First record of Craspedacusta sowerbii Lankester, 1880 (Hydrozoa, Limnomedusae) in a natural freshwater lagoon of Uruguay, with notes on polyp stage in captivity

Abstract The freshwater cnidarian Craspedacusta sowerbii Lankester 1880, has invaded lakes and ponds as well as artificial water bodies throughout the world. The first record in Uruguay corresponding to the jellyfish was made in 1961 in two artificial fountains, with no mention of the polyp form. Although local reports of other related polyp species have been made, information on the benthic form of C. sowerbii is lacking. Here we report the finding of live frustules, solitary individuals, medusae and colonies from a natural lagoon in August 2010, allowing us to observe the morphology and behavior of the polyp stage in captivity. In addition, molecular identification and remarks on the potencial path of introduction are presented. This is the first record in Uruguay of both polyp and medusa stages of C. sowerbii in a natural water body, Del Medio Lagoon (Dpto. de Florida), Uruguay

Plant-microbe interaction in Antarctica

Endophytes are microorganisms that dwell inside healthy plant tissues without causing any detectable disease symptoms to the host. They are ubiquitously associated with almost all plants and are able to improve plant ecology and ftness, conferring resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses. Their ecological role becomes even more important when plants live in extreme environmental conditions such as those of Antarctica. In recent years, many studies focused on the analysis of soils and roots microbial communities associated to the Antarctic vascular plants Colobanthus quitensis and Deschampsia antarctica, whereas less it is known about leafassociated microorganisms. In this work, we show a preliminary study on the disclosure of bacterial, fungal and viral communities associated to C. quitensis leaves. A metatranscriptome analysis revealed the presence of sequences belonging to plant (72%), fungi (23%), bacteria, viruses and algae (5%). The ecological role of viruses was mainly addressed in order to deepen knowledge on the tripartite plant-fungus-virus interaction. Culturable bacteria and fungi have been also isolated and are currently under investigatio