Fungi populate deep‐sea coral gardens as well as marine sediments in the Irish Atlantic Ocean

Abstract

Fungi populate deep Oceans in extreme habitats characterized by high hydrostatic pressure, low temperature and absence of sunlight. Marine fungi are potential major contributors to biogeochemical events, critical for marine communities and food web equilibrium under climate change conditions and a valuable source of novel extremozymes and small molecules. Despite their ecophysiological and biotechnological relevance, fungal deep-sea biodiversity has not yet been thoroughly characterized. In this study, we describe the culturable mycobiota associated with the deepest margin of the European Western Continental Shelf: sediments sampled at the Porcupine Bank and deep-water corals and sponges sampled in the Whittard Canyon. Eighty-seven strains were isolated, belonging to 43 taxa and mainly Ascomycota. Ten species and four genera were detected for the first time in the marine environment and a possible new species of Arachnomyces was isolated from sediments. The genera Cladosporium and Penicillium were the most frequent and detected on both substrates, followed by Candida and Emericellopsis. Our results showed two different fungal communities: sediment-associated taxa which were predominantly saprotrophic and animalassociated taxa which were predominantly symbiotic. This survey supports selective fungal biodiversity in the deep North Atlantic, encouraging further mycological studies on cold water coral gardens, often overexploited marine habitats.

Diversity and Co-Occurrence Patterns of Fungal and Bacterial Communities from Alkaline Sediments and Water of Julong High-Altitude Hot Springs at Tianchi Volcano, Northeast China

“…Two strains (A-S8-3 and A-S8-4) belonging to this genus were successfully isolated from the collected sediments, showing high similarity with Emericellopsis minima (accession number: KT290876) previously found in Bohai sea sediments, which represented the first isolation of this species in China [54]. Emericellopsis species have been regarded as marine-adapted fungi and extensively recorded from various marine and lake environments worldwide, including sediments from the Porcupine Bank area off the Irish coast [55], dredged sediments from the ports of Leghorn (Tuscany, Italy) [56], bottom soils of the White Sea [57], as well as sea foam and surface of freely floating decaying twigs from Windebyer Noor, a brackish lake connected to Baltic Sea in Germany [58]. Emericellopsis has been found to possess antimicrobial activity against plant and human pathogens, and anticancer activity [59,60].…”

Deep-Sea Coral Garden Invertebrates and Their Associated Fungi Are Genetic Resources for Chronic Disease Drug Discovery

“…Coral gardens are rich and diverse deep-sea habitats populated by cold-water corals and sponges forming complex communities on rock formations, canyons or the deep-sea bed [37]. Filamentous fungi are found to live in association with benthic invertebrates as well as in the surrounding sediments [38], with ecological roles still to be determined. The chemical capabilities of microbes and benthic animals living in the deep sea has not been thoroughly explored, representing a knowledge gap in the marine natural products drug discovery field.…”

“…In each expedition, samples were collected with the Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Holland I and stored at −80 • C before chemical extraction. Samples for microbial isolation were surface sterilized and stored in glycerol as cryoprotectant (see [38] for more details on samples preparation and storage). Deep-sea fungi in pure culture are cryopreserved at the National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland.…”

“…A selection of 32 fungal strains isolated from deep-sea sediment or invertebrates (see Marchese et al, 2021 for information on fungal isolation and identification) were cultivated following an OSMAC approach [42]. To induce the activation of variable biosynthetic gene clusters, each fungal strain was treated with epigenetic modifiers.…”

Exploring the temporal dynamics of the fungal microbiome in rootstocks, the lesser-known half of the grapevine crop

“…Petri disease is caused by several ascomycetous fungi, including the cosmopolitan species Cadophora luteo-olivacea. This vascular pathogen has been widely isolated from diseased vines worldwide [22][23][24][25], as well as from remote habitats such as decaying wood in the Antarctica [26] and deep-sea sediments in the Irish Atlantic Ocean [27]. Cross-sections of Petri disease affected wood reveal black spots in the xylem vessels and black to brown vascular streaking.…”