ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Microorganisms contribute significantly to monuments and artworks deterioration. Consequently, the improvement of our understanding of the microbial communities thriving on cultural heritage is crucial to the development of strategies for conserving it. New approaches are continuously being applied to assess cultural asset biodeterioration as well as to detect and identify the agents involved in it. In this work, the application of FISH technique for the detection of microbial community in mortars was explored. A universal eukaryotic probe (EUK516) labeled with a fluorescent dye (Cy3) was used, and different cell fixation conditions were tested, to investigate the application of FISH technique to detect eukaryotes in mortars. A series of selected fungi and yeast, most of them with known biodeteriogenic potential, were chosen as target microorganisms. The promising results obtained in this study, open up the possibility of investigate the application of FISH technique, not only for microbiological detection in mortars, but also as a tool to identify microorganisms directly in mortars by using specific probes. This simple and rapid approach could be useful on restoration and conservation fields.
