MOLECULAR TOOLS AND FRESHWATER DIATOMS, A NOVEL APPROACH TO IDENTIFY TARGET SPECIES TO ASSESS WATER QUALITY IN AQUATIC HABITAT

This work follows a preliminary research project started in 2001 for an MS thesis in Molecular Biology in which oligonucleotide probes were developed to assess water quality using specific freshwater diatoms considered excellent bioindicators. The results obtained in this initial work were promising and contributed to the success of an application for an EU-funded grant. The EU project, with the acronym MICROPAD (MICRO-arrays for the detection of the abundance and distribution of pathogenic Protozoa, flagellated Algae and freshwater Diatoms) was carried out in parallel with the research work of the present thesis. Within this EU network our laboratory applied three distinct techniques to the the identification of freshwater diatoms: PCR based technology, dot/slot blot and microarray technology, which is defined as reverse dot-blot. The structure of this thesis consists of the main description of the experiments performed, including a chapter dedicated to materials & methods, one to the results and finally a section in appendix where three manuscripts, one submitted, one in preparation, and one recently published are presented.