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Fungi Originating From Tree Leaves Contribute to Fungal Diversity of Litter in Streams

Biomass production and decomposition are key processes in ecology, where plants are primarily responsible for production and microbes act in decomposition. Trees harbor foliar microfungi living on and inside leaf tissues, epiphytes, and endophytes, respectively. Early researchers hypothesized that a...

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Autores principales: Koivusaari, Pirjo, Tejesvi, Mysore V., Tolkkinen, Mikko, Markkola, Annamari, Mykrä, Heikki, Pirttilä, Anna Maria
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6454979/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31001228
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00651
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author Koivusaari, Pirjo
Tejesvi, Mysore V.
Tolkkinen, Mikko
Markkola, Annamari
Mykrä, Heikki
Pirttilä, Anna Maria
author_facet Koivusaari, Pirjo
Tejesvi, Mysore V.
Tolkkinen, Mikko
Markkola, Annamari
Mykrä, Heikki
Pirttilä, Anna Maria
author_sort Koivusaari, Pirjo
collection PubMed
description Biomass production and decomposition are key processes in ecology, where plants are primarily responsible for production and microbes act in decomposition. Trees harbor foliar microfungi living on and inside leaf tissues, epiphytes, and endophytes, respectively. Early researchers hypothesized that all fungal endophytes are parasites or latent saprophytes, which slowly colonize the leaf tissues for decomposition. While this has been proven for some strains in the terrestrial environment, it is not known whether foliar microfungi from terrestrial origin can survive or perform decomposition in the aquatic environment. On the other hand, aquatic hyphomycetes, fungi which decompose organic material in stream environments, have been suggested to have a plant-associated life phase. Our aim was to study how much the fungal communities of leaves and litter submerged in streams overlap. Ergosterol content on litter, which is an estimator of fungal biomass, was 5–14 times higher in submerged litter than in senescent leaves, indicating active fungal colonization. Leaves generally harbored a different microbiome prior to than after submergence in streams. The Chao1 richness was significantly higher (93.7 vs. 60.7, p = 0.004) and there were more observed operational taxonomic units (OTUs) (78.3 vs. 47.4, p = 0.004) in senescent leaves than in stream-immersed litter. There were more Leotiomycetes (9%, p = 0.014) in the litter. We identified a group of 35 fungi (65%) with both plant- and water-associated lifestyles. Of these, eight taxa had no previous references to water, such as lichenicolous fungi. Six OTUs were classified within Glomeromycota, known as obligate root symbionts with no previous records from leaves. Five members of Basidiomycota, which are rare in aquatic environments, were identified in the stream-immersed litter only. Overall, our study demonstrates that foliar microfungi contribute to fungal diversity in submerged litter.
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spelling pubmed-64549792019-04-18 Fungi Originating From Tree Leaves Contribute to Fungal Diversity of Litter in Streams Koivusaari, Pirjo Tejesvi, Mysore V. Tolkkinen, Mikko Markkola, Annamari Mykrä, Heikki Pirttilä, Anna Maria Front Microbiol Microbiology Biomass production and decomposition are key processes in ecology, where plants are primarily responsible for production and microbes act in decomposition. Trees harbor foliar microfungi living on and inside leaf tissues, epiphytes, and endophytes, respectively. Early researchers hypothesized that all fungal endophytes are parasites or latent saprophytes, which slowly colonize the leaf tissues for decomposition. While this has been proven for some strains in the terrestrial environment, it is not known whether foliar microfungi from terrestrial origin can survive or perform decomposition in the aquatic environment. On the other hand, aquatic hyphomycetes, fungi which decompose organic material in stream environments, have been suggested to have a plant-associated life phase. Our aim was to study how much the fungal communities of leaves and litter submerged in streams overlap. Ergosterol content on litter, which is an estimator of fungal biomass, was 5–14 times higher in submerged litter than in senescent leaves, indicating active fungal colonization. Leaves generally harbored a different microbiome prior to than after submergence in streams. The Chao1 richness was significantly higher (93.7 vs. 60.7, p = 0.004) and there were more observed operational taxonomic units (OTUs) (78.3 vs. 47.4, p = 0.004) in senescent leaves than in stream-immersed litter. There were more Leotiomycetes (9%, p = 0.014) in the litter. We identified a group of 35 fungi (65%) with both plant- and water-associated lifestyles. Of these, eight taxa had no previous references to water, such as lichenicolous fungi. Six OTUs were classified within Glomeromycota, known as obligate root symbionts with no previous records from leaves. Five members of Basidiomycota, which are rare in aquatic environments, were identified in the stream-immersed litter only. Overall, our study demonstrates that foliar microfungi contribute to fungal diversity in submerged litter. Frontiers Media S.A. 2019-04-02 /pmc/articles/PMC6454979/ /pubmed/31001228 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00651 Text en Copyright © 2019 Koivusaari, Tejesvi, Tolkkinen, Markkola, Mykrä and Pirttilä. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Microbiology
Koivusaari, Pirjo
Tejesvi, Mysore V.
Tolkkinen, Mikko
Markkola, Annamari
Mykrä, Heikki
Pirttilä, Anna Maria
Fungi Originating From Tree Leaves Contribute to Fungal Diversity of Litter in Streams
title Fungi Originating From Tree Leaves Contribute to Fungal Diversity of Litter in Streams
title_full Fungi Originating From Tree Leaves Contribute to Fungal Diversity of Litter in Streams
title_fullStr Fungi Originating From Tree Leaves Contribute to Fungal Diversity of Litter in Streams
title_full_unstemmed Fungi Originating From Tree Leaves Contribute to Fungal Diversity of Litter in Streams
title_short Fungi Originating From Tree Leaves Contribute to Fungal Diversity of Litter in Streams
title_sort fungi originating from tree leaves contribute to fungal diversity of litter in streams
topic Microbiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6454979/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31001228
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00651
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