New Records of <i>Archaeorhizomycetes</i> from Russia Revealed by Metagenomic Approach

Abstract

The class Archaeorhizomycetes (Taphrinomycotina, Ascomycota) is a cosmopolitan group of fungi associated with the plant root system. Representatives of this class are extremely poorly studied due to the difficulty of cultivation, but sequences belonging to Archaeorhizomycetes are often detected during sequencing of natural substrates. Four unique sequences belonging to Archaeorhizomycetes were obtained during a study of the diversity of fungi associated with the orchid Goodyera repens by next-generation high-throughput sequencing of the ITS2 site. One sequence identical to Archaeorhizomyces borealis was identified in Russia for the first time, while two sequences presumably belong to a yet undescribed genus. One sequence belonging to an undescribed species of the genus Archaeorhizomyces is the most frequently detected in all types of samples (sod-podzolic soil, coniferous tree roots, rhizosphere, and orchid roots). The presence of nucleotide sequences of representatives of this class in the root system of Goodyera repens was shown for the first time, and the presence of one sequence in free soil was shown for the first time. The sequences were deposited in the GenBank database.