Fungal Community and Ligninolytic Enzyme Activities in Quercus deserticola Trel. Litter from Forest Fragments with Increasing Levels of Disturbance

Abstract

Litter fungal communities and their ligninolytic enzyme activities (laccase, Mn-peroxidase, and lignin-peroxidase) play a vital role in forest biogeochemical cycles by breaking down plant cell wall polymers, including recalcitrant lignin. However, litter fungal communities and ligninolytic enzyme activities have rarely been studied in Neotropical, non-coniferous forests. Here, we found no significant differences in litter ligninolytic enzyme activities from well preserved, moderately disturbed, and heavily disturbed Quercus deserticola Trel. forests in central Mexico. However, we did find seasonal effects on enzyme activities: during the dry season, we observed lower laccase, and increased Mn-peroxidase and lignin-peroxidase activities, and in the rainy season, Mn-peroxidase and lignin-peroxidase activities were lower, while laccase activity peaked. Fungal diversity (Shannon-Weaver and Simpson indices) based on ITS-rDNA analyses decreased with increased disturbance, and principal component analysis showed that litter fungal communities are structured differently between forest types. White-rot Polyporales and Auriculariales only occurred in the well preserved forest, and a high number of Ascomycota were shared between forests. While the degree of forest disturbance significantly affected the litter fungal community structure, the ligninolytic enzyme activities remained unaffected, suggesting functional redundancy and a possible role of generalist Ascomycota taxa in litter delignification. Forest conservation and restoration strategies must account for leaf litter and its associated fungal community.

Fungi Detected in the Previous Year’s Leaf Petioles of Fraxinus excelsior and Their Antagonistic Potential against Hymenoscyphus fraxineus

“…Taxonomically, the fungi detected belonged mostly to the Ascomycota, less often to the Basidiomycota and occasionally to the Mucoromycota. The results are consistent with earlier findings on fungal communities from litter [47,48,50,51,89,90], although the relative occurrences of Ascomycota and Basidiomycota depend on the stage of decomposition of the substrate. Ascomycota are usually relatively more abundant in the early stages of decomposition while Basidiomycota increase over time, becoming most frequent at the advanced decomposition stage [48,51,[89][90][91].…”

“…Fungi are the key players in litter decomposition and nutrient cycling owing to their ability to produce a wide range of extracellular enzymes which allow them to attack efficiently the recalcitrant lignocellulose matrix [44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51].…”

Metabarcoding analysis of the soil fungal community to aid the conservation of underexplored church forests in Ethiopia

“…In this study, although the NMDS showed the fungal species composition changes among forests, the proportion of the different functional guilds looks quite consistent at the forest level. The observed compositional difference may be explained by site-level differences in the climate and edaphic factors, that are known to influence fungal structures in forest systems 60 . The differences in the fungal communities among the three studied forests underlines the conservational value of each particular fragment of the church forest.…”

Documentation of a new hypotrich species in the family Amphisiellidae, Lamtostyla gui n. sp. (Protista, Ciliophora) using a multidisciplinary approach

“…In addition to reveal probable mis-annotations, our survey also highlights the presence of ciliates, especially hypotrichs, in the environment/matrices generally studied for the presence of fungi. Intriguingly, most of these environment/matrices represent human byproducts, e.g., compost 96 , forest soil 97,98 , or even extreme environment, e. g., crater lake 99 and permafrost 100 , which should deserve further investigations from the community of ciliate taxonomists. Dedication We dedicate this species to Prof. Fukang Gu, School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, for his dedication to the cytology of protozoan and also as a small token of appreciation for his kind guide and support for Ms. Wanying Liao during her master study.…”