Summary Lobomycosis, a disease caused by the uncultivable dimorphic onygenale fungi Lacazia loboi, remains to date as an enigmatic illness, both due to the impossibility of its aetiological agent to be cultured and grown in vitro, as well as because of its unresponsiveness to specific antifungal treatments. It was first described in the 1930s by Brazilian dermatologist Jorge Lobo and is known to cause cutaneous and subcutaneous localised and widespread infections in humans and dolphins. Soil and vegetation are believed to be the chief habitat of the fungus, however, increasing reports in marine mammals has shifted the attention to the aquatic environment. Infection in humans has also been associated with proximity to water, raising the hypothesis that L. loboi may be a hydrophilic microorganism that penetrates the skin by trauma. Although its occurrence was once thought to be restricted to New World tropical countries, its recent description in African patients has wrecked this belief. Antifungals noted to be effective in the empirical management of other cutaneous/subcutaneous mycoses have proven unsuccessful and unfortunately, no satisfactory therapeutic approach for this cutaneous infection currently exists.

1. Human-wildlife cooperation is a type of mutualism in which a human and a wild, free-living animal actively coordinate their behaviour to achieve a common beneficial outcome. While other cooperative human-animal interactions involving captive coercion or artificial selection (including domestication) have received extensive

ABSTRACT. Although the genus Tursiops has a worldwide distribution and is globally well-studied, some dolphin populations continue to face high risks of decline. Hence, it is necessary to assess the genetic diversity and structure of this genus to properly assess its conservation status and to implement appropriate management actions. In Brazil, genetic studies on this group remain rare, particularly for populations inhabiting offshore waters. Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago (SPSPA) is a small group of islands located in the MidAtlantic Ridge, where recent studies of the Tursiops truncatus group indicate that individuals are resident throughout the year around the archipelago, exhibiting considerable site fidelity. A previous study with this group indicated that the individuals form an isolated population. To test this hypothesis, and describe the genetic diversity of SPSPA individuals, we assessed 12 microsatellite loci and a portion of the mitochondrial control region. Bayesian analysis revealed that SPSPA bottlenose dolphins form a unique population. In a phylogeographic perspective, we found that individuals from SPSPA shared mtDNA haplotypes with inshore and offshore individuals from North Atlantic, suggesting that they are not currently isolated from their conspecifics. Mirroring mtDNA findings, microsatellite analysis revealed that most of the pairs of individuals sampled seem to be unrelated (83.8%) and no indication of inbreeding, what would be expected if a small population such as SPSPA was reproductively isolated.

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