Biofilm biodiversity in French and Swiss show caves using the metabarcoding approach: First data

The Science of the Total Environment
Stéphane PfendlerLotfi Aleya

Abstract

In recent decades, show caves have begun to suffer from microorganism proliferation due to artificial lighting installations for touristic activity. In addition to the aesthetic problem, light encourages microorganisms that are responsible for physical and chemical degradation of limestone walls, speleothems and prehistoric paintings of cultural value. Microorganisms have previously been described by microscopy or culture-dependent methods, but data provided by new generation sequencing are rare. The authors identified, for the first time, microorganisms proliferating in one Swiss and in four French show caves using three different primers. The results showed that both photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic bacteria were the dominant taxa present in biofilms. Microalgae were heavily represented by the Trebouxiophyceae, Eustigmatophyceae and Chlorophyceae groups. Twelve diatoms were also recorded, with dominance of Syntrichia sp. (96.1%). Fungi were predominantly represented by Ascomycota, Zygomycota and Basidiomycota, fully half of the sampled biofilms where Fungi were detected. Comparing microbial communities from bleach-treated caves to those in untreated caves showed no significant difference except for a low-level change in ...Continue Reading

Citations

Oct 3, 2019·World Journal of Microbiology & Biotechnology·Yunchuan LongShaoqi Zhou
Sep 10, 2020·Environmental Science and Pollution Research International·Stéphane PfendlerLotfi Aleya
Aug 11, 2018·The Science of the Total Environment·Stéphane PfendlerLotfi Aleya
Jan 17, 2021·Applied and Environmental Microbiology·Zoë HavlenaDaniel S Jones
Dec 22, 2017·The Science of the Total Environment·Carlos SainzLuis Santiago Quindós
Jun 25, 2021·Frontiers in Plant Science·Adeline StewartEric Coissac
Aug 8, 2021·International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health·Daniele De LucaPaola Cennamo
May 23, 2020·The Science of the Total Environment·Didier CailholStéphane Pfendler
Nov 19, 2021·The Science of the Total Environment·Zélia BontempsYvan Moënne-Loccoz

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