Unraveling the ancient fungal DNA from the Iceman gut.

Background: Fungal DNA is rarely reported in metagenomic studies of ancient samples. Although fungi are essential for their interactions with all kingdoms of life, limited information is available about ancient fungi. Here, we explore the possibility of the presence of ancient fungal species in the gut of Ötzi, the Iceman, a naturally mummified human found in the Tyrolean Alps (border between Italy and Austria).

Trends in Antarctic soil fungal research in the context of environmental changes.

Antarctic soils represent one of the most pristine environments on Earth, where highly adapted and often endemic microbial species withstand multiple extremes. Specifically, fungal diversity is extremely low in Antarctic soils and species distribution and diversity are still not fully characterized in the continent. Despite the unique features of this environment and the international interest in its preservation, several factors pose severe threats to the conservation of inhabiting ecosystems.

The hidden network of biocrust successional stages in the High Arctic: Revealing abiotic and biotic factors shaping microbial and metazoan communities.

Despite the important role that biocrust communities play in maintaining ecosystem structure and functioning in deglaciated barren soil, few studies have been conducted on the dynamics of biotic communities and the impact of physicochemical characteristics in shaping the different successional stages. In this study an integrated approach encompassing physicochemical parameters and molecular taxonomy was used for identifying the indicator taxa and the presence of intra- and inter-kingdom interactions in five different crust/biocrust successional stages: i) physical crust, ii) cyanobacteria-dominated biocrust, iii) cyanobacteria/moss-dominated biocrust, iv) moss-dominated biocrust and v) bryophyte carpet. The phylum Gemmatimonadota was the bacterial indicator taxon in the early stage, promoting both inter- and intra-kingdom interactions, while Cyanobacteria and Nematoda phyla played a pivotal role in formation and dynamics of cyanobacteria-dominated biocrusts.

Wide divergence of fungal communities inhabiting rocks and soils in a hyper-arid Antarctic desert.

Highly simplified microbial communities colonise rocks and soils of continental Antarctica ice-free deserts. These two habitats impose different selection pressures on organisms, yet the possible filtering effects on the diversity and composition of microbial communities have not hitherto been fully characterised. We hence compared fungal communities in rocks and soils in three localities of inner Victoria Land.

sp. nov. and sp. nov., two new species from extreme environments.

Six strains of black meristematic fungi were isolated from Antarctic soils, gasoline car tanks and from the marine alga . These fungi were characterized by morphological, physiological and phylogenetic analyses. According to the maximum-likelihood analysis reconstructed with ITS and LSU sequences, these strains belonged to the genus sp.

Growth Forms and Functional Guilds Distribution of Soil Fungi in Coastal Versus Inland Sites of Victoria Land, Antarctica.

In Victoria Land, Antarctica, ice-free areas are restricted to coastal regions and dominate the landscape of the McMurdo Dry Valleys. These two environments are subjected to different pressures that determine the establishment of highly adapted fungal communities. Within the kingdom of fungi, filamentous, yeasts and meristematic/microcolonial growth forms on one side and different lifestyles on the other side may be considered adaptive strategies of particular interest in the frame of Antarctic constraints.

Extracellular Enzymes and Bioactive Compounds from Antarctic Terrestrial Fungi for Bioprospecting.

Antarctica, one of the harshest environments in the world, has been successfully colonized by extremophilic, psychrophilic, and psychrotolerant microorganisms, facing a range of extreme conditions. Fungi are the most diverse taxon in the Antarctic ecosystems, including soils. Genetic adaptation to this environment results in the synthesis of a range of metabolites, with different functional roles in relation to the biotic and abiotic environmental factors, some of which with new biological properties of potential biotechnological interest.

Expansion of shrubs could result in local loss of soil bacterial richness in Western Greenland.

Climate warming in Greenland is facilitating the expansion of shrubs across wide areas of tundra. Given the close association between plants and soil microorganisms and the important role of soil bacteria in ecosystem functioning, it is of utmost importance to characterize microbial communities of arctic soil habitats and assess the influence of plant edaphic factors on their composition. We used 16S rRNA gene amplicons to explore the bacterial assemblages of three different soil habitats representative of a plant coverage gradient: bare ground, biological soil crusts dominated by mosses and lichens and vascular vegetation dominated by shrubs.

Vegetation, pH and Water Content as Main Factors for Shaping Fungal Richness, Community Composition and Functional Guilds Distribution in Soils of Western Greenland.

Fungi are the most abundant and one of the most diverse components of arctic soil ecosystems, where they are fundamental drivers of plant nutrient acquisition and recycling. Nevertheless, few studies have focused on the factors driving the diversity and functionality of fungal communities associated with these ecosystems, especially in the scope of global warming that is particularly affecting Greenland and is leading to shrub expansion, with expected profound changes of soil microbial communities. We used soil DNA metabarcoding to compare taxonomic and functional composition of fungal communities in three habitats [bare ground (BG), biological soil crusts (BSC), and vascular vegetation (VV) coverage] in Western Greenland.

Altitude and fungal diversity influence the structure of Antarctic cryptoendolithic Bacteria communities.

Endolithic growth within rocks is a critical adaptation of microbes living in harsh environments where exposure to extreme temperature, radiation, and desiccation limits the predominant life forms, such as in the ice-free regions of Continental Antarctica. The microbial diversity of the endolithic communities in these areas has been sparsely examined. In this work, diversity and composition of bacterial assemblages in the cryptoendolithic lichen-dominated communities of Victoria Land (Continental Antarctica) were explored using a high-throughput metabarcoding approach, targeting the V4 region of 16S rDNA.

Effect of environmental parameters on biodiversity of the fungal component in lithic Antarctic communities.

A wide sampling of rocks, colonized by microbial epi-endolithic communities, was performed along an altitudinal gradient from sea level to 3600 m asl and sea distance from the coast to 100 km inland along the Victoria Land Coast, Antarctica. Seventy-two rock samples of different typology, representative of the entire survey, were selected and studied using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis to compare variation in fungal diversity according to environmental conditions along this altitudinal and sea distance transect. Lichenized fungi were largely predominant in all the samples studied and the biodiversity was heavily influenced even by minimal local variations.