Abstract
We investigated the survival of extremophile microfungi (Exophiala xenobiotica, Aureobasidium pullulans, Cladosporium herbarum, Rhodotorula colostri, Pseudogymnoascus pannorum) under proton and gamma radiation in a dose range of 0–200 Gy. An increase in survival probability observed for all species of microfungi at doses less than 50 Gy may be explained in terms of hormesis. The increased survival rate was the highest for Cladosporium herbarum (140%) and the lowest for Rhodotorula colostri (107%). The latter may be due to the presence of carotene in Rhodotorula colostri, which blocks free radicals involved in hormesis. An increase in survival probability in Cladosporium herbarum observed across a wider range of doses up to 75 Gy may be a result of the presence of melanin in the cell wall. At doses of 100–200 Gy, the mycelial fungi Pseudogymnoascus pannorum had the lowest survival probability of 25%, while the corresponding probability of Cladosporium herbarum was 48%. At the same time, the probability of survival with gamma-irradiation was about 15% higher than with proton irradiation. Conversely, in the case of yeast fungi, the opposite effect was observed: the probability of survival under gamma irradiation was lower than under proton irradiation.
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Acknowledgements
This study was carried out as part of the state assignment according to the thematic plan of the Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (theme No. AAAA-A19-119020890079-6). The research was carried out using equipment of the “Cell and Molecular Technologies in Plant Science” Core Facilities Center at the Komarov Botanical Institute RAS (St.-Petersburg, Russia).
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Kirtsideli, I.Y. et al. (2023). Influence of Ionizing Radiation on Microfungi at Polar Latitudes. In: Frank-Kamenetskaya, O.V., Vlasov, D.Y., Panova, E.G., Alekseeva, T.V. (eds) Biogenic—Abiogenic Interactions in Natural and Anthropogenic Systems 2022. BIOCOS 2022. Springer Proceedings in Earth and Environmental Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40470-2_32
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