Zooplankton, integral to aquatic ecosystems, face diverse environmental influences. To comprehend their dynamics, critical for ecological insights and fisheries management, traditional morphological analysis proves laborious. Recent advances include...
The taxonomic composition of microbial communities can be assessed using universal marker amplicon sequencing. The most common taxonomic markers are the 16S rDNA for bacterial communities and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region for fungal co...
Next Generation Sequencing Technologies (NGS), particularly metabarcoding, are valuable tools for authenticating foodstuffs and detecting eventual fraudulent practices such as species substitution. This technique, mostly used for the analysis of prok...
This study describes the results of integrative analysis of cyanobacterial communities in waterbodies of Moscow, Russia. 16S rRNA V3–V4 metabarcoding and light microscopy are implemented to investigate the diversity, abundance, and distribution...
The environment significantly impacts the lives of bees and their feeding. This study aimed to investigate bee foraging using melissopalynological analysis and DNA metabarcoding in intensive farming, reserved, and urbanized areas. The highest alpha d...
Honey is highly vulnerable to botanical mislabeling and fraud, highlighting the need for dedicated analytical approaches capable of reliably supporting authenticity assessment. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to integrate tradit...
31 October 2021
The Western Pacific is the most oligotrophic sea on Earth, with numerous seamounts. However, the plankton diversity and biogeography of the Western Pacific in general and the seamount regions in particular remains largely unexplored. In this project,...
Plants are widely used for food and beverage preparation, most often in the form of complex mixtures of dried and ground parts, such as teas, spices or herbal medicines. Quality control of such products is important due to the potential health risks...
eDNA metabarcoding provides distinct benefits—including non-invasiveness, cost-effectiveness, and high detection sensitivity—that make it particularly appropriate for aquatic ecosystem conservation and fisheries management. An environment...
Understanding diets and structural food webs are keys to the apprehension of ecological communities, upon which conservation and management biology are based. The understanding of grazing and habitat choice for waterfowl is one of the most important...
Oribatid mites are highly sensitive bioindicators and are among the most promising groups of soil microarthropods for ecosystem monitoring. However, their taxonomic identification using morphological methods is labor-intensive and time-consuming. We...
The construction of a reservoir dam alters the environment within its basin, including composition of the fish community, fish biodiversity, and the river ecosystem itself. This study was conducted in the Sanbanxi Reservoir and used eDNA metabarcodin...
This paper introduces a new method for identifying museum pests through the analysis of DNA present in settled dust. Traditionally, the identification of pests in cultural institutions such as museums and depositories has relied on insect trapping (m...
Understanding the ecological characteristics of endangered species is essential for their management and conservation. The dark sleeper (Odontobutis obscurus) is a carnivorous freshwater fish that has been designated an endangered species in South Ko...
Metabarcoding approaches for the identification of plant disease pathogens and characterization of plant microbial populations constitute a rapidly evolving research field. Fungal plant diseases are of major phytopathological concern; thus, the devel...
In this study, the eukaryotic composition of gut contents in three tropical sea cucumber species, Stichopus monotuberculatus, S. chloronotus and Holothuria atra were surveyed and compared by metabarcoding analysis based on 18S rRNA gene V4 region. Th...
Assessing the effectiveness of artificial structures as a monitoring tool for benthic diversity in temperate reefs is crucial to determining their relevance in reef conservation and management. In this study, we utilized Autonomous Reef Monitoring St...
The microbiota of Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) cheeses plays an essential role in defining their quality and typicity and could be applied to protect these products from counterfeiting. To study the possible role of cheese microbiota in dist...
Spontaneous fermentation of table olives is driven by complex microbial communities that influence product quality and safety. This study investigated the microbial community during the intermediate and late stages (from 3 to 6 months) of spontaneous...
Taxonomic classification using metabarcoding is a commonly used method in microbiological studies of environmental samples and during monitoring of biotechnological processes. However, it is difficult to compare results from different laboratories, d...
Freshwater ecosystems are among the most severely affected environments by species loss caused by climate change and intense anthropogenic pressure. To preserve biodiversity, biomonitoring plays a key role by providing reliable data on biological div...
In recent years, new data on the diversity of genera and species in the phylum Glomeromycota continue to be added and rearranged. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are key to plant nutrition and agriculture. Studies report different short- and long-term c...
Background: Infective endocarditis (IE) is an infectious disease caused by the hematogenous dissemination of bacteria into heart valves. Improving the identification of pathogens that cause IE is important to increase the effectiveness of its therapy...
The diet of Adélie penguins, Pygoscelis adeliae, is a useful indicator in understanding the ecological conditions of their habitats. The diets of Adélie penguins were studied using metabarcoding and quantitative PCR (qPCR) analyses of f...
Bidens pilosa L., native to South America and commonly used for medicinal purposes, has been understudied at molecular and genomic levels and in its relationship with soil microorganisms. In this study, restriction site-associated DNA markers (RADseq...
The tilapia (Oreochromis) aquaculture industry in Malaysia has expanded rapidly to meet the increasing demand for animal protein. However, this growth is challenged by microbial infections, particularly those caused by the emerging pathogen Aeromonas...
The present study aimed to characterize the genetic structure of Artemisia eriantha Ten. and the diversity of the rhizosphere microbiota. Plant leaves and rhizosphere soils were sampled from three areas of Central Italy, namely Monte Corvo, Monte Por...
Urbanization threatens amphibians through habitat loss and fragmentation. The critically endangered Hynobius yangi, endemic to Korea, faces severe habitat destruction from urban development. No previous study has simultaneously assessed physicochemic...
Pollinator health depends critically on gut microbiome composition, yet species-specific responses to agricultural environments remain unclear. We compared gut microbiome dynamics and dietary shifts in Osmia excavata, Megachile rotundata, and Apis ce...
2 September 2022
We analyzed the dietary composition of Polypedilum larvae among two contrasting habitats (river and weir). Our approach was (i) to apply eDNA-based sampling to reveal the gut content of the chironomid larvae, (ii) the diversity of gut contents in the...
Trematomus bernacchii is a widely distributed, commercially valuable species that plays a significant role in the Benthic ecosystem of the Southern Ocean. Current research mainly explores its molecular responses to cold adaptation and environmental s...
Diet analysis is a critical content of animal ecology and the diet analysis methods have been constantly improving and updating. Contrary to traditional methods of high labor intensity and low resolution, the next generation sequencing (NGS) approach...
Ancient books and documents constitute an important cultural heritage, which are composed by different supports, such as cardboard, parchment and paper. Due to their composition (animal- and plant-based matrices), they allow bacteria and fungi to thr...
The “Saline di Tarquinia” salterns have been scarcely investigated regarding their microbiological aspects. This work studied the structure and composition of their bacterial communities along the salinity gradient (from the nearby sea through differ...
Harmful algal blooms (HABs) in arctic lakes are recent phenomena. In our study, we performed a long-term analysis (1990–2017) of the eutrophication of Lake Imandra, a large subarctic lake, and explored the biodiversity of bloom-forming microorganisms...
While recent advances in next-generation sequencing technologies have accelerated research in microbial ecology, the application of high throughput approaches to study the ecology of nematodes remains unresolved due to several issues, e.g., whether t...
The aim of this work was to identify the microbial agent(s) responsible for a structural defect in Provolone Valpadana, Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) cheese, and to establish their spread along the production line. Repeated sampling of defect...
Next generation sequencing and bioinformatic approaches are increasingly used to quantify microorganisms within populations by analysis of ‘meta-barcode’ data. This approach relies on comparison of amplicon sequences of ‘barcode’ regions from a popul...
Bats (Chiroptera) provide critical ecosystem services, including pest suppression, pollination, and seed dispersal. Understanding their dietary ecology is essential for conservation management yet has historically been constrained by methodological l...
Kongsfjorden is a small Arctic fjord but with great hydrographic complexity and has changed greatly due to the climate change. Arctic warming has increased melts of sea ice and glaciers that results in higher freshwater content. Microbial community v...
20 October 2020
Harmful algae blooms (HABs) cause acute effects on marine ecosystems due to their production of endogenous toxins or their enormous biomass, leading to significant impacts on local economies and public health. Although HAB monitoring has been intensi...
Spiders are among the predominant predatory arthropods in rice field ecosystems. Although the potential of spiders for controlling pests during the growth stages of rice is well known, few studies have focused on the overwintering habits of spiders a...
Lightly preserved seafood products, such as cold-smoked fish and fish gravlax, are traditionally consumed in Europe and are of considerable economic importance. This work aimed to compare three products that were obtained from the same batch of fish:...
The narrow-clawed crayfish (Pontastacus leptodactylus), a non-native species accidentally introduced into China’s Irtysh River Basin, has formed a wild population with aquaculture potential, but its natural diet and protein utilization remain p...
Wood-feeding insects should have a source of enzymes like cellulases to digest their food. These enzymes can be produced by the insect, or by microbes living in the wood and/or inside the insect gut. The coconut rhinoceros beetle, Oryctes rhinoceros,...
Washing machines are one of the tools that bring great convenience to people’s daily lives. However, washing machines that have been used for a long time often develop issues such as odor and mold, which can pose health hazards to consumers. Th...
Environmental short amplicon sequencing, or metabarcoding, is commonly used to characterize the bacterial and fungal microbiota of cheese. Comparisons between different metabarcoding studies are complicated by the use of different gene markers. Here,...
Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding has gained popularity as a biomonitoring tool, leading to the emergence of various bioinformatic pipelines. However, comparisons are essential to assessing the reliability and similarity of results. In this stud...
In freshwater ecosystems, cross-trophic interactions among biological communities underpin ecosystem stability and functionality. In arid and semi-arid rivers, however, hydrological fluctuations, invasive species, and other perturbations exacerbate t...
Almond decline and dieback have become significant challenges in newly established orchards, with symptoms including internal necrosis, canker, and external gummosis. This work aims to explore the potential fungal and bacterial causative agents throu...
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