Ana L. Pereira

Ana L. Pereira
Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinária | INRB · Unidade de Sistemas Agrários e Desenvolvimento

Investigator
Looking for a new position in biology/botany/agriculture reseach

About

48
Publications
23,911
Reads
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527
Citations
Introduction
I am interested in the analysis and identification of chemical compounds with potential biological activities from starfish, corals, sea anemones, sea urchin, sea slugs, symbiotic cyanobacteria, bacteria and plants (terrestrial and aquatic). I also want to known if plant metabolome is affected due to the presence of environmental contaminants in soils and water and how plants cope the biotic stress. A third interest is the phylogeny and taxonomy of symbiotic cyanobacteria and plants.
Additional affiliations
September 2020 - present
Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinária
Position
  • Investigator
Description
  • Screening of Diplotaxis tenuifolia (arugula) varieties for susceptibility to the pathogen Hyaloperonospora (downy mildew); interaction between host and pathogen; analysis of arugula metabolome and lipidome inoculated with oomycete; development of SSR and SNP molecular markers and genetic diversity of the pathogen and host; identification of molecular markers linked to resistance genes.
March 2019 - August 2020
Technical University of Lisbon
Position
  • Investigator
Description
  • Activities: genetic characterization of Campylobacter fetus subsp. venerealis isolates (genetic diversity, virulence potential, antimicrobial susceptibility), development of a rapid diagnostic tool, screening and validation of potential vaccine targets
January 2019 - January 2022
Centro Boas Notas, Great Minds, Prometeu, Esfera do Saber, others
Position
  • Tutor (Explicadora) in Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geology
Description
  • Teaching and explain to high schools students Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geology and prepare them to final exams.
Education
September 2000 - August 2004
University of Lisbon
Field of study
  • Biology (Cellular Biology)
January 1990 - November 1996
Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon
Field of study
  • Plant Biology

Publications

Publications (48)
Article
Full-text available
The floating freshwater fern Azolla is the only plant that retains an endocyanobiont, Nostoc azollae (aka Anabaena azollae), during its sexual and asexual reproduction. The increased interest in Azolla as a potential source of food and its unique evolutionary history have raised questions about its cyanotoxin content and genome. Cyanotoxins are pot...
Preprint
Full-text available
The floating freshwater fern Azolla is the only plant that retains an endocyanobiont, Nostoc azollae (aka Anabaena azollae) during its sexual and asexual reproduction. The increased interest in Azolla as a potential source of food, and its unique evolutionary history have raised questions about its cyanotoxin content and genome. Cyanotoxins are pot...
Article
Full-text available
Wild rocket downy mildew (DM), caused by oomycete Hyaloperonospora sp., is a widely spread disease reducing crop production and quality. New productive wild rocket varieties resistant to DM are crucial to control disease and ensure high quality leaves. A histological characterization of Hyaloperonospora sp. infection was performed in 11 wild rocket...
Poster
Full-text available
Introdução O míldio é uma doença causada pelo oomiceta Hyaloperonospora sp., que afeta a produção e a qualidade das folhas da rúcula selvagem (Diplotaxis tenuifolia (L.) DC). Neste estudo caracterizou-se a infeção de míldio ao nível histológico em plantas de rúcula com diferentes respostas ao míldio. É crucial a obtenção de novas variedades resiste...
Cover Page
Full-text available
Dear Colleagues, Plant–cyanobacterial symbiosis is a diverse and never-ending source of new hypotheses and research themes. The symbiosis between plants (aquatic and terrestrial) and algae/microalgae with a few genera of cyanobacteria is a very ancient process with benefits for one or both organisms. The establishment of those symbioses leads to m...
Article
Full-text available
The cyanophycin content of the heterocystous nitrogen-fixing symbiotic cyanobacterium, Anabaena azollae, which inhabits an ovoid cavity in the dorsal leaf lobes of the fern, Azolla filiculoides, is seldom analyzed. To study the cyanophycin content in vegetative cells and heterocysts of A. azollae, we used three fluorochromes: aluminum trichloride,...
Article
Full-text available
One hundred accessions of a “core collection” of Diplotaxis tenuifolia (L.) DC. and Eruca spp. were screened at seedling stage for resistance to downy mildew. Accessions tested at the seedling stage were assigned to 0–6 interaction phenotypes. All cultivated rocket (Eruca spp.) accessions exhibited a resistant (R) response both in cotyledons and in...
Poster
Full-text available
Wild rocket is a popular baby leaf-type crop in the Brassicaceae family, associated with an healthy Mediterranean diet style, grown in Southern Europe, the Middle East and in South-East Asia. However, the high susceptibility of wild rocket to the severe foliar downy mildew (DM) disease caused by the oomycete Hyaloperonospora sp. represents an incre...
Article
Full-text available
A rúcula (Diplotaxis spp. e Eruca spp.) é uma hortícola de folhas “baby-leaf” muito apreciada pelas suas características organoléticas e benefícios para a saúde. Pertence à família das Brassicáceas e a rúcula selvagem (Diplotaxis tenuifolia (L.) DC.) é a mais apreciada pelos consumidores. Nas últimas décadas, tem tido uma grande expansão e, atualme...
Technical Report
Full-text available
A rúcula (Diplotaxis spp. e Eruca spp.) é uma hortícola de folhas “baby-leaf” muito apreciada pelas suas características organoléticas e benefícios para a saúde. Pertence à família das Brassicáceas e a rúcula selvagem (Diplotaxis tenuifolia (L.) DC.) é a mais apreciada pelosconsumidores. Nas últimas décadas, tem tido uma grande expansão e, atualmen...
Article
Full-text available
The pathogenesis mechanisms of Campylobacter fetus subsp. venerealis (Cfv), the etiologic agent of Bovine Genital Campylobacteriosis remain elusive. This study evaluated the virulence potential and biovar characteristics of Cfv isolates (n = 13) by PCR screening of putative virulence-factor (VF) genes, Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) analysis, an...
Article
Full-text available
Cyanobacteria are a well-known source of bioproducts which renders culturable strains a valuable resource for biotechnology purposes. We describe here the establishment of a cyanobacterial culture collection (CC) and present the first version of the strain catalog and its online database (http://lege.ciimar.up.pt/). The LEGE CC holds 386 strains, m...
Article
Full-text available
The search for novel compounds or new sources of bioactive compounds from plants are normally made in angiosperms not in ferns and so their potential is not fully investigated. The genus Azolla is composed by seven species that is unique since it is the only fern that harbours a permanent symbiosis with the cyanobacterium Anabaena azollae. The rese...
Article
Full-text available
Blooms of harmful cyanobacteria that synthesize cyanotoxins are increasing worldwide. Agronomic plants can uptake these cyanotoxins and given that plants are ultimately ingested by humans, this represents a public health problem. In this research, parsley and coriander grown in soil and watered through 7 days with crude extracts containing microcys...
Article
Full-text available
The culture of the nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium Anabaena azollae, the cyanobiont of the fern Azolla, is a long-time debate. Therefore, on the present research, the cyanobiont was cultured in three culture media (AA, AA1/8, BG-11 0) supplemented with an aqueous extract of Azolla filiculoides, three sugar sources (fructose, D-glucosamine, N-acetyl-...
Article
Full-text available
The fern Azolla filiculoides Lamarck (family Azollaceae) harbours a heterocystous nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium Anabaena azollae Strasburger (Nostocales: Cyanobacteria) inside cavities on the dorsal lobes of the leaves. A new extra sheath was detected under scanning electron microscopy surrounding only the heterocysts of the cyanobiont and their c...
Article
Full-text available
Physiological and biochemical effects of cylindrospermopsin (CYN), a cyanobacterial toxin that inhibits protein synthesis and released during a harmful cyanobacterial bloom, has been overlooked in plants. Therefore, at the present research, the toxic effects (physiological and biochemical) of a crude extract containing CYN were assessed in the aqua...
Article
Full-text available
Cyanobionts from the coralloid roots of Cycadales: is there any molecular evidence of cyanotoxins? The gymnosperms of the order Cycadales form a symbiosis with cyanobacteria in a special zone of the coralloid roots called the cyanobacterial zone (a green ring between the inner and outer root cortex). Free-living cyanobacteria synthesise secondary m...
Article
Full-text available
Previous reports indicate the use of the aquatic fern Azolla as medicinal plant in New Zealand and Tanzania against sore throat and cough, respectively. Therefore, the aims were to evaluate the bioactivity of Azolla organic and aqueous extracts against bacteria and yeasts. Organic (dichloromethane:methanol) and aqueous extracts obtained from six Az...
Article
Full-text available
The symbiosis Azolla-An. azollae with a worldwide distribution in pantropical and temperate regions is one of the most studied due to their potential application as biofertilizer especially in rice fields, but also as animal food and phytoremediation. The cyanobiont is a filamentous heterocystic cyanobacterium that inhabits the foliar cavities of t...
Article
Full-text available
Family Azollaceae has seven species with a controversial taxonomy. The identification of species without reproductive structures relies on vegetative characters but some are variable, leading to misinterpretations. The molecular methods may be helpful, but until now, they did not provide a conclusive Azolla taxonomy. Therefore, we studied the famil...
Article
Full-text available
Azolla filiculoides showed a planar development in four culture media, but with overlapping of sporophytes after 28 days, and curled roots in all cases except for IRRI2. The difference in biomass between the media IRRI2 and IRRI1-Fe10x was statistically significant at Days 14, 21 and 28 by ANOVA. Medium IRRI2 gave the highest duplication time.
Article
Full-text available
Azolla filiculoides is an aquatic pteridophyte that may be used as animal food, biofertilizer and phytoremediation. Its volatile composition was never studied although several phytochemical analyses were performed. The volatile composition of A. filiculoides grown outdoors in a pond at the Botanical Garden of Lisbon University (BGLU) or in culture...
Article
Full-text available
The results of using the nitrogen fixing symbiotic system Azolla-Anabaena to improve the quality of treated urban wastewater, particularly on what concerns phosphorus removal efficiencies (40-65%), obtained in continuous assays performed during the past few years and presented earlier, were very promising. Nevertheless, the presence of combined nit...
Article
Full-text available
The essential oils, isolated by hydrodistillation and distillation-extraction, from the aerial parts of different populations of Pterospartum tridentatum collected during the flowering phase, at different locations in Portugal, were analysed by GC and GC–MS. All the P. tridentatum populations studied afforded a yellowish oil in a yield <0.05% (v/w)...
Article
Full-text available
The foliar cavities of the water fern Azolla filiculoides have as many as 20 – 25 simple hairs (SH) protruding from the epidermal cells that delimit the cavity. These SH have a transfer-like ultrastructure normally associated with secretion of metabolites. The aim of this study was the chemical characterization of the compounds that accumulated in...
Article
Full-text available
Some members of the subtribe Genistinae show winged stems instead of leaves. Using techniques of light and scanning microscopy, the mor- phoanatomy and some microcharacters of the winged stem of Pterospartum. tridentatum are described and compared with those of other close taxa, also inserted in the Genistinae and with whom P. tridentatum is mistak...
Article
Full-text available
A description of the midgut gland of Gammarus locusta with the aim of using this organ as a complementary tool in ecotoxicological studies was made. The hepatopancreas is composed of two pairs of blind-ending tubular structures. The thickness and length of these tubules were $ 50 mm and 5 mm, respectively, in adult males (10^12 mm length). The dist...
Article
Full-text available
A description of the midgut gland of Gal una us locusta with the aim of using this organ as a complementary tool in ccotoxicological studies vas made. The hepatopancreas is composed of two pairs of blind-ending tubular structures. The thickness and length of these tubules were similar to50 mum and 5 mm, respectively, in adult males (10 12 mm length...
Article
Full-text available
The Portuguese and the European Flora refer to the presence of two or three Azolla species in Portugal: A. filiculoides Lam., A. caroliniana Will& and/or Azolla mexicana Presl., the latter included in the last edition of Flora Europaea. In the present work, the taxonomy of Azolla species is reviewed using the two most important characters that can...

Questions

Questions (3)
Question
I have a gene sequenced and I want to find the CDS region. Is there any software that find the CDS region? Because for ORF there is some software and I already use it.... Thanks
Question
I am doing a BLAST search using the WGS database restricted to Campylobacteriaceae but one of the times after 3h I still didn't have the results. Is it normal to take so long? Thanks
Question
I am using the kit Genomic DNA from soil from Macherey-Nagel but I do not have DNA. I follow the manual instructions. The soil is a mixture od organic soil:sand:zeolite (1:1:1). Anyone has suggestions and/or possible explanations for what is happen? Anyone use this kit?

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