Danijela Šantić participated in the 43rd CIESM Congress, held in Palermo, Sicily (Italy), from October 14 to 18, 2024. She presented the findings of the HRZZ UIP-2019-04 ADRISAAF project through a talk and poster titled: “Microbial Diversity in the Central Adriatic Sea.”
As part of the project, a paper was published in the scientific journal Environmental Microbiome. The results of this research represent the first comprehensive analysis of aerobic anoxygenic phototrophs in the Adriatic Sea in a one-year study of the coastal and open sea. This research is also one of the first reports on their genus-level ecology related to biotic and abiotic environmental factors and paves the way for further research on this important functional bacterial group in the marine environment.
PhD student Iva Stojan defended her doctoral dissertation on 05/03/2024 under the title Ecology of the microbial community with an emphasis on aerobic anoxygenic phototrophs in the central Adriatic, under the mentorship of the ADRISAAF PI Danijela Šantić, PhD, and project collaborator Željka Trumbić, PhD.
The workshop for students and scientists, “Ecology of the microbial community in the Adriatic with an emphasis on aerobic anoxygenic phototrophs” was held in Split, March 12, 2024. The project manager, Ph.D. Danijela Šantić and PhD student Iva Stojan introduced the participants through four lectures with current topics: Aerobic anoxygenic phototrophs in the Adriatic Sea Diversity of picoplankton in the oligotrophic high salinity environment of the middle Adriatic Metabarcoding in the research of bacterial communities of the Adriatic Sea with an emphasis on aerobic anoxygenic phototrophs
We successfully completed the summer experiment.
We successfully completed the spring experiment.
This study provides the first comprehensive insight into the seasonal and spatial dynamics of the picoplankton community in the Adriatic Sea in terms of abundance, the dynamics of major bacterial groups, and archaeal and bacterial diversity. Read more here.
We visited our colleagues in the Laboratory of anoxygenic phototrophs of Michal Kobližek at the Centre Algatech in Trebon, Czechia. During our week-long stay, we analysed pigment content in samples from the winter experiment and participated in the Aquatic Microbial Ecology and PhotoGemm+ project meeting. The results of the ADRISAAF project were presented.
Recent advances in new molecular biology methods and next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have revolutionized metabarcoding-based research to study complex microbial communities in diverse environments. The inevitable first step in sample preparation is the isolation of DNA, which introduces a number of biases and inconsistencies.In this study, we evaluated the effects of five DNA isolation methods (B1: standard phenol/chloroform/isoamyl extraction, B2 and B3: isopropanol and ethanol precipitation, -both B1 modifications, K1: DNeasy PowerWater Kit (QIAGEN) , K2: a modified DNeasy PowerWater Kit (QIAGEN)) and a direct PCR approach (P), which completely bypasses the isolation step, were evaluated for DNA composition and yield of bacterial “mock-ups” and marine communities from the Adriatic Sea.
During the last seven years, when we started to study these organisms, we have collected a considerable number of samples from different environments, from the coast, the estuary, and the open sea. Here we have compiled data from 34 georeferenced study sites from four studies that summarize all that is known about aerobic anoxygenic phototrophs and examine the spatial and vertical distribution and environmental factors affecting this community in the Adriatic Sea.
In february, we conducted our first experiment, observing community growth rates and changes under different environmental conditions.
Thanks to collaboration with colleagues at the Ruđer Bošković Institute, we have published a new paper showing the differential response of plankton (neuston) to changes in the marine environment following the deposition of pyrogenic particles from biomass burning. Read more here.
Project and project results presented in a oral presentation at scientific conference “CROATIAN NATURALISTS 31 - contribution of naturalists to the development of science in the Split-Dalmatia County” held in Split 25.-26. November 2022. Read more here.
At the International Symposium on Microbiology Ecology (ISME18) in Lausanne, Switzerland, from 14-19 August 2022, our group members attended and contributed to a Poster session (PS01-Marine Microbial Ecology) with next abstract titles: Artificial neural network analysis of microbial diversity in the Central and Southern Adriatic Sea (Danijela Šantić) Seasonal aspects of bacterial diversity along trophic gradient in the eastern Adriatic Sea (Željka Trumbić) Ecology of Aerobic Anoxygenic phototrophs in the Adriatic Sea (Iva Stojan).
Testing various conditions for seasonal experiments next year.
At this year’s Science Festival 2022, our PhD student Iva Stojan participated and presented our project to the citizens and visitors of Split.
We have discovered the existence of different types of microbial food web that develop in certain conditions prevailing in the marine environment. These types of microbial networks differ in their structure, stability, efficiency and functions they perform in marine ecosystems. The results of this research will provide a better understanding of the functioning of marine ecosystems, as well as the changes that can be expected in marine ecosystems as a result of global warming.
A new paper in collaboration with colleagues from Czechia and Poland is published. Read more here.
We visited our dear colleagues in Michal Kobližek’s Laboratory of Anoxygenic Phototrophs in Centre Algatech in Trebon, Czechia. During our amazing two-week stay we analyzed sequencing data from raw sequence reads, thus optimizing bioinformatic pipelines and multivariate analysis needed for our further research. ADRISAAF project activities were presented to their laboratory team as well.
The composite image taken with an epilfluorescence microscope shows AAPs (red), heterotrophic bacteria (blue) and cyanobacteria (green) in the surface layer of the water column.
The paper about artificial neural network analysis of microbial diversity is published in the [Scientific Reports] (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-90863-7)
This year in the framework of the Festival of Science virtual tour of the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries was prepared. See how we presented our work in the [Laboratory of Microbiology] (https://kuula.co/post/7SJzR/collection/7Y8zR).
We have started with our sampling for the survey of whole bacterial community composition (16S), focusing on AAPs (pufM gen).
Presentation of ADRISAAF project goals and activities to graduate students of “Marine Fisheries” and “Ecology and Protection of the Sea” at the University Department of Marine Studies, University of Split. Students were introduced to the community of aerobic anoxygenic phototrophs and the concept of DNA metabarcoding and its importance in ecological research.
Our first successful outcomes using molecular biology techniques in our lab. Different protocols for DNA isolation and polymerase chain reaction were tested on numerous marine samples. We are currently experimenting with various primer pairs designed for target genes, polymerases and reaction mixtures as well as cycling temperatures to find optimal PCR conditions further to be used in our research.
The necessary equipment and chemicals have been procured, and the first analyzes begin
As part of the book, we were invited to describe our scientific research and include the possible negative effects of pollution on the picoplankton community in the Adriatic Sea. Šantić D., Vrdoljak Tomaš A., Lušić J. (2020) Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Picoplankton Community in the Central and Southern Adriatic Sea. In: Joksimović A., Đurović M., Zonn I.S., Kostianoy A.G., Semenov A.V. (eds) The Montenegrin Adriatic Coast. The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry, vol 109.
Our first results obtained after catalyzed reporter deposition-fluorescence in situ hybridization (CARD-FISH). Various DNA probes for detection of marine bacteria were tested, probes EUB338 (A) for Bacteria and ROS537 (B)for Roseobacter clade are shown here.
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