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Importance of Saprotrophic Freshwater Fungi for Pollen Degradation
Fungi and bacteria are the major organic matter (OM) decomposers in aquatic ecosystems. While bacteria are regarded as primary mineralizers in the pelagic zone of lakes and oceans, fungi dominate OM decomposition in streams and wetlands. Recent findings indicate that fungal communities are also acti...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2014
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3986395/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24732324 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0094643 |
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author | Wurzbacher, Christian Rösel, Stefan Rychła, Anna Grossart, Hans-Peter |
author_facet | Wurzbacher, Christian Rösel, Stefan Rychła, Anna Grossart, Hans-Peter |
author_sort | Wurzbacher, Christian |
collection | PubMed |
description | Fungi and bacteria are the major organic matter (OM) decomposers in aquatic ecosystems. While bacteria are regarded as primary mineralizers in the pelagic zone of lakes and oceans, fungi dominate OM decomposition in streams and wetlands. Recent findings indicate that fungal communities are also active in lakes, but little is known about their diversity and interactions with bacteria. Therefore, the decomposer niche overlap of saprotrophic fungi and bacteria was studied on pollen (as a seasonally recurring source of fine particulate OM) by performing microcosm experiments with three different lake types. Special emphasis was placed on analysis of fungal community composition and diversity. We hypothesized that (I) pollen select for small saprotrophic fungi and at the same time for typical particle-associated bacteria; (II) fungal communities form specific free-living and attached sub-communities in each lake type; (III) the ratio between fungi or bacteria on pollen is controlled by the lake's chemistry. Bacteria-to-fungi ratios were determined by quantitative PCR (qPCR), and bacterial and fungal diversity were studied by clone libraries and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) fingerprints. A protease assay was used to identify functional differences between treatments. For generalization, systematic differences in bacteria-to-fungi ratios were analyzed with a dataset from the nearby Baltic Sea rivers. High abundances of Chytridiomycota as well as occurrences of Cryptomycota and yeast-like fungi confirm the decomposer niche overlap of saprotrophic fungi and bacteria on pollen. As hypothesized, microbial communities consistently differed between the lake types and exhibited functional differences. Bacteria-to-fungi ratios correlated well with parameters such as organic carbon and pH. The importance of dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen for bacteria-to-fungi ratios was supported by the Baltic Sea river dataset. Our findings highlight the fact that carbon-to-nitrogen ratios may also control fungal contributions to OM decomposition in aquatic ecosystems. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3986395 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-39863952014-04-15 Importance of Saprotrophic Freshwater Fungi for Pollen Degradation Wurzbacher, Christian Rösel, Stefan Rychła, Anna Grossart, Hans-Peter PLoS One Research Article Fungi and bacteria are the major organic matter (OM) decomposers in aquatic ecosystems. While bacteria are regarded as primary mineralizers in the pelagic zone of lakes and oceans, fungi dominate OM decomposition in streams and wetlands. Recent findings indicate that fungal communities are also active in lakes, but little is known about their diversity and interactions with bacteria. Therefore, the decomposer niche overlap of saprotrophic fungi and bacteria was studied on pollen (as a seasonally recurring source of fine particulate OM) by performing microcosm experiments with three different lake types. Special emphasis was placed on analysis of fungal community composition and diversity. We hypothesized that (I) pollen select for small saprotrophic fungi and at the same time for typical particle-associated bacteria; (II) fungal communities form specific free-living and attached sub-communities in each lake type; (III) the ratio between fungi or bacteria on pollen is controlled by the lake's chemistry. Bacteria-to-fungi ratios were determined by quantitative PCR (qPCR), and bacterial and fungal diversity were studied by clone libraries and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) fingerprints. A protease assay was used to identify functional differences between treatments. For generalization, systematic differences in bacteria-to-fungi ratios were analyzed with a dataset from the nearby Baltic Sea rivers. High abundances of Chytridiomycota as well as occurrences of Cryptomycota and yeast-like fungi confirm the decomposer niche overlap of saprotrophic fungi and bacteria on pollen. As hypothesized, microbial communities consistently differed between the lake types and exhibited functional differences. Bacteria-to-fungi ratios correlated well with parameters such as organic carbon and pH. The importance of dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen for bacteria-to-fungi ratios was supported by the Baltic Sea river dataset. Our findings highlight the fact that carbon-to-nitrogen ratios may also control fungal contributions to OM decomposition in aquatic ecosystems. Public Library of Science 2014-04-14 /pmc/articles/PMC3986395/ /pubmed/24732324 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0094643 Text en © 2014 Wurzbacher et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Wurzbacher, Christian Rösel, Stefan Rychła, Anna Grossart, Hans-Peter Importance of Saprotrophic Freshwater Fungi for Pollen Degradation |
title | Importance of Saprotrophic Freshwater Fungi for Pollen Degradation |
title_full | Importance of Saprotrophic Freshwater Fungi for Pollen Degradation |
title_fullStr | Importance of Saprotrophic Freshwater Fungi for Pollen Degradation |
title_full_unstemmed | Importance of Saprotrophic Freshwater Fungi for Pollen Degradation |
title_short | Importance of Saprotrophic Freshwater Fungi for Pollen Degradation |
title_sort | importance of saprotrophic freshwater fungi for pollen degradation |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3986395/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24732324 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0094643 |
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