MSc. Caio César Pires de Paula, Ph.D.

Job Position: Research Assistant - Department of Aquatic Microbial Ecology (AME)

Contact details

Phone: +420 387 77 5872
E-mail: caio.piresdepaula@hbu.cas.cz
Room: 39

Description

I work in the field of microbial ecology since 2008. During this time, I conducted research focused on bacterial and fungal communities in tropical caves hosted on several substrates (water, soil, and sediment). Currently, at the Department of Aquatic Microbial Ecology, I develop projects related to microbial ecology in different environments, including fishponds, caves and phyllosphere.

The fishpond project focuses on microbial trophic interactions in shallow hypertrophic waterbodies ecosystems, which represent one of the most underexplored aquatic ecosystems world-wide. We are trying to solve the microbial food web involving micro invertebrates and methanotrophs bacteria. After that, we could point out the main drivers in the methane cycle on that shallow lakes and how we can manage the methane cycle in this system to avoid high impact on the environment.

The cave project is about the structure on microbial communities in subterranean environments and to explore functional diversity in that habitats. Microbial networks and the metabolism of that microbiome are the main interest of the cave projects now. Based on that results we can find some new answers about the biogeochemical cycles, such as CO₂ fixation pathway.

Finally, the phylosphere project aims to assess the microbial diversity into the plant leaves and seeking for the interaction plant-microbiome and the diverse interactomes. Now a days, we have a culture collection of microrganisms, including bacteria and fungi strains. The next step should be screening the strains looking for some bioactive products useful for biotechnological field, such as antibiotics, growth promotion compounds or cytotoxic activity.

Publications

Total found: 10 records
Pires de Paula C., Bárta J., Borovec J., Frouz J., Rychtecký P., Sirová D. (2025) qPCR‐based quantification reveals high plant host‐specificity of endophytic colonization levels in leaves. American Journal of Botany 112 : e16448. DOI: 10.1002/ajb2.16448
Mennicken S., Pires de Paula C., Vogt-Schilb H., Jersáková J. (2024) Diversity of mycorrhizal fungi in temperate orchid species: Comparison of culture-dependent and culture-independent methods. Journal of Fungi 10 : 92. DOI: 10.3390/jof10020092
Pires de Paula C., Bárta J., Rejmánková E., Komárková J., Lin Q., Kohoutová I., Sirová D. (2024) The role of macrophyte-associated microbiomes in lacustrine wetlands: an example of the littoral zone of lake Atitlan, Guatemala. Hydrobiologia 851 : 1637–1655. DOI: 10.1007/s10750-022-05043-z
Novotná A., Mennicken S., Pires de Paula C., Vogt-Schilb H., Kotilínek M., Těšitelová T., Šmilauer P., Jersáková J. (2023) Variability in nutrient use by orchid mycorrhizal fungi in two medium types. Journal of Fungi 9 : 88. DOI: 10.3390/jof9010088
Gubiani J.R., Bernardi D.I., Pires de Paula C., Seleghim M.H.R., Ferreira A.G., Batista A.N.L., Batista Jr. J.M., Oliveira L.F.P., Lira S.P., Burdette J.E., Berlinck R.G.S. (2022) Absolute configuration of cytotoxic anthraquinones from a Brazilian cave soil‐derived fungus, Aspergillus sp. SDC28. Archive der Pharmazie 355 : e2100441. DOI: 10.1002/ardp.202100441
Pires de Paula C. (2022) Diversity of cave microbiomes. In: Cave fauna of Brazil 104 - 129. DOI: ISBN: 978-65-87674-05-6
Pires de Paula C., Macek P., Bárta J., Borovec J., Svobodová I., Holá E., Lepš J., Sirová D. (2022) Parasitic trophic mode of plant host affects the extent of colonization, but does not induce systematic shifts in the composition of foliar endophytic assemblages in temperate meadow ecosystems. Functional Ecology 36 : 1177–1190. DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.13992
Šimek K., Mukherjee I., Nedoma J., Pires de Paula C., Jezberová J., Sirová D., Vrba J. (2022) CARD-FISH and prey tracer techniques reveal the role of overlooked flagellate groups as major bacterivores in freshwater hypertrophic shallow lakes. Environmental Microbiology 24 : 4256–4273. DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.15846
Pires de Paula C., Bichuette M.E., Seleghrim M.H.R. (2020) Nutrient availability in tropical caves influences the dynamics of microbial biomass. MicrobiologyOpen 9 : e1044. DOI: 10.1002/mbo3.1044
Fonseca R.M.P., Pires de Paula C., Bichuette M.E., Chagas A. (2019) First record of Amphoromorpha/Basidiobolus fungus on centipedes (Geophilomorpha, Geophilidae) from Brazilian caves Subterranean Biology 32 : 61-67 . DOI: 10.3897/subtbiol.32.38310

MSc. Caio César Pires de Paula, Ph.D.

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