Fungal Community Analyses of a Pirogue from the Tang Dynasty in the National Maritime Museum of China

Abstract

The goal of this research was to analyze the fungal community responsible for the biodeterioration of a pirogue in the National Maritime Museum of China and to make recommendations for the protection of this artifact. Molecular identification of fungal strains isolated from the surface of the pirogue and the air of the storage room that were most closely related to Cladosporium, Penicillium, Talaromyces and Trichoderma spp. DNA extracted from the samples was sequenced on the Illumina MiSeq platform. The results showed that the predominant fungal genera present were Penicillium sp., Cladosporium sp. and Exophiala sp. Thereafter, cellulose degradation experiments were carried out on the predominant fungi screened by pure culturing. Finally, we tested the sensitivity of the predominant fungal isolates to four biocides. This work suggests that we should pay more attention to Penicillium sp. and Cladosporium sp. in the protection of wooden artifacts, and environmental control is recommended as the main means of protecting the pirogue.

Fungal Community and Biodeterioration Analysis of Hull Wood and Its Storage Environment of the Nanhai No. 1 Shipwreck

“…Wood-decay fungi refer to fungi that grow on wooden substrates, of which about 98% are Ascomycota and Basidiomycota ( James et al, 2006 ). Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Rozellomycota are often the main contributors to the biodeterioration of woody artifacts ( Irbe et al, 2012 ; Ortiz et al, 2014 ; Liu et al, 2018a ; Zhang et al, 2019 ). At the genus level, Fusarium sp., Emericellopsis sp., Volutella sp., Scedosporium sp., and Pseudallescheria sp.…”

“…After culturing at 28°C for 3 days, observe the size of the inhibition zone. The larger the diameter of inhibition zone, the higher the sensitivity of the dominant fungi to biocides ( Zhang et al, 2019 ). Three repeat tests are required for all biocide tests.…”

“…is the major fungus in the wooden tomb in the “M2” of Dingtao King Mausoleum in Shandong Province ( Liu et al, 2017 ); Eurotium halophilicum and Aspergillus penicillioides are the major fungi of desk and leather luggage rack in the C7 storage room of Tianjin Museum ( Liu et al, 2018b ); Penicillium sp., Cladosporium sp., and Exophiala sp. are the major fungi of a canoe in Tang Dynasty of China National Marine Museum ( Zhang et al, 2019 ). In 2015, Liu’s research on the fungi biodeterioration of Nanhai No.…”

An evaluation of clove (Eugenia caryophyllata) essential oil as a potential alternative antifungal wood protection system for cultural heritage conservation

“…Isolation was achieved by the classical cultivation method on (MEA) culture medium, often applied for studying fungi from cultural heritage (e.g. Sterflinger 2010, Lee et al 2018, Kim et al 2016, Zhang et al 2019, Stupar et al 2014. The isolated fungi were coded FC1-W, FC1-B and S-W, considering the source of the degraded wood employed as inoculum for fungal isolation and some visible differentiating features of the mycelium growth during the isolation procedure by sub-culturing (Zhang et al 2019, Alborés et al 2018, Al-Jaradi et al 2018.…”

“…Advanced techniques and classical methods are currently widely employed to evaluate the diversity of microbial / fungal communities responsible for CH biodeterioration (Sabatini et al 2018, Kim et al 2016, Adamiak et al 2018, Zhang et al 2019, while novel necessary developments look to alternative biocides effective against this attack. These include green biocides from natural resources, such as essential oils (EOs), (Kakakhel et al 2019), which have been recognised as potential eco-friendly alternatives to conventional chemical preservatives due to their proven biocidal properties.…”