Publications by Leïla Ezzat | EPFL Graph Search

Glacier-fed stream diatoms (Bacillariophyta) from the Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda, with the description of one new species from the genus Neidium

Leïla Ezzat, Tom Ian Battin, Hannes Markus Peter, Massimo Bourquin, Grégoire Marie Octave Edouard Michoud

Informa UK Limited2025

Diversity and biogeography of the bacterial microbiome in glacier-fed streams

Nicola Deluigi, Leïla Ezzat, Vincent Henri De Staercke, Tom Ian Battin, Paraskevi Pramateftaki, Hannes Markus Peter, Matteo Tolosano, Michail Styllas, Tyler Joe Kohler, Stylianos Fodelianakis, Massimo Bourquin, Martina Andrea Schön, Grégoire Marie Octave Edouard Michoud, Florian Baier

The rapid melting of mountain glaciers and the vanishing of their streams is emblematic of climate change1,2. Glacier-fed streams (GFSs) are cold, oligotrophic and unstable ecosystems in which life is dominated by microbial biofilms2,3. However, current kn ...

2025

Deciphering the biosynthetic landscape of biofilms in glacier-fed streams

Leïla Ezzat, Tom Ian Battin, Hannes Markus Peter, Tyler Joe Kohler, Grégoire Marie Octave Edouard Michoud

Glacier-fed streams are permanently cold, ultra-oligotrophic, and physically unstable environments, yet microbial life thrives in benthic biofilm communities. Within biofilms, microorganisms rely on secondary metabolites for communication and competition. ...

AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY2024

Cross-domain interactions confer stability to benthic biofilms in proglacial streams

Leïla Ezzat, Tom Ian Battin, Paraskevi Pramateftaki, Hannes Markus Peter, Jade Brandani, Tyler Joe Kohler, Stylianos Fodelianakis, Massimo Bourquin, Grégoire Marie Octave Edouard Michoud

Cross-domain interactions are an integral part of the success of biofilms in natural environments but remain poorly understood. Here, we describe cross-domain interactions in stream biofilms draining proglacial floodplains in the Swiss Alps. These streams, ...

2023

Homogeneous Environmental Selection Structures the Bacterial Communities of Benthic Biofilms in Proglacial Floodplain Streams

Leïla Ezzat, Tom Ian Battin, Hannes Markus Peter, Jade Brandani, Tyler Joe Kohler, Stylianos Fodelianakis, Massimo Bourquin, Susheel Bhanu Busi, Grégoire Marie Octave Edouard Michoud

Streams draining proglacial floodplains harbor benthic biofilms comprised of diverse microbial communities. These high-mountain ecosystems are rapidly changing with climate warming, and it is therefore critical to better understand the mechanisms underlyin ...

AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY2023

Glacier-Fed Stream Biofilms Harbor Diverse Resistomes and Biosynthetic Gene Clusters

Leïla Ezzat, Vincent Henri De Staercke, Tom Ian Battin, Paraskevi Pramateftaki, Hannes Markus Peter, Matteo Tolosano, Michail Styllas, Tyler Joe Kohler, Stylianos Fodelianakis, Massimo Bourquin, Susheel Bhanu Busi, Grégoire Marie Octave Edouard Michoud

Antimicrobial resistance is an omnipresent phenomenon in the anthropogenically influenced ecosystems. However, its role in shaping microbial community dynamics in pristine environments is relatively unknown. ...

AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY2023

The dark side of the moon: first insights into the microbiome structure and function of one of the last glacier-fed streams in Africa

Leïla Ezzat, Vincent Henri De Staercke, Tom Ian Battin, Paraskevi Pramateftaki, Hannes Markus Peter, Matteo Tolosano, Michail Styllas, Tyler Joe Kohler, Massimo Bourquin, Martina Andrea Schön, Grégoire Marie Octave Edouard Michoud

The glaciers on Africa's 'Mountains of the Moon' (Rwenzori National Park, Uganda) are predicted to disappear within the next decades owing to climate change. Consequently, the glacier-fed streams (GFSs) that drain them will vanish, along with their residen ...

ROYAL SOC2023

Spatial patterns of benthic biofilm diversity among streams draining proglacial floodplains

Leïla Ezzat, Matteo Roncoroni, Tom Ian Battin, Paraskevi Pramateftaki, Hannes Markus Peter, Jade Brandani, Tyler Joe Kohler, Stylianos Fodelianakis, Massimo Bourquin, Susheel Bhanu Busi, Grégoire Marie Octave Edouard Michoud

Glacier shrinkage opens new proglacial terrain with pronounced environmental gradients along longitudinal and lateral chronosequences. Despite the environmental harshness of the streams that drain glacier forelands, their benthic biofilms can harbor astoni ...

Frontiers Media SA2022

Benthic Biofilms in Glacier-Fed Streams from Scandinavia to the Himalayas Host Distinct Bacterial Communities Compared with the Streamwater

Leïla Ezzat, Vincent Henri De Staercke, Tom Ian Battin, Paraskevi Pramateftaki, Hannes Markus Peter, Emmy Marie Oppliger, Jade Brandani, Matteo Tolosano, Michail Styllas, Tyler Joe Kohler, Stylianos Fodelianakis, Massimo Bourquin, Martina Andrea Schön, Susheel Bhanu Busi, Grégoire Marie Octave Edouard Michoud, Virginia Tadei

Microbial life in glacier-fed streams (GFSs) is dominated by benthic biofilms which fulfill critical ecosystem processes. However, it remains unclear how the bacterial communities of these biofilms assemble in stream ecosystems characterized by rapid turno ...

AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY2022

The microbiome of cryospheric ecosystems

Leïla Ezzat, Tom Ian Battin, Hannes Markus Peter, Tyler Joe Kohler, Stylianos Fodelianakis, Massimo Bourquin, Susheel Bhanu Busi, Grégoire Marie Octave Edouard Michoud

The cryosphere includes those parts of Earth where water or soil is frozen, such as snow, ice, glaciers and permafrost soils. Here, the authors present a global inventory of cryospheric microbial communities and their genetic repertoires. ...

Nature Portfolio2022

Glacier shrinkage will accelerate downstream decomposition of organic matter and alters microbiome structure and function

Nicola Deluigi, Leïla Ezzat, Vincent Henri De Staercke, Tom Ian Battin, Paraskevi Pramateftaki, Hannes Markus Peter, Jade Brandani, Matteo Tolosano, Michail Styllas, Tyler Joe Kohler, Stylianos Fodelianakis, Massimo Bourquin, Martina Andrea Schön, Susheel Bhanu Busi, Grégoire Marie Octave Edouard Michoud

The shrinking of glaciers is among the most iconic consequences of climate change. Despite this, the downstream consequences for ecosystem processes and related microbiome structure and function remain poorly understood. Here, using a space-for-time substi ...

Wiley2022

Positive interactions between corals and damselfish increase coral resistance to temperature stress

Leïla Ezzat

By the century's end, many tropical seas will reach temperatures exceeding most coral species' thermal tolerance on an annual basis. The persistence of corals in these regions will, therefore, depend on their abilities to tolerate recurrent thermal stress. ...

WILEY2022

Genomic and metabolic adaptations of biofilms to ecological windows of opportunity in glacier-fed streams

Leïla Ezzat, Vincent Henri De Staercke, Tom Ian Battin, Paraskevi Pramateftaki, Hannes Markus Peter, Matteo Tolosano, Michail Styllas, Tyler Joe Kohler, Stylianos Fodelianakis, Massimo Bourquin, Martina Andrea Schön, Susheel Bhanu Busi, Grégoire Marie Octave Edouard Michoud

In glacier-fed streams, ecological windows of opportunity allow complex microbial biofilms to develop and transiently form the basis of the food web, thereby controlling key ecosystem processes. Using metagenome-assembled genomes, we unravel strategies tha ...

Springer2022

Thermal Stress Interacts With Surgeonfish Feces to Increase Coral Susceptibility to Dysbiosis and Reduce Tissue Regeneration

Leïla Ezzat

Dysbiosis of coral microbiomes results from various biotic and environmental stressors, including interactions with important reef fishes which may act as vectors of opportunistic microbes via deposition of fecal material. Additionally, elevated sea surfac ...

Frontiers Media SA2021

The Response of the Mediterranean Gorgonian Eunicella singularis to Thermal Stress Is Independent of Its Nutritional Regime

Alexandre Buttler, Leïla Ezzat

Over the last few decades, sessile benthic organisms from the Mediterranean Sea have suffered from the global warming of the world's oceans, and several mass mortality events were observed during warm summers. It has been hypothesized that mortality could ...

Public Library Science2013