Abstract
The fungal communities associated with three bryophytes species (the liverwort Barbilophozia hatcheri, the mosses Chorisodontium aciphyllum and Sanionia uncinata) in the Fildes Region, King George Island, maritime Antarctica, were studied using clone library analysis. Fungal communities showed low diversity; the 680 clones belonged to 93 OTUs. Of these, 78 belonged to the phylum Ascomycota, 13 to the phylum Basidiomycota, 1 to the phylum Zygomycota, and 1 to an unknown phylum. Among the OTUs, the most common orders in the Ascomycota were Helotiales (42 OTUs) and Chaetothyriales (14 OTUs) and the most common orders in the Basidiomycota were Sebacinales (3 OTUs) and Platygloeales (3 OTUs). Most OTUs clustered within clades that contained phylotypes identified from samples in Antarctic or Arctic ecosystems or from bryophytes in other ecosystems. In addition, we found that host-related factor may shape the fungal communities associated with bryophytes in this region. This is the first systematic study of the fungal community in Antarctic bryophytes to be performed using culture-independent method and the results may improve understanding of the endophytic fungal evolution and ecology in the Antarctic ecosystem.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by National Infrastructure of Microbial Resources (No. NIMR-2013-3), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Nos: 30970038 and 31170041), National S&T Major Special Project on Major New Drug Innovation (Nos: 2012ZX09301002-001 and 2012ZX09301002-003) and Special Fund for Health-scientific Research in the Public Interest (No. 201002021). We thank the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration (CAA) and Shunan Cao in China’s 28nd Antarctic expedition team for sample collection.
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Communicated by A. Oren.
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Zhang, T., Xiang, HB., Zhang, YQ. et al. Molecular analysis of fungal diversity associated with three bryophyte species in the Fildes Region, King George Island, maritime Antarctica. Extremophiles 17, 757–765 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-013-0558-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-013-0558-0