This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Supplemental material
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Le Calvez, T.
Right arrow Articles by Vandenkoornhuyse, P.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Le Calvez, T.
Right arrow Articles by Vandenkoornhuyse, P.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by Le Calvez, T.
Right arrow Articles by Vandenkoornhuyse, P.

Next Article 

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, October 2009, p. 6415-6421, Vol. 75, No. 20
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.00653-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Fungal Diversity in Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Ecosystems{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Thomas Le Calvez,1 Gaëtan Burgaud,2 Stéphane Mahé,1 Georges Barbier,1 and Philippe Vandenkoornhuyse2*

UMR 6553 CNRS ECOBIO, FR/90 IFR 2116 CAREN, Université de Rennes 1, Campus de Beaulieu, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France,1 Laboratoire de Biodiversité et Ecologie Microbienne (EA 3882), Université de Bretagne Occidentale, ESMISAB, Technopôle Brest Iroise, 29280 Plouzané, France2

Received 19 March 2009/ Accepted 18 July 2009

Deep-sea hydrothermal ecosystems are considered oases of life in oceans. Since the discovery of these ecosystems in the late 1970s, many endemic species of Bacteria, Archaea, and other organisms, such as annelids and crabs, have been described. Considerable knowledge has been acquired about the diversity of (micro)organisms in these ecosystems, but the diversity of fungi has not been studied to date. These organisms are considered key organisms in terrestrial ecosystems because of their ecological functions and especially their ability to degrade organic matter. The lack of knowledge about them in the sea reflects the widely held belief that fungi are terrestrial organisms. The first inventory of such organisms in deep-sea hydrothermal environments was obtained in this study. Fungal diversity was investigated by analyzing the small-subunit rRNA gene sequences amplified by culture-independent PCR using DNA extracts from hydrothermal samples and from a culture collection that was established. Our work revealed an unsuspected diversity of species in three of the five fungal phyla. We found a new branch of Chytridiomycota forming an ancient evolutionary lineage. Many of the species identified are unknown, even at higher taxonomic levels in the Chytridiomycota, Ascomycota, and Basidiomycota. This work opens the way to new studies of the diversity, ecology, and physiology of fungi in oceans and might stimulate new prospecting for biomolecules. From an evolutionary point of view, the diversification of fungi in the oceans can no longer be ignored.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: UMR 6553 CNRS ECOBIO, FR/90 IFR 2116 CAREN, Université de Rennes 1, Campus de Beaulieu, Bat. 14a, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France. Phone: 33-2 23 23 50 07. Fax: 33-2 23 23 68 28. E-mail: philippe.vandenkoornhuyse{at}univ-rennes1.fr

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 24 July 2009.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://aem.asm.org/.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, October 2009, p. 6415-6421, Vol. 75, No. 20
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.00653-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology.   For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»