Biodiversity of fungi in hot desert sands

Murgia, Manuela; Fiamma, Maura; Barać, Aleksandra; Deligios, Massimo; Mazzarello, Vittorio; Paglietti, Bianca; Cappuccinelli, Pietro Antonio; Al‐Qahtani, Ahmed; Squartini, Andrea; Rubino, Salvatore; Al-Ahdal, Mohammed N.

doi:10.1002/mbo3.595

Cited by 43 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Microbial diversity in Sabkha and desert was earlier investigated and well documented ( Murgia et al, 2019 , Jaouani et al, 2014 ). Soil is known as a rich habitat with different types of microbial communities.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Recent studies reported the isolation of hyaline fungi, like Myrothecium and Fusarium , from the soil in the northern region of Saudi Arabia together with the common Aspergillus and Penicillium ( Hemida and Abdel-Sater, 2016 ). A large fungal biodiversity including Ascomycota , basal fungi, and Basidiomycota, Dothideomycetes , Pezizomycetes , and Sordariomycetes were isolated from Jordanian and Saudi Arabian deserts ( Murgia et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Microbial Diversity of Some Sabkha and Desert Sites in Saudi Arabia

Alotaibi

Sonbol

Alwakeel

et al. 2020

Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences

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Several studies isolated fungal and bacterial species from extreme environments, such as Sabkha and hot deserts, as their natural habitat, some of which are of medicinal importance. Current research aimed investigating the microbial (fungi and bacteria) diversity and abundance in Sabkha and desert areas in Saudi Arabia. Soil samples from nine different geographical areas (Al-Aushazia lake, AlQasab, AlKasar, Tabuk, Al-Kharj, Al-Madina, Jubail, Taif and Abqaiq) were collected and cultured for microbial isolation. Isolated fungi and bacteria were identified by molecular techniques (PCR and sequencing). Based on 18S rDNA sequencing, 203 fungal species belonging to 33 genera were identified. The most common fungal genera were Fusarium , Alternaria , Chaetomium , Aspergillus Cochliobolus and Pencillium , while the most common species were Chaetomium globosum and Fusarium oxysporum . By 16S rDNA sequencing 22 bacterial species belonging to only two genera, Bacillus and Lactobacillus , were identified. The most commonly isolated bacterial species were Bacillus subtilis and Lactobacillus murinus . Some fungal species were confined to specific locations, such as Actinomyces elegans, Fusarium proliferatum, Gymnoascus reesii and Myzostoma spp . that were only isolated from Al-Aushazia soil. AlQasab soil had the highest microbial diversity among other areas with abundances of 23.5% and 4.4% of total fungi, and bacteria, respectively. Findings of this study show a higher degree of fungal diversity than that of bacteria in all studied areas. Further studies needed to investigate the connection between some isolated species and their habitat ecology, as well as to identify those of medicinal importance.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial Diversity of Some Sabkha and Desert Sites in Saudi Arabia

Alotaibi

Sonbol

Alwakeel

et al. 2020

Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences

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“…Similar to our study, in metagenomics analysis of rhizosphere fungal communities in arid and semi-arid ecosystems, Suleiman et al [47] and Vargas-Gastélum et al [48] also showed a high relative abundance of Ascomycota and Basidiomycota phyla in the rhizosphere of Vachellia pachyceras and plants from Valle de Las Palmas, respectively. While the composition of fungal communities in the bulk also show a high abundance of these phyla [49][50][51], so their presence would be associated with type of soil and climate which is decisive for the rhizospheric microbiome assembly process.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fungal and Bacterial Microbiome Associated with the Rhizosphere of Native Plants from the Atacama Desert

et al. 2020

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The rhizosphere microbiome is key in survival, development, and stress tolerance in plants. Salinity, drought, and extreme temperatures are frequent events in the Atacama Desert, considered the driest in the world. However, little information of the rhizosphere microbiome and its possible contribution to the adaptation and tolerance of plants that inhabit the desert is available. We used a high-throughput Illumina MiSeq sequencing approach to explore the composition, diversity, and functions of fungal and bacterial communities of the rhizosphere of Baccharis scandens and Solanum chilense native plants from the Atacama Desert. Our results showed that the fungal phyla Ascomycota and Basidiomycota and the bacterial phyla Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria were the dominant taxa in the rhizosphere of both plants. The linear discriminant analysis (LDA) effect size (LefSe) of the rhizosphere communities associated with B. scandens showed the genera Penicillium and Arthrobacter were the preferential taxa, whereas the genera Oidiodendron and Nitrospirae was the preferential taxa in S. chilense. Both plant showed similar diversity, richness, and abundance according to Shannon index, observed OTUs, and evenness. Our results indicate that there are no significant differences (p = 0.1) between the fungal and bacterial communities of both plants, however through LefSe, we find taxa associated with each plant species and the PCoA shows a separation between the samples of each species. This study provides knowledge to relate the assembly of the microbiome to the adaptability to drought stress in desert plants.

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“…Furthermore, two novel halophilic fungi isolated from a cave in the Coastal Range of the Atacama Desert were designated as Aspergillus atacamensis and Aspergillus salisburgensis (Martinelli et al ). Extensive fungal diversity has been recorded in Middle East desert sand (Murgia et al ) and three novel fungal species, Diverispora omaniana, Septoglomus nakheelum and Rhizophagus arabicus, were recorded from a desert in Oman (Symanczik et al ).…”

Section: Desertsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extreme environments: microbiology leading to specialized metabolites

et al. 2019

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Summary The prevalence of multidrug‐resistant microbial pathogens due to the continued misuse and overuse of antibiotics in agriculture and medicine is raising the prospect of a return to the preantibiotic days of medicine at the time of diminishing numbers of drug leads. The good news is that an increased understanding of the nature and extent of microbial diversity in natural habitats coupled with the application of new technologies in microbiology and chemistry is opening up new strategies in the search for new specialized products with therapeutic properties. This review explores the premise that harsh environmental conditions in extreme biomes, notably in deserts, permafrost soils and deep‐sea sediments select for micro‐organisms, especially actinobacteria, cyanobacteria and fungi, with the potential to synthesize new druggable molecules. There is evidence over the past decade that micro‐organisms adapted to life in extreme habitats are a rich source of new specialized metabolites. Extreme habitats by their very nature tend to be fragile hence there is a need to conserve those known to be hot‐spots of novel gifted micro‐organisms needed to drive drug discovery campaigns and innovative biotechnology. This review also provides an overview of microbial‐derived molecules and their biological activities focusing on the period from 2010 until 2018, over this time 186 novel structures were isolated from 129 representatives of microbial taxa recovered from extreme habitats.

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Biodiversity of fungi in hot desert sands

Cited by 43 publications

References 54 publications

Microbial Diversity of Some Sabkha and Desert Sites in Saudi Arabia

Microbial Diversity of Some Sabkha and Desert Sites in Saudi Arabia

Fungal and Bacterial Microbiome Associated with the Rhizosphere of Native Plants from the Atacama Desert

Extreme environments: microbiology leading to specialized metabolites

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