Malassezia is Widespread and Has Undescribed Diversity in the Marine Environment

Steinbach, Ronja M.; Baidouri, Fouad El; Mitchison-Field, Lorna M. Y.; Lim, Fang Yun; Ekena, Joanne; Gladfelter, Amy S.; Theberge, Ashleigh B.; Amend, Anthony S.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.4281964

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…We examined our data set for potential markers of human contamination, specifically to identify if any sites are more impacted than others. Previously, Malasezzia yeast species were identified in Warren Cave in 2013 at high abundance (37% relative abundance), with their presence attributed to human contamination (22), although this attribution has been called into question lately (23–25). We did observe Malasezzia species in our data set, with lesser abundance (<15% relative abundance) at Helo Cave and one sample each from Western Crater and Tramway Ridge.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At Subglacial sites, a single past study found that autotrophic CO and CO 2 fixation was a major functional trait of the prokaryotes present (8,21). For fungi, culture-independent studies are limited to Subglacial sites, revealing a diversity of fungal strains from Basidiomycota and Ascomycota (6,22), including a high dominance of Malassezia , which is often human-associated (6) but is also widespread in environmental samples (23,24) and a known contaminant in PCR reagents (25). Culture-based fungal studies have resulted in only a few thermotolerant (26) fungi being isolated from Tramway Ridge (10,27).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Geothermal ecosystems on Mt. Erebus, Antarctica, support diverse and taxonomically novel biota

Rasmussen,

Noell,

Herbold

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Mt. Erebus, Antarctica, is the southernmost active volcano in the world and harbors a diverse and geochemically unique array of geothermal ecosystems including ‘Subglacial’ and ‘Exposed’ features, surrounded by a vast desert of ice and snow. Previous studies, although limited in scope, have highlighted the unique and potentially endemic biota present on Mt. Erebus. In this study, we provide a systematic biodiversity study across all domains of life and all types of geothermal features present on Mt. Erebus. We present physicochemical and biological data from 39 Exposed samples and 9 Subglacial samples from Mt. Erebus. The taxonomic novelty of prokaryotes and fungi found supports past hypotheses of high endemism among the biota of Mt. Erebus; in particular, the large number of taxonomically divergent fungal sequences was surprising. We found that different site types had unique physicochemistry and biota; in particular, Exposed sites were significantly warmer than Subglacial sites (median: 40 vs 10℃ for Exposed and Subglacial, respectively) and tended to have greater abundances of photosynthetic organisms (CyanobacteriaandChlorophyta). Subglacial sites were characterized by a greater abundance of prokaryotes from the phylumActinobacteriota, correlated with the greater concentrations of Ca, Mg, and Sr present. Additionally, we found that Tramway Ridge differed from other Exposed sites as well as all Subglacial sites in physicochemistry (significantly greater conductivity, water content, total carbon, and total nitrogen levels) and biota (greater relative abundances of orderNitrososphaeriaand phylumBacteroidota). In this study, we provide a blueprint for future work aimed at better understanding the novel biota of Mt. Erebus.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%