The unseen bacterial world - Investigations on the bacterial microbiota of marine and coastal ecosystems

the study based on the analysis of DNA directly extracted from the microbial community from envronmental samples, using metagenomic approaches. The overall aims of this thesis have been related to shedding light on the microbial biodiversity of coastal ecosystems focusing on both free-living and on host associated microbial communities. Free-living communities were investigatedas supralittoral sandy sediments microbiota, while host-associated communities were related to supralittoral detritivors (talitrid amphipods) and sea turtles.Obtained results demonstrated for the first time the effect of environmental factors on sandy beaches microbiota and showed the impact of foraging behavior on amphipod guts microbiota. Finally, we reported for the first time the gut microbiota composition of the sea turtle Caretta caretta