Studies of prokaryotic diversity in aquatic environments (especially marine) and bacterial taxonomy.
- Polyphasic characterisation of bacteria and archaea, especially marine, for taxonomic purposes, formal description and conservation of new bacterial taxa and generation of databases useful for their identification.
- Phenotypic and functional characterisation: cultural, structural, physiological, biochemical and nutritional characters, determination of chemotaxonomic characters (fatty acids, polar lipids, quinones, majority proteins by MALDI-TOF, G+C).
- Comparative genomics applied to prokaryotic taxonomy: obtaining data (new sequences, extension and/or closed) of type strains and new isolates, comparative analysis and phylogenetic studies based on conserved genes (16S rRNA gene, various essential genes), phylogenomics based on complete genomes. Determination of in silico DNA-DNA hybridisation values and ANI (Average Nucleotide Identity) and AAI (Average Aminoacid Identity) indices from genomic sequences.
- Formal aspects: Nomenclature in prokaryote taxonomy.
Taxonomic groups: preferably families, genera and species of the phyla Pseudomonadota (especially families Vibrionaceae, Halomonadaceae and Rhodobacteraceae) and Bacteroidota (order Flavobacteriales), among other taxa.
Since the 80s of the last century, environmental quality has been gaining interest in the scientific field, being a challenge to develop tools to understand and evaluate the implications of the negative effects of anthropic action on the biosphere, while ensuring sustainable development.
Since then, the group's research activity has focused on the study of the mechanisms and responses triggered by physical and chemical agents in animals, with the aim of their application in various contexts: in the development of new pesticides, in the evaluation of animal responses to global warming, in the evaluation of the toxicity of environmental pollutants, in the ecophysiological characterisation of pest and invasive species, and in the development and optimisation of biomarkers indicative of animal health and welfare.
The group uses specialised methodologies to carry out bioassays with substances of agrochemical (pesticides) and environmental interest in different insect species as well as in freshwater and marine animals (fish, crustaceans and molluscs). The environmental agents and problems investigated by the group include pesticides, metals, pharmaceuticals, nanoparticles, nano- and microplastics, temperature increase in relation to global warming, as well as invasive animal species. Studies are carried out using a variety of methodologies including exposure of animals to toxicants via ectopic, alimentary, aerial or aquatic routes, all under controlled conditions.
Studies are also carried out in the natural environment. Toxicokinetic studies are carried out, as well as the evaluation of physiological parameters (reproduction, level of energy reserves, osmolality, plasma metabolites), biochemical parameters (oxidative damage, antioxidant defences, metallothionein level, biotransformation enzyme activities) or through the use of omics technologies. The group collaborates with Spanish and foreign research groups in carrying out joint work, and also actively participates in international congresses by attending and organising them.
The Marine Zoology Unit (UZM) is a research team of the Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology that has proved to have a high capacity to attract external funding in order to develop its scientific objectives and that also has a long history of international cooperation. The UZM operates in new, state-of-the-art facilities in the Parc Científic and shares this building with the Experimental Aquaculture Plant of the Universitat de València. It’s been conducting research on Conservation Biology and Parasitology of fish, reptiles and marine mammals since 1982.
Our research has an important practical orientation, both for its interest in the management and conservation of marine species and the protection of their habitats, as well as for its importance in the analysis and solutions of parasitic pathologies in aquaculture. But neither do we neglect aspects of basic research, oriented towards the study of evolutionary and ecological processes, especially in the context of parasite-host associations. The conservation biology research focuses on cetaceans, pinnipeds and sea turtles. The UZM keeps a record of cetacean strandings in the Valencian Community.
Over the years, our objectives have grown progressively more ambitious and, currently, we also monitor strandings of sea turtles and cetacean and turtle interactions with fishing gear in the waters of the Valencian Community. Since 1988, the UZM acts by delegation of the Valencian Government as the scientific body in charge of the registry of strandings and incidental catches in fishing gear of cetaceans and turtles in the Valencian Community.
The Marine Zoology Unit hosts the Mediterranean Database of Cetacean Strandings under the auspices of ACCOBAMS and the United Nations Environment Programme. Additionally, the Unit has coordinated an in-depth study funded by the Ministry of Environment under the EU Natura 2000 initiative. The objective of this study was to identify and designate protection areas for cetaceans and sea turtles in Spanish Mediterranean waters. Our contribution to the project involved carrying out aerial surveys in the Valencian Community and the Region of Murcia to obtain estimates of the size of cetacean and sea turtle populations. We have also carried out studies on the distribution, migration and nesting behaviour of sea turtles in Equatorial Guinea and the Dominican Republic, and on the feeding of turtles and cetaceans in the Mediterranean.
The UZM’s second research line focuses on parasitological studies of marine vertebrates (mammals, turtles and fish), including taxonomic (both conventional and molecular), ecological and evolutionary aspects. Our pioneering studies on the ecological and evolutionary determinants of cetacean and sea turtle parasitic communities deserve special mention. Some of the studies carried out by our group have used parasite data to obtain information on the migrations and social structure of marine mammal populations.
