Severely increasing anthropic pressure on natural water bodies sets a societal context where it is urgent to better understand the role of microbial biodiversity in aquatic ecosystem dynamics and resilience to perturbations. Micro-organisms regulate the chemical composition of the biosphere, influence climates, recycle nutrients, and decompose pollutants. The diversity of microbial communities and their ecological and metabolic functions are being explored in a variety of natural ecosystems, including extreme environments. Because of technical constraints, microbiologists have focused their efforts mainly on prokaryotes. In the environment, and particularly in aquatic ecosystems, the diversity and dynamics of microbial eukaryotes are still poorly understood. Among the new paradigms and challenges constantly emerging in aquatic sciences, probing the unexplored reservoir of novel ‘species’, genes, and metabolic pathways from microbial eukaryotes offers, perhaps, the most exciting research opportunity for the future. These were discussed during the topical session # 11 of the ASLO 2009 aquatic sciences meeting held at Nice, France, through a combination of invited and selected talks and posters. This book brings together part of these talks and presents contributions on ‘disregarded’ microbial eukaryote diversity and its ecological potential in aquatic ecosystems. We hope that this collection of papers will greatly expand our knowledge of the roles of eukaryotic microbes in aquatic ecosystems and will serve as a basis for significant research in the future. We believe that the decade to come promises exciting ecology on the interactions between microbial diversity, hidden genes and functions, and food web dynamics in aquatic systems.

Mycology has an integral role to play in the development of the biotechnology and biomedical sectors. It has become a subject of increasing importance as new fungi and their associated biomolecules are identified. As this discipline comes to the forefront of research in these sectors, the requirement for a consolidation of available research approaches is required. The First Edition of this book has a few basic and applied protocols. With the Second Edition, this book provides consolidated information on recent developments and the most widely used mycological methods available in the fields of biochemistry, biotechnology and microbiology. The methods outlined offer clear and concise directions to the reader and covers both standard protocols and more applied mycological methods. This book provides useful information for undergraduates, post-graduates, and specialists and researchers studying fungal biology.

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Next Generation Sequencing technologies are increasingly revealing that microbial taxa likely to be parasites or symbionts are probably much more prevalent and diverse than previously thought. Every well studied free-living species has parasites; parasites themselves can be parasitized. As a rule of thumb, there is an estimated 4 parasitic species for any given host, and the better a host is studied the more parasites are known to infect it. Therefore, parasites and other symbionts should represent a very large number of species and may far outnumber those with 'free-living' lifestyles. Paradoxically, free-living hosts, which form the bulk of our knowledge of biology, may be a minority! Microbial parasites typically are characterized by their small size, short generation time, and high rates of reproduction, with simple life cycle occurring generally within a single host. They are diverse and ubiquitous in the environment, comprising viruses, prokaryotes and eukaryotes. This Frontiers Research Topic sought to provide a broad overview but concise, comprehensive, well referenced and up-to-date state of the art for everyone involved with microbial parasites in aquatic microbial ecology.

This book is a treatise on microbial ecology that covers traditional and cutting-edge issues in the ecology of microbes in the biosphere. It emphasizes on study tools, microbial taxonomy and the fundamentals of microbial activities and interactions within their communities and environment as well as on the related food web dynamics and biogeochemical cycling. The work exceeds the traditional domain of microbial ecology by revisiting the evolution of cellular prokaryotes and eukaryotes and stressing the general principles of ecology. The overview of the topics, authored by more than 80 specialists, is one of the broadest in the field of environmental microbiology. The overview of the topics, authored by more than 80 specialists, is one of the broadest in the field of environmental microbiology.

Microorganisms are a major part of the Earth's biological diversity. Although a lot of research has been done on microbial diversity, most of it is fragmented. This book creates the need for a unified text to be published, full of information about microbial diversity from highly reputed and impactful sources. Recent Advancements in Microbial Diversity brings a comprehensive understanding of the recent advances in microbial diversity research focused on different bodily systems, such as the gut. Recent Advancements in Microbial Diversity also discusses how the application of advanced sequencing technologies is used to reveal previously unseen microbial diversity and show off its function. - Gives insight into microbial diversity in different bodily systems - Explains novel approaches to studying microbial diversity - Highlights the use of omics to analyze the microbial community and its functional attributes - Discusses the techniques used to examine microbial diversity, including their applications and respective strengths and weaknesses

Aquatic Ecosystems and Microbial Biofilms: Significance, Dynamics, Prevention and Control provides a systematic introduction and review of state-of-the-art information on microbial biofilms in aquatic ecosystems and their control. The book is designed and developed to understand the microbial biofilms in aquatic ecosystems, their role, and the control strategies. The contents of the book are well discussed to get state-of-art knowledge on various topics such as the role of biofilms in marine ecosystems, microbial biofilms, and drinking water systems, biofilms in biofouling and biocorrosion, beneficial aspects of biofilms such as biogeochemical cycling, wastewater treatment, and in biodeterioration of organic materials. This book also provides comprehensive knowledge and in-depth scientific information on the role of biofilms and their contribution to antibiotic resistance, and also advanced technologies to understand biofilms such as metagenomics. The book offers comprehensive coverage of the most essential topics, including: Microbial biofilms in aquatic ecosystems. New horizons to understand the role of biofilms in biofouling and corrosion and their control measures. Beneficial role of aquatic biofilms such as in biogeochemical cycling,wastewater treatment, and biodeterioration of organic materials. Various strategies to collaborate interdisciplinary schemes worldwide to design and develop new methods for cleaner drinking water, and information on advanced techniques such as metagenomics to understand the diversity and functional role of aquatic biofilms. This book serves as a reference book for scientific investigators who would like to study biofilms in aquatic ecosystems, as well as researchers developing methodology in this field to study biofilm formation in aquatic ecosystems, their advantages and disadvantages, and control strategies.