TY  - JOUR
A1  - Wurzbacher, Christian
A1  - Warthmann, Norman
A1  - Bourne, Elizabeth Charlotte
A1  - Attermeyer, Katrin
A1  - Allgaier, Martin
A1  - Powell, Jeff R.
A1  - Detering, Harald
A1  - Mbedi, Susan
A1  - Großart, Hans-Peter
A1  - Monaghan, Michael T.
T1  - High habitat-specificity in fungal communities in oligo-mesotrophic, temperate Lake Stechlin (North-East Germany)
JF  - MycoKeys
N2  - Freshwater fungi are a poorly studied ecological group that includes a high taxonomic diversity. Most studies on aquatic fungal diversity have focused on single habitats, thus the linkage between habitat heterogeneity and fungal diversity remains largely unexplored. We took 216 samples from 54 locations representing eight different habitats in the meso-oligotrophic, temperate Lake Stechlin in North-East Germany. These included the pelagic and littoral water column, sediments, and biotic substrates. We performed high throughput sequencing using the Roche 454 platform, employing a universal eukaryotic marker region within the large ribosomal subunit (LSU) to compare fungal diversity, community structure, and species turnover among habitats. Our analysis recovered 1027 fungal OTUs (97% sequence similarity). Richness estimates were highest in the sediment, biofilms, and benthic samples (189-231 OTUs), intermediate in water samples (42-85 OTUs), and lowest in plankton samples (8 OTUs). NMDS grouped the eight studied habitats into six clusters, indicating that community composition was strongly influenced by turnover among habitats. Fungal communities exhibited changes at the phylum and order levels along three different substrate categories from littoral to pelagic habitats. The large majority of OTUs (> 75%) could not be classified below the order level due to the lack of aquatic fungal entries in public sequence databases. Our study provides a first estimate of lake-wide fungal diversity and highlights the important contribution of habitat heterogeneity to overall diversity and community composition. Habitat diversity should be considered in any sampling strategy aiming to assess the fungal diversity of a water body.
KW  - Freshwater fungi
KW  - aquatic fungi
KW  - metabarcoding
KW  - LSU
KW  - GMYC
KW  - habitat specificity
KW  - Chytridiomycota
KW  - Cryptomycota
KW  - Rozellomycota
KW  - community ecology
KW  - lake ecosystem
KW  - biofilm
KW  - sediment
KW  - plankton
KW  - water sample
KW  - benthos
KW  - reed
KW  - fungal diversity
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3897/mycokeys.16.9646
SN  - 1314-4057
SN  - 1314-4049
VL  - 41
SP  - 17
EP  - 44
PB  - Pensoft Publ.
CY  - Sofia
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Großart, Hans-Peter
A1  - Wurzbacher, Christian
A1  - James, Timothy Y.
A1  - Kagami, Maiko
T1  - Discovery of dark matter fungi in aquatic ecosystems demands a reappraisal of the phylogeny and ecology of zoosporic fungi
JF  - Fungal ecology
N2  - Our knowledge of zoosporic fungal phylogeny, physiology, and ecological functions, in particular their role in aquatic food web dynamics and biogeochemistry, is limited. The recent discovery of numerous dark matter fungi (DMF), i.e., uncultured and poorly known taxa belonging to early diverging branches of the fungal tree (namely the Rozellomycota and Chytridiomycota) calls for reconsideration of the phylogeny and ecology of zoosporic fungi. In this opinion paper, we summarize the exploration of new, recently discovered lineages of DMF and their implications for the ecology, evolution, and biogeography of the rapidly growing fungal tree. We also discuss possible ecological roles of zoosporic fungi in relation to recent methodological developments including single cell genomics and cultivation efforts. Finally, we suggest linking explorative with experimental research to gain deeper insights into the physiology and ecological functioning of zoosporic fungi DMF in aquatic habitats. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd and The British Mycological Society. All rights reserved.
KW  - Dark matter fungi
KW  - Zoosporic fungi
KW  - Fungal tree
KW  - Chytridiomycota
KW  - Rozellomycota
KW  - Fungal physiology and ecology
KW  - Aquatic habitats
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.funeco.2015.06.004
SN  - 1754-5048
SN  - 1878-0083
VL  - 19
SP  - 28
EP  - 38
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Oxford
ER  -