Los responsables del deterioro de varias pinturas murales son microorganismos halófilos

Several monuments from central and south Europe show an intriguing rosy discolouration phenomenon on unknown origin. In order to have a complete vision of this biodeterioration process the microbial communities of three Austrian historical buildings with this problem were investigated by means of a combination of culture-dependent and –independent techniques and microscopy. The bacterial communities were dominated by halophilic actinobacteria (mainly species of the genus Rubrobacter), Archaea (genera Halobacterium, Halococcus y Halalkalicoccus), as well as Firmicutes. The biodeterioration process was reproduced in laboratory from the inoculation of building materials with selected isolates.

This research, of great interest for the conservation of European Cultural Heritage, has been carried out by the members of IRNAS C. Saiz-Jimenez, V. Jurado and A.Z. Miller, in collaboration with the University of Vienna and the Department of Conservation and Restoration of the Austrian government and was published last August in PLoS ONE

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