Helotiales (former Pezoloma ciliiferum) – isolate P9P71
The order Helotiales is a large group that incorporates soil saprotrophs, ericoid mycorrhizal fungi and aquatic hyphomycetes (Krauss et al., 2011; Wang et al., 2006) and are found to be dominants in soils from permafrost areas (da Silva et al., 2020; Deslippe et al., 2012). It has been found that members of the Helotiales order have efficient cellulases capable of respiring ancient carbon from the Antarctic permafrost (Newsham et al., 2018). The isolate P9P71 was isolated from the sediment of thermokarst ponds in Abisko, Sweden. Thermokarst ponds, which emerge from the thawing permafrost, can be hotspots for microbial production and become an important source of greenhouse gasses emissions (Abnizova et al., 2012). However, little is known about the fungal contribution in such water bodies when it comes to carbon degradation. The genome sequencing of fungal isolates from these environments aims to assess their functional potential, and to better understand the fungal contribution in the permafrost carbon feedback.
References:
- Krauss GJ, Solé M, Krauss G, Schlosser D, Wesenberg D, Bärlocher F. Fungi in freshwaters: ecology, physiology and biochemical potential. FEMS Microbiol Rev. 2011 Jul;35(4):620-51. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6976.2011.00266.x.
- Wang Z, Johnston PR, Takamatsu S, Spatafora JW, Hibbett DS. Toward a phylogenetic classification of the leotiomycetes based on rDNA data. Mycologia. 2006 Nov-Dec;98(6):1065-75. doi: 10.3852/mycologia.98.6.1065.
- da Silva TH, Silva DAS, de Oliveira FS, Schaefer CEGR, Rosa CA, Rosa LH. Diversity, distribution, and ecology of viable fungi in permafrost and active layer of Maritime Antarctica. Extremophiles. 2020 Jul;24(4):565-576. doi: 10.1007/s00792-020-01176-y.
- Deslippe JR, Hartmann M, Simard SW, Mohn WW. Long-term warming alters the composition of Arctic soil microbial communities. FEMS Microbiol Ecol. 2012 Nov;82(2):303-15. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6941.2012.01350.x.
- Newsham KK, Garnett MH, Robinson CH, Cox F. Discrete taxa of saprotrophic fungi respire different ages of carbon from Antarctic soils. Sci Rep. 2018 May 18;8(1):7866. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-25877-9.
- Abnizova, A., Siemens, J., Langer, M., and Boike, J. (2012), Small ponds with major impact: The relevance of ponds and lakes in permafrost landscapes to carbon dioxide emissions, Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 26, GB2041, doi: 10.1029/2011GB004237.