A meta-barcoding analysis of soil mycobiota of the upper Andean Colombian agro-environment

Abstract

Colombia is a country for which one of the highest biodiversity rates is reported, and one of the first in the tropical areas where an effort was made to gather information on indigenous fungi. Nevertheless, mycological data are still scarce and discontinuous, above all on soil fungi. The present study wanted to contribute to unveil the large soil fungal biodiversity in the upper Andean Colombian agro-ecosystems. The studied area is located in the department of Boyacà, considered with a notable economical value, partly devoted to subsistence agriculture. More than 150 described species were revealed in this study, belonging to 5 phyla with Ascomycota representing the dominant taxon. Basidiomycota and Zygomycota are also well represented, dominated by species of the genus Sebacina and Mortierella respectively, mainly distributed in the semi-natural plots (woodland and grassland). Most of the species are reported as first records for Colombia. Some of them are particularly interesting for their conservation significance such as Geoglossum fallax , which is the dominant species in the unimproved grassland plot. The bootstrap-based clustering analysis showed a different distribution of the species in orchards and non-cultivated areas as a possible response of the fungal community to different use of soil in the agro-environment.

Soil Metabarcoding Offers a New Tool for the Investigation and Hunting of Truffles in Northern Thailand

“…Recently, eDNA metabarcoding has become an important research tool and is now being commonly used to understand the microbial (including bacteria and fungi) diversity and community structure in a variety of environments [ 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 ]. Thus, soil mycobiota diversity has been provided to establish the ecological groups of fungi as mycorrhizal (mutualistic symbiotic association of fungi and plants), saprotrophic (decomposers), and pathogenic (harmful or parasitic to other organisms) [ 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 ]. Several previous studies have been conducted to evaluate and monitor soil fungal diversity and fungal communities, as well as to detect rare fungal species in soil samples collected from various forest types during different seasons with the use of eDNA [ 36 , 37 , 38 ].…”

“…Thus, soil mycobiota diversity has been provided to establish the ecological groups of fungi as mycorrhizal (mutualistic symbiotic association of fungi and plants), saprotrophic (decomposers), and pathogenic (harmful or parasitic to other organisms) [ 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 ]. Several previous studies have been conducted to evaluate and monitor soil fungal diversity and fungal communities, as well as to detect rare fungal species in soil samples collected from various forest types during different seasons with the use of eDNA [ 36 , 37 , 38 ]. In previous decades, species-specific primers for polymerase chain reactions (PCR) were used to detect truffles in the environment [ 39 , 40 , 41 ]; however, a notable disadvantage of this method was that it requires a large amount of extracted DNA to be present in the samples.…”

Soil Microfungi of the Colombian Natural Regions

“…Moreover, fungi isolated from soils and symphylans were tested to determine their antagonist capacity against symphylans itself [ 54 ]. In a recent paper [ 55 ] the total soil fungal biodiversity in different agro-ecosystems in Soracá (administrative region of Boyacá) using next-generation sequencing was evaluated. The soil biodiversity was compared in apple and peach orchards, in a resting grassland and in a woodland.…”

“…Other taxa are less recorded and analyzed. Very few papers give a panoramic picture of soil mycobiota, e.g., those concerning Andes [ 45 , 55 ]. Colombian mycological research, in this respect is in its infancy, above all, if compared with research carried out by other Central and South America countries, such as Cuba and Brazil [ 77 ].…”

Pruning Wastes From Fruit Trees as a Substrate for Pleurotus ostreatus

“…Moreover, Colombia is a major producer of apples, peaches, and pears (particularly in the region of Boyacá); therefore, proper handling of pruning residues from trees represents a challenge for sustainable agriculture and a chance of production diversification for small farmers. Finally, biodegradation of spent mushroom compost in agroenvironments is particularly favored by Colombian climatic conditions and the richness of soil microbiota (Landínez-Torres et al, 2020;Landinez-Torres et al, 2019). e aims of this study were: (i) to explore the potential of pruning residues from selected fruit trees as a substrate for the efficient cultivation of P. ostreatus, and (ii) to provide a user-friendly and scalable methodology for the cultivation of P. ostreatus by rural families.…”