A Mineral-Doped Micromodel Platform Demonstrates Fungal Bridging of Carbon Hot Spots and Hyphal Transport of Mineral-Derived Nutrients

Bhattacharjee, Arunima; Qafoku, Odeta; Richardson, Jocelyn; Anderson, Lindsey; Schwarz, Kaitlyn; Bramer, Lisa; Lomas, Gerard X.; Orton, Daniel J.; Zhu, Zihua; Engelhard, Mark H.; Bowden, Mark E.; Nelson, Karen E.; Jumpponen, Ari; Jansson, Janet; Hofmockel, Kirsten; Anderton, Christopher R.

doi:10.1128/msystems.00913-22

Cited by 13 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…We observed increased fungal growth within the micromodel channels with minerals in 7 days and 30 days compared to micromodel channels with no minerals, which is consistent with our previous results (Fig. 1B) (13).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 93%

“…However, agar plate cultures are not an accurate representation of a soil microenvironment, which comprise of soil aggregates, varying porosities, and different mineralogy. In our previous work, we created soil micromodels that mimic soil porosity and mineralogy, in effort to demonstrate fungal induced mineral weathering, extraction, and transport of potassium (K) (13). Here, we created mineral doped micromodels for detection of fungal organic acids by adding solid phase kaolinite mineral into a biocompatible and UV curable polymer OG603, similar to our recent work (15), before molding into the shape of the micromodel channel.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1B and S1). The kaolinite mineral was previously used to study fungal growth and thigmotropism in mineral doped micromodels, and it is enriched with 7% K-feldspar and 4% mica (13). Fungi was inoculated in one end of the micromodel channel along with two organic nutrient rich plugs composed of potato dextrose agar (PDA) (C1 and C2, Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We utilized two different mineral doped micromodel devices: a PDMS-glass and PDMS-epoxy based-devices. Both devices were created from a silicon master as described before (13). Briefly, the microfluidics devices for MALDI-MSI were constructed using a combination of the Bosch process (20) and soft lithography techniques (21).…”

Section: Fungal Strain and Growth Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previously, we demonstrated a mineral doped soil micromodel platform for studying fungal bridging of carbon rich hotspots as well as fungal derived mineral weathering (13). This system reduces the complexity of soil while incorporating sentinel elements of soil necessary for testing specific hypothesis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fungal organic acid uptake of mineral derived K is dependent on distance from carbon hotspot

Bhattacharjee

Veličković

Richardson

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Fungal mineral weathering processes regulate the bioavailability of inorganic nutrients from mineral surfaces to organic matter and increase the bioavailable fraction of nutrients. Fungal mineral weathering strategies can be classified as biomechanical (direct) or biochemical (indirect). In the case of fungal uptake of mineral nutrients through indirect weathering, it is widely hypothesized that uptake of mineral derived nutrients occurs through organic acid chelation, but such processes have not been directly visualized. This is in part due to challenges in probing the complex and heterogeneous soil environment. Here, using an epoxy-based mineral doped soil micromodel platform that we developed, which mimics soil mineralogy and structure, it permitted us to visualize and spatially probe the molecular mechanisms of mineral weathering. Mass spectrometry imaging revealed differences in the distribution of fungal exudates, citric acid and tartaric acid, on the soil micromodels in presence of minerals. Citric acid was detected closer to the nutrient rich inoculation point, whereas tartaric acid was highly abundant away from inoculation point. This suggested that the organic acid exuded by the fungi depended on the proximity from the carbon rich organic substrate at the point of inoculation. Using a combination of X-ray fluorescence and X-ray near edge structure analysis, we identified citric acid- and tartaric acid-bound K within fungal hyphae networks grown in the presence of minerals. Combined our results provide direct evidence that fungi uptake and transport mineral derived nutrient organic acid chelation. The results of this study provided unprecedented visualization of fungal weathering of soil minerals and hyphal K+ transport, while resolving the indirect weathering mechanism of fungal K uptake from mineral interfaces.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%