Contrasting the Genetic Patterns of Microbial Communities in Soda Lakes with and without Cyanobacterial Bloom.

Soda lakes have high levels of sodium carbonates and are characterized by salinity and elevated pH. These ecosystems are found across Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, North, Central, and South America. Particularly in Brazil, the Pantanal region has a series of hundreds of shallow soda lakes (ca.

Evaluating methods for purifying cyanobacterial cultures by qPCR and high-throughput Illumina sequencing.

Cyanobacteria are commonly found in association with other microorganisms, which constitutes a great challenge during the isolation of cyanobacterial strains. Although several methods have been published for obtaining axenic cyanobacterial cultures, their efficiency is usually evaluated by observing the growth of non-cyanobacteria in culture media. In order to verify whether uncultured bacteria should be a concern during cyanobacterial isolation, this work aimed to detect by molecular methods sequences from cyanobacteria and other bacteria present before and after a technique for obtaining axenic cultures from plating and exposure of Fischerella sp.