Our goal: Restoring taxonomy’s past glory
Having undergone a crisis in recent decades, taxonomy – the science of classifying biological organisms based on shared characteristics – 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 “new reference standard”;
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
• Morphological description of the ciliate via live observations, Feulgen staining, silver impregnation, Protargol staining.
• 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.
• Ultrastructural description of the ciliate/holobiont via transmission and scanning electron microscopy.
• 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.
• Information on symbiont life-cycle: cross infection experiments, killer tests, symbiont cultivation attempts. INNOVATIVE ASPECTS OF NGTax
• 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.
• 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.
• 16S rDNA metabarcoding: characterization of the microbiome associated to the ciliate.
• 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.
A heartfelt thank‑you to all partners, secondees, collaborators and institutions who made this possible. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐍𝐆𝐓𝐚𝐱 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐯𝐢𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐬!🌊🦠🧬🧫🌱🔬
A few days are left to officially close the NGTax project — a truly international journey into next‑generation taxonomy, symbiosis research, and water‑ecosystem science.
Our 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 takes place - today - 𝟐𝟒 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔, falling two days after — a symbolic moment to celebrate everything we have built together and to look ahead to what still lies in front of us. 🌍💧
NGTax leaves a solid scientific legacy, strengthened by global collaborations, secondments, and new skills shared across continents.
A heartfelt thank‑you to all partners, secondees, collaborators and institutions who made this possible. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐍𝐆𝐓𝐚𝐱 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐯𝐢𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐬!🌊🦠🧬🧫🌱🔬
🤝𝐍𝐆𝐓𝐚𝐱 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐮𝐦 & 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬
𝐂𝐨𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫
🇮🇹 Università di Pisa
𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬
🇦🇹 Universität Innsbruck
🇮🇹 Università degli studi di Pavia
🇩🇪 Bergische Universität Wuppertal
🇩🇪 Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Max Planck Society
🇩🇪 Azenta Life Sciences
🇮🇹 Consorzio CuoioDepur S.p.A.
🇫🇮 Palustrine Design OY
𝐄𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬
🇪🇹 Addis Ababa University – AAU (Ethiopia)
🇰🇪 Egerton University (Kenya)
🇿🇦 University of the Free State (South Africa)
🇨🇳 Ocean University of China 中国海洋大学 (China)
🇷🇺 Saint Petersburg State University (Russia)
…and all those who contributed through training, exchanges, fieldwork and scientific support.
🔖
EU Science & Innovation
11/09/2025
✨ 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 — chasing magnificent landscapes, spotting wild animals, and above all… searching for ciliates! 🐘🌍🔬🦠
30/09/2024
The Bright Night was a wonderful night...in the lab and outside!🐸🕷🐌🔬🦠🧪🧫
27/09/2024
Bright Night is coming!!!!🥁✨🐸🦠
05/09/2024
🗓SAVE THE DATE🤓📌
Do you have plans for the 𝟐𝟕𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫?
There's a fantastic event: we will start with a nocturnal walk👣🌳 in our amazing Botanical Garden🍃🍂 in Pisa and we will end talking about and 🦠🧫🔎🔬. How could you even think of missing it?
Don't forget to bring a 𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭🔦and wear 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐞𝐬👟! See you there!
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[ITA] Avete già programmi per il 27 settembre?
C'è 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
Università di Pisa
Orto e Museo Botanico di Pisa / Pisa Botanic Garden and Museum
Bright-Night Notte europea delle ricercatrici e dei ricercatori
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
APRE - Agenzia per la Promozione della Ricerca Europea
EU Environment
EU Science & Innovation
LIFE Programme
🎊We have some exciting news!!! 🗞
We have been awarded place🥉in the Wiki Science Competition 2023 Italy category "microscopy" 🔬🦠🧪🧫!
We are really happy to receive this recognition for the hard work and behind the creation of this image! 👏
It is a small step for approaching and other Wikimedia projects, but it is a huge leap🏃♀️ fostering a global movement to bring 📚 content to the world🌎. The journey ahead is exciting, and we are filled with pride for what we have accomplished so far!🤩🥳
Science&Wiki
Wikidatait
Wikimedia Italia
Dipartimento di Biologia - UNIPI
Università di Pisa
Petroni's Biolab
Wikipedia
Azenta Life Sciences
Universität Innsbruck
University of the Free State
Egerton University
Max Planck Society
Ocean University of China 中国海洋大学
🔬🦠This remarkable micrograph of Euplotes vanleeuwenhoeki, captured with astounding clarity and detail, has been awarded place 🥉in the Wiki Science Competition 2023 Italy category "microscopy". Congratulations! 🥳
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 “Candidatus Pinguicoccus supinus” sp. nov. Scientific reports, 10(1), 20311.
NGTax Project
Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Italia
Dipartimento di Biologia - UNIPI
Università di Pisa
Università degli studi di Pavia
Azenta Life Sciences
Universität Innsbruck
University of the Free State
Egerton University
Ocean University of China 中国海洋大学
Max Planck Society
26/01/2024
We are happy and proud to announce that finally our project's web-site is fully working and updated!🥳
Home | NGTax
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...
23/12/2023
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!🎄🦠🎁
02/10/2023
We are so glad that our initiative to spread the knowledge about ciliates during the Bright-Night 2023 was very successful!🥳
We are greateful to all the helpers and visitors! Expecially to the younger ones that were so interested and curious!⭐️💚🦠
18/09/2023
The BRIGHT -NIGHT is coming....and we will be there!⭐️🦠🔬🎉
Presenteremo il laboratorio ludico didattico “Quante cilia ha un Ciliato? Vieni a scoprirlo e non ba***re ciglio!”
24/03/2026
11/09/2025
30/09/2024
27/09/2024
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26/01/2024
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02/10/2023
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20/07/2023
14/07/2023