NGTax Project

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NGTax Project Next Generation Taxonomy of ciliates and their symbionts Few info about usโ€ฆ.

Full Title: โ€œNext Generation Taxonomy: Ciliophora and their bacterial symbionts as a proof of conceptโ€

Grant agreement ID: 872767

Topic(s): MSCA-RISE-2019 - Research and Innovation Staff Exchange

Call for proposal: H2020-MSCA-RISE-2019

Funded under: EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skล‚odowska-Curie Actions

Project duration: 1st June 2020 โ€“ 31st March 2026

Total cost: โ‚ฌ 1 274 200

Coordinator: University of Pisa (Italy)

Web pages: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/872767 and https://www.ngtax.org/

Our goal: Restoring taxonomyโ€™s past glory
Having undergone a crisis in recent decades, taxonomy โ€“ the science of classifying biological organisms based on shared characteristics โ€“ needs to be rejuvenated. The integration of the most advanced genomics and bioinformatics techniques, also taking into account the holobiont concept, has been proposed as a solution. The EU-funded NGTax project aims to expand and explore this approach by creating an international and inter-sectoral network of organisations across the EU, Africa, China and USA. To this end, it works on a joint research programme in next-generation taxonomy of ciliates and their symbionts, constituting a holobiontic unit. Brief description and objectives
Taxonomy - the science of defining and naming groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics - faced a significant crisis in the last decades and nowadays a rejuvenation of this discipline is required. For this reason, we recently proposed the integration in taxonomy of the most advanced genomics and bioinformatics techniques, taking into account also the holobiont concept (Serra et al., 2020): we named this approach Next Generation Taxonomy. NGTax explores and expands this rationale establishing an international and inter-sectoral network of organisations across the EU, Africa, China and USA. The consortium works on a joint research programme in Next Generation Taxonomy of ciliates and their symbionts, constituting a holobiontic unit. The proposed approach is strongly multidisciplinary including classical morphological analyses, ultrastructure, molecular tools, genomics and bioinformatics. NGTax is pursuing six central objectives:
i) validate the NGTax approach on many holobiont systems from different ciliate Classes;
ii) contribute rejuvenating taxonomic discipline to ensure traditional expertise is not lost but complemented with state of the art sequencing technologies;
iii) consolidate and disseminate the NGTax approach to perform the characterization of eukaryotic organisms to let it become a โ€œnew reference standardโ€;
iv) train staff members in NGTax, in order to outline novel scientific positions, boost their careers and import/export useful know-how across sectors, disciplines and countries;
v) provide advanced training to male and female researches, including researchers from cultural and religious minorities, from developing countries in order to contribute to boost their academic careers and their integration in international collaborative research networks;
vi) support European companies in performing know-how exchange with academic sector, developing new services, and creating new interaction with developing countries. NGTax Consortium
We are 13 members, 10 Academies and 3 Companies from all over the world:
University of Pisa, University of Pavia, Consorzio Cuoio Depur S.P.A. (Italy)
Innsbruck University (Austria)
University of Wuppertal, Max Planck Institute, Genewiz/Azenta (Germany)
Palustrine Design Oy (Finland)
Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia)
Egerton University (Kenya)
Free State University of Bloemfontein (South Africa)
Ocean University of China (People's Republic of China)
Joint Genome Institute of the Berkeley University (California, USA)

The NGTax workflow
The NGTax workflow will start from environmental sampling (water and sediment) in order to find and isolate potentially interesting ciliates or ciliate-symbiont/s systems (=holobiont). The selected organisms will be analyzed to obtain:

TRADITIONAL TAXONOMY / INTEGRATIVE TAXONOMY
โ€ข Morphological description of the ciliate via live observations, Feulgen staining, silver impregnation, Protargol staining.
โ€ข Detection of bacterial symbiont/s of ciliates: screening through microscopy live observations, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with universal bacterial/archaeal probes, and diagnostic PCRs.
โ€ข Ultrastructural description of the ciliate/holobiont via transmission and scanning electron microscopy.
โ€ข Molecular and phylogenetic characterization of the ciliate and its symbiont/s: after DNA extraction, sequencing of commonly used molecular markers for eukaryotes (e.g. 18S rDNA, COI) and prokaryotes (16S rDNA), and tree reconstructions.
โ€ข Information on symbiont life-cycle: cross infection experiments, killer tests, symbiont cultivation attempts. INNOVATIVE ASPECTS OF NGTax
โ€ข Genomics data: Whole Genome Amplification (WGA) on single ciliate cells or several morphologically identical cells, followed by genome sequencing through Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) techniques.
โ€ข Bioinformatics data: assembly and annotation of the mitochondrial genome of i) the ciliate (mitogenome), ii) the genome of symbiont/s, iii) the nuclear genome of the ciliate.
โ€ข 16S rDNA metabarcoding: characterization of the microbiome associated to the ciliate.
โ€ข Transcriptomic data: description of the host-symbiont interactions via the analysis of up-regulated and down-regulated gene expression in the presence of the symbiont.

๐Ÿš€๐ŸŒŠโœจ ๐๐†๐“๐š๐ฑ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฃ๐ž๐œ๐ญ ๐‚๐จ๐ฆ๐ž๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐š๐ง ๐„๐ง๐! ๐ŸŒŠโœจ๐Ÿš€๐‘‡๐‘œ๐‘š๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ÿ๐‘œ๐‘ค ๐‘๐‘’๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘”๐‘  ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘คโ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐‘ค๐‘’ โ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐‘™๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘›๐‘’๐‘‘ โ€” ๐‘๐‘ข๐‘ก ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘‘๐‘Ž๐‘ฆ ๐‘Ž๐‘“๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘Ÿ ๐‘ก๐‘œ๐‘š๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ÿ๐‘œ๐‘ค ๐‘๐‘’๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘”๐‘  ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘ค...
24/03/2026

๐Ÿš€๐ŸŒŠโœจ ๐๐†๐“๐š๐ฑ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฃ๐ž๐œ๐ญ ๐‚๐จ๐ฆ๐ž๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐š๐ง ๐„๐ง๐! ๐ŸŒŠโœจ๐Ÿš€

๐‘‡๐‘œ๐‘š๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ÿ๐‘œ๐‘ค ๐‘๐‘’๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘”๐‘  ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘คโ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐‘ค๐‘’ โ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐‘™๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘›๐‘’๐‘‘ โ€” ๐‘๐‘ข๐‘ก ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘‘๐‘Ž๐‘ฆ ๐‘Ž๐‘“๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘Ÿ ๐‘ก๐‘œ๐‘š๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ÿ๐‘œ๐‘ค ๐‘๐‘’๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘”๐‘  ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘คโ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐‘ค๐‘’ โ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐‘ฆ๐‘’๐‘ก ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘–๐‘š๐‘Ž๐‘”๐‘–๐‘›๐‘’ โœจ ๐ŸŒŠ๐Ÿฆ ๐Ÿงฌ๐Ÿงซ๐ŸŒฑ๐Ÿ”ฌ

A heartfelt thankโ€‘you to all partners, secondees, collaborators and institutions who made this possible. ๐˜๐จ๐ฎ ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ง๐ž๐ ๐๐†๐“๐š๐ฑ ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐จ ๐š ๐ฏ๐ข๐›๐ซ๐š๐ง๐ญ ๐œ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ฌ๐œ๐ข๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฌ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ข๐๐ž๐š๐ฌ!๐ŸŒŠ๐Ÿฆ ๐Ÿงฌ๐Ÿงซ๐ŸŒฑ๐Ÿ”ฌ

๐Ÿš€๐ŸŒŠโœจ ๐๐†๐“๐š๐ฑ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฃ๐ž๐œ๐ญ ๐‚๐จ๐ฆ๐ž๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐š๐ง ๐„๐ง๐! ๐ŸŒŠโœจ๐Ÿš€
Fresh news from NGTax Project "๐๐ž๐ฑ๐ญ ๐†๐ž๐ง๐ž๐ซ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐“๐š๐ฑ๐จ๐ง๐จ๐ฆ๐ฒ: ๐‚๐ข๐ฅ๐ข๐จ๐ฉ๐ก๐จ๐ซ๐š ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ข๐ซ ๐›๐š๐œ๐ญ๐ž๐ซ๐ข๐š๐ฅ ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ฆ๐›๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ญ๐ฌ ๐š๐ฌ ๐š ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐œ๐จ๐ง๐œ๐ž๐ฉ๐ญ" (๐‡๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ ๐Œ๐’๐‚๐€-๐‘๐ˆ๐’๐„-๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ— Ga n. ๐Ÿ–๐Ÿ•๐Ÿ๐Ÿ•๐Ÿ”๐Ÿ•).
๐‘‡๐‘œ๐‘š๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ÿ๐‘œ๐‘ค ๐‘๐‘’๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘”๐‘  ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘คโ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐‘ค๐‘’ โ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐‘™๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘›๐‘’๐‘‘ โ€” ๐‘๐‘ข๐‘ก ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘‘๐‘Ž๐‘ฆ ๐‘Ž๐‘“๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘Ÿ ๐‘ก๐‘œ๐‘š๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ÿ๐‘œ๐‘ค ๐‘๐‘’๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘”๐‘  ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘คโ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐‘ค๐‘’ โ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐‘ฆ๐‘’๐‘ก ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘–๐‘š๐‘Ž๐‘”๐‘–๐‘›๐‘’ โœจ ๐ŸŒŠ๐Ÿฆ ๐Ÿงฌ๐Ÿงซ๐ŸŒฑ๐Ÿ”ฌ

A few days are left to officially close the NGTax project โ€” a truly international journey into nextโ€‘generation taxonomy, symbiosis research, and waterโ€‘ecosystem science.
Our ๐…๐ข๐ง๐š๐ฅ ๐Œ๐ž๐ž๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐  takes place - today - ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ’ ๐Œ๐š๐ซ๐œ๐ก ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ”, falling two days after โ€” a symbolic moment to celebrate everything we have built together and to look ahead to what still lies in front of us. ๐ŸŒ๐Ÿ’ง

NGTax leaves a solid scientific legacy, strengthened by global collaborations, secondments, and new skills shared across continents.

A heartfelt thankโ€‘you to all partners, secondees, collaborators and institutions who made this possible. ๐˜๐จ๐ฎ ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ง๐ž๐ ๐๐†๐“๐š๐ฑ ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐จ ๐š ๐ฏ๐ข๐›๐ซ๐š๐ง๐ญ ๐œ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ฌ๐œ๐ข๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฌ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ข๐๐ž๐š๐ฌ!๐ŸŒŠ๐Ÿฆ ๐Ÿงฌ๐Ÿงซ๐ŸŒฑ๐Ÿ”ฌ

๐Ÿค๐๐†๐“๐š๐ฑ ๐‚๐จ๐ง๐ฌ๐จ๐ซ๐ญ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ & ๐๐š๐ซ๐ญ๐ง๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ
๐‚๐จ๐จ๐ซ๐๐ข๐ง๐š๐ญ๐จ๐ซ
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น Universitร  di Pisa
๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฃ๐ž๐œ๐ญ ๐๐š๐ซ๐ญ๐ง๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ
๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡น Universitรคt Innsbruck
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น Universitร  degli studi di Pavia
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช Bergische Universitรคt Wuppertal
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Max Planck Society
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช Azenta Life Sciences
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น Consorzio CuoioDepur S.p.A.
๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ฎ Palustrine Design OY
๐„๐ฑ๐ญ๐ž๐ซ๐ง๐š๐ฅ ๐œ๐จ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐š๐›๐จ๐ซ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ข๐ง๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐ญ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ
๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡น Addis Ababa University โ€“ AAU (Ethiopia)
๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ช Egerton University (Kenya)
๐Ÿ‡ฟ๐Ÿ‡ฆ University of the Free State (South Africa)
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ Ocean University of China ไธญๅ›ฝๆตทๆด‹ๅคงๅญฆ (China)
๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡บ Saint Petersburg State University (Russia)
โ€ฆand all those who contributed through training, exchanges, fieldwork and scientific support.

๐Ÿ”–

EU Science & Innovation

โœจ Some beautiful shots from South Africa, where secondees from the Universities of Pisa, Pavia, and Innsbruck spent one ...
11/09/2025

โœจ Some beautiful shots from South Africa, where secondees from the Universities of Pisa, Pavia, and Innsbruck spent one month on mobility at the University of the Free State โ€” chasing magnificent landscapes, spotting wild animals, and above allโ€ฆ searching for ciliates! ๐Ÿ˜๐ŸŒ๐Ÿ”ฌ๐Ÿฆ 

The Bright Night was a wonderful night...in the lab and outside!๐Ÿธ๐Ÿ•ท๐ŸŒ๐Ÿ”ฌ๐Ÿฆ ๐Ÿงช๐Ÿงซ
30/09/2024

The Bright Night was a wonderful night...in the lab and outside!๐Ÿธ๐Ÿ•ท๐ŸŒ๐Ÿ”ฌ๐Ÿฆ ๐Ÿงช๐Ÿงซ

Bright Night is coming!!!!๐Ÿฅโœจ๐Ÿธ๐Ÿฆ 
27/09/2024

Bright Night is coming!!!!๐Ÿฅโœจ๐Ÿธ๐Ÿฆ 

๐Ÿ—“SAVE THE DATE๐Ÿค“๐Ÿ“ŒDo you have plans for the ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ•๐ญ๐ก ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐’๐ž๐ฉ๐ญ๐ž๐ฆ๐›๐ž๐ซ? There's a fantastic event: we will start with a nocturnal w...
05/09/2024

๐Ÿ—“SAVE THE DATE๐Ÿค“๐Ÿ“Œ
Do you have plans for the ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ•๐ญ๐ก ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐’๐ž๐ฉ๐ญ๐ž๐ฆ๐›๐ž๐ซ?
There's a fantastic event: we will start with a nocturnal walk๐Ÿ‘ฃ๐ŸŒณ in our amazing Botanical Garden๐Ÿƒ๐Ÿ‚ in Pisa and we will end talking about and ๐Ÿฆ ๐Ÿงซ๐Ÿ”Ž๐Ÿ”ฌ. How could you even think of missing it?

Don't forget to bring a ๐Ÿ๐ฅ๐š๐ฌ๐ก๐ฅ๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ญ๐Ÿ”ฆand wear ๐œ๐จ๐ฆ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ๐ญ๐š๐›๐ฅ๐ž ๐ฌ๐ก๐จ๐ž๐ฌ๐Ÿ‘Ÿ! See you there!

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[ITA] Avete giร  programmi per il 27 settembre?
C'รจ un evento fantastico: inizieremo con una passeggiata notturna nel nostro meraviglioso Orto Botanico di Pisa e concluderemo parlando di e . Imperdibile!

Non dimenticate di portare una torcia e indossate scarpe comode!

Dipartimento di Biologia - UNIPI
Universitร  di Pisa
Orto e Museo Botanico di Pisa / Pisa Botanic Garden and Museum
Bright-Night Notte europea delle ricercatrici e dei ricercatori
Marie Skล‚odowska-Curie Actions
APRE - Agenzia per la Promozione della Ricerca Europea
EU Environment
EU Science & Innovation
LIFE Programme

L'Orto Botanico di Pisa รจ un piccolo scrigno cittadino di biodiversitร . Venite a scoprirlo!

๐ŸŽŠWe have some exciting news!!! ๐Ÿ—žWe have been awarded place๐Ÿฅ‰in the Wiki Science Competition 2023 Italy category "micros...
02/04/2024

๐ŸŽŠWe have some exciting news!!! ๐Ÿ—ž
We have been awarded place๐Ÿฅ‰in the Wiki Science Competition 2023 Italy category "microscopy" ๐Ÿ”ฌ๐Ÿฆ ๐Ÿงช๐Ÿงซ!
We are really happy to receive this recognition for the hard work and behind the creation of this image! ๐Ÿ‘
It is a small step for approaching and other Wikimedia projects, but it is a huge leap๐Ÿƒโ€โ™€๏ธ fostering a global movement to bring ๐Ÿ“š content to the world๐ŸŒŽ. The journey ahead is exciting, and we are filled with pride for what we have accomplished so far!๐Ÿคฉ๐Ÿฅณ



Science&Wiki
Wikidatait
Wikimedia Italia
Dipartimento di Biologia - UNIPI
Universitร  di Pisa
Petroni's Biolab
Wikipedia
Azenta Life Sciences
Universitรคt Innsbruck
University of the Free State
Egerton University
Max Planck Society
Ocean University of China ไธญๅ›ฝๆตทๆด‹ๅคงๅญฆ

๐Ÿ”ฌ๐Ÿฆ This remarkable micrograph of Euplotes vanleeuwenhoeki, captured with astounding clarity and detail, has been awarded place ๐Ÿฅ‰in the Wiki Science Competition 2023 Italy category "microscopy". Congratulations! ๐Ÿฅณ

Detail of the oral of vanleeuwenhoeki under a scanning electron microscope. Analysis carried out by Mahesh Nitla and related to the publication Serra, V., Gammuto, L., Nitla, V., Castelli, M., Lanzoni, O., Sassera, D., ... & Petroni, G. (2020). Morphology, ultrastructure, genomics, and phylogeny of Euplotes vanleeuwenhoeki sp. nov. and its ultra-reduced endosymbiont โ€œCandidatus Pinguicoccus supinusโ€ sp. nov. Scientific reports, 10(1), 20311.

๐Ÿ‘‰ Check out the other finalists here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Science_Competition_2023/Winners/Italy

CC BY-SA 4.0 ValeSer23 2023 Wikimedia Commons. Italy uploader WSC2023 Category โ€œMicroscopy imagesโ€œ


NGTax Project
Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Italia
Dipartimento di Biologia - UNIPI
Universitร  di Pisa
Universitร  degli studi di Pavia
Azenta Life Sciences
Universitรคt Innsbruck
University of the Free State
Egerton University
Ocean University of China ไธญๅ›ฝๆตทๆด‹ๅคงๅญฆ
Max Planck Society

We are happy and proud to announce that finally our project's web-site is fully working and updated!๐ŸฅณThe domain is now m...
26/01/2024

We are happy and proud to announce that finally our project's web-site is fully working and updated!๐Ÿฅณ

The domain is now migrated to Jimdo, so you can find it at the following address: https://ngtax.jimdosite.com/

Enjoy!!!

NGTax. Taxonomy - the science of defining and naming groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics - faced a significant crisis in the last decades and nowadays a rejuvenation of this discipline is required. For this reason, we recently proposed the integration in taxonomy of the mo...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!๐ŸŽ„๐Ÿฆ ๐ŸŽ
23/12/2023

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!๐ŸŽ„๐Ÿฆ ๐ŸŽ

We are so glad that our initiative to spread the knowledge about ciliates during the Bright-Night 2023 was very successf...
02/10/2023

We are so glad that our initiative to spread the knowledge about ciliates during the Bright-Night 2023 was very successful!๐Ÿฅณ
We are greateful to all the helpers and visitors! Expecially to the younger ones that were so interested and curious!โญ๏ธ๐Ÿ’š๐Ÿฆ 

The BRIGHT -NIGHT is coming....and we will be there!โญ๏ธ๐Ÿฆ ๐Ÿ”ฌ๐ŸŽ‰Presenteremo il laboratorio ludico didattico โ€œQuante cilia ha u...
18/09/2023

The BRIGHT -NIGHT is coming....and we will be there!โญ๏ธ๐Ÿฆ ๐Ÿ”ฌ๐ŸŽ‰

Presenteremo il laboratorio ludico didattico โ€œQuante cilia ha un Ciliato? Vieni a scoprirlo e non ba***re ciglio!โ€

Join us here:

Vieni a scoprire i nostri microscopici protagonisti in un evento imperdibile il 29 settembre 2023 a partire dalle 19:00!

Indirizzo

Via Volta 4
Pisa
56126

Sito Web

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