Valentina Serra

University of Pisa

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Co-Authors

Giulio Petroni

University of Pisa

Letizia Modeo

University of Pisa

Leandro Gammuto

University of Pavia

Sergei I. Fokin

North-West Institute of Management

Michele Castelli

University of Pavia

B. V. Sandeep

Andhra University

Venkatamahesh Nitla

University of Pisa

Franco Verni

University of Pisa

Charan Kumar Basuri

Ministry of Earth Sciences

Michela Balestri

Oxford Brookes University

Cooperative Institutions

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Natural History Museum

American Museum of Natural History

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Real Jardín Botánico

Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas

University of Pisa

Weatherford College

École Pratique des Hautes Études

Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Botany

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Influence of controlled water supply on shoot and root development of young peach trees

Tree Physiology (1995)

N.A. Hipps Loic L. Pagès J.G. Huguet Valentina Serra

Three controlled water supply treatments were applied to 1-year-old peach trees grown in root observation boxes. The treatments were: I(0), growth medium maintained at 50% field capacity; I(1), water supplied when daily net tree stem diameter change was negative or zero for 1 day; I(3) as for I(1) except that water was applied after net daily stem diameter change was negative or zero for 3 consecutive days. Trees in treatment I(0) had the greatest mean daily first-order shoot growth rates, and trees in treatment I(3) had the lowest shoot growth rates. Because leaf production rate (apparent plastochron) of first-order shoots was unaffected by treatment, differences in shoot length were due to differences in internode extension and not to the number of internodes. Trees in treatment I(0) had a greater number of second-order shoot axes than trees in treatment I(1) or I(3). Furthermore, an increase in the rate of growth of the first-order shoot axis was associated with an increased tendency for branching (i.e., the development of sylleptic second-order shoots). Increased leaf length was also associated with more frequent watering. Trees in treatment I(0) had the greatest root lengths and dry weights, and this was attributed to a greater number of first-and second-order (lateral) root axes compared with trees in the I(1) and I(3) treatments. The extension rate and apical diameter of first-order roots were reduced by the I(3) treatment. The density of second-order roots along primary root axes was not affected by any of the treatments.

Plant stem

Lateral shoot

10.1093/treephys/15.2.95

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Citations (34)

“Candidatus Gortzia shahrazadis”, a Novel Endosymbiont of Paramecium multimicronucleatum and a Revision of the Biogeographical Distribution of Holospora-Like Bacteria

Frontiers in Microbiology (2016)

Valentina Serra Sergei I. Fokin Michele Castelli Charan Kumar Basuri Venkatamahesh Nitla

Holospora spp. and "Candidatus Gortzia infectiva", known as Holospora-like bacteria (HLB), are commonly found as nuclear endosymbionts of ciliates, especially the Paramecium genus. HLB are related by phylogenetic relationships, morphological features, and life-cycles, which involve two alternating morphotypes: reproductive and infectious forms (RF, IF). In this paper we describe a novel species belonging to the "Ca. Gortzia" genus, detected in P. multimicronucleatum, a ciliate for which infection by an HLB has not been reported, discovered in India. This novel endosymbiont shows unusual and surprising features with respect to other HLB, such as large variations in IF morphology and the occasional ability to reproduce in the host cytoplasm. We propose the name of "Candidatus Gortzia shahrazadis" for this novel HLB. Moreover, we report two additional species of HLB from Indian Paramecium populations: "Ca. Gortzia infectiva" (from P. jenningsi), and H. obtusa (from P. caudatum); the latter is the first record of Holospora from a tropical country. Although tropical, we retrieved H. obtusa at an elevation of 706 m corresponding to a moderate climate not unlike conditions where Holospora are normally found, suggesting the genus Holospora does exist in tropical countries, but restricted to higher elevations.

Candidatus

Paramecium caudatum

10.3389/fmicb.2016.01704

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Citations (44)

Molecular phylogenetic position and description of a new genus and species of freshwater Chaetonotidae (Gastrotricha: Chaetonotida: Paucitubulatina), and the annotation of its mitochondrial genome

Invertebrate Systematics (2024)

Leandro Gammuto Valentina Serra Giulio Petroni M. Antonio Todaro

Chaetonotidae is the most diversified family of the entire phylum Gastrotricha; it comprises ~430 species distributed across 16 genera. The current classification, established mainly on morphological traits, has been challenged in recent years by phylogenetic studies, indicating that the cuticular ornamentations used to discriminate among species may be misleading when used to identify groupings, which has been the practice until now. Therefore, a consensus is developing toward implementing novel approaches to better define species identity and affiliation at a higher taxonomic ranking. Using an integrative morphological and molecular approach, including annotation of the mitogenome, we report on some freshwater gastrotrichs characterised by a mixture of two types of cuticular scales diagnostic of the genera Aspidiophorus and Heterolepidoderma. Our specimens’ overall anatomical characteristics find no correspondence in the taxa of these two genera, calling for their affiliation to a new species. Phylogenetic analyses based on the sequence of the ribosomal RNA genes of 96 taxa consistently found the new species unrelated to Aspidiophorus or Heterolepidoderma but allied with Chaetonotus aff. subtilis, as a subset of a larger clade, including mostly planktonic species. Morphological uniqueness and position along the non-monophyletic Chaetonotidae branch advocate erecting a new genus to accommodate the current specimens; consequently, the name Litigonotus ghinii gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The complete mitochondrial genome of the new taxon resulted in a single circular molecule 14,384 bp long, including 13 protein-coding genes, 17 tRNA genes and 2 rRNAs genes, showing a perfect synteny and collinearity with the only other gastrotrich mitogenome available, a possible hint of a high level of conservation in the mitochondria of Chaetonotidae. ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:9803F659-306F-4EC3-A73B-8C704069F24A

Monophyly

PhyloCode

10.1071/is23059

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Citations (3)

Genetic Codes with No Dedicated Stop Codon: Context-Dependent Translation Termination

Cell (2016)

Estienne C. Swart Valentina Serra Giulio Petroni Mariusz Nowacki

The prevailing view of the nuclear genetic code is that it is largely frozen and unambiguous. Flexibility in the nuclear genetic code has been demonstrated in ciliates that reassign standard stop codons to amino acids, resulting in seven variant genetic codes, including three previously undescribed ones reported here. Surprisingly, in two of these species, we find efficient translation of all 64 codons as standard amino acids and recognition of either one or all three stop codons. How, therefore, does the translation machinery interpret a "stop" codon? We provide evidence, based on ribosomal profiling and "stop" codon depletion shortly before coding sequence ends, that mRNA 3′ ends may contribute to distinguishing stop from sense in a context-dependent manner. We further propose that such context-dependent termination/readthrough suppression near transcript ends enables genetic code evolution.

Stop codon

Genetic Code

10.1016/j.cell.2016.06.020

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Citations (165)

Identification of the bacteria associated to the phycosphere of the Chlorella-like strain SEC_LI_ChL_1

Algal Research (2022)

Valentina Serra Leandro Gammuto Giulio Petroni Adriana Ciurli Carolina Chiellini

Stenotrophomonas

Microbacterium

Alphaproteobacteria

10.1016/j.algal.2022.102869

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Citations (9)

Comparative study and morphological plasticity of an Italian and a Chinese population of the protist ciliate Pseudokeronopsis erythrina (Hypotrichia, Kentrurostylida) with a mitochondrial genome analysis

Water Biology and Security (2025)

Wenxin Xu Leandro Gammuto Valentina Serra Xiaotian Luo Fabrizio Erra

Protist

Erythrina

10.1016/j.watbs.2024.100345

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Citations (0)

Effects of Habitat Quality and Seasonality on Ranging Patterns of Collared Brown Lemur (Eulemur collaris) in Littoral Forest Fragments

International Journal of Primatology (2014)

Marco Campera Valentina Serra Michela Balestri Marta Barresi Murielle Ravaolahy

Animal ecology

Frugivore

Seasonality

Home range

10.1007/s10764-014-9780-6

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Citations (70)

Multidisciplinary characterization of the new species Copemetopus mystakophoros and its symbionts with a proposal for the new class Copemetopea (Alveolata: Ciliophora)

Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society (2023)

Sergei I. Fokin Valentina Serra Leandro Gammuto Alessandro Allievi Giulio Petroni

Abstract The history of the genus Copemetopus is tortuous and studded with several misattributions. It was erected by Villeneuve-Brachon in 1940 after the discovery of Copemetopus subsalsus in saline ponds along the French coast of the Mediterranean Sea near Sète and associated with the class Heterotrichea in the family Metopidae, close to Bryometopus. After a long series of systematic revisions, it is now clear that Copemetopus is not a heterotrich and that it falls in the subphylum Intramacronucleata. Nevertheless, a lot more work is needed to fix the complex taxonomic status of the genus, which lacks a precise taxonomic collocation (it is presently referred to as incertae sedis). In the present study focused on a multidisciplinary and detailed description of a new species, of the genus, Copemetopus mystakophoros sp. nov., we also propose the erection of the new class, Copemetopea cl. nov. After careful literature and data revision, we believe that members of Copemetopus require a higher-ranked taxon in the phylum Ciliophora, given their molecular and morphological peculiarities.

Incertae sedis

Type genus

10.1093/zoolinnean/zlac114

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Citations (1)

Host association and intracellularity evolved multiple times independently in theRickettsiales

bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (2022)

Michele Castelli Tiago Nardi Leandro Gammuto Greta Bellinzona Elena Sabaneyeva

Abstract The order Rickettsiales ( Alphaproteobacteria ) encompasses multiple diverse lineages of host-associated bacteria, including pathogens, reproductive manipulators, and mutualists. In order to understand how intracellularity and host association originated in this order, and whether they are ancestral or convergently evolved characteristics, we built an unprecedentedly large and phylogenetically-balanced dataset that includes de novo sequenced genomes and an accurate selection of published genomic and metagenomic assemblies. We performed detailed functional reconstructions that clearly indicated “late” and parallel evolution of obligate host-association and intracellularity in different Rickettsiales lineages. According to the depicted scenario, multiple independent series of horizontal acquisitions of transporters led to the progressive loss of biosynthesis of nucleotides, amino acids and other metabolites, producing distinct conditions of host-dependence. Coherently, each clade experienced a different pattern of evolution of the ancestral arsenal of interaction apparatuses, including development of specialised effectors involved in the lineage-specific mechanisms of host cell adhesion/invasion and intracellularity.

Alphaproteobacteria

Obligate

Lineage (genetic)

Taxonomic rank

10.1101/2022.10.13.511287

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Citations (3)

A comparative morphological-molecular study of two free-living plagiopylids and their archeal endosymbionts from anthropized areas of Kolleru Lake, India

Venkata Maesh Nitla Valentina Serra Sergei I. Fokin Letizia Modeo C. Kalavathi

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