Initial Presentation of the Congress

Dear Protistologist,

On behalf of “Grupo Especializado de Protistología” and “Groupment de

Protistologues de Langue Française”, we have the pleasure to announce you

the conjoint celebration in 2008 of their respective meetings. The gathering,

called First Spanish-French Congress on Protistology, will be held in Seville,

from 4th to 6th June. The aim of this meeting is to promote Protistology in

Europe through scientific exchange. Official language is English. We shall

make up an attractive scientific program and encourage the active

participation of young researchers (pre-, post-docs); the city will provide

participants with nice spring weather, history, and charm.

The scientific program will be divided in three main axes, Evolution of

protists, Biology of free-living protists, and Biology of parasitic protists, with

oral presentations and posters. Topics should be set up according to received

abstracts. If financial support allows it, two granted talks, opening and closing

the meeting, each given by an outstanding protistologue during 60 minutes,

are foreseen. Oral communications will be held in morning and afternoon

sessions. Every session will include one talk, given by a senior researcher

during 45 minutes, five secondary talks, given by young researchers during 20

minutes. All submitted abstracts should be considered as potential for oral

presentations; selection will be carried out by the scientific committee of the

meeting. Non-selected abstracts should be presented as posters. A session for

poster discussion will be included also.

FSFCP, Sevilla '08

2

Organizing Committee

Grupo Especializado de Protistología (GEP), Sociedad Española de Microbiología (SEM). Groupement des Protistologues de Langue Française (GPLF). The Federation of European Protistological Societies (FEPS), a non-profit association of national and cross-national European Societies of Protistology and less formal national groups of Protistology of diverse European countries, supports the meeting President: Eduardo Villalobo. Departamento de Microbiología, Universidad de Sevilla. SPAIN. GEP-SEM. Vice-Presidents: Aurelio Serrano. Instituto de Bioquímica Vegetal y Fotosíntesis, CSIC, Sevilla. SPAIN. GEP-SEM. Isabelle Desportes Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris. FRANCE. GPLF.

Scientific Committee

-Dr. Antonio Torres, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla. SPAIN. -Dr Gabriel Gutiérrez, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla. SPAIN. -Dr. Federico Valverde, Instituto de Bioquímica Vegetal y Fotosíntesis, CSIC, Sevilla. SPAIN. -Dr. Susana Serrano, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid. SPAIN. -Dr. Juan Carlos Gutiérrez, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid. SPAIN. -Dr. Luis Miguel Ruiz Pérez, Instituto de Parasitología y Biomedicina López-Neyra, CSIC, Granada. SPAIN. -Dr. Loïc Morin, Université de Paris Sud, Orsay. FRANCE. -Dr. Anne Baroin-Tourancheau, Université de Paris Sud, CNRS, Orsay. FRANCE. -Dr. Purificación López García, Université de Paris Sud, CNRS, Orsay. FRANCE. -Dr. Nancy Guillén, Institut Pasteur, CNRS, Paris. FRANCE.

FSFCP, Sevilla '08

3

Abbreviated Scientific Program Wednesday, 4th June -12:00-14:00 h. Registration. -15:00-15:15 h. Welcome talk by Dr. Eduardo Villalobo (President of the Congress), Dr. Loïc Morin (President of GPLF), and Dr. Aurelio Serrano (President of GEP-SEM). -15:15-16:15 h. Opening lecture by Dr. Andrés Aguilera. AFTERNOON, SESSION I. MOLECULAR/CELLULAR BIOLOGY, AND PHYSIOLOGY OF PARASITIC PROTISTS. Chairperson: Dr. Luis Miguel Ruiz Pérez -16:30-18:00 h. Oral presentations and discussions. -18:00-18:30 h. Poster pasting. -20:00-22:00 h. Welcome cocktail at Patio del Rectorado, Universidad de Sevilla. Thursday, 5th June. MORNING, SESSION II. MOLECULAR/CELLULAR BIOLOGY, AND PHYSIOLOGY OF FREE-LIVING PROTISTS. Chairperson: Dr. Geneviéve Bricheux -09:00-10:00 h. Main talk by Dr Philippe Bouchard. -10:00-10:30 h. Coffee break. -10:30-12:30 h. Oral presentations and discussions. -12:30-13:30 h. Posters discussion session. I Jornadas Internacionales de Tratamiento y Reutilización de Aguas Residuales: El Papel de los Protistas (only in spanish). Dr. Susana Serrano and Dr. Blanca Pérez Uz. Moderadora: Pilar Calvo -13:30-15:00 h. Lunch and coffee. AFTERNOON, SESSION III. ECOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY OF FREE-LIVING PROTISTS. Chairperson: Dr. Juan Carlos Gutiérrez -15:00-17:30 h. Conferences on the Role of Protists on Wastewater Treatment and Reuse. Dr. Purificación López García, Dr. António Luís Pereira do Amaral and Dr. Lucía Arregui. -17:30-19:00 h. Oral presentations and discussions. -20:30 h. “Tapas tour” in the city centre. Friday, 6th June MORNING, SESSION IV. BIOMEDICINE AND BIOTECHNOLOGY OF PARASITIC PROTISTS. Chairperson: Dr. Federico Valverde -09:00-10:00 h. Main talk by Dr. Naveed Ahmed Khan. -10:00-10:30 h. Coffee break. -10:30-12:00 h. Oral presentations and discussions. -12:00-13:30 h. Posters discussion session. -13:30-15:00 h. Lunch and coffee. AFTERNOON, SESSION V. PROTIST EVOLUTION. Chairperson: Dr. Loïc Morin -15:00-15:15. Closing talk by Dr. Ernesto García López (Vice-president Sociedad Española de Microbiología) -15:15-16:00 h. Main talk by Béatrice Lecroq. -16:00-18:00 h. Oral presentations and discussions. -18:00-19:00 h. Closing lecture by Dr. David Moreira. -20:15-21:15 h Visit to Reales Alcázares.

FSFCP, Sevilla '08

4

Congress Venue

The Congress will be held in Seville (SW, Spain) at

"ESCUELA TÉCNICA SUPERIOR DE INGENIERÍA

INFORMÁTICA (ETSII), UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA",

situated in "Campus Reina Mercedes" (Avenida Reina

Mercedes, 41012 Sevilla). We will meet in the "Salón

de Actos" of the "Escuela", with capacity for more

than 300 people, provided with audiovisual media,

and located in the first floor of the building.

FSFCP, Sevilla '08

5

INDEX OF ABSTRACTS BY AUTHORS

OPENING LECTURE

Aguilera, Andrés 9

CLOSING LECTURE

Moreira, David 11

SESSION I. MOLECULAR/CELLULAR BIOLOGY, AND PHYSIOLOGY OF PARASITIC PROTISTS. Chairperson: Luis Miguel Ruiz Pérez

Kohl, Linda 13

López Farfán, Diana 14

Aranguren, Raquel 15

Arroyo, Francisco T. 16

Marques, Adam 17

Marques, Adam 18

Weber, Christian 19

SESSION II. MOLECULAR/CELLULAR BIOLOGY, AND PHYSIOLOGY OF FREE-LIVING PROTISTS. Chairperson: Geneviève Bricheux

Bouchard, Philippe 21

Baroin-Tourancheau, Anne 22

Ruger Herreros, Carmen 23

Damaj, Raghida 24

Serrano, Aurelio 25-26

Siddiqui, Ruqaiyyah 27

Aubusson-Fleury, Anne 28

Bricheux, Geneviève 29

Calvo, Purificación 30

Gallego, Andrea 31

Palomino Gutiérrez, Carmen 32

SESSION III. ECOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY OF FREE-LIVING PROTISTS Conferences on the Role of Protists on Wastewater Treatment and Reuse. Chairperson: Juan Carlos Gutiérrez

López García, Purificación 34

Pereira do Amaral, António Luís 35

FSFCP, Sevilla '08

6

INDEX OF ABSTRACTS BY AUTHORS

Arregui, Lucía 36

Amaro, Francisco 37

Fajon, Céline 38

Aguilar, María 39

Canals, Oriol 40

Chatzinotas, Antonis 41

Conty, Ana 42

Serrano, Susana 43

SESSION IV. BIOMEDICINE AND BIOTECHNOLOGY OF PARASITIC PROTISTS. Chairperson: Federico Valverde

Khan, Naveed Ahmed 45-46

Guillen, Nancy 47

Siddiqui, Ruqaiyyah 48

Moktar, Norhayati 49

Gestal, Camino 50

Maíllo, Pedro Andrés 51-52

Umar, Nor Aini 53

SESSION V. PROTIST EVOLUTION. Chairperson: Loïc Morin

Lecroq, Béatrice 55

Albi Rodríguez, Tomás 56

Lara, Enrique 57

Valverde, Federico 58

Amar, Laurance 59

Hernández-Piñero, Sara 60

Lecroq, Béatrice 61

Marande, William 62

FSFCP, Sevilla '08

7

Opening Lecture

FSFCP, Sevilla '08

8

Microscopic characterization of activated sludge flocs from full-scale plants with advanced biological nitrogen removal systems Lucía Arregui, Pérez-Uz B, Calvo P, Salvadó H, Fernández N, Rodriguez E, Zornoza A and Serrano S. Departamento de Microbiología III, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. arregui@bio.ucm.es Protozoa and metazoan are considered good indicators of the treatment quality in activated sludge systems being sensitive to physical, chemical and operational processes. Therefore, it is possible to correlate the predominance of certain species or groups and operational parameters of the plant. This work presents a semi-automatic image analysis procedure for the recognition of the metazoan and protozoa species most frequently found in WWTP by determining morphological data and multivariable analysis with discriminant analysis and neural network techniques. The non-stalked organisms' identification obtained individual recognition percentages above 80% with insignificant misclassification errors (usually bellow 1%) therefore yielding good overall recognition performances (above 80%). Furthermore, a closer look revealed a slight misclassification problem between the Monogononta and Digononta assessment. Although the overall results were not satisfactory for the stalked organisms, the identification ability of the biological indicators Opercularia and V. microstoma has attained some degree of confidence in accurately establishing their presence on WWTP. Furthermore, good identification percentages were obtained for the most significant Carnivorous and large stalk Colonial whilst the less significant Vorticella and small stalk Colonial only attained reasonable identification percentages. The main protozoa and metazoa groups (flagellates, ciliates, sarcodines, and metazoa) and protozoan ciliates (carnivorous, crawling, swimming, sessile and non-ciliated) recognition attained good overall recognition performances (above 95%, except for crawling ciliates), with global protozoa and metazoa groups assessment around 95%. The overall recognition performance for the plant operating conditions assessment were quite fair for the effluent quality, aeration and nitrification evaluation (above 80%) and good on the sludge age determination (91.7%). Close related to the overall results, the assessment of critical conditions such as low effluent quality, low aeration, and fresh sludge attained also good overall recognition performance levels around 90%. From these results it may be inferred that the current methodology can be used to predict at some extent, critical WWTP conditions in a feasible time period (within few hours) and without the need of specialized personnel in protozoology. The acquisition of the protozoa and metazoa images can be performed in a one to two hours period for a total of one to two hundred images, whilst the images treatment, data determination and analysis in two to three hours.

Session III, Oral FSFCP, Sevilla '08

36