Filamentous Ascomycetes Inhabiting the Rhizoid Environment of the Liverwort Cephaloziella varians in Antarctica Are Assessed by Direct PCR and Cloning

Abstract

Of 1882 fungal species described in 2019, only 3.5% were animal-associated. This percentage is representative of the poor understanding we have of this group of fungi, which are ephemeral, sometimes inconspicuous, and difficult to access, while often requiring specialized methods for their study. Following a two-session symposium on animal-associated fungi during the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Mycological Society of America, this special issue presents the work of 61 researchers in 16 countries. Twelve articles cover animal-associated fungi among Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Neocallimastigomycota-describing 29 new species, presenting new evolutionary hypotheses, and unearthing new ecological data.

Widespread association between the ericoid mycorrhizal fungus Rhizoscyphus ericae and a leafy liverwort in the maritime and sub‐Antarctic

“…400-bp insertion in the SSU region of the R. ericae DNA. As suggested by Jumpponen et al (2003), it is possible that the presence of introns, which are frequent in the SSU rDNA of R. ericae (Perotto et al, 2000), could have interfered with PCR amplification in their study, leading to the absence of R. ericae sequences from clone libraries.…”

“…All seven isolates originated from Rothera Point. DNA extraction from the isolates and PCR amplification were carried out as described above for the primer sets ITS1F/ITS4 and EF4/Fung5 (Smit et al, 1999), except that the PCR cycle parameters used for the latter set were those used by Jumpponen et al (2003). The PCR products were separated on 2% agarose gel.…”

“…(Zhang & Zhuang, 2004). By contrast, direct PCR analysis using the EF4/Fung5 primer set, which targeted a region of the small subunit (SSU) ribosomal (r)RNA gene, suggested that fungi bearing strong affinities to R. ericae are absent from C. varians at Rothera Point in the maritime Antarctic ( Jumpponen et al ., 2003).…”

“…We also tested whether the EF4/Fung5 primer set might not be appropriate for the amplification of R. ericae DNA, possibly because of the presence of introns in the SSU rDNA ( Jumpponen et al ., 2003). A reinoculation experiment also determined whether or not R. ericae forms structures similar to those observed in fieldcollected shoots.…”

Are liverworts imitating mycorrhizas?

“…Such specificity is unexpected: although some host preference may exist in the field, as discussed by Russell & Bulman, arbuscular associations are often nonspecific (Smith & Read, 1997). During their investigations, Russell & Bulman found other fungal sequences in M. foliacea , which add to the various endophytic fungi already reported from liverworts (Davis et al ., 2003; Jumpponen et al ., 2003). This opens the Pandora's box of the ‘mycothallosphere’, i.e.…”