News
SGA project: Dependence of the diversity of colourless euglenoids on environmental factors
A project of Jaroslav Kubín called Dependence of the diversity of colourless euglenoids on Environmental Factors was focused on the basic phenomena and factors affecting the ecology of colourless euglenoids, which remains still very understudied. A wide scale of chemical-physical and environmental parameters was collected on 18 localities 6 times during the year 2021 and the analyses were made. It has been found, that the osmotrophic taxa are dominant in peat bogs and the bacterivorous taxa are dominant in hypertrophic biotopes. The same time, the gradient of decreasing ratio of osmotrophic taxa with increasing trophic level of the locality is also illuminated. The phenomenon is mentioned to be connected with the biniding of the diversity of osmotrophic taxa to the concentration of NH4+ ions, which is the highest in peat bogs.
SGA project: Phylogeny and taxonomy of selected cyanobacteria species using single cell sequencing
Project of Jan Pokorný supported by Student Grant Agency – University of South Bohemia „Phylogeny and taxonomy of selected cyanobacteria species using single cell sequencing“ was aimed on Cyanobacteria with uncertain phylogenetic position. Clean genetic material was obtained via single colony isolation of Cyanobacteria from environmental samples, which was subsequently used as a template in numerous molecular methods. 16S rRNA gene sequence was then used for phylogeny analysis. Polyphyly of the genus Merismopedia was proved. Apart from that, for the first time ever, genetic information of the species Microcrocis geminata was harvested and used in phylogeny analysis. It is the first sequence of this genus ever. The analysis will be enriched by more species and genes in the future.
Jan Mareš and José Martínez as a part of the team publishing about eagle killer in Science.
A view of iconic bald eagles dying on neurological disease called vacuolar myelopathy made scientists from the US focus on the origin of the disease a few years ago. And so they discovered a new toxic cyanobacteria named Aetokthonos, an eagle killer. This inconspicious thing grows on small leaves of water plants which are eaten by ducks which are hunted by the eagle. And the toxin of this cyanobacteria obvously survives whole the path through the food chain in full force. It’s a brominated alkaloid aetoktonotoxin. The poison structure, deciphering of the caynobacterial genome and the role of genes of this toxin discovered this way and a role of the enzymes subsequenting the bromine from the environment to this alkaloid was the major goal of this publication. Interesting is practical outcome of this exact survey: to avoid these poisonings it would be fine to destroy invasive vegetation (specifically Hydrilla verticillata) on whose leaves Aetokthonos grows and then avoid next human polutioning of nature water with the chemicals containing bromine. Congratulation to all participants on a beautiful success!
Fulltext of the article Hunting the eagle killer: A cyanobacterial neurotoxin causes vacuolar myelinopathy
