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Maximum Likelihood analysis based on the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 dataset for clade 7. The phylogram was constructed from a MAFFT-Alignment of 688 aligned nucleotides of 73 taxa. Node support above 75 % is given. The phylogram is midpoint rooted.
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The basal fungal order Mortierellales constitutes one of the largest orders in the basal lineages. This group consists of one family and six genera. Most species are saprobic soil inhabiting fungi with the ability of diverse biotransformations or the accumulation of unsaturated fatty acids, making them attractive for biotechnological applications....
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Citations
... A hypothesis of adaptation towards the insect-made environments could be partially supported by previous isolation of E. lignicola from decayed wood with termite nests (Watanabe et al., 1998) and from the cadavers of F. polyctena ants (Siedlecki et al., 2021). Moreover, this species, belonging to the M. lignicola clade (sensu Wagner et al., 2013), is closely related to species also previously isolated fromCamponotus and Formica ants and those ants' infrabuccal pockets (Clark, 2002;Hyde, Norphanphoun, Abreu, Bazzicalupo, Chethana, et al., 2017;Siedlecki et al., 2021). Importantly, E. lignicola ,E. ...
... polyctena (Siedlecki et al., 2022). Interestingly, all those ant-associated species are known to abundantly produce enlarged cells filled with oil droplets called gemmae (Wagner et al., 2013). We thus hypothesize that mycelium of this fungi could serve as a supplementary, nutrient-rich food source for ants, as also suggested for gemmae-producing Actinomortierella sp. ...
Many social insect species build nests, which strongly differ from the surrounding environment and are often occupied by specific organismal communities. In temperate forests, red wood ants (e.g. Formica polyctena) are known to create such distinct, highly developed nests, which consist of large, above-ground mounds. Those structures are built primarily out of plant matter collected from the forest litter. Common fungal dwellers of forest litter are representatives of Mucoromycota, engaged in the decomposition process of this substrate. However, data on co-occurrence or interactions between these ants and fungi remains unknown. In order to elucidate these interactions we characterized Mucoromycota communities of Formica polyctena nests and the surrounding forest litter. We sampled four sites, twice in a season and used: a culturomics approach, complemented with DNA barcoding to describe fungal communities; PERMANOVA test and non-metric multidimensional scaling ordinations to compare those communities; and multilevel pattern analysis to indicate taxa associated with the mounds. Our results show that the Mucoromycota community of Formica polyctena’s mound is specific and more stable than the community of the surrounding forest litter. While representatives of Entomortierella lignicola and Absidia cylindrospora clade were found to be associated with the mound environment, representatives of Umbelopsis curvata and Podila verticillata-humilis clade were associated with forest litter, and were rarely present in the mounds. Our findings strongly suggest that the red wood ants’ nest is a specific microenvironment in the temperate forest floor, which is a preferred microhabitat for the mound-associated Mucoromycota, possibly adapted to live in close proximity to ants.
... However, there are also acolumellate (i.e., lacking a columella) sporangia, for instance in species of Mortierella Coem. and other taxa of the Mortierellales (Hoffmann et al. 2011;Wagner et al. 2013;Vandepol et al. 2020). ...
Palaeonitella cranii is the only known charophyte from the Lower Devonian Rhynie chert. Thalli consist of a main axis with whorls of branchlets, and rhizoids with bulbils. The above-ground parts of this alga are known to have been colonized by a variety of probably parasitic fungi; however, virtually nothing is on record about fungal associations with the rhizoids and bulbils. Here, we describe four different fungal morphotypes as colonizers of bulbils of P. cranii. Morphotypes 1 and 2 are both characterized by epibiotic or interbiotic sporangia and endobiotic apophysate rhizoidal systems. Morphotype 3 occurs in the form of long stalks terminating in pinhead-like inflations, and club-shaped endobiotic axes producing rhizoids distally, whereas morphotype 4 consists of sterile, several-times forked, hypha-like elements. A three-dimensional meshwork of interwoven rhizoids of the colonizers is found in the lumen of several bulbils, indicating that the hosts were viable and crammed with starch grains at the time of colonization. The bulbil-colonizing fungi all differ from the fungi associated with the axes and branchlets of P. cranii, which suggests organ-specific host colonization. Morpho-types 1 and 2 are probably chytrids (Chytridiomycota), while morphotype 3 could be a member of the Mucoromycota; however, affinities to other lineages of fungi cannot be ruled out. This discovery expands the inventory of fungal associations with P. cranii, and provides new data that can be used in considerations on the importance of microorganisms for other aquatic life in the Rhynie ecosystem.
... mainly refer toSmith et al. (2013),Wagner et al. (2013) andCooper and Park (2020).Actinomortierella capitata (CBS 859.70), A. capitata (CBS 110640), A. wolfii (CBS 209.69) and A. wolfii (CBS 612.70) were used as the outgroup, based on the earlier studies of Vandepol et al. (2020) and a recent bioRxiv preprint studies of Zhao et al. (2022). ...
Modicella Kanouse (1936) is the only genus of Mortierellaceae known to produce macroscopic fruiting bodies in the form of small, whitish, round sporocarps. Specimens which belong to Modicella were collected during our field investigations in tropical karst areas of China. Based on morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analysis, a new species is introduced.
Modicella guangxiensis is described as a new species from tropical karst areas of China. The main distinguishing characteristics of M. guangxiensis are the number of sporangiospores per sporangium (11–18), the size of sporangiospores (14–34 × 12–27.5 μm) and the surface of some hyphae with hemispherical tuber. The phylogenetic analyses, based on the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and the large subunit (LSU) regions of rDNA sequences using Bayesian (BA) and Maximum Likelihood (ML) methods showed that the new taxon is closely related to M. reniformis .
... Previous studies have confirmed that the relative abundance of Mortierella was closely related to carbon sequestration and nutrient availability in soils [75,76]. The common lifestyle of Mortierella is regarded as soil-inhabiting saprobic organisms on decaying organic matter [77]. They have shown great capacity to degrade plant litter and refractory organic carbon into unstable carbon [78,79]. ...
Soil fungal communities play crucial roles in mediating the functional associations between above- and belowground components during forest restoration. Forest restoration shapes the alterations in plant and soil environments, which exerts a crucial effect on soil fungal assemblages. However, the changes, assembly processes, and driving factors of soil fungi communities during tropical forest restoration are still uncertain. We used Illumina high-throughput sequencing to identify the changes of soil fungal communities across a tropical secondary forest succession chronosequence (i.e., 12-, 42-, and 53-yr stages) in Xishuangbanna. During forest restoration, the dominant taxa of soil fungi communities shifted from r- to K-strategists. The relative abundance of Ascomycota (r-strategists) decreased by 10.0% and that of Basidiomycota (K-strategists) increased by 4.9% at the 53-yr restoration stage compared with the 12-yr stage. From the 12-yr to 53-yr stage, the operational taxonomic unit (OTU), abundance-based coverage estimator (ACE), Chao1, and Shannon index of fungal communities declined by 14.5–57.4%. Although the stochastic processes were relatively important in determining fungal assemblages at the late stage, the fungal community assembly was dominated by deterministic processes rather than stochastic processes. The shifts in soil properties resulting from tropical forest restoration exerted significant effects on fungal composition and diversity. The positive effects of microbial biomass carbon, readily oxidizable carbon, and soil water content explained 11.5%, 9.6%, and 9.1% of the variations in fungal community composition, respectively. In contrast, microbial biomass carbon (40.0%), readily oxidizable carbon (14.0%), and total nitrogen (13.6%) negatively contributed to the variations in fungal community diversity. Our data suggested that the changes in fungal composition and diversity during tropical forest restoration were primarily mediated by the positive or negative impacts of soil carbon and nitrogen pools.
... Mortierella is a ubiquitous group of soil saprotrophs and endophytes, and is often found as key component of conifer forests mycobiota (Allmér et al., 2006;Wagner et al., 2013;Mikryukov et al., 2021), even if its prominent role was also highlighted in other forests (Venice et al., 2021;Kalntremtziou et al., 2023). The abundance of several, specific Mortierella (and higher taxonomic ranks) indicates a major contribution of this fungal group in maintaining the "Metato" ecosystem functioning. ...
Forests are increasingly threatened by climate change and the Anthropocene seems to have favored the emergence and adaptation of pathogens. Robust monitoring methods are required to prevent biodiversity and ecosystems losses, and this imposes the choice of bioindicators of habitat health. Fungal communities are increasingly recognized as fundamental components in nearly all natural and artificial environments, and their ecosystem services have a huge impact in maintaining and restoring the functionality of ecosystems. We coupled metabarcoding and soil analyses to infer the dynamics of a fungal community inhabiting the old silver fir stand in Vallombrosa (Italy), which is known to be afflicted by both Armillaria and Annosum root rot. The forest was affected in 2015, by a windstorm which caused a partial falling and uprooting of trees. The remaining stand, not affected by the windstorm, was used as a comparison to infer the consequences of the ecosystem disturbance. We demonstrated that the abundance of pathogens alone is not able to explain the soil fungal differences shown by the two areas. The fungal community as a whole was equally rich in the two areas, even if a reduction of the core ectomycorrhizal mycobiome was observed in the wind-damaged area, accompanied by the increase of wood saprotrophs and arbuscular mycorrhizas. We hypothesize a reshaping of the fungal community and a potentially ongoing re-generation of its functionalities. Our hypothesis is driven by the evidence that key symbiotic, endophytic, and saprotrophic guilds are still present and diversified in the wind-damaged area, and that dominance of single taxa or biodiversity loss was not observed from a mycological point of view. With the present study, we aim at providing evidence that fungal communities are fundamental for the monitoring and the conservation of threatened forest ecosystems.
... Los Mortierellomycotina son endófitos de las raíces de las plantas, pero se desconoce su efecto sobre la salud del huésped. El subfilo incluye una familia, 13 géneros y más de 100 especies reconocidas actualmente (94). Mortierellomycotina se diferencia de Mucoromycotina por la morfología de la zigospora y la ausencia de columela. ...
Resumen
Los hongos son organismos polifacéticos presentes en casi todos los ecosistemas de la tierra, donde establecen diversos tipos de simbiosis con otros seres vivos. A pesar de ser reconocidos por los humanos desde la antigüedad -y de la cantidad de trabajos que han profundizado sobre su biología y ecología-, aún falta mucho por conocer sobre estos organismos. Algunos de los criterios que clásicamente se han utilizado para su estudio, hoy resultan limitados y hasta cierto punto permiten un agrupamiento de los aislamientos según algunas características, pero generan confusión en su clasificación y, más aún, cuando se pretende comprender sus relaciones genealógicas.
Los caracteres fenotípicos no son suficientes para identificar una especie de hongos y, menos aún, para construir una filogenia amplia o de un grupo particular. Hay grandes vacíos que hacen que los árboles generados sean inestables y fácilmente debatidos. Para los profesionales de la salud, parece que la identificación de los hongos hasta niveles inferiores como género y especie es suficiente para elegir el tratamiento más adecuado para su control, comprender la epidemiología de los cuadros clínicos asociados y reconocer los brotes y los factores determinantes de la resistencia a los antimicrobianos. No obstante, la ubicación taxonómica dentro del reino permitiría establecer relaciones filogenéticas entre los taxones fúngicos, facilitando la comprensión de su biología, su distribución en la naturaleza y la evolución de su potencial patogénico. Los avances de las técnicas de biología molecular y las ciencias de la computación en los últimos 30 años han permitido cambios importantes dirigidos a establecer los criterios para definir una especie fúngica y alcanzar una construcción filogenética más o menos estable. Sin embargo, el camino por recorrer aún es largo, y supone un trabajo mancomunado de la comunidad científica a nivel global y el apoyo a la investigación básica.
... However, there are specific species such as M. wolffii that are known to cause bovine mycotic abortion, hepatitis, meningoencephalitis, pneumonia, and systemic mycosis in cattle (78). Interestingly, M. indohii, a species that was more abundant in the healthy group, has only previously been isolated from a plant root, and animal feces (79). Lastly, the fungi Hydropisphaera fungicola, also with high abundance in healthy animals, had been only isolated on decaying leaves of Populus trichocarpa acting as a parasite in Idaho, United States (80). ...
Introduction
Effective identification and treatment of bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is an ongoing health and economic issue for the dairy and beef cattle industries. Bacteria pathogens Pasteurellamultocida, Mycoplasmabovis, Mannheimia haemolytica, and Histophilus somni and the virus Bovine herpesvirus-1 (BHV-1), Bovine parainfluenza-3 virus (BPIV-3), Bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV), Bovine adenovirus 3 (BAdV3), bovine coronavirus (BoCV) and Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) have commonly been identified in BRD cattle; however, no studies have investigated the fungal community and how it may also relate to BRD.
Methods
The objective of this study was to understand if the nasal mycobiome differs between a BRD-affected (n = 56) and visually healthy (n = 73) Holstein steers. Fungal nasal community was determined by using Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) sequencing.
Results
The phyla, Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, and the genera, Trichosporon and Issatchenkia, were the most abundant among all animals, regardless of health status. We identified differences between healthy and BRD animals in abundance of Trichosporon and Issatchenkia orientalis at a sub-species level that could be a potential indicator of BRD. No differences were observed in the nasal fungal alpha and beta diversity between BRD and healthy animals. However, the fungal community structure was affected based on season, specifically when comparing samples collected in the summer to the winter season. We then performed a random forest model, based on the fungal community and abundance of the BRD-pathobionts (qPCR data generated from a previous study using the same animals), to classify healthy and BRD animals and determine the agreement with visual diagnosis. Classification of BRD or healthy animals using ITS sequencing was low and agreed with the visual diagnosis with an accuracy of 51.9%. A portion of the ITS-predicted BRD animals were not predicted based on the abundance of BRD pathobionts. Lastly, fungal and bacterial co-occurrence were more common in BRD animals than healthy animals.
Discussion
The results from this novel study provide a baseline understanding of the fungal diversity and composition in the nasal cavity of BRD and healthy animals, upon which future interaction studies, including other nasal microbiome members to further understand and accurately diagnose BRD, can be designed.
... We screened 22 M. alpina isolates 16 for the production of novel natural products (Table S1); 100% produced malpinins (22/22). Both malpibaldins and malpicyclins were abundant in 95% (21/22) of the strains, suggesting an evolutionarily conserved production of these metabolite families. ...
Early diverging fungi, such as Mortierella alpina, are an emerging source of bioactive peptides. By screening 22 fungal isolates together with precursor-directed biosynthesis, a family of threonine-linked cyclotetradepsipeptides, the cycloacetamides A-F (1-6), was identified. The structure elucidation was conducted using NMR and HR-ESI-MS/MS analyses, and the absolute configuration was determined by Marfey's analysis and total synthesis. Cycloacetamides are not cytotoxic to human cells, while being highly selectively insecticidal against fruit fly larvae.
... Fungi belonging to the Mortierellaceae family are diverse and comprise a rich number of species, commonly found in soil (Wagner et al. 2013). They belong to the Mortierellales order, and Mortierellomycotina subphylum. ...
... Several species of Mortierellaceae produce PUFAs and are relevant to food and pharmaceutical industries, as well for bioenergy generation (Goyzueta- Mamani et al. 2020). Strains of this family are commonly isolated from soil, plants, mosses, and digestive tracts of insects (Gams 1977;Wagner et al. 2013). However, despite of being present in several biomes, there is only one species described as agent of fungal infections in animals, A. wolfii (Wagner et al. 2013). ...
... Strains of this family are commonly isolated from soil, plants, mosses, and digestive tracts of insects (Gams 1977;Wagner et al. 2013). However, despite of being present in several biomes, there is only one species described as agent of fungal infections in animals, A. wolfii (Wagner et al. 2013). ...
The health benefits of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) have encouraged the search for rich sources of these compounds. However, the supply chain of PUFAs from animals and plants presents environmental concerns, such as water pollution, deforestation, animal exploitation and interference in the trophic chain. In this way, a viable alternative has been found in microbial sources, mainly in single cell oil (SCO) production by yeast and filamentous fungi. Mortierellaceae is a filamentous fungal family world-renowned for PUFA-producing strains. For example, Mortierella alpina can be highlighted due to be industrially applied to produce arachidonic acid (20:4 n6), an important component of infant supplement formulas. Thus, the state of the art of strategies to increase PUFAs production by Mortierellaceae strains is presented in this review. Firstly, we have discussed main phylogenetic and biochemical characteristics of these strains for lipid production. Next, strategies based on physiological manipulation, using different carbon and nitrogen sources, temperature, pH and cultivation methods, which can increase PUFA production by optimizing process parameters are presented. Furthermore, it is possible to use metabolic engineering tools, controlling the supply of NADPH and co-factors, and directing the activity of desaturases and elongase to the target PUFA. Thus, this review aims to discuss the functionality and applicability of each of these strategies, in order to support future research for PUFA production by Mortierellaceae species.
Graphical abstract
... Within the Basidiomycota, members of Saitozyma are involved in the decomposition of dead plant biomass [77]; Colacogloea is a saprophytic yeast that can persist in difficult conditions [53]. Within the Mortierellomycota, Mortierella is mostly composed of saprophytic species that perform several functions, including the degradation of cellulose and lignin [78]. When the relative abundance of keystone taxa was compared between invaded and native plots, Colacogloea increased dramatically, while Alternaria decreased significantly in the rhizosphere soil of A. palmeri. ...
The interaction between invasive plants and soil microbial communities is critical for plant establishment. However, little is known about the assembly and co-occurrence patterns of fungal communities in the rhizosphere soil of Amaranthus palmeri. The soil fungal communities and co-occurrence networks were investigated in 22 invaded patches and 22 native patches using high-throughput Illumina sequencing. Despite having little effect on alpha diversity, plant invasion significantly altered the composition of the soil fungal community (ANOSIM, p < 0.05). Fungal taxa associated with plant invasion were identified using linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe). In the rhizosphere soil of A. palmeri, Basidiomycota was significantly enriched, while Ascomycota and Glomeromycota were significantly reduced when compared to native plants. At the genus level, the invasion of A. palmeri dramatically increased the abundance of beneficial fungi and potential antagonists such as Dioszegia, Tilletiopsis, Colacogloea, and Chaetomium, while it significantly decreased the abundance of pathogenic fungi such as Alternaria and Phaeosphaeria. Plant invasion reduced the average degree and average path length, and increased the modularity value, resulting in a less complex but more effective and stable network. Our findings improved the knowledge of the soil fungal communities, network co-occurrence patterns, and keystone taxa in A. palmeri-invaded ecosystems.
