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Richness and metallo-tolerance of cultivable fungi recovered from three high altitude glaciers from Citlaltépetl and Iztaccíhuatl volcanoes (Mexico)

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Abstract

In Mexico little is known about high-altitude glacial psychrotolerant or psychrophilic fungal species, with most glacial fungi isolated from polar environments or Alpine glaciers. It has been documented that some of these species may play an important role in bioremediation of contaminated environments with heavy metals. In the present study, 75 fungi were isolated from glaciers in Citlaltépetl (5675 masl) and Iztaccíhuatl (5286 masl) volcanoes. Combining morphological characteristics and molecular methods, based on ITS rDNA, 38 fungi were partially identified to genus level, 35 belonging to Ascomycota and three to Mucoromycota. The most abundant genera were Cladosporium, followed by Alternaria and Sordariomycetes order. All isolated fungi were psychrotolerant, pigmented and resistant to different concentrations of Cr(III) and Pb(II), while none tolerated Hg(II). Fungi most tolerant to Cr(III) and Pb(II) belong to the genera Stemphylium, Cladosporium and Penicillium and to a lesser extent Aureobasidium and Sordariomycetes. To our knowledge, this is the first report on cultivable mycobiota richness and their Cr and Pb tolerance. The results open new research possibilities about fungal diversity and heavy metals myco-remediation. Extremophilic fungal communities should be further investigated before global warming causes permanent changes and we miss the opportunity to describe these sites in Mexico.

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Abbreviations

Cit:

Citlaltépetl

Izt:

Iztaccíhuatl

IOM:

Instituto de Oftalmología “Fundación Conde de Valenciana” IAP Mexico Culture Collection

ENCB:

Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biológicas

IPN:

Instituto Politécnico Nacional

TI:

Tolerance index

EPS:

Extracellular polymeric substances

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Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate the collaboration of Diego Santamaría-Tovar and David Loza-Romano for their arduous assistance in sampling of volcanoes glaciers. We acknowledge Luis Antonio Bautista-Hernandez and Nathanael Salvador Ramírez for their help in Suppl. Figure 1. We thank V.S. Díaz for her help in Bayesian phylogenetic inference analyses. Dr. Calvillo-Medina thanks CONACYT Posdoctoral scholarship (005352) and appreciates the support of Maricela Medina-Alcaráz and Hector Rafael Calvillo-Vega. This work is dedicated in honor of the microbial biodiversity inhabiting the mysterious, emblematic and unknown Mexican volcanoes.

Funding

The authors acknowledge the financial support from Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, Qro., Mexico and Instituto de Oftalmología “Fundación Conde de Valencia” IAP, Mexico City, Mexico.

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Correspondence to Rosa Paulina Calvillo-Medina.

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The authors report no conflicts of interest. The information and content generated in the paper are the responsibility of the authors.

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Calvillo-Medina, R.P., Gunde-Cimerman, N., Escudero-Leyva, E. et al. Richness and metallo-tolerance of cultivable fungi recovered from three high altitude glaciers from Citlaltépetl and Iztaccíhuatl volcanoes (Mexico). Extremophiles 24, 625–636 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-020-01182-0

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