Evaluation of the impact of environmental conditions on the taxonomic and functional diversity of testate amoebae

• Grant number: 19/22109-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: January 01, 2020
• End date: August 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology
• Principal Investigator: Daniel José Galafasse Lahr
• Grantee: Giulia Magri Ribeiro
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 20/15705-3 - Evaluation of the importance of fermentative metabolisms in eutrophic waters, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

Testate amoebae are amoeboid eukaryotic microorganisms that build an outer shell (also called test). The testate amoeba of interest of this study belong to the group of Arcellinida in the Amoebozoa. These testate amoeba are easy to find in the environment and several species have been documented to be highly resistant to environmental stresses. Indeed, there is a gradient of occurrence of Arcellinida species in Arsenic (As) contaminated environments. Quantifying arsenic contamina- tion is technically challenging and costly, as arsenic must be speciated in its inorganic forms (3+ and 5+). This speciation is necessary for the determination of environmental quality, as there is a difference in toxicity between the different species of arsenic. Characterizing resistance to As in testate amoeba will be used to generate diagnostic environmental markers to characterize contamination levels of the most toxic forms without the need for arsenic speciation. This work proposes to characterize the diversity of communities by barcoding experimentsin contaminated sites; we also proprose to characterize arsenic resis- tance pathways in Arcellinida; we also propose to compare the gene expression of bioindicator species in Arcellinida and we will characterize arsenic gradient effect on morphology in search for markers. We hypothesize that the diversity of Arcellinida will be affected by arsenic contamination and that more tolerant strains will have a specific gene expression pattern. This project will allow us to establish the Arcellinida as a model for testing hypotheses related to arsenic resistance. In addition, this project also has the potential to develop indicator species for environmental conditions, because if we find with barcoding testate amoeba indicator species by correlation with the presence of arsenic or with transcriptome analysis, we demonstrate causality of arsenic resistance, this represents a tool for diagnose of environmental conditions. (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)

HOFSTATTER, PAULO G.; RIBEIRO, GIULIA M.; PORFIRIO-SOUSA, ALFREDO L.; LAHR, DANIEL J. G.. The Sexual Ancestor of all Eukaryotes: A Defense of the ``Meiosis Toolkit{''} A Rigorous Survey Supports the Obligate Link between Meiosis Machinery and Sexual Recombination. BIOESSAYS, v. 42, n. 9, JUL 2020. (19/22109-0)

HOFSTATTER, PAULO G.; RIBEIRO, GIULIA M.; PORFIRIO-SOUSA, ALFREDO L.; LAHR, DANIEL J. G.. The Sexual Ancestor of all Eukaryotes: A Defense of the "Meiosis Toolkit" A Rigorous Survey Supports the Obligate Link between Meiosis Machinery and Sexual Recombination. BIOESSAYS, v. 42, n. 9, p. 10-pg., 2020-07-09. (19/22109-0)

RIBEIRO, GIULIA M.; LAHR, DANIEL J. G.. A comparative study indicates vertical inheritance and horizontal gene transfer of arsenic resistance-related genes in eukaryotes. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, v. 173, p. 13-pg., 2022-05-14. (19/22109-0, 13/04585-3)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

RIBEIRO, Giulia Magri. The impact of environmental conditions on taxonomic and functional diversity of testate amoebae.. 2023. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Biociências (IBIOC/SB) São Paulo.