TY  - JOUR
A1  - Van den Wyngaert, Silke
A1  - Rojas-Jimenez, Keilor
A1  - Seto, Kensuke
A1  - Kagami, Maiko
A1  - Grossart, Hans-Peter
T1  - Diversity and Hidden Host Specificity of Chytrids Infecting Colonial Volvocacean Algae
JF  - Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology
N2  - Chytrids are zoosporic fungi that play an important, but yet understudied, ecological role in aquatic ecosystems. Many chytrid species have been morphologically described as parasites on phytoplankton. However, the majority of them have rarely been isolated and lack DNA sequence data. In this study we isolated and cultivated three parasitic chytrids, infecting a common volvocacean host species, Yamagishiella unicocca. To identify the chytrids, we characterized morphology and life cycle, and analyzed phylogenetic relationships based on 18S and 28S rDNA genes. Host range and specificity of the chytrids was determined by cross-infection assays with host strains, characterized by rbcL and ITS markers. We were able to confirm the identity of two chytrid strains as Endocoenobium eudorinae Ingold and Dangeardia mamillata Schroder and described the third chytrid strain as Algomyces stechlinensis gen. et sp. nov. The three chytrids were assigned to novel and phylogenetically distant clades within the phylum Chytridiomycota, each exhibiting different host specificities. By integrating morphological and molecular data of both the parasitic chytrids and their respective host species, we unveiled cryptic host-parasite associations. This study highlights that a high prevalence of (pseudo)cryptic diversity requires molecular characterization of both phytoplankton host and parasitic chytrid to accurately identify and compare host range and specificity, and to study phytoplankton-chytrid interactions in general.
KW  - Chytridiomycota
KW  - Dangeardia mamillata
KW  - Endocoenobium eudorinae
KW  - fungal parasites
KW  - life cycle
KW  - phytoplankton
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1111/jeu.12632
SN  - 1066-5234
SN  - 1550-7408
VL  - 65
IS  - 6
SP  - 870
EP  - 881
PB  - Wiley
CY  - Hoboken
ER  -