Publications by authors named "Ivana Cernajova"

Phytoplankton, as primary producers, play a key role in aquatic ecosystems. Their community turnover is shaped by morphological traits that enable adaptation to diverse abiotic and biotic factors. Yet, the temporal scale of these dynamics remains poorly understood due to limited high-frequency sampling studies.

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Article Synopsis
  • Mallomonas are freshwater organisms that dominate plankton communities in nutrient-poor waters and have a unique siliceous cell covering made of scales, which play an important but unexplored role in their ecology and evolution.
  • This research examined how the patterns on these scales affect resistance to UV radiation by testing 20 species across different scale types, revealing that thicker scales offer better protection against UVB rays.
  • The findings suggest that while scale thickness is key for UVB resistance, cell size and evolutionary background do not significantly influence UV protection, highlighting the need for more research on the ecological adaptations linked to these nanopatterns.
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Climatic factors, soil chemistry and geography are considered as major factors affecting lichen distribution and diversity. To determine how these factors limit or support the associations between the symbiotic partners, we revise the lichen symbiosis as a network of relationships here. More than one thousand thalli of terricolous lichens were collected at sites with a wide range of soil chemical properties from seven biogeographical regions of Europe.

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Crustose Verrucariaceae lichens form a distinctive black belt on seashores all over the world. This lifestyle is apparently enabled by a specific set of photobionts. However, their diversity is understudied.

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We studied the biodiversity of Asterochloris photobionts found in Bolivian lichens to better understand their global spatial distribution and adaptation strategies in the context of a worldwide phylogeny of the genus. Based on nuclear ITS rDNA, the chloroplast rbcL gene and the actin type I gene we reconstructed a phylogenetic tree that recovered nine new Asterochloris lineages, while 32 Bolivian photobiont samples were assigned to 12 previously recognized Asterochloris lineages. We also show that some previously discovered Asterochloris photobiont species and lineages may occur in a broader spectrum of climatic conditions, and mycobiont species and photobionts may show different preferences along an altitude gradient.

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The view of lichens as a symbiosis only between a mycobiont and a photobiont has been challenged by discoveries of diverse associated organisms. Specific basidiomycete yeasts in the cortex of a range of macrolichens were hypothesized to influence the lichens' phenotype. The present study explores the occurrence and diversity of cystobasidiomycete yeasts in the lichen genus Cladonia.

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