AUTHOR=Andrei Adrian-Ştefan , Păuşan Manuela R. , Tămaş Tudor , Har Nicolae , Barbu-Tudoran Lucian , Leopold Nicolae , Banciu Horia L. TITLE=Diversity and Biomineralization Potential of the Epilithic Bacterial Communities Inhabiting the Oldest Public Stone Monument of Cluj-Napoca (Transylvania, Romania) JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology VOLUME=8 YEAR=2017 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2017.00372 DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2017.00372 ISSN=1664-302X ABSTRACT=
In this study, we investigated the biomineralization potential and diversity of the epilithic bacterial communities dwelling on the limestone statue of Saint Donatus, the oldest public monument of Cluj-Napoca city (Transylvania region, NW Romania). Their spatial distribution together with phylogenetic and metabolic diversity, as well as their capacity to precipitate calcium carbonate was evaluated by combining molecular and phenotypic fingerprinting methods with X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and scanning electron-microscopy analyses. The results of real-time quantitative PCR, molecular fingerprinting and community-level physiological profiling showed that diverse and abundant bacterial assemblages that differ in relation to their collection site colonized the statue. The cultivation and molecular identification procedures allowed the characterization of 79 bacterial isolates belonging to Proteobacteria (73.4%), Firmicutes (19%), and Actinobacteria (7.6%). Amongst them, the 22 strains identified as being capable of calcium carbonate precipitation were found to belong mostly to