The effects of antifungal substances on some zoosporic fungi (Kingdom Fungi)

Abstract

Zoosporic fungi constitute a large group of true fungi which inhabit freshwater, brackish, marine and soil ecosystems. In general, very little is known about the effects of antifungal substances on the growth and survival of most species. This review focuses on experimental research with those isolates which have been studied, especially in some species of Synchytrium, Olpidium, Batrachochytrium, Allomyces, Blastocladiella, Neocallimastix. These genera represent genetically diverse groups. Although the research discussed here is restricted to a small sample, some general conclusions can be reached about zoosporic fungi as a whole. Like many other eukaryotic microorganisms, zoosporic fungi are sensitive to a large number of antibiotics, fungicides, surfactants, bacterial metabolites, metabolic poisons, proteins, heavy metals and other antifungal substances. These include substances commonly released into the environment for the control of plant and animal diseases, for increasing production of domestic animals and in the form of waste products from industry. It is possible that the release of antifungal substances into the environment might cause significant changes in the community structure of zoosporic fungi as well as of other groups of microorganisms which play significant roles in food web dynamics and ecosystem complexity. However, this needs documentation by quantitative studies. For these reasons, extensive research on the effects of antifungal substances is much needed.

Living strategy of cold-adapted fungi with the reference to several representative species

“…Le Calvez et al (2009) reported striking differences in their comparison of deep-sea fungal diversity assessed by culture-dependent and culture-independent methods. Generally, ascomycetes can be frequently and easily isolated in deep-sea environments, but chytrids and other basal fungi may be missed because many chytrids can not be isolated on solid growth media, especially those to which chloramphenicol has been added (Gleason and Marano 2011). …”

Rock substrate rather than black stain alterations drives microbial community structure in the passage of Lascaux Cave

“…For instance in fish farm sediments, the number of bacteria declined by 50–67% due to the application of antibiotics [ 8 ], whereas in agricultural soils application of sulfonamide antibiotics could affect bacterial community structure [ 9 ]. Similarly, fungi are often sensitive to antifungal substances that dramatically constrain their community structure to the few resistant strains [ 10 ]. However, fungi are generally more resistant to biocides than bacteria [ 11 ], which is mostly due to their composition of outer cell layers with chitin.…”

In situ associations between marine photosynthetic picoeukaryotes and potential parasites – a role for fungi?

“…However, Chytridiomycota have also been detected as one of the major fungal components in several deep-sea environments, such as hydrothermal vents and methane cold seeps, but only by culture-independent methods (Nagano and Nagahama, 2012). In contrast, very few species have been detected in surface marine waters using both culture-and cultureindependent approaches (Massana and Pedrós-Alió, 2008;Gleason and Marano, 2011;Richards et al, 2012;Lepelletier et al, 2014). Therefore, culture-independent molecular probing of potentially infected organisms could reveal important new information about interactions with marine fungi.…”