agricultural biotechnology in some countries in Latin America

A number of research institutions and both local and international agencles in Latin America are using biotechnology as part of an effort to enhance agricultural productivity. However, it is very much an open question as to whether all of these various organizations can provide the best means of realizing this goal. Latin American countries vary dramatically in their knowledge base and current use of modern biotechnology. Thus, while some countries lack the ability to develop, or possibly even implement, many aspects of modern biotechnology, others are quite advanced in this regard. This review provides a somewhat selective overview of current research in the area of agricultural biotechnology in Mexico, Costa Rica and Ecuador, with emphasis on how the existing agencies and institutions have responded to the challenge of biotechnology. In addition, general strategies for the development of agricultural biotechnology in these countries are presented and discussed.     

Addendum to the checklist of the helminth parasites of vertebrates in Costa Rica

In this work, we present an addendum to the "Checklist of the helminth parasites of vertebrates in Costa Rica" with a parasite-host list as well as a host-parasite list. This addendum updates the available information on this group of parasites in Costa Rica, since very recently a new input has been made to describe the helminth fauna of vertebrates, particularly at the Area de Conservación de Guanacaste. In this paper, we add 33 records, representing 23 species. This raises the number of helminth species described in vertebrates from Costa Rica to 325, represented by 89 species of digeneans, 23 of monogeneans. 63 of cestodes, 13 of acanthocephalans, and 137 of nematodes. In total, 133 species of vertebrates have been studied for helminths in Costa Rica (31 species of fishes. 7 amphibians, 18 reptiles, 40 birds, and 37 mammals). Currently, 67 species (20.6 %) have been recorded as new species from Costa Rica and most of them are endemic to particular regions. The Colecci6n de Helmintos de Costa Rica, housed at the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR), San José, is the depositary of only 23% of the species recorded so far; however this situation is changing and people recognizes.     

Diversity of the free-living marine and freshwater Copepoda (Crustacea) in Costa Rica: a review

The studies on marine copepods of Costa Rica started in the 1990’s and focused on the largest coastal-estuarine systems in the country, particularly along the Pacific coast. Diversity is widely variable among these systems: 40 species have been recorded in the Culebra Bay influenced by upwelling, northern Pacific coast, only 12 in the Gulf of Nicoya estuarine system, and 38 in Golfo Dulce, an anoxic basin in the southern Pacific coast of the country. Freshwater environments of Costa Rica are known to harbor a moderate diversity of continental copepods (25 species), which includes 6 calanoids, 17 cyclopoids and only two harpacticoids. Of the +100 freshwater species recorded in Central America, six are known only from Costa Rica, and one appears to be endemic to this country. The freshwater copepod fauna of Costa Rica is clearly the best known in Central America. Overall, six of the 10 orders of Copepoda are reported from Costa Rica. A previous summary by 2001 of the free-living copepod diversity in the country included 80 marine species (67 pelagic, 13 benthic). By 2009, the number of marine species increased to 209: 164 from the Pacific (49% of the copepod fauna from the Eastern Tropical Pacific) and 45 from the Caribbean coast (8% of species known from the Caribbean Basin). Both the Caribbean and Pacific species lists are growing. Additional collections of copepods at Cocos Island, an oceanic island 530 km away of the Pacific coast, have revealed many new records, including five new marine species from Costa Rica. Currently, the known diversity of marine copepods of Costa Rica is still in development and represents up to 52.6% of the total marine microcrustaceans recorded in the country. Future sampling and taxonomic efforts in the marine habitats should emphasize oceanic environments including deep waters but also littoral communities. Several Costa Rican records of freshwater copepods are likely to represent undescribed species. Also, the biogeographic relevance of the inland copepod fauna of Costa Rica requires more detailed surveys.     

New records of benthic marine algae and Cyanobacteria for Costa Rica,and a comparison with other Central American countries

We present the results of an intensive sampling program carried out from 2000 to 2007 along both coasts of Costa Rica, Central America. The presence of 44 species of benthic marine algae is reported for the first time for Costa Rica. Most of the new records are Rhodophyta (27 spp.), followed by Chlorophyta (15 spp.), and Heterokontophyta, Phaeophycea (2 spp.). Overall, the currently known marine flora of Costa Rica is comprised of 446 benthic marine algae and 24 Cyanobacteria. This species number is an under estimation, and will increase when species of benthic marine algae from taxonomic groups where only limited information is available (e.g., microfilamentous benthic marine algae, Cyanobacteria) are included. The Caribbean coast harbors considerably more benthic marine algae (318 spp.) than the Pacific coast (190 spp.); such a trend has been observed in all neighboring countries. Compared to other Central American countries, Costa Rica has the highest number of reported benthic marine algae; however, Panama may have a similarly high diversity after unpublished results from a Rhodophyta survey (Wysor, unpublished) are included. Sixty-two species have been found along both the Pacific and Caribbean coasts of Costa Rica; we discuss this result in relation to the emergence of the Central American Isthmus.     

50 years of the Revista de Biologia Tropical: its contribution to the development of the Geo-Paleontology

The geosciences contribution along the 50 years of the Revista de Biología Tropical had been scarcity and episodic. Until now there are 2374 papers but only 21 (0.88%) have some relation with geological sciences. It's possible to recognize two periods with geological contributions, one between 1963 and 1978. It's appropriate to underline the importance of the biologist L. D. Gómez with his contributions about Costa Rican Paleobotanic in this period. The other period includes from 1988 to the present, and it's typified by an increase of biologist and geologist participation in different topics regarding with geosciences. Foreign and national researches are in the same ratio and belong from several countries like Costa Rica, México and Dominican Republic. The subjects are concerning mainly about fossil taxonomy (Paleontology: 81%), only 19% are related with geological topics. Such distribution could be explained because the affinity between the fossil studies and the biological sciences.     

Climate driven egg and hatchling mortality threatens survival of eastern Pacific leatherback turtles

Egg-burying reptiles need relatively stable temperature and humidity in the substrate surrounding their eggs for successful development and hatchling emergence. Here we show that egg and hatchling mortality of leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) in northwest Costa Rica were affected by climatic variability (precipitation and air temperature) driven by the El Ni?o Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Drier and warmer conditions associated with El Ni?o increased egg and hatchling mortality. The fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects a warming and drying in Central America and other regions of the World, under the SRES A2 development scenario. Using projections from an ensemble of global climate models contributed to the IPCC report, we project that egg and hatchling survival will rapidly decline in the region over the next 100 years by ～50-60%, due to warming and drying in northwestern Costa Rica, threatening the survival of leatherback turtles. Warming and drying trends may also threaten the survival of sea turtles in other areas affected by similar climate changes.     

Biotechnology,Big Data and Artificial Intelligence

Developments in biotechnology are increasingly dependent on the extensive use of big data, generated by modern high‐throughput instrumentation technologies, and stored in thousands of databases, public and private. Future developments in this area depend, critically, on the ability of biotechnology researchers to master the skills required to effectively integrate their own contributions with the large amounts of information available in these databases. This article offers a perspective of the relations that exist between the fields of big data and biotechnology, including the related technologies of artificial intelligence and machine learning and describes how data integration, data exploitation, and process optimization correspond to three essential steps in any future biotechnology project. The article also lists a number of application areas where the ability to use big data will become a key factor, including drug discovery, drug recycling, drug safety, functional and structural genomics, proteomics, pharmacogenetics, and pharmacogenomics, among others.     

Reports in Pteridaceae (Filacales) family in the Neotropics

Several contributions to the Neotropical pteridophyte flora are made in this paper with the range extensions for four species of Adiantum, two species of Doryopteris and one species of Eriosorus. The species concerned are: A. polyphyllum Willd. for Nicaragua and Costa Rica; A. trichochlaenum Mickel et Beitel for Guatemala and Costa Rica; A. villosissimum Mett. ex Kuhn for Costa Rica; A. wilesianum Hook. for Nicaragua; D. nobilis (T. Moore) C. Chr. for Costa Rica, Colombia and Venezuela; D. redivida Fée for Panama; and E. hirtus (Kunth) Copel. for Costa Rica. The concept of D. pedata (L.) Fée is redefined.     

Costa Rica's Marine Protected Areas: status and perspectives

With 51 100km2 of terrestrial area and 589 000km2 of national waters, Costa Rica is considered one of the countries with the greatest biodiversity. It has approximately 3.5% of the world marine species. In the last four decades, Costa Rica has done a considerable effort to create a representative system of Protected Areas (PA), mainly terrestrial. We present an assessment of the current situation of the Marine Protected Areas (MPA) in Costa Rica, through an historical analysis, and an evaluation of their distribution, coverage and management categories. Costa Rica has 166 protected areas covering 50% of the coastline; of these 20 are MPAs, classified as National Parks (90.6%), National Wildlife Refuges (6.6%), Wetlands (1.5%), Biological Reserves (1%), and one Absolute Natural Reserve (0.3%). According to IUCN criteria, 93.7% correspond to category II, 5% to IV and 1.3% to I. The marine protected surface is 5 296.5km2, corresponding to 17.5% of the territorial waters and 0.9% of the Exclusive Economic Zone. The median distance between MPAs is 22.4km in the Pacific and 32.9km along the Caribbean. The median size is close to 54km2. The main threats to MPAs are the lack of coordination between governmental agencies, limited economic resources, restricted patrolling and control, poor watershed management, and rampant coastal alteration.     

Editorial for ‘Issue focus on 2nd Costa Rica biophysics symposium — March 11th–12th, 2021’

This Editorial describes both the motivation for, and the five articles appearing in, the Issue Focus dedicated to the 2nd Costa Rica Biophysics Symposium which was held in March 2021. Some recent history about both the symposium and developments in science occurring within Costa Rica is described. 

The Costa Rica Biophysics Symposium was conceived as a forum for faculty, scholars and students interested on cutting-edge topics in biophysics and related fields. Following the success of the first event organized in 2019 (Solís et al (2020), the second edition of the symposium took place on March 2021 with the support of the Academia Nacional de Ciencias de Costa Rica (ANC, National Academy of Sciences of Costa Rica), the International Union of Pure and Applied Biophysics (IUPAB), the German Society of Biophysics (DGfB), and the Universidad Nacional of Costa Rica (UNA). The symposium aimed to reinforce and enhance the novel network of investigators established in the 2019 event. Participation of Costa Rican presenters, either located in the country or abroad, and foreign scientists from the USA, Germany, France, and Switzerland (Solís et al. (2021a) translated into an expansion and internationalization of the previous network. Moreover, the symposium attracted a broad international audience, which increases the opportunities of further international collaboration.The meeting was organized into 14 presentations and one keynote lecture. It was attended by researchers of the three main universities of Costa Rica: Universidad Nacional (UNA), Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR) and Tecnológico de Costa Rica (TEC). Presenters from international universities were also present, including UT Southwestern Medical Center, USA; Klinikum Nürnberg Medical School, Germany; École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland; Institut de Neurosciences de Montpellier, France; University of California Berkeley, USA; and The University of Chicago, USA. The topics presented in the symposium were diverse and covered cutting-edge biophysical research areas. The presentations ranged from channel electrophysiology, machine learning focused on cellular microscopy, prediction of protein–protein interactions, channelopathies and novel biophysical techniques, among others (Solís et al., 2021a). Furthermore, each lecture was followed by questions from the audience, allowing discussion, engagement and interaction between researchers in spite of the limitations of a virtual symposium. The closing event for the symposium was a lecture by the world-renowned biophysicist Francisco Bezanilla from the University of Chicago, who engaged the audience into a master presentation of his vast research on protein voltage-sensor domains (VSD) with a focus on his recent work on the non-canonical mechanisms for VSD-mediated regulation of pore domains in voltage-gated potassium channels (Carvalho-de-Souza and Bezanilla 2019). After the consequent discussion, the symposium finished with a networking activity, where audience and presenters were able to socialize and share experiences.     

Nicaraguan population data on LDLR,GYPA, D7S8, HBGG,GC and HLA-DQA1 loci

Nicaraguans have become the most numerous and fastest increasing minority in Costa Rica: at present they represent around 6% of the total population of the country. We have analyzed the allele and genotype frequencies of six PCR-based genetic markers (LDLR, GYPA, HBGG, D7S8, GC, and HLA-DQA1) in 100 unrelated Nicaraguans living in Costa Rica. All loci studied were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Some statistical parameters of forensic interest were also calculated (h, PD and CE). Allele frequencies of the markers HLA-DQA1 and GYPA were found to be significantly different between the populations of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Nevertheless, genetic distances showed that Nicaragua is close to other Hispanic-admixed populations like those from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, and USA Hispanics. The loci set was assessed to be useful for paternity testing and individual identification in the Nicaraguan population residing in Costa Rica.     

Is applied nucleation a straightforward,cost‐effective forest restoration approach? Counter‐response to Holl and Zahawi (2018)

Holl and Zahawi (2018) agree on a number of approaches that we describe in a local case study of tropical montane cloud forest restoration in Mexico. However, they contend our argument that most applied nucleation projects have taken place in tropical lowlands as a mistake. They also provide data on the per‐hectare cost of restoration projects in Costa Rica and compare it to a higher cost figure of plantation‐style reforestation, a view contrary to ours. Last, Holl and Zahawi recognize that applied nucleation requires specialized personnel, but imply that the amount of training needed for this endeavor is not very different than what is required to implement other forest recovery projects. In this counter‐response, we provide some refinements to our original opinion and offer further information in support to our perspective.     

Marine biodiversity of Costa Rica: Crustacea: Infraorder Anomura

The anomuran crabs are among the best known crustacean groups from the Pacific coast. However, this group is poorly known from the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. In this compilation based on the literature and the collection at the Zoology Museum, Biology School, University of Costa Rica, we report the presence of 114 species of the Infraorder Anomura for Costa Rica, 20 species from the Caribbean, 96 species from the Pacific (two are present on both coasts). Twenty-nine species are new reports for Costa Rica, 15 from the Caribbean coast (74% of the total of species from that coast) and 14 from the Pacific (15% of the total from the Pacific). The range often species is extended to Costa Rica, siete from the Caribbean and three from the Pacific. Six species are reported for the first time from Cocos Island, where there are also four endemic species.     

The size and composition of the hymenopteran fauna of Costa Rica

An intensive survey of the hymenopteran fauna of Costa Rica provides an opportunity to explore the size and composition of a species-rich insect order in a large tropical region. A working estimate of the richness of the fauna is 20,000 species. This is consistent with some published estimates of the numbers of species of Hymenoptera worldwide, but at odds with suggestions that all insect species number several tens of millions. Sixty-one families of Hymenoptera have been collected in Costa Rica, and the numbers of species per unit area is more than twice that of most of the other regions for which data are available. The Costa Rican fauna has higher proportions of egg parasitoids and of eusocial species, and a lower proportion of primary phytophages than that of the British Isles.     

A new species of hognose pitviper, genus Porthidium, from the southwestern Pacific of Costa Rica (Serpentes: Viperidae)

A new species of terrestrial pitviper, Porthidium porrasi, is described from mesophytic forests of the Península de Osa and surrounding area of the Pacific versant of southwestern Costa Rica. It is most similar to P. nasutum and is characterized by a pattern of bands, persistence of the juvenile tail color in adults, and a high number of dorsal scales. Analysis of mtDNA sequences confirms its distinction from P. nasutum. The existence of this species reinforces the notion of elevated herpetofaunal endemism in southwestern Costa Rica.     

The grasshoppers of Costa Rica: a survey of the parameters influencing their conservation and survival

Seventy-five per cent of the acridomorph fauna of Costa Rica is confined to the wet forest environment. This habitat also has a disproportionately large proportion of species which are of restricted distribution within the country or are endemic to Costa Rica or are flightless. The grasshoppers of dry forest, grassland and swamp habitats have in general the reverse properties: they include relatively few species and most of these are capable of flight and are widely distributed both within and outside of Costa Rica. The major factor influencing the long-term survival (or, conversely, the extinction) of the major part of the grasshopper fauna of Costa Rica is likely to be the preservation (or destruction) of the wet forest habitat.     

Effects of Season and Successional Stage on Leaf Area Index and Spectral Vegetation Indices in Three Mesoamerican Tropical Dry Forests1

We compared plant area index (PAI) and canopy openness for different successional stages in three tropical dry forest sites: Chamela, Mexico; Santa Rosa, Costa Rica; and Palo Verde, Costa Rica, in the wet and dry seasons. We also compared leaf area index (LAI) for the Costa Rican sites during the wet and dry seasons. In addition, we examined differences in canopy structure to ascertain the most influential factors on PAI/LAI. Subsequently, we explored relationships between spectral vegetation indices derived from Landsat 7 ETM+ satellite imagery and PAI/LAI to create maps of PAI/LAI for the wet season for the three sites. Specific forest structure characteristics with the greatest influence on PAI/LAI varied among the sites and were linked to climatic differences. The differences in PAI/LAI and canopy openness among the sites were explained by both the past land‐use history and forest management practices. For all sites, the best‐fit regression model between the spectral vegetation indices and PAI/LAI was a Lorentzian Cumulative Function. Overall, this study aimed to further research linkages between PAI/LAI and remotely sensed data while exploring unique challenges posed by this ecosystem.     

Global Diversity and Conservation Priorities in the Cactaceae

The purpose of this paper was to analyze the diversity patterns of Cactaceae at a global scale, to identify those countries where conservation actions should be performed. In order to do this, the species richness and the number of endemic species for 34 American countries were determined. With these data, the relationship between the total number of species or the number of endemic species and the area of the countries were analyzed. In addition, a complementarity analysis was conducted to determine the most important countries for cactus conservation. Results showed that Mexico had the highest number of total and endemic species followed by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Peru, among others. There was a significant positive relationship between both, the total and endemic species, and the area of the countries. Despite this fact, the cactus diversity in Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Costa Rica was higher than expected according to their area. Further, these countries also presented the highest proportions of endemic species. The complementarity analysis indicated that 24 countries are necessary to preserve all cactus species. However, 94% of all species could be preserved with only 10 countries. Considering the diversity patterns and the complementarity analysis, three important groups for cactus conservation were identified: (1) Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Costa Rica, (2) Paraguay and Cuba, and (3) Brazil and USA. Conservation efforts should be focused on these countries in order to preserve cactus diversity.