The importance and protection of mangrove ecosystems has been recognized in Brazilian Federal law since 1965. Being protected in law, however, has not always guaranteed their protection in practice. Mangroves are found in coastal and estuarine locations, which are prime real estate for the growth of cities, ports and other economic activities important for Brazilian development. In this mini-review we introduce what mangroves are and why they are so important. We give a brief overview of the microbial diversity found in mangrove sediments and then focus on diversity studies from Brazilian mangroves. We highlight the breadth and depth of knowledge about mangrove microbial communities gained from studying Brazilian mangroves. We report on the exciting findings of molecular microbial ecology methods that have been very successfully applied to study bacterial communities. We note that there have been fewer studies that focus on fungal communities and that fungal diversity studies deserve more attention. The review ends with a look at how a combination of new molecular biology methods and isolation studies are being developed to monitor and conserve mangrove ecosystems and their associated microbial communities. These recent studies are having a global impact and we hope they will help to protect and re-establish mangrove ecosystems.

Certain coral individuals exhibit enhanced resistance to thermal bleaching, yet the specific microbial assemblages and their roles in these phenotypes remain unclear. We compared the microbial communities of thermal bleaching–resistant (TBR) and thermal bleaching–sensitive (TBS) corals using metabarcoding and metagenomics. Our multidomain approach revealed stable distinct microbial compositions between thermal phenotypes. Notably, TBR corals were inherently enriched with microbial eukaryotes, particularly Symbiodiniaceae, linked to photosynthesis, and the biosynthesis of antibiotic and antitumor compounds and glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchor proteins, crucial for cell wall regulation and metabolite exchange. In contrast, TBS corals were dominated by bacterial metabolic genes related to nitrogen, amino acid, and lipid metabolism. The inherent microbiome differences between TBR and TBS corals, already observed before thermal stress, point to distinct holobiont phenotypes associated to thermal bleaching resistance, offering insights into mechanisms underlying coral response to climate-induced stress.

Aspergillus unguis belongs to the Aspergillus section Nidulantes. This species is found in soils and organisms from marine environments, such as jellyfishes and sponges. The first chemical study reported in the literature dates from 1970, with depsidones nidulin (1), nornidulin (2), and unguinol (3) being the first isolated compounds. Fifty-two years since this first study, the isolation and characterization of ninety-seven (97) compounds have been reported. These compounds are from different classes, such as depsides, depsidones, phthalides, cyclopeptides, indanones, diarylethers, pyrones, benzoic acid derivatives, orcinol/orsenillate derivatives, and sesterpenoids. In terms of biological activities, the first studies on isolated compounds from A. unguis came only in the 1990s. Considering the tendency for antiparasitic and antibiotics to become ineffective against resistant microorganisms and larvae, A. unguis compounds have also been extensively investigated and some compounds are considered very promising. In addition to these larvicidal and antimicrobial activities, these compounds also show activity against cancer cell lines, animal growth promotion, antimalarial and antioxidant activities. Despite the diversity of these compounds and reported biological activities, A. unguis remains an interesting target for studies on metabolic induction to produce new compounds, the determination of new biological activities, medicinal chemistry, structural modification, biotechnological approaches, and molecular modeling, which have yet to be extensively explored.

This study evaluated the soil basal respiration (SBR) of three forest types and seasons and their correlation with pedological attributes in the 0-5 cm land layer. Therefore, we selected two areas of commercial tree species in the central-southern Paraná region: one plot of Pinus taeda and one of Eucalyptus dunnii; and a control, a patch of native forest (Mixed Ombrophyllous Forest). We determined the SBR by the alkaline addition method, incubating the samples for seven days. We collected samples in the cool dry season (winter) and in the hot humid season (summer). Soil attributes were determined by a routine analysis (pH, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Al3+, P, Matéria Orgânica, areia grossa e areia fina, silte, argila e V%). We observed significant SBR differences only about summer and winter. SBR correlated significantly with organic matter. These results are similar to most of the literature. There was no difference between the forest types about the SBR, showing that even monoculture forests can present carbon fluxes statistically equal to those of an intermediate successional stage native forest. The specific edaphic fauna adapted to each ecosystem may explain the absence of this difference in relation to SBR.