Diversity and ecology of cyanobacteria of biological soil crusts in Brazilian savannah

• Grant number: 15/17709-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Effective date (Start): February 01, 2016
• Effective date (End): June 28, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Botany - Plant Taxonomy
• Principal Investigator: Luis Henrique Zanini Branco
• Grantee: Náthali Maria Machado de Lima
• Supervisor: Ferran Garcia-Pichel
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências, Letras e Ciências Exatas (IBILCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São José do Rio Preto. São José do Rio Preto , SP, Brazil
• Research place: Arizona State University, Tempe (ASU), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 14/06245-8 - Diversity of cyanobacteria in biological crusts and evaluation of cellulolytic and hemicellulolytic activity., BP.MS

Abstract

Biological soil crusts (BSC) are communities present at the top soil of several kinds of environments and they can be composed by cyanobacteria, green algae, microfungi, bacteria, lichen and mosses. They have extreme ecological importance such as join soil particles and form a cohesive crust, give stability protecting against erosive forces, accumulate and increase residence time for water in soil, besides promoting germination and performing nitrogen and carbon fixation. Thinking about the absence of systematic works in Brazil with BSCs, a main project has been executed based on morphological and molecular studies from culture samples; however, recently, the project was improved with the acquisition of metagenomics data from next generation sequencing for BSCs. This allows adding new information on cyanobacterial diversity of the studied communities and provides a better data set. Therefore, this project aims to use a specific BSCs databank belongs to Garcia-Pichel's Lab to refine the taxonomic identification of savannah phylotypes retrieved in NGS step, to compare the diversity among the Brazilian BSCs and also with BSCs of other world localities and to relate ecological parameters to the cyanobacterial diversity of Brazilian biological soil crusts. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

MACHADO-DE-LIMA, NATHALI MARIA; CAMARA FERNANDES, VANESSA MOREIRA; ROUSH, DANIEL; AYUSO, SERGIO VELASCO; RIGONATO, JANAINA; GARCIA-PICHEL, FERRAN; ZANINI BRANCO, LUIS HENRIQUE. The Compositionally Distinct Cyanobacterial Biocrusts From Brazilian Savanna and Their Environmental Drivers of Community Diversity. FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY, v. 10, DEC 17 2019. (15/17709-8, 14/06245-8)