Profile of microbial communities on carbonate stones of the medieval church of San Leonardo di Siponto (Italy) by Illumina-based deep sequencing.
Comprehensive studies of the biodiversity of the microbial epilithic community on monuments may provide critical insights for clarifying factors involved in the colonization processes. We carried out a high-throughput investigation of the communities colonizing the medieval church of San Leonardo di Siponto (Italy) by Illumina-based deep sequencing. The metagenomic analysis of sequences revealed the presence of Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya. Bacteria were Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Cyanobacteria, Chloroflexi, Firmicutes and Candidatus Saccharibacteria. The predominant phylum was Actinobacteria, with the orders Actynomycetales and Rubrobacteriales, represented by the genera Pseudokineococcus, Sporichthya, Blastococcus, Arthrobacter, Geodermatophilus, Friedmanniella, Modestobacter, and Rubrobacter, respectively. Cyanobacteria sequences showing strong similarity with an uncultured bacterium sequence were identified. The presence of the green algae Oocystaceae and Trebuxiaceae was revealed. The microbial diversity was explored at qualitative and quantitative levels, evaluating the richness (the number of operational taxonomic units (OTUs)) and the abundance of reads associated with each OTU. The rarefaction curves approached saturation, suggesting that the majority of OTUs were recovered. The results highlighted a structured community, showing low diversity, made up of extremophile organisms adapted to desiccation and UV radiation. Notably, the microbiome appeared to be composed not only of microorganisms possibly involved in biodeterioration but also of carbonatogenic bacteria, such as those belonging to the genus Arthrobacter, which could be useful in bioconservation. Our investigation demonstrated that molecular tools, and in particular the easy-to-run next-generation sequencing, are powerful to perform a microbiological diagnosis in order to plan restoration and protection strategies.
Department of Biosciences, Biotechnology and Biopharmaceutics, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Bari, Italy. guglielminaalessandra.chimienti@uniba.it.
Guglielmina
G
Chimienti
Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Naples, Italy.
Roberta
R
Piredda
Department of Biosciences, Biotechnology and Biopharmaceutics, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Bari, Italy.
Gabriella
G
Pepe
Department of Chemistry, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Bari, Italy.
Inez Dorothé
ID
van der Werf
Department of Chemistry, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Bari, Italy.
Luigia
L
Sabbatini
Department of Soil, Plant and Food Sciences, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Bari, Italy.
Carmine
C
Crecchio
Department of Soil, Plant and Food Sciences, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Bari, Italy.
Patrizia
P
Ricciuti
Department of Biosciences, Biotechnology and Biopharmaceutics, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Bari, Italy.
Anna Maria
AM
D'Erchia
Institute of Biomembranes and Bioenergetics, National Research Council, Bari, Italy.
Caterina
C
Manzari
Department of Biosciences, Biotechnology and Biopharmaceutics, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Bari, Italy.
Graziano
G
Pesole
D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D058448:Biota; D002254:Carbonates; D000460:Chlorophyta / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D007558:Italy; D056186:Metagenomics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
D002254:Carbonates
Biodeterioration; Community structure; Guglielmina Chimienti and Roberta Piredda contributed equally to this work.; Historic monuments; Microbiota; Next-generation sequencing