Publications by authors named "R Marasco"

Article Synopsis
  • The rapid melting of mountain glaciers, a sign of climate change, threatens unique ecosystems known as glacier-fed streams (GFSs), which are primarily dominated by microbial life.
  • Using advanced techniques like metabarcoding and metagenomics, researchers conducted a detailed study of the bacterial microbiome in 152 GFSs across major mountain ranges, revealing distinct taxonomic and functional differences compared to other cryospheric microbiomes.
  • The findings highlight the importance of geographic isolation and environmental factors in shaping bacterial diversity, underscoring the urgent need for further research due to the risks posed by climate change to this unique ecosystem.
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By providing adaptive advantages to plants, desert microorganisms are emerging as promising solutions to mitigate the negative and abrupt effects of climate change in agriculture. Among these, pseudomonads, commonly found in soil and in association with plants' root system, have been shown to enhance plant tolerance to salinity and drought, primarily affecting root system architecture in various hosts. However, a comprehensive understanding of how these bacteria affect plant responses at the cellular, physiological and molecular levels is still lacking.

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Climate change is predicted to alter the hydrological and thermal regimes of high-mountain streams, particularly glacier-fed streams. However, relatively little is known about how these environmental changes impact the microbial communities in glacier-fed streams. Here, we operated streamside flume mesocosms in the Swiss Alps, where benthic biofilms were grown under treatments simulating climate change.

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Thermal springs harbour microorganisms, often dominated by cyanobacteria, which form biofilms and microbial mats. These phototrophic organisms release organic exudates into their immediate surroundings, attracting heterotrophic bacteria that contribute to the diversity and functioning of these ecosystems. In this study, the microbial mats from a hydrothermal pool in the Ksar Ghilane oasis in the Grand Erg Oriental of the Desert Tunisia were collected to obtain cyanobacterial cultures formed by single cyanobacterial species.

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Acetic acid bacteria - belonging to the family - are found in the gut of many sugar-feeding insects. In this study, six strains have been isolated from the hemipteran leafhopper . While they exhibit high 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities to uncultured members of the family, they could not be unequivocally assigned to any particular type species.

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