Metal-Tolerant Fungal Communities Are Delineated by High Zinc, Lead, and Copper Concentrations in Metalliferous Gobi Desert Soils

Abstract

The soil fungal ecology of the southern Gobi region of Mongolia has been little studied. We utilized the ITS1 region from soil DNA to study possible influences on soil fungal community variation. In the sample network, a distinctive fungal community was closely associated with high zinc (Zn), lead (Pb) and copper (Cu) concentrations. The pattern of occurrence suggests that high metal concentrations are natural and not a product of mining activities. The metal-associated fungal community differs little from the 'normal' community in its major OTUs, and in terms of major fungal guilds and taxa, and its distinctiveness depends on a combination of many less common OTUs. The fungal community in the sites with high metal concentrations is no less diverse than in areas with normal background levels. Overall, these findings raise interesting questions of the evolutionary origin and functional characteristics of this apparently 'metal tolerant' community, and of the associated soil biota in general. It is possible that rehabilitation of metalcontaminated mined soils from spoil heaps could benefit from the incorporation of fungi derived from these areas.

Heavy Metal-Resistant Filamentous Fungi as Potential Mercury Bioremediators

“…Beneficial mutations resulted from recombination events, upon repair of double strand breaks induced by HMs, or horizontal gene transfer events [92][93][94] can grant isolate-unique HM resistance. The diversity and abundance of fungi isolated herein are in accordance with previous data describing Ascomycota as dominant in both natural and HM-contaminated soils [36,38,69,[95][96][97], and Mucoromycota as less frequently recovered from soil with multi-toxic elemental contaminations [69].…”

“…The cosmopolitan nature and versatility of these two ascomycetous genera explain their high incidence at the investigated site [ 100 , 101 ]. The preponderance of Fusarium and of other genera identified here (i.e., Penicillium , Lecanicillium, and Phoma ) has also been reported in contaminated areas or substrates containing Cu, Pb, or Zn [ 71 , 95 , 102 ]. Concerning fungal diversity from a former Hg mining plant in Rudňany, Slovakia, Cladosporium cladosporioides , Penicillium spp., Aspergillus spp., and Fusarium oxysporum species were recovered [ 88 ].…”

“…Concerning fungal diversity from a former Hg mining plant in Rudňany, Slovakia, Cladosporium cladosporioides , Penicillium spp., Aspergillus spp., and Fusarium oxysporum species were recovered [ 88 ]. However, the composition of fungal communities is site-specific, influenced by soil composition, properties, and selective pressure of HMs [ 37 , 71 , 95 , 99 ]. Additionally, the plant community composition, followed by local and seasonal climate variations, are important contributors in shaping fungal communities [ 103 , 104 , 105 ].…”

Responses of Rhizosphere Fungal Communities to the Sewage Sludge Application into the Soil

“…188/2003 in the Slovak Republic. Actually, the fungal communities are able to accept even greater concentrations of heavy metals in the soil [36,37], and changes in their communities are smaller than in the bacterial communities [38,39,40]. On the other hand, the opposite effect was observed by Mossa et al [41] and Lin et al [42].…”

Evaluation of resistance patterns and bioremoval efficiency of hydrocarbons and heavy metals by the mycobiome of petroleum refining wastewater in Jazan with assessment of molecular typing and cytotoxicity of Scedosporium apiospermum JAZ-20

“…They have demonstrated potential tolerance and remediation abilities towards various HMs, including lead, cadmium, chromium, iron, copper, cobalt, nickel, zinc, and manganese, found in contaminated wastewater. These fungi are characterized as multi-metal-adsorptive fungi [ 5 , [38] , [39] , [40] , [41] ]. Furthermore, Table 3 indicated that Verticillium species showed the highest IC 50 and MIC values against Fe 2+ (1.60–2.25 and 2.19–3.27 g/L) followed by Zn 2+ (1.52–1.73 and 2.10–2.95 g/L), Ag + (1.23–1.70 and 1.99–2.25 g/L), and As 3+ (1.18–1.49 and 1.98–2.20 g/L), respectively while Clavispora species exhibited higher resistant values toward As 3+ followed by Cr 6+ and Cu 2+ (IC 50 = 1.70–2.05, 1.47–2.00 and 1.15–2.16 g/L with MIC values 2.60–3.76, 2.50–3.0 and 2.20–3.62 g/L, respectively).…”