Trichoderma infection of limno-terrestrial tardigrades

Loeffelholz, Jacob; Stahl, Leigha M; Momeni, Sogol; Turberville, Caleb M.; Pienaar, Jason

doi:10.1016/j.jip.2021.107677

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Every 10 days, we let the Petri dishes dry out completely for a period of 3 days because our pilot culturing attempts revealed that we could not get tardigrades to lay eggs if they are maintained constantly wet (Sayre, 1969). We hypothesize that, along with partial overnight drying, more extensive periodic drying like this may allow the very slow-moving heterotardigrades to reduce pathogen loads, especially fungal growth (Loeffelholz et al, 2021). Alternatively (or in addition), drying may be required to stimulate egg laying.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to culture limnoterrestrial heterotardigrades

Momeni

Fuentes-González

Pienaar

2022

Invertebrate Biology

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Zoologists have long tried to culture the limnoterrestrial heterotardigrades associated with bryophytes and lichens without success. By carefully observing heterotardigrades in the genera Echiniscus, Pseudechiniscus, and Viridiscus over many months, we determined that these organisms feed on chloroplasts and cytoplasm from the cells of moss (typically moss protonema), and on the single-celled green algae associated with the moss (typically Chlorella vulgaris). We also determined that the cryptogams they associate with, and hence the heterotardigrades themselves, spend more time in a dried state than do most eutardigrades, which are more easily cultured. Taking these observations into account, we varied food, water, and desiccation cycle conditions with the aim of developing a viable culturing protocol for heterotardigrades. We used this experimentally derived protocol to maintain laboratory cultures of the tardigrades Echiniscus sp., Pseudechiniscus aff. P. ramazzotti and Viridiscus viridianus, which regularly produced new eggs and hatchlings. Both moss and algae from their natural habitats were used as food sources, and a small layer of rain or spring water was added every morning and allowed to partially evaporate overnight. Furthermore, the organisms were more likely to lay eggs on a dense mat of moss protonema, grown by inserting tips of moss branches into a solidified KCM-agar medium. The medium also provided a walking substrate for the tardigrades, and possibly a source of cations. Crucially, the cultures were allowed to dry out completely every 10 days for a period of at least 3 days. Moss in the culture dish significantly improved the chances of the tardigrades coming out of their desiccation-resistant states successfully. The ability to culture heterotardigrades makes these organisms available for modern genomics and other studies with implications for understanding desiccation resistance mechanisms beyond those studied in a few model eutardigrade species.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to culture limnoterrestrial heterotardigrades

Momeni

Fuentes-González

Pienaar

2022

Invertebrate Biology

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“…Therefore, the original water content level might not be the main cause of the observed drop. All moss species in our study are also known to host variety of fungal species (Kauserud et al, 2008;Kostka et al, 2016) and some fungi are known to infect tardigrades (Loeffelholz et al, 2021). The storage duration in this study was relatively short (max.…”

Section: Tablementioning

confidence: 91%

The Effects of Sample Storage Duration on Tardigrade Density and Community Composition in Moss Samples

Mäenpää¹,

Elo²,

Vuori³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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“…The identified genera from the phylum include Lecophagus, Verrucaria, and Tetracladium. Lecophagus is a genus that includes a variety of predatory fungi, including L. antarcticus, which infects tardigrades [69].…”

Section: Community Composition Of a Microbial Mat From The Surface Of...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Study of the Bacterial, Fungal, and Archaeal Communities Structures near the Bulgarian Antarctic Research Base “St. Kliment Ohridski” on Livingston Island, Antarctica

Doytchinov,

Peykov,

Dimov

2024

Life

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As belonging to one of the most isolated continents on our planet, the microbial composition of different environments in Antarctica could hold a plethora of undiscovered species with the potential for biotechnological applications. This manuscript delineates our discoveries after an expedition to the Bulgarian Antarctic Base “St. Kliment Ohridski” situated on Livingston Island, Antarctica. Amplicon-based metagenomics targeting the 16S rRNA genes and ITS2 region were employed to assess the metagenomes of the bacterial, fungal, and archaeal communities across diverse sites within and proximal to the research station. The predominant bacterial assemblages identified included Oxyphotobacteria, Bacteroidia, Gammaprotobacteria, and Alphaprotobacteria. A substantial proportion of cyanobacteria reads were attributed to a singular uncultured taxon within the family Leptolyngbyaceae. The bacterial profile of a lagoon near the base exhibited indications of penguin activity, characterized by a higher abundance of Clostridia, similar to lithotelm samples from Hannah Pt. Although most fungal reads in the samples could not be identified at the species level, noteworthy genera, namely Betamyces and Tetracladium, were identified. Archaeal abundance was negligible, with prevalent groups including Woesearchaeales, Nitrosarchaeum, Candidatus Nitrosopumilus, and Marine Group II.

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Trichoderma infection of limno-terrestrial tardigrades

Cited by 7 publications

References 19 publications

How to culture limnoterrestrial heterotardigrades

How to culture limnoterrestrial heterotardigrades

The Effects of Sample Storage Duration on Tardigrade Density and Community Composition in Moss Samples

Study of the Bacterial, Fungal, and Archaeal Communities Structures near the Bulgarian Antarctic Research Base “St. Kliment Ohridski” on Livingston Island, Antarctica

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