Characterization of novel verrucomicrobial endo- and ectosymbionts of ciliates: a comparative phylogenetic and genomic study.

The aim of the present PhD project is to investigate bacterial endosymbionts and ectosymbionts of ciliates, belonging to Phylum Verrucomicrobia, from a genomic and phylogenetic point of view. The first goal of this study is to improve the knowledge about the diversity and distribution of verrucomicrobial endosymbionts in ciliates. Therefore it was decided to focus on genus Euplotes due to its propensity to harbor symbiotic bacteria and due to preliminary data report on the presence of symbiotic Verrucomicrobia in some Euplotes strains from our laboratory culture collection. The second goal of this study is the characterization from a genomic point of view of an already known ectosymbionts of the ciliate Euplotidium itoi, the so called Epixenosome. Along these two main goals, a very important milestone is the production of an updated review on the knowledge about the phylum Verrucomicrobia, a task not attended by anyone so far, but truly needed due to increase of studies regarding Verrucomicrobia