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Cultivable microscopic fungi from an underground chemosynthesis-based ecosystem: a preliminary study

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Abstract

Movile Cave, a unique groundwater ecosystem in southern Romania, was discovered in 1986. This chemoautotrophic cave contains an abundant and diverse fauna with terrestrial and aquatic invertebrate communities, including 33 endemic species. Since its discovery, studies have focused mainly on cave chemoautotrophic bacteria, while the microfungal community has been largely neglected. In this study, we determined the microfungal species living on various substrates in Movile Cave and compared this spectrum with the mycobiota detected outside the cave (outside air-borne and soil-borne microfungi). To investigate all of the niches, we collected samples for two consecutive years from the dry part of the cave (cave air and sediment, corroded limestone walls, isopod feces, and isopod and spider cadavers) and from the post-siphon part of the cave, i.e., Airbell II (sediment and floating microbial mat). A total of 123 microfungal species were identified from among several hundred isolates. Of these, 96 species were only detected in the cave environment and not outside of the cave, while 90 species were from the dry part of the cave and 28 were from Airbell II. The most diverse genera were Penicillium (at least 18 species) and Aspergillus (14 species), followed by Cladosporium (9 species). Surprisingly, high CFU counts of air-borne microfungi were found inside the cave; they were even higher than outside the cave during the first year of investigation.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports of the Czech Republic and by the project “BIOCEV—Biotechnology and Biomedicine Centre of the Academy of Sciences and Charles University” (CZ.1.05/1.1.00/02.0109) from the European Regional Development Fund. Molecular genetic analyses were supported by the projects of the Charles University Grant Agency (GAUK 1130214). We thank the Group for Underwater and Speleological Exploration (GESS), custodian of Movile Cave, for supporting this project by permitting the access into the cave and for allowing us to use GESS Research Station in Mangalia; special thanks to Vlad Voiculescu and Mihai Baciu (both GESS members) for their technical assistance during the sampling activities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Fungal Genetics and Metabolism, Institute of Microbiology AS CR, v.v.i, Vídeňská 1083, 142 20, Praha 4, Czech Republic

    Alena Nováková, Vít Hubka & Miroslav Kolařík

  2. Institute of Soil Biology, Biology Centre AS CR, v.v.i., Na Sádkách 7, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

    Alena Nováková

  3. Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Benátská 2, 128 01, Praha 2, Czech Republic

    Vít Hubka, Šárka Valinová & Miroslav Kolařík

  4. Emil Racoviţă Institute of Speleology, Str. Frumoasă, No. 31, Sect.1, 010986, Bucharest, Romania

    Alexandra Maria Hillebrand-Voiculescu

  5. Group for Underwater and Speleological Exploration, Str. Frumoasă, No. 31, Sect.1, 010986, Bucharest, Romania

    Alexandra Maria Hillebrand-Voiculescu

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  1. Alena Nováková
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  2. Vít Hubka
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  3. Šárka Valinová
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  4. Miroslav Kolařík
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  5. Alexandra Maria Hillebrand-Voiculescu
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Correspondence to Alena Nováková.

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Nováková, A., Hubka, V., Valinová, Š. et al. Cultivable microscopic fungi from an underground chemosynthesis-based ecosystem: a preliminary study. Folia Microbiol 63, 43–55 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12223-017-0527-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12223-017-0527-6

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