Author:
da Silva Mayanne Karla,de Souza Láuren Machado Drumond,Vieira Rosemary,Neto Arthur Ayres,Lopes Fabyano A. C.,de Oliveira Fábio S.,Convey Peter,Carvalho-Silva Micheline,Duarte Alysson Wagner Fernandes,Câmara Paulo E. A. S.,Rosa Luiz Henrique
Abstract
AbstractWe assessed the fungal and fungal-like sequence diversity present in marine sediments obtained in the vicinity of the South Shetland Islands (Southern Ocean) using DNA metabarcoding through high-throughput sequencing (HTS). A total of 193,436 DNA reads were detected in sediment obtained from three locations: Walker Bay (Livingston Island) at 52 m depth (48,112 reads), Whalers Bay (Deception Island) at 151 m (104,704) and English Strait at 404 m (40,620). The DNA sequence reads were assigned to 133 distinct fungal amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) representing the phylaAscomycota,Basidiomycota,Mortierellomycota,Chytridiomycota,Glomeromycota,Monoblepharomycota,MucoromycotaandRozellomycotaand the fungal-like Straminopila.Thelebolus balaustiformis,Pseudogymnoascussp., Fungi sp. 1,Ciliophorasp.,Agaricomycetessp. andChaetocerossp. were the dominant assigned taxa. Thirty-eight fungal ASVs could only be assigned to higher taxonomic levels, and may represent taxa not currently included in the available databases or represent new taxa and/or new records for Antarctica. The total fungal community displayed high indices of diversity, richness and moderate to low dominance. However, diversity and taxa distribution varied across the three sampling sites. In Walker Bay, unidentified fungi were dominant in the sequence assemblage. Whalers Bay sediment was dominated by Antarctic endemic and cold-adapted taxa. Sediment from English Strait was dominated byCiliophorasp. andChaetocerossp. These fungal assemblages were dominated by saprotrophic, plant and animal pathogenic and symbiotic taxa. The detection of an apparently rich and diverse fungal community in these marine sediments reinforces the need for further studies to characterize their richness, functional ecology and potential biotechnological applications.
Funder
Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais
Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
NERC Environmental Bioinformatics Centre
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC