Abstract Antarctica contains most of the glacial ice on the planet, a habitat that is largely unexplored by biologists. Recent warming in parts of Antarctica, particularly the Antarctic Peninsula region, is leading to widespread glacial retreat, releasing melt water and, potentially, contained biological material and propagules. In this study, we used a DNA metabarcoding approach to characterize Viridiplantae DNA present in Antarctic glacial ice. Ice samples from six glaciers in the South Shetland Islands and Antarctic Peninsula were analysed, detecting the presence of DNA representing a total of 16 taxa including 11 Chlorophyta (green algae) and five Magnoliophyta (flowering plants). The green algae may indicate the presence of a viable algal community in the ice or simply of preserved DNA, and the sequence diversity assigned included representatives of Chlorophyta not previously recorded in Antarctica. The presence of flowering plant DNA is most likely to be associated with pollen or tissue fragments introduced by humans.

Abstract Currently, antimicrobial resistance has become a global public health problem, which has made the need for new antimicrobial compounds to deal with resistant infections an emergency. However, environments that once offered so many innovative molecules, now already exhaustively exploited, do not meet this need. In this context, a geographically isolated, under-explored and extreme environment, such as Antarctica, which holds organisms with unique physiological and biochemical characteristics, assumes great importance as a potential source of new compounds with antimicrobial activity. In this patent review, we investigate the state of technological development in the field of antimicrobial compounds obtained from Antarctic organisms, highlighting the main countries and researchers active in the field, the species utilized, the compounds obtained, and their possible therapeutic applications. As results, few patent documents were found, however they encompass a wide diversity of compounds and species, indicating a great antimicrobial potential present in Antarctic biota, including compounds active against the most important human pathogenic microorganisms, such as including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus spp. and multi-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Furthermore, due to the increasing trend in patent applications, a significant rise in the number of patents in this area is expected in the coming years.

ABSTRACT Botany is one of the oldest sciences done above the 60oS parallel with more than 180 years passing since the first professional botanist collected plants in Antarctica. Far from being a barren place, plants constitute an important part of polar ecosystems. Brazil is one of only 29 countries in the world with consultative status and to currently develop botanical studies in Antarctica. We discuss the importance of polar science to Brazil and the role that Brazil has in the international austral-polar scientific community, as well as the importance of its newly inaugurated scientific station.

Located of the east coast of Fildes Peninsula, South of Ardley Island, at King George Island, Ostrov Geologov (Geologist Islands) is a small island with 0.25 miles long. It only had one plant record published so far. We have conducted extensive fieldwork on the site and provide here a comprehensive checklist and a key for the moss species occurring on the island. Despite its small size, theislandcontains about 35% of all theFildes Peninsula moss flora, six new records were found. The pristine state of the island due to its relative isolation, presence of avian nesting sites and a relatively rich moss flora are strong arguments in favor of protection status for the island.

Ubicada en la costa este de la Península Fildes, al sur de la isla Ardley en Isla 25 de Mayo, la isla del Geólogo es una pequeña isla con 0.5 Km de extensión. Hasta ahora, solo existe un registro de planta. Hemos realizado colecciones y presentamos una lista y una clave para las especies de musgos que ocurren en la isla. Aunque de pequeño tamaño, la isla posee cerca de 35% de todas las especies de musgos que ocurren en la península Fildes y seis nuevos registros fueron encontrados. Su relativo aislamiento de los turistas es un factor que contribuye para su preservación.

The herbarium LE of the Komarov Botanical Institute in Saint Petersburg (former Leningrad), Russia holds one of the least known Brazilian moss collections in the world. In this paper we provide a list the Brazilian types of mosses deposited in the type collection of LE. Totaling types for 41 species names from Brazil are listed.

El Instituto Botánico Komarov (Herbario de Leningrado-LE) ubicado en San Petersburgo, Rusia, contiene una de las menos conocidas colecciones de musgos Brasileiros en el mundo. En este trabajo listamos los typus de musgos depositados en la colección de typus de LE, en un total de 41 nombres para Brasil.

While visiting the Herbarium of the Botany Department of the National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (code, R), we located the types of 219 bryophyte names, most of which were published by Karl Müller (cited as Müller Hallensis), whose holotypes were lost during the bombing of the Berlin Herbarium in 1943. A total of 181 names (82%) are possible candidates for lectotypification and most likely not to be found elsewhere. We also found the complete collection of Müller's "Bryologia Serrae Itatiaiae", made by Ernst Ule.

Trindade, uma ilha oceânica localizada a cerca de 1200 km da costa do Brasil, possui apenas 65% da sua cobertura vegetal original. A principal causa da devastação foi a presença de cabras por um longo período de tempo na ilha. Em 2005 as cabras foram eliminadas e a vegetação voltou a se recuperar, mas uma visita à ilha em 2012 revelou um novo perigo a vegetação: a presença de uma espécie de Leguminosae que está se espalhando e matando a parte da vegetação herbácea endêmica de Cyperus atlanticus.

Trindade is an oceanic island located ca. 1200 km east of the Brazilian coast with only 65% of its original vegetation cover remaining. Devastation was mainly caused by the presence of goats for a long time. Since goats were eliminated in 2005 the island vegetation is going through a recovering process. However during a visit to the island in 2012 another threat to the vegetation was noted: a Leguminosae species is spreading and killing part of the endemic herbaceous vegetation of Cyperus atlanticus.