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Bird feather fungi from Svalbard Arctic

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Abstract

Despite feather fungi being an important component of the Arctic fungal flora, their ecological role and diversity are not fully known. In the current study, fungal cultures were isolated from feathers (barnacle goose, common eider, and glaucous gull) collected in the Ny-Ålesund region, Svalbard. Isolates were identified by ITS region sequences, which include the ITS1, ITS2, and 5.8S rRNA. The result showed culturable yeast and filamentous fungi belonging to three classes: Ascomycota (Pyrenochaetopsis pratorum, Cladosporium herbarum, Thelebolus microsporus, Aspergillus versicolor, Penicillium commune, and Venturia sp.), Basidiomycota (Mrakia blollopis and Rhodotorula mucilaginosa), and Zygomycota (Mucor flavus). Most of the fungal isolates appeared to be cold-tolerant, and about 60 % of the isolates showed keratinase activity. The reasonably low fungal diversity colonizing feathers indicates that the birds of Svalbard are casual carriers of fungi which may result in a negligible impact on their health. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first record of fungal communities present on the feathers of birds in the high Arctic.

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Acknowledgments

Authors are thankful to Directors NCAOR—India, NIPR—Japan, AIST—Japan, Arctic Centre, University of Groningen and King Bay—Norway for facilities. Authors are also thankful to Mr. Gary Stanley Fernandes and Dr. Dominique Paré, Consorminex Inc. (Canada), for English corrections. The publication compliance with Ethical Standards of journal of Polar Biology. This is NCAOR Publication no. 31/2015.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Vasco-Da-Gama, Goa, 403804, India

    Shiv M. Singh & Puja Gawas-Sakhalker

  2. National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR), 10-3 Midori-cho, Tachikawa, Tokyo, 190-8518, Japan

    Masaharu Tsuji

  3. Arctic Centre, University of Groningen, P.O. Box 716, 9700 AS, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Maarten J. J. E. Loonen

  4. Biomass Refinery Research Center (BRRC), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 3-11-32 Kagamiyama, Higashihiroshima, 739-0046, Japan

    Tamotsu Hoshino

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Singh, S.M., Tsuji, M., Gawas-Sakhalker, P. et al. Bird feather fungi from Svalbard Arctic. Polar Biol 39, 523–532 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-015-1804-y

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