The Universidad Autónoma de Occidente ("Autonomous University of the West" or UAdeO) is a public institution of higher education in the state of Sinaloa. Its main campus is located in Los Mochis, with units in Culiacán, El Fuerte, Guamúchil, Guasave and Mazatlán and extension centers at El Rosario and Escuinapa..
In February 2025, symptoms of charcoal rot were detected in approximately 40% of four-month-old Lagenaria siceraria plants at the vegetative-to-flowering developmental stages, cultivated in a 2-ha commercial field located in Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico (24°15'06.7"N, 107°11'39.3"W). Diseased plants additionally exhibited above-ground symptoms such as stunting, wilting, leaf yellowing, partial foliage necrosis, and defoliation, while below-ground symptoms included crown and root rot. Thirty small tissue fragments (10 × 10 mm) were excised from ten randomly selected diseased plants and surface-disinfected in a 1% sodium hypochlorite solution, followed by two rinses with sterile distilled water, each lasting one minute. After drying on sterile absorbent paper, the tissue samples were incubated at 28 °C for seven days in Petri dishes containing Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) supplemented with streptomycin sulfate (0.3 g L⁻¹), with five tissue fragments placed per dish. Among six isolates generated, three representative isolates were selected for identification, MACROCH7CLNSIN, MACROCH10CULSIN and MACROCH13CULSIN. Microscopic examination of the three isolates revealed numerous microsclerotia of irregular shape, initially hyaline and progressively darkening with maturation. Morphometric analysis based on 10 measurements per isolate showed that microsclerotia of isolate MACROCH7CLNSIN ranged from 71.59 to 91.99 μm in width, with an average of 81.79 μm; those of MACROCH10CULSIN ranged from 58.93 to 78.48 μm, averaging 68.71 μm; whereas MACROCH13CULSIN exhibited widths between 52.19 and 75.03 μm, with a mean of 63.61 μm. These morphological are consistent with the description of Macrophomina phaseolina, the causal agent of charcoal rot (Marquez et al. 2021). PCR analysis was performed on the three isolates using the primer sets ITS1/ITS4 and EF1-728F/EF1-986R to amplify the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region (White et al. 1990) and a portion of the EF1-α gene (Carbone and Kohn 1999), respectively. The sequences were deposited in GenBank under accession numbers PV628711, PV628712, and PV628713 for the ITS region, and PV651775, PV651776, and PV651777 for the EF-1α gene, corresponding to isolates MACROCH13CULSIN, MACROCH7CLNSIN and MACROCH10CULSIN, respectively. BLAST analyses revealed that sequences PV628711, PV628712, and PV628713 (ITS) shared 100% identity with the reference sequence KJ609175, with alignment lengths of 504/504 bp, 515/515 bp, and 507/507 bp, respectively. On the other hand, sequences PV651775, PV651776, and PV651777 (EF-1α) exhibited 98–99% identity with the reference sequence MK447854, with alignment lengths of 217/218 bp, 217/218 bp, and 214/219 bp, respectively. These results confirm the molecular identity of isolates as M. phaseolina. Phylogenetic analyses performed using the Neighbor-Joining methods with EF-1α sequences by employing a bootstrap of 1000 replications on MEGA 11 generated a well-supported clade grouped with the species M. phaseolina. To verify the pathogenicity of the fungus, 10-day-old Lagenaria siceraria plants at vegetative stage were inoculated using the toothpick method. Sterile toothpicks were previously placed in Petri dishes containing each of the three M. phaseolina isolates until full colonization was achieved. Subsequently, small wounds were made at the stem base of ten plants per isolate using the colonized toothpicks. For the control treatment, sterile (non-colonized) toothpicks were used. Pathogenicity assays were conducted in two independent trials, each including 10 replicates per M. phaseolina isolate. All plants were maintained in a growth chamber under a 12-hour photoperiod, at 70 ± 5% relative humidity and 28 ± 2 °C. After two weeks, 100% of the plants still undergoing vegetative growth stage displayed symptoms similar to those observed in the commercial fields, whereas no symptoms were observed in the control plants. Macrophomina phaseolina was successful reisolated and identified from symptomatic root tissues, fulfilling Koch’s postulates. To date, M. phaseolina has been previously reported infecting L. siceraria in India (Richardson 1990) and South Korea (Kim et al. 2021). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of M. phaseolina causing disease in L. siceraria in Mexico. This finding provides a foundation for future studies on charcoal rot in this host and supports the development of improved management strategies for the disease in the country.
IntroductionThe obesity epidemic in Mexico demands sustainable solutions based on participatory strategies that actively involve the community. Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) is a key strategy, as it not only considers the community as a source of information but also empowers it to propose solutions tailored to local realities.ObjectiveThis study aimed to develop and evaluate a model of schoolchildren’s health promoters (HPC) as a community communication strategy to foster better nutrition, food environment, and physical activity practices, thereby reducing nutritional risk in schoolchildren.MethodsHealth promotion activities were implemented in parallel: in program schools (through child promoters or HPC) and in reference schools (using conventional methods, such as talks and brochures). Both quantitative data (anthropometrics, body composition, diet, and physical activity) and qualitative data (focus groups and interviews with parents, teachers, and principals) were collected in 36 public elementary schools across Hermosillo and Mexicali (Northwest Mexico), as well as Tuxtla Gutiérrez (Southeast Mexico), reaching a total population of approximately 10,800 children.ResultsThe results showed that body fat percentage was significantly lower in children after the HPC program compared to the reference group (33.9 ± 10.4 vs. 35.7 ± 9.7, p = 0.001); also, total cholesterol (18.93 ± 41.51 vs. 1.01 ± 41.45; p = 0.019), HDL cholesterol (14.63 ± 11.54 vs. 6.56 ± 15.56; p = 0.005), and the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) (3.5 ± 18.1 vs. − 3.4 ± 15.7; p = 0.026), improved with the participatory model. The main environmental factors identified as barriers were the unhealthy food supply at school and home, the lack of promotion for regular physical activity, and family economic limitations.DiscussionDespite the challenges children face in exercising their agency in traditional interactions, this study suggests that a child-promoter model is more effective than conventional nutrition education and that involving the school community in activities to improve their health yields promising results in reducing nutritional risk.
Esta es una investigación empírica educomunicativa de carácter cualitativo que analiza los trayectos y experiencias de jóvenes universitarios al producir podcasts, videos e infografías para representar teorias de la comunicación durante un curso escolar. Se trabajó desde la Grounded Theory y el Método de Comparación Constante (MCC) lo que, permitió identificar seis dimensiones en los relatos estudiantiles: 1) agencia, 2) pertenencia epistémica, 3) alfabetización digital crítica, 4) motivación, 5) aspectos técnicos y 6) barreras y apoyos. Participaron 143 personas a quienes se les realizó un cuestionario abierto a fin de conocer sus experencias de entrega escolar; mismas que, incluían imagen, sonido, video y texto. Los hallazgos dan cuenta que los formatos multimodales fortalecen las capacidades de expresión personal, comprensión y compromiso con la asignatura, así como el fortalecimiento de prácticas educativas participativas en la educación superior.
El objetivo de esta investigación es evaluar el nivel de satisfacción de la experiencia ecoturística en el área natural protegida Santuario El Verde Camacho, Sinaloa, México. La metodología es de corte cuantitativo y transversal; se aplicó una encuesta de percepción sobre la evaluación de siete dimensiones de satisfacción durante octubre a diciembre de 2022, con una muestra de 282 ecoturistas. Los resultados muestran que las dimensiones de análisis que tienen el índice de satisfacción más alto son Calidad de los servicios y Atención turística (hospitalidad) con 9.9 cada una.
Se estudia la relación entre identidad y compromiso organizacional en sus dimensiones afectivo, normativo y de continuidad en las organizaciones de tamaño pequeño y mediano del sector servicios del estado de Sinaloa, México. Con un enfoque cuantitativo con análisis correlacional y de conglomerados se aplica una encuesta a 147 trabajadores de 12 empresas de servicios. Los hallazgos muestran que existe una relación directa entre identidad y compromiso organizacional en sus tres dimensiones; sin embargo, la dimensión afectiva es la que tiene mayor fuerza en dicha relación. El análisis de conglomerados se llevó a cabo segmentando la muestra en dos grupos, llamándolos “más identidad y compromiso” y “menos identidad y compromiso”, encontrando a través de la prueba “t”, que el grupo que muestra mayor relación entre la identidad y compromiso organizacional, son quienes tienen mayor edad, antigüedad y nivel de estudios; siendo así posible también determinar que las variables edad, antigüedad y escolaridad son buenas predictoras de la relación entre identidad y compromiso organizacional en dicho sector.
