The last ten seminars:

Identification and characterization of sources of airborne antibiotic resistance genes in the urban environment using metagenomic approach

Presenta: Ying Yang

School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China

Wide spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) has attracted increasing concern in recent years. However, the occurrence and diversity of ARGs in airborne particles remained to be understood. In this study, total suspended particles (TSPs) in the atmosphere from animal feedlots, wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), suburban and downtown area in Zhuhai (China) were analyzed for ARG profiles using metagenomic approaches. ARGs were abundant and diverse in TSP samples from animal feedlots and the WWTP. ARG profiles in the TSPs of feedlots were consistent with those in animal feces. Abundance and diversity of ARGs in downtown area was relatively lower compared with other TSPs samples with multidrug resistance genes as the most abundant ARG type. This study suggested that comprehensive profiles of ARGs could be helpful to displays a novel perspective on ARGs profiles in TSPs via metagenomic approach. Comprehensive analysis of the ARGs in airborne TSP could improve our understanding of ARGs dissemination pathways in the environment and their potential health threats.

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Recent and past lake functioning of shallow temperate lakes of the Pampa Plain (Argentina, South America)

Presenta: Maria De Los Angeles Gonzalez Sagrario

Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC), CONICET Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata

Nel corso del seminario sarà presentata l'attività delle ricerche limnologiche e paleolimnologiche condotte dal gruppo di ricerca presso l'Università del Mar del Plata, Argentina e dei primi risultati prodotti nell'ambito della collaborazione bilaterale CNR-CONICET "Variazioni della produttività lacustre e del livello lacustre come risposta alle anomalie climatiche ricostruita attraverso l'analisi di pigmenti lacustri in laghi della Pampas (Argentina) nel corso dell'ultimo millennio"

Il seminario sarà in inglese.

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Living and moving in human-dominated landscapes: wolf recolonisation of the Swiss Alps

Presenta: Gabriele Cozzi

Università di Zurigo

As a result of increasing human pressure, many wildlife species live in modified and fragmented landscapes. To cope with these novel and constantly changing environments, cognitively complex species may develop alternative strategies. As researchers and conservationists, one of the challenges that we are facing is to understand how the interplay of natural and anthropogenic components modify our understanding of biological processes. During this seminar Gabriele Cozzi will show how including information on human acceptance can change our representation of suitable habitats for the wolf in Switzerland and how this allows researchers to more accurately predict short to medium term recolonisation processes.

Il seminario sarà in italiano, con testo in inglese.

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The interplay between biodiversity and pollution

Presenta: Alessandra Loria

McGill University, Department of Biology, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Humans are considered as the world's greatest evolutionary force, and one of the most pressing questions in evolutionary ecology is whether and how natural populations evolve in response to pollution. Genetic adaptation to pollution has been studied since the first observations of heavy metal tolerance in plants and is now represented by an extensive literature. For her PhD thesis Alessandra Loria reviewed this literature in order to synthesize the evidence for micro-evolutionary responses to pollution across multiple levels (genetic, phenotypic and population level), taxonomic groups, and pollutants. The most compelling pieces of evidence for adaptation come from studies focused on phenotypic variation while, together with her group, she found few studies on the likelihood of persistence through adaptation at the population level and none on evolutionary rescue. Evolutionary rescue is the recovery from demographic effects that occurs through genetic adaptation. In her thesis A. Loria performed an evolutionary rescue experiment with Daphnia pulex testing whether initial standing genetic diversity influenced persistence in natural populations. She will discuss the outcomes of this experiment and she will also talk about the several biases that are affecting the literature and that are perhaps leading to an over-estimation of the ability of organisms to survive in polluted environments.

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