Our research explores the intricate relationships between hosts and parasites and other symbionts, through the lens of eco-evolutionary studies. We focus on three key areas:
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Projects |
Evolutionary and ecological determinants of specialisation: Deciphering the determinants of host specificity in a fish-monogenean model. I+D+i Projects. Ministry of Science and Innovation, Spain (PID2022-139723NB-I00) 2023-2027.
Integrated Monitoring of Parasites in Changing Environments (IMPACT). Biodiversa+ European Biodiversity Partnership. Spanish Research Agency (PCI2023-145950-2 ) 2024-2026.
Cophylogenomics of a very young host-parasite model: bridging the gap between micro- and macroevolutionary processes (COPHYHOPA). I+D+i Projects. Ministry of Science and Innovation, Spain (PID2019-104908GB-I00) 2020-2023. |
Selected Publications (i.e., a compromise between latest and favourite papers) |
Lehun AL, Cavalcanti LD, Casali GP, Silva JOS, Michelan G, Balbuena JA (2025). Host fishes shape the taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity of endoparasite communities in a Neotropical floodplain. Hydrobiologia. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-024-05791-0 Soares GB, Adriano EA, Domingues MV, Rodríguez-González A, Balbuena JA (2024). Evolutionary morphology of haptoral anchors in monogenoids (Dactylogyridae) of marine catfish (Siluriformes: Ariidae) from the Atlantic coast of South America. Parasitology 151: 390–399. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0031182024000192 Sarabeev V, Balbuena JA, Jarosiewicz A, Voronova N, Sueiro R, Leiro J, Ovcharenko M (2023). Disentangling the determinants of symbiotic species richness in native and invasive gammarids (Crustacea, Amphipoda) of the Baltic region. Int J Parasitol 53: 305–316. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpara.2023.02.006 Llopis‐Belenguer C, Balbuena JA, Blasco‐Costa I, Karvonen A, Sarabeev V, Jokela J (2023). Sensitivity of bipartite network analyses to incomplete sampling and taxonomic uncertainty. Ecology 104: e3974. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3974 Llaberia-Robledillo M, Lucas-Lledó JI, Pérez-Escobar OA, Krasnov BR, Balbuena JA (2023). Rtapas: An R Package to Assess Cophylogenetic Signal between Two Evolutionary Histories. Syst Biol 72: 946–954. https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syad016 Blasco-Costa I, Hayward A, Poulin R, Balbuena JA (2021). Next-generation cophylogeny: unravelling eco-evolutionary processes. Trends Ecol Evol 36: 907–918. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2021.06.006 Balbuena JA, Monlleó-Borrull C, Llopis-Belenguer C, Blasco-Costa I, Sarabeev VL, Morand S (2021). Fuzzy quantification of common and rare species in ecological communities (FuzzyQ). Methods Ecol Evol 12: 1070–1079. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13588 Llopis-Belenguer C, Pavoine S, Blasco-Costa I, Balbuena JA (2020). Assembly rules of helminth parasite communities in grey mullets: combining components of diversity. Int J Parasitol 50: 1089–1098. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpara.2020.06.006 Balbuena JA, Pérez-Escobar OA, Llopis-Belenguer C, Blasco-Costa I (2020). Random Tanglegram Partitions (Random TaPas): An Alexandrian approach to the cophylogenetic Gordian knot. Syst Biol 69: 1212–1230. https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syaa033 Llopis-Belenguer C, Blasco-Costa I, Balbuena JA, Sarabeev V, Stouffer D (2020). Native and invasive hosts play different roles in host–parasite networks. Ecography 43: 559–568. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.04963 Llopis-Belenguer C, Balbuena JA, Lange K, de Bello F, Blasco-Costa I (2019). Towards a unified functional trait framework for parasites. Trends Parasitol 35: 972–982. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2019.09.003 Sarabeev V, Balbuena JA, Morand S (2018). Invasive parasites are detectable by their abundance-occupancy relationships: the case of helminths from Liza haematocheilus (Teleostei: Mugilidae). Int J Parasitol 48: 793–803. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpara.2018.04.001 Rodríguez-González A, Sarabeev V, Balbuena JA (2017). Evolutionary morphology in shape and size of haptoral anchors in 14 Ligophorus spp. (Monogenea: Dactylogyridae). PLoS ONE 12: e0178367. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0178367 Pérez-Escobar OA, Balbuena JA, Gottschling M (2016). Rumbling orchids: How to assess divergent evolution between chloroplast endosymbionts and the nuclear host. Syst Biol 65: 51–65. https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syv070 Llopis-Belenguer C, Balbuena JA, Galván-Femenía I, Rodríguez-González A (2015). Phenotypic Buffering in a Monogenean: Canalization and Developmental Stability in Shape and Size of the Haptoral Anchors of Ligophorus cephali (Monogenea: Dactylogyridae). PLoS ONE 10: e0142365. http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0142365 Rodríguez-González A, Míguez-Lozano R, Llopis-Belenguer C, Balbuena JA (2015). Phenotypic plasticity in haptoral structures of Ligophorus cephali (Monogenea: Dactylogyridae) on the flathead mullet (Mugil cephalus): a geometric morphometric approach. Int J Parasitol 45: 295–303. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020751915000399 Balbuena JA, Míguez-Lozano R, Blasco-Costa I (2013). PACo: A Novel Procrustes Application to Cophylogenetic Analysis. PLoS ONE 8: e61048. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0061048 Sarabeev V, Rubtsova N, Yang T, Balbuena JA (2013). Taxonomic revision of the Atlantic and Pacific species of Ligophorus (Monogenea, Dactylogyridae) from mullets (Teleostei, Mugilidae) with the proposal of a new genus and description of four new species. Vest Zool, Suppl. 28, 112 p. Blasco-Costa I, Míguez-Lozano R, Sarabeev V, Balbuena JA (2012). Molecular phylogeny of species of Ligophorus (Monogenea: Dactylogyridae) and their affinities within the Dactylogyridae. Parasitol Int 61: 619–627. doi: 10.1016/j.parint.2012.06.004. |
Last update: Feb. 2025