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Complex bacterial diversity in the white biofilms of the Catacombs of St. Callixtus in Rome evidenced by different investigation strategies
Author(s) -
Krakova Lucia,
De Leo Filomena,
Bruno Laura,
Pangallo Domenico,
Urzì Clara
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
environmental microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.954
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1462-2920
pISSN - 1462-2912
DOI - 10.1111/1462-2920.12626
Subject(s) - biology , biofilm , microbiology and biotechnology , bacteria , white (mutation) , genetics , gene
Summary R oman Catacombs are affected by different kinds of biofilms that were extensively investigated in the last 14 years. In particular, the areas far from the lamps are often covered by white biofilms of different extension, consistency and nature. The aim of this paper is to describe the profile of the microbial community present in two areas of the O cean's C ubiculum ( CSC 13), characterized by similar alterations described as white biofilms, by using a multistep approach that included direct microscopy observations, culture‐dependent and culture‐independent methodologies through the extraction of DNA and RNA directly from the sampled areas. In addition to this, we extracted the DNA directly from the P etri dishes containing R2A and B 4 media after incubation and growth of bacteria. Our results evidenced that a complex bacterial community (mainly constituted by filamentous A ctinobacteria, as well as F irmicutes and P roteobacteria) colonizes the two different white biofilms, and its detection, quantitative and qualitative, could be revealed only by different approaches, each method giving different information that only partially overlap.