Resumen de Effect of environmental changes and metal stress on phototrophic microorganisms in extreme environments: development of new methodologies in high-resolution microscopy techniques /
The effects of climate change directly affect the populations of phototrophic microorganisms in microbial mats, causing alterations in other environmental parameters such as the increase in temperature. This in turn causes drought and sometimes the desertification of these ecosystems, as well as affecting the osmolarity of cells due to the increase in salinity. The microorganisms referred to are highly abundant in microbial mats; principally, they are cyanobacteria and microalgae, which, apart from being the main stabilisers of these ecosystems, are exposed to distinct stress conditions at the same time.
Most studies carried out to assess the impact on microorganisms of such variable environmental conditions use axenic cultures that come from microorganisms isolated from the natural environment or else from culture collections. Nothing could be further from reality, since—in natural environments—phototrophic microorganisms establish stable associations with heterotrophic bacteria and, at times, with other phototrophs. In addition, very few studies analyse (in these conditions and at individual level) the effects of environmental parameters or of metal pollution in these associations.
The lack of methodologies that can be applied to ascertain these effects in a specific microorganism, when this is selectively associated with another, in vivo, swiftly and without using any type of staining, is therefore a challenge in analysing the possibilities of these microorganisms when facing such drastic changes. In the current work, an attempt has been made to solve this problem by means of the optimisation of distinct techniques, based on confocal laser microscopy and centring on the main characteristic of cyanobacteria and microalgae, which is the emission of natural fluorescence. Chlorophyll a is the majority pigment in these microorganisms and has previously been used as a bioindicator, in studies carried out with metals by other members of the group.
Determining the role played by these microorganisms in the resistance to sudden changes in natural or anthropogenic conditions is a further, and important, issue. In addition, in this respect, the interest in dormant cells and in the study of viable and non-viable cells has increased. For this reason, a new methodology has been developed in this work; using a confocal laser microscope and two specific lasers, this has allowed us to ascertain the percentage of these cells in samples exposed to distinct stress conditions. The electronic scanning and transmission microscopes, both coupled to an X-ray dispersive energy detector, jointly with the X-ray transmission microscope from the ALBA synchrotron, have been used in samples prepared to evaluate morphological changes due to stress factors both in complete cells and in ultrafine sections, as well as in studies of extra- and intracellular metal extraction.
The objectives of this work centre on the combined application of all these methodologies on two consortia of microorganisms: Scenedesmus sp. DE2009 and Geitlerinema sp. DE2011. The effect of light and salinity (as environmental parameters), in addition to the impact of lead, copper and chromium (as pollutants) was studied extensively in individual cells for both microorganisms. Finally, this thesis is organised into distinct chapters. The Chapter 3 correspond to the articles that have already been published (one of them currently under review); thus, the results obtained from the research carried out are therefore presented in Sections 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 and are discussed globally in Chapter 4.
