ANALYSIS OF MICROFLORA PRESENT ON HISTORICAL TEXTILES WITH THE USE OF MOLECULAR TECHNIQUES.

One of the most important point for the restoration and protection of cultural heritage objects is the early identification of material deterioration caused by microbial colonization. Biodegradation has to be understood as a result of the activity of an entire microbial community, rather than that of individual members of such community. Fungi are among the most degradative organisms inducing biodeterioration processes of ancient and modern materials. Electrophoresis in denaturing gradient gel (DGGE) is the technique most often used to study the structure of the microbial communities colonizing artworks like painted art objects, mural paintings, historical window glass, historical limestone buildings and the like. The present article describes the usage of this method to analyze the diversity of fungal taxons on the sixteenth century textile material. Additionally the procedure of main taxon identification by sequencing was described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]