Tinkara Tinta

Young researcher Tinkara Tinta has successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled Bacterial community structure and function in the Gulf of Trieste with some application studies on 8th of December 2011.

Young researcher Tinkara Tinta has successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled Bacterial community structure and function in the Gulf of Trieste with some application studies on 8th of December 2011. Her work was performed under mentorship of ass. prof. dr. Valentina Turk. Committee members for her doctoral dissertation defence were prof. dr. Nina Gunde – Cimerman (Biotechnical faculty, University of Ljubljana), prof. dr. Aurelia Tubaro (DEMREP, University of Trieste) and prof. dr. Farooq Azam (Scripps Institution of Science, UC San Diego, USA).

During her PhD research she studied the response of the bacterial community structure and function to highly variable supply regimes of inorganic and organic matter in a dynamic coastal marine ecosystem of the Gulf of Trieste. The results from 16S rRNA gene clone libraries indicate the presence of Alphaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Cyanobacteria in the Gulf of Trieste. The SAR11 clade and Rhodobacteriaceae are important groups within Alphaproteobacteria. Common freshwater species Actinobacteria and Verrucomicrobia were detected during periods of lower salinity in the Gulf of Trieste. Highly variable conditions in the Gulf of Trieste influence the frequency of massive macroaggregate formations and jellyfish blooms. In order to better understand the details of microbial processes during these events she has collaborated on several enrichment experiments performed in mesocosms incubated in situ, in which she studied the changes in the activity and diversity of bacterial community and its impact on the ecosystem functioning due to the inorganic and organic matter accumulation in the surrounding environment.

During her studies she worked as visiting PhD student in the laboratory of prof. dr. F.Azam (Scripps Institute of Oceanography, UC San Diego, USA) and for a longer period also in the laboratory of prof. dr. J. Piškur at Lund University, Sweden, where she performed her research on deoxyribonucleoside kinases in aquatic bacteria. For this project entitled 'Marine microorganisms as a source of novel genes and enzymes for green chemistry' she also received FEMS research fellowship. Since 2010 she also works as assistant at laboratory practice for lectures of Environmental Microbiology, University study program Environmental studies, Faculty for Environmental Sciences, University of Nova Gorica. As a part of her research work she collaborates on several international research projects and has also participated on international research expedition on the Mljet Island in the southern Adriatic Sea.