1. |
- Nilsson, R. Henrik, 1976, et al.
(author)
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Mycobiome diversity: high-throughput sequencing and identification of fungi.
- 2019
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In: Nature reviews. Microbiology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1740-1534 .- 1740-1526. ; 17, s. 95-109
-
Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Fungi are major ecological players in both terrestrial and aquatic environments by cycling organic matter and channelling nutrients across trophic levels. High-throughput sequencing (HTS) studies of fungal communities are redrawing the map of the fungal kingdom by hinting at its enormous - and largely uncharted - taxonomic and functional diversity. However, HTS approaches come with a range of pitfalls and potential biases, cautioning against unwary application and interpretation of HTS technologies and results. In this Review, we provide an overview and practical recommendations for aspects of HTS studies ranging from sampling and laboratory practices to data processing and analysis. We also discuss upcoming trends and techniques in the field and summarize recent and noteworthy results from HTS studies targeting fungal communities and guilds. Our Review highlights the need for reproducibility and public data availability in the study of fungal communities. If the associated challenges and conceptual barriers are overcome, HTS offers immense possibilities in mycology and elsewhere.
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2. |
- Sanli, Kemal, et al.
(author)
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Metagenomic Sequencing of Marine Periphyton: Taxonomic and Functional Insights into Biofilm Communities
- 2015
-
In: Frontiers in Microbiology. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 1664-302X. ; 6:1192
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Periphyton communities are complex phototrophic, multispecies biofilms that develop on surfaces in aquatic environments. These communities harbor a large diversity of organisms comprising viruses, bacteria, algae, fungi, protozoans and metazoans. However, thus far the total biodiversity of periphyton has not been described. In this study, we use metagenomics to characterize periphyton communities from the marine environment of the Swedish west coast. Although we found approximately ten times more eukaryotic rRNA marker gene sequences compared to prokaryotic, the whole metagenome-based similarity searches showed that bacteria constitute the most abundant phyla in these biofilms. We show that marine periphyton encompass a range of heterotrophic and phototrophic organisms. Heterotrophic bacteria, including the majority of proteobacterial clades and Bacteroidetes, and eukaryotic macro-invertebrates were found to dominate periphyton. The phototrophic groups comprise Cyanobacteria and the alpha-proteobacterial genus Roseobacter, followed by different micro- and macro-algae. We also assess the metabolic pathways that predispose these communities to an attached lifestyle. Functional indicators of the biofilm form of life in periphyton involve genes coding for enzymes that catalyze the production and degradation of extracellular polymeric substances, mainly in the form of complex sugars such as starch and glycogen-like meshes together with chitin. Genes for 278 different transporter proteins were detected in the metagenome, constituting the most abundant protein complexes. Finally, genes encoding enzymes that participate in anaerobic pathways, such as denitrification and methanogenesis, were detected suggesting the presence of anaerobic or low-oxygen micro-zones within the biofilms.
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3. |
- Abarenkov, Kessy, et al.
(author)
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Annotating public fungal ITS sequences from the built environment according to the MIxS-Built Environment standard – a report from a May 23-24, 2016 workshop (Gothenburg, Sweden)
- 2016
-
In: MycoKeys. - : Pensoft Publishers. - 1314-4057 .- 1314-4049. ; 16, s. 1-15
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Recent molecular studies have identified substantial fungal diversity in indoor environments. Fungi and fungal particles have been linked to a range of potentially unwanted effects in the built environment, including asthma, decay of building materials, and food spoilage. The study of the built mycobiome is hampered by a number of constraints, one of which is the poor state of the metadata annotation of fungal DNA sequences from the built environment in public databases. In order to enable precise interrogation of such data – for example, “retrieve all fungal sequences recovered from bathrooms” – a workshop was organized at the University of Gothenburg (May 23-24, 2016) to annotate public fungal barcode (ITS) sequences according to the MIxS-Built Environment annotation standard (http://gensc.org/mixs/). The 36 participants assembled a total of 45,488 data points from the published literature, including the addition of 8,430 instances of countries of collection from a total of 83 countries, 5,801 instances of building types, and 3,876 instances of surface-air contaminants. The results were implemented in the UNITE database for molecular identification of fungi (http://unite.ut.ee) and were shared with other online resources. Data obtained from human/animal pathogenic fungi will furthermore be verified on culture based metadata for subsequent inclusion in the ISHAM-ITS database (http://its.mycologylab.org).
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4. |
- Nilsson, R. Henrik, 1976, et al.
(author)
-
Introducing guidelines for publishing DNA-derived occurrence data through biodiversity data platforms
- 2022
-
In: Metabarcoding and Metagenomics. - : Pensoft Publishers. - 2534-9708. ; 6, s. 239-244
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- DNA sequencing efforts of environmental and other biological samples disclose unprecedented and largely untapped opportunities for advances in the taxonomy, ecology, and geographical distributions of our living world. To realise this potential, DNA-derived occurrence data (notably sequences with dates and coordinates) – much like traditional specimens and observations – need to be discoverable and interpretable through biodiversity data platforms. The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) recently headed a community effort to assemble a set of guidelines for publishing DNA-derived data. These guidelines target the principles and approaches of exposing DNA-derived occurrence data in the context of broader biodiversity data. They cover a choice of terms using a controlled vocabulary, common pitfalls, and good practices, without going into platform-specific details. Our hope is that they will benefit anyone interested in better exposure of DNA-derived occurrence data through general biodiversity data platforms, including national biodiversity portals. This paper provides a brief rationale and an overview of the guidelines, an up-to-date version of which is maintained at https://doi.org/10.35035/doc-vf1a-nr22. User feedback and interaction are encouraged as new techniques and best practices emerge.
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5. |
- Kõljalg, Urmas, et al.
(author)
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A price tag on species
- 2022
-
In: Research Ideas and Outcomes_RIO. - : Pensoft Publishers. - 2367-7163. ; 8, s. 1-7
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Species have intrinsic value but also partake in a long range of ecosystem services of major economic value to humans. These values have proved hard to quantify precisely, making it all too easy to dismiss them altogether. We outline the concept of the species stock market (SSM), a system to provide a unified basis for valuation of all living species. The SSM amalgamates digitized information from natural history collections, occurrence data, and molecular sequence databases to quantify our knowledge of each species from scientific, societal, and economic points of view. The conceptual trading system will necessarily be very unlike that of the regular stock market, but the looming biodiversity crisis implores us to finally put an open and transparent price tag on symbiosis, deforestation, and pollution
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6. |
- Radek, Renate, et al.
(author)
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Morphologic and molecular data help adopting the insect-pathogenic nephridiophagids (Nephridiophagidae) among the early diverging fungal lineages, close to the Chytridiomycota
- 2017
-
In: MycoKeys. - : Pensoft Publishers. - 1314-4057 .- 1314-4049. ; 25, s. 31-50
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Nephridiophagids are poorly known unicellular eukaryotes, previously of uncertain systematic position, that parasitize the Malpighian tubules of insects. Their life cycle includes merogony with multinucleate plasmodia and sporogony leading to small, uninucleate spores. We examined the phylogenetic affiliations of three species of Nephridiophaga, including one new species, Nephridiophaga maderae, from the Madeira cockroach (Leucophaea maderae). In addition to the specific host, the new species differs from those already known by the size of the spores and by the number of spores within the sporogenic plasmodium. The inferred phylogenetic analyses strongly support a placement of the nephridiophagids in the fungal kingdom near its root and with a close, but unresolved, relationship to the chytids (Chytridiomycota). We found evidence for the nephridiophagidean speciation as being strongly coupled to host speciation.
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7. |
- Unterseher, Martin, et al.
(author)
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Mycobiomes of sympatric Amorphophallus albispathus (Araceae) and Camellia sinensis (Theaceae) – a case study reveals clear tissue preferences and differences in diversity and composition
- 2018
-
In: Mycological Progress. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1617-416X .- 1861-8952. ; 17:4, s. 489-500
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Multiple biotic and abiotic parameters influence the dynamics of individual fungal species and entire communities. Major drivers for tropical plant endophytes are undoubtedly seasonality, local habitat conditions and biogeography. However, host specialization and tissue preferences also contribute to the structuring of endophytic mycobiomes. To elucidate such specializations and preferences, we sampled two commercially important, unrelated plant species, Amorphophallus albispathus and Camellia sinensis (tea plant) simultaneously at close proximity. The mycobiomes of different tissue types were assessed with high-throughput amplicon sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer DNA region. Both plants hosted different fungal communities and varied in α- and β-diversity, despite their neighboring occurrence. However, the fungal assemblages of Amorphophallus leaflets shared taxa with the mycobiomes of tea leaves, thereby suggesting common driving forces for leaf-inhabiting fungi irrespective of host plant identity. The mycobiome composition and diversity of tea leaves was clearly driven by leaf age. We suggest that the very youngest tea leaves are colonized by stochastic processes, while mycobiomes of old leaves are rather similar as the result of progressive succession. The biodiversity of fungi associated with A. albispathus was characterized by a large number of unclassified OTUs (at genus and species level) and by tissue-specific composition.This study is the first cultivation-independent high-throughput assessment of fungal biodiversity of an Amorphophallus species, and additionally expands the knowledge base on fungi associated with tea plants.
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8. |
- Bengtsson-Palme, Johan, 1985, et al.
(author)
-
Improved software detection and extraction of ITS1 and ITS2 from ribosomal ITS sequences of fungi and other eukaryotes for analysis of environmental sequencing data
- 2013
-
In: Methods in Ecology and Evolution. - 2041-210X. ; 4:10, s. 914-919
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region is the primary choice for molecular identification of fungi. Its two highly variable spacers (ITS1 and ITS2) are usually species specific, whereas the intercalary 5.8S gene is highly conserved. For sequence clustering and blast searches, it is often advantageous to rely on either one of the variable spacers but not the conserved 5.8S gene. To identify and extract ITS1 and ITS2 from large taxonomic and environmental data sets is, however, often difficult, and many ITS sequences are incorrectly delimited in the public sequence databases. We introduce ITSx, a Perl-based software tool to extract ITS1, 5.8S and ITS2 – as well as full-length ITS sequences – from both Sanger and high-throughput sequencing data sets. ITSx uses hidden Markov models computed from large alignments of a total of 20 groups of eukaryotes, including fungi, metazoans and plants, and the sequence extraction is based on the predicted positions of the ribosomal genes in the sequences. ITSx has a very high proportion of true-positive extractions and a low proportion of false-positive extractions. Additionally, process parallelization permits expedient analyses of very large data sets, such as a one million sequence amplicon pyrosequencing data set. ITSx is rich in features and written to be easily incorporated into automated sequence analysis pipelines. ITSx paves the way for more sensitive blast searches and sequence clustering operations for the ITS region in eukaryotes. The software also permits elimination of non-ITS sequences from any data set. This is particularly useful for amplicon-based next-generation sequencing data sets, where insidious non-target sequences are often found among the target sequences. Such non-target sequences are difficult to find by other means and would contribute noise to diversity estimates if left in the data set.
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9. |
- Nilsson, R. Henrik, 1976, et al.
(author)
-
The UNITE database for molecular identification of fungi: handling dark taxa and parallel taxonomic classifications.
- 2019
-
In: Nucleic acids research. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1362-4962 .- 0305-1048. ; 47:D1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- UNITE (https://unite.ut.ee/) is a web-based database and sequence management environment for the molecular identification of fungi. It targets the formal fungal barcode-the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer(ITS) region-and offers all ∼1 000000 public fungal ITS sequences for reference. These are clustered into ∼459000 species hypotheses and assigned digital object identifiers (DOIs) to promote unambiguous reference across studies. In-house and web-based third-party sequence curation and annotation have resulted in more than 275000 improvements to the data over the past 15 years. UNITE serves as a data provider for a range of metabarcoding software pipelines and regularly exchanges data with all major fungal sequence databases and other community resources. Recent improvements include redesigned handling of unclassifiable species hypotheses, integration with the taxonomic backbone of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, and support for an unlimited number of parallel taxonomic classification systems.
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10. |
- Zanne, Amy E, et al.
(author)
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Fungal functional ecology: bringing a trait-based approach to plant-associated fungi.
- 2020
-
In: Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. - : Wiley. - 1469-185X .- 1464-7931. ; 95:2, s. 409-433
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Fungi play many essential roles in ecosystems. They facilitate plant access to nutrients and water, serve as decay agents that cycle carbon and nutrients through the soil, water and atmosphere, and are major regulators of macro-organismal populations. Although technological advances are improving the detection and identification of fungi, there still exist key gaps in our ecological knowledge of this kingdom, especially related to function. Trait-based approaches have been instrumental in strengthening our understanding of plant functional ecology and, as such, provide excellent models for deepening our understanding of fungal functional ecology in ways that complement insights gained from traditional and -omics-based techniques. In this review, we synthesize current knowledge of fungal functional ecology, taxonomy and systematics and introduce a novel database of fungal functional traits (FunFun ). FunFun is built to interface with other databases to explore and predict how fungal functional diversity varies by taxonomy, guild, and other evolutionary or ecological grouping variables. To highlight how a quantitative trait-based approach can provide new insights, we describe multiple targeted examples and end by suggesting next steps in the rapidly growing field of fungal functional ecology.
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11. |
- Tedersoo, Leho, et al.
(author)
-
Response to Comment on “Global diversity and geography of soil fungi”
- 2015
-
In: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 349:6251
-
Journal article (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Schadt and Rosling (Technical Comment, 26 June 2015, p. 1438) argue that primer-template mismatches neglected the fungal class Archaeorhizomycetes in a global soil survey. Amplicon-based metabarcoding of nine barcode-primer pair combinations and polymerase chain reaction (PCR)–free shotgun metagenomics revealed that barcode and primer choice and PCR bias drive the diversity and composition of microorganisms in general, but the Archaeorhizomycetes were little affected in the global study. We urge that careful choice of DNA markers and primers is essential for ecological studies using high-throughput sequencing for identification.
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12. |
- Ritter, Camila, et al.
(author)
-
The pitfalls of biodiversity proxies: Differences in richness patterns of birds, trees and understudied diversity across Amazonia
- 2019
-
In: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 9:1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- © 2019, The Author(s). Most knowledge on biodiversity derives from the study of charismatic macro-organisms, such as birds and trees. However, the diversity of micro-organisms constitutes the majority of all life forms on Earth. Here, we ask if the patterns of richness inferred for macro-organisms are similar for micro-organisms. For this, we barcoded samples of soil, litter and insects from four localities on a west-to-east transect across Amazonia. We quantified richness as Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) in those samples using three molecular markers. We then compared OTU richness with species richness of two relatively well-studied organism groups in Amazonia: trees and birds. We find that OTU richness shows a declining west-to-east diversity gradient that is in agreement with the species richness patterns documented here and previously for birds and trees. These results suggest that most taxonomic groups respond to the same overall diversity gradients at large spatial scales. However, our results show a different pattern of richness in relation to habitat types, suggesting that the idiosyncrasies of each taxonomic group and peculiarities of the local environment frequently override large-scale diversity gradients. Our findings caution against using the diversity distribution of one taxonomic group as an indication of patterns of richness across all groups.
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13. |
- Wurzbacher, Christian, 1980, et al.
(author)
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Poorly known microbial taxa dominate the microbiome of permafrost thaw ponds.
- 2017
-
In: The ISME journal. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1751-7370 .- 1751-7362. ; 11:8, s. 1938-1941
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In the transition zone of the shifting permafrost border, thaw ponds emerge as hotspots of microbial activity, processing the ancient carbon freed from the permafrost. We analyzed the microbial succession across a gradient of recently emerged to older ponds using three molecular markers: one universal, one bacterial and one fungal. Age was a major modulator of the microbial community of the thaw ponds. Surprisingly, typical freshwater taxa comprised only a small fraction of the community. Instead, thaw ponds of all age classes were dominated by enigmatic bacterial and fungal phyla. Our results on permafrost thaw ponds lead to a revised perception of the thaw pond ecosystem and their microbes, with potential implications for carbon and nutrient cycling in this increasingly important class of freshwaters.
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14. |
- Ritter, Camila, et al.
(author)
-
High-throughput metabarcoding reveals the effect of physicochemical soil properties on soil and litter biodiversity and community turnover across Amazonia.
- 2018
-
In: PeerJ. - : PeerJ. - 2167-8359. ; 6
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Knowledge on the globally outstanding Amazonian biodiversity and its environmental determinants stems almost exclusively from aboveground organisms, notably plants. In contrast, the environmental factors and habitat preferences that drive diversity patterns for micro-organisms in the ground remain elusive, despite the fact that micro-organisms constitute the overwhelming majority of life forms in any given location, in terms of both diversity and abundance. Here we address how the diversity and community turnover of operational taxonomic units (OTU) of organisms in soil and litter respond to soil physicochemical properties; whether OTU diversities and community composition in soil and litter are correlated with each other; and whether they respond in a similar way to soil properties.We used recently inferred OTUs from high-throughput metabarcoding of the 16S (prokaryotes) and 18S (eukaryotes) genes to estimate OTU diversity (OTU richness and effective number of OTUs) and community composition for prokaryotes and eukaryotes in soil and litter across four localities in Brazilian Amazonia. All analyses were run separately for prokaryote and eukaryote OTUs, and for each group using both presence-absence and abundance data. Combining these with novel data on soil chemical and physical properties, we identify abiotic correlates of soil and litter organism diversity and community structure using regression, ordination, and variance partitioning analysis.Soil organic carbon content was the strongest factor explaining OTU diversity (negative correlation) and pH was the strongest factor explaining community turnover for prokaryotes and eukaryotes in both soil and litter. We found significant effects also for other soil variables, including both chemical and physical properties. The correlation between OTU diversity in litter and in soil was non-significant for eukaryotes and weak for prokaryotes. The community compositions of both prokaryotes and eukaryotes were more separated among habitat types (terra-firme, várzea, igapó and campina) than between substrates (soil and litter).In spite of the limited sampling (four localities, 39 plots), our results provide a broad-scale view of the physical and chemical correlations of soil and litter biodiversity in a longitudinal transect across the world's largest rainforest. Our methods help to understand links between soil properties, OTU diversity patterns, and community composition and turnover. The lack of strong correlation between OTU diversity in litter and in soil suggests independence of diversity drives of these substrates and highlights the importance of including both measures in biodiversity assessments. Massive sequencing of soil and litter samples holds the potential to complement traditional biological inventories in advancing our understanding of the factors affecting tropical diversity.
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15. |
- Retter, Alice, et al.
(author)
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Exploring the taxonomic composition of two fungal communities on the Swedish west coast through metabarcoding
- 2019
-
In: Biodiversity Data Journal. - 1314-2828 .- 1314-2836. ; 7
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background Fungi are heterotrophic, unicellular or filamentous organisms that exhibit a wide range of different lifestyles as, e.g., symbionts, parasites, and saprotrophs. Mycologists have traditionally considered fungi to be a nearly exclusively terrestrial group of organisms, but it is now known that fungi have a significant presence in aquatic environments as well. We know little about most fungi in limnic and marine systems, including aspects of their taxonomy, ecology, and geographic distribution. The present study seeks to improve our knowledge of fungi in the marine environment. The fungal communities of two coastal marine environments of the Kattegat sea, Sweden, were explored with metabarcoding techniques using the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) metabarcode. Our data add new information to the current picture of fungal community composition in benthic and coastal habitats in Northern Europe. New information The dataset describes the number of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and their taxonomic affiliations in two littoral gradients sampled on the Swedish west coast, Gothenburg municipality. Our data include basic diversity indices as well as chemical and edaphic sediment/soil parameters of the sampling sites. From the sites, 3470 and 4315 fungal OTUs, respectively, were recovered. The number of reads were 673,711 and 779,899, respectively, after quality filtering. Within the benthic sites, more than 80% of the sequences could not be classified taxonomically. The phylum composition of the classifiable sequences was dominated in both localities by Dikarya, which made up around 33% of the OTUs. Within Dikarya, Ascomycota was the dominant phylum. Guild assignment failed for more than half of the classifiable OTUs, with undefined saprotrophs being the most common resolved guild. This guild classification was slightly more common in the ocean sediment samples than in the terrestrial ones. Our metadata indicated that ocean sites contain organisms at a lower trophic level and that there are predominantly endophytic, parasitic, and pathogenic fungi in the marine environments. This hints at the presence of interesting and currently poorly understood fungus-driven ecological processes. It is also clear from our results that a very large number of marine fungi are in urgent need of taxonomic study and formal description.
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16. |
- Jayasiri, Subashini C., et al.
(author)
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The Faces of Fungi database: fungal names linked with morphology, phylogeny and human impacts
- 2015
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In: Fungal diversity. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1560-2745 .- 1878-9129. ; 74:1, s. 3-18
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Taxonomic names are key links between various databases that store information on different organisms. Several global fungal nomenclural and taxonomic databases (notably Index Fungorum, Species Fungorum and MycoBank) can be sourced to find taxonomic details about fungi, while DNA sequence data can be sourced from NCBI, EBI and UNITE databases. Although the sequence data may be linked to a name, the quality of the metadata is variable and generally there is no corresponding link to images, descriptions or herbarium material. There is generally no way to establish the accuracy of the names in these genomic databases, other than whether the submission is from a reputable source. To tackle this problem, a new database (FacesofFungi), accessible at www.facesoffungi.org (FoF) has been established. This fungal database allows deposition of taxonomic data, phenotypic details and other useful data, which will enhance our current taxonomic understanding and ultimately enable mycologists to gain better and updated insights into the current fungal classification system. In addition, the database will also allow access to comprehensive metadata including descriptions of voucher and type specimens. This database is user-friendly, providing links and easy access between taxonomic ranks, with the classification system based primarily on molecular data (from the literature and via updated web-based phylogenetic trees), and to a lesser extent on morphological data when molecular data are unavailable. In FoF species are not only linked to the closest phylogenetic representatives, but also relevant data is provided, wherever available, on various applied aspects, such as ecological, industrial, quarantine and chemical uses. The data include the three main fungal groups (Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Basal fungi) and fungus-like organisms. The FoF webpage is an output funded by the Mushroom Research Foundation which is an NGO with seven directors with mycological expertise. The webpage has 76 curators, and with the help of these specialists, FoF will provide an updated natural classification of the fungi, with illustrated accounts of species linked to molecular data. The present paper introduces the FoF database to the scientific community and briefly reviews some of the problems associated with classification and identification of the main fungal groups. The structure and use of the database is then explained. We would like to invite all mycologists to contribute to these web pages.
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17. |
- Bengtsson-Palme, Johan, 1985, et al.
(author)
-
Metaxa2 Database Builder: enabling taxonomic identification from metagenomic or metabarcoding data using any genetic marker
- 2018
-
In: Bioinformatics (Oxford, England). - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1367-4811 .- 1367-4803. ; 34:23, s. 4027-4033
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Correct taxonomic identification of DNA sequences is central to studies of biodiversity using both shotgun metagenomic and metabarcoding approaches. However, no genetic marker gives sufficient performance across all the biological kingdoms, hampering studies of taxonomic diversity in many groups of organisms. This has led to the adoption of a range of genetic markers for DNA metabarcoding. While many taxonomic classification software tools can be re-trained on these genetic markers, they are often designed with assumptions that impair their utility on genes other than the SSU and LSU rRNA. Here, we present an update to Metaxa2 that enables the use of any genetic marker for taxonomic classification of metagenome and amplicon sequence data.We evaluated the Metaxa2 Database Builder on eleven commonly used barcoding regions and found that while there are wide differences in performance between different genetic markers, our software performs satisfactorily provided that the input taxonomy and sequence data are of high quality.Freely available on the web as part of the Metaxa2 package at http://microbiology.se/software/metaxa2/.Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
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18. |
- Tedersoo, Leho, et al.
(author)
-
Novel soil-inhabiting clades fill gaps in the fungal tree of life
- 2017
-
In: Microbiome. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2049-2618. ; 5
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background - Fungi are a diverse eukaryotic group of degraders, pathogens, and symbionts, with many lineages known only from DNA sequences in soil, sediments, air, and water. Results - We provide rough phylogenetic placement and principal niche analysis for >40 previously unrecognized fungal groups at the order and class level from global soil samples based on combined 18S (nSSU) and 28S (nLSU) rRNA gene sequences. Especially, Rozellomycota (Cryptomycota), Zygomycota s.lat, Ascomycota, and Basidiomycota are rich in novel fungal lineages, most of which exhibit distinct preferences for climate and soil pH. Conclusions - This study uncovers the great phylogenetic richness of previously unrecognized order- to phylum-level fungal lineages. Most of these rare groups are distributed in different ecosystems of the world but exhibit distinct ecological preferences for climate or soil pH. Across the fungal kingdom, tropical and non-tropical habitats are equally likely to harbor novel groups. We advocate that a combination of traditional and high-throughput sequencing methods enable efficient recovery and phylogenetic placement of such unknown taxonomic groups.
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19. |
- Halwachs, Bettina, et al.
(author)
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Critical Issues in mycobiota analysis
- 2017
-
In: Frontiers in Microbiology. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 1664-302X. ; 8
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Fungi constitute an important part of the human microbiota and they play a significant role for health and disease development. Advancements made in the culture-independent analysis of microbial communities have broadened our understanding of the mycobiota, however, microbiota analysis tools have been mainly developed for bacteria (e.g., targeting the 16S rRNA gene) and they often fall short if applied to fungal marker-gene based investigations (i.e., internal transcribed spacers, ITS). In the current paper we discuss all major steps of a fungal amplicon analysis starting with DNA extraction from specimens up to bioinformatics analyses of next-generation sequencing data. Specific points are discussed at each step and special emphasis is placed on the bioinformatics challenges emerging during operational taxonomic unit (OTU) picking, a critical step in mycobiota analysis. By using an in silico ITS1 mock community we demonstrate that standard analysis pipelines fall short if used with default settings showing erroneous fungal community representations. We highlight that switching OTU picking to a closed reference approach greatly enhances performance. Finally, recommendations are given on how to perform ITS based mycobiota analysis with the currently available measures.
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20. |
- Tedersoo, Leho, et al.
(author)
-
Global patterns in endemicity and vulnerability of soil fungi.
- 2022
-
In: Global change biology. - : Wiley. - 1365-2486 .- 1354-1013. ; 28:22, s. 6696-6710
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Fungi are highly diverse organisms, which provide multiple ecosystem services. However, compared with charismatic animals and plants, the distribution patterns and conservation needs of fungi have been little explored. Here, we examined endemicity patterns, global change vulnerability and conservation priority areas for functional groups of soil fungi based on six global surveys using a high-resolution, long-read metabarcoding approach. We found that the endemicity of all fungi and most functional groups peaks in tropical habitats, including Amazonia, Yucatan, West-Central Africa, Sri Lanka, and New Caledonia, with a negligible island effect compared with plants and animals. We also found that fungi are predominantly vulnerable to drought, heat and land-cover change, particularly in dry tropical regions with high human population density. Fungal conservation areas of highest priority include herbaceous wetlands, tropical forests, and woodlands. We stress that more attention should be focused on the conservation of fungi, especially root symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal fungi in tropical regions as well as unicellular early-diverging groups and macrofungi in general. Given the low overlap between the endemicity of fungi and macroorganisms, but high conservation needs in both groups, detailed analyses on distribution and conservation requirements are warranted for other microorganisms and soil organisms.
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21. |
- Elliott, David R., et al.
(author)
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Bacterial and Fungal Communities in a Degraded Ombrotrophic Peatland Undergoing Natural and Managed Re-Vegetation
- 2015
-
In: PLoS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 10:5
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The UK hosts 15–19% of global upland ombrotrophic (rain fed) peatlands that are estimated to store 3.2 billion tonnes of carbon and represent a critical upland habitat with regard to biodiversity and ecosystem services provision. Net production is dependent on an imbalance between growth of peat-forming Sphagnum mosses and microbial decomposition by microorganisms that are limited by cold, acidic, and anaerobic conditions. In the Southern Pennines, land-use change, drainage, and over 200 years of anthropogenic N and heavy metal deposition have contributed to severe peatland degradation manifested as a loss of vegetation leaving bare peat susceptible to erosion and deep gullying. A restoration programme designed to regain peat hydrology, stability and functionality has involved re-vegetation through nurse grass, dwarf shrub and Sphagnum re-introduction. Our aim was to characterise bacterial and fungal communities, via high-throughput rRNA gene sequencing, in the surface acrotelm/mesotelm of degraded bare peat, long-term stable vegetated peat, and natural and managed restorations. Compared to long-term vegetated areas the bare peat microbiome had significantly higher levels of oligotrophic marker phyla (Acidobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, TM6) and lower Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria, together with much higher ligninolytic Basidiomycota. Fewer distinct microbial sequences and significantly fewer cultivable microbes were detected in bare peat compared to other areas. Microbial community structure was linked to restoration activity and correlated with soil edaphic variables (e.g. moisture and heavy metals). Although rapid community changes were evident following restoration activity, restored bare peat did not approach a similar microbial community structure to non-eroded areas even after 25 years, which may be related to the stabilisation of historic deposited heavy metals pollution in long-term stable areas. These primary findings are discussed in relation to bare peat oligotrophy, re-vegetation recalcitrance, rhizosphere-microbe-soil interactions, C, N and P cycling, trajectory of restoration, and ecosystem service implications for peatland restoration.
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22. |
- Nilsson, R. Henrik, 1976, et al.
(author)
-
Improving ITS sequence data for identification of plant pathogenic fungi
- 2014
-
In: Fungal Diversity. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1560-2745 .- 1878-9129. ; 67:1, s. 11-19
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Plant pathogenic fungi are a large and diverse assemblage of eukaryotes with substantial impacts on natural ecosystems and human endeavours. These taxa often have complex and poorly understood life cycles, lack observable, discriminatory morphological characters, and may not be amenable to in vitro culturing. As a result, species identification is frequently difficult. Molecular (DNA sequence) data have emerged as crucial information for the taxonomic identification of plant pathogenic fungi, with the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region being the most popular marker. However, international nucleotide sequence databases are accumulating numerous sequences of compromised or low-resolution taxonomic annotations and substandard technical quality, making their use in the molecular identification of plant pathogenic fungi problematic. Here we report on a concerted effort to identify high-quality reference sequences for various plant pathogenic fungi and to re-annotate incorrectly or insufficiently annotated public ITS sequences from these fungal lineages. A third objective was to enrich the sequences with geographical and ecological metadata. The results – a total of 31,954 changes – are incorporated in and made available through the UNITE database for molecular identification of fungi (http://unite.ut.ee), including standalone FASTA files of sequence data for local BLAST searches, use in the next-generation sequencing analysis platforms QIIME and mothur, and related applications. The present initiative is just a beginning to cover the wide spectrum of plant pathogenic fungi, and we invite all researchers with pertinent expertise to join the annotation effort.
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23. |
- Hyde, Kevin D., et al.
(author)
-
Incorporating molecular data in fungal systematics: a guide for aspiring researchers
- 2013
-
In: Current Research in Environmental and Applied Mycology. - : Mushroom Research Foundation. - 2229-2225. ; 3:1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The last twenty years have witnessed molecular data emerge as a primary research instrument in most branches of mycology. Fungal systematics, taxonomy, and ecology have all seen tremendous progress and have undergone rapid, far-reaching changes as disciplines in the wake of continual improvement in DNA sequencing technology. A taxonomic study that draws from molecular data involves a long series of steps, ranging from taxon sampling through the various laboratory procedures and data analysis to the publication process. All steps are important and influence the results and the way they are perceived by the scientific community. The present paper provides a reflective overview of all major steps in such a project with the purpose to assist research students about to begin their first study using DNA-based methods. We also take the opportunity to discuss the role of taxonomy in biology and the life sciences in general in the light of molecular data. While the best way to learn molecular methods is to work side by side with someone experienced, we hope that the present paper will serve to lower the learning threshold for the reader.
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24. |
- Anslan, Sten, et al.
(author)
-
Great differences in performance and outcome of high-throughput sequencing data analysis platforms for fungal metabarcoding
- 2018
-
In: MycoKeys. - : Pensoft Publishers. - 1314-4057 .- 1314-4049. ; 39, s. 29-40
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Along with recent developments in high-throughput sequencing (HTS) technologies and thus fast accumulation of HTS data, there has been a growing need and interest for developing tools for HTS data processing and communication. In particular, a number of bioinformatics tools have been designed for analysing metabarcoding data, each with specific features, assumptions and outputs. To evaluate the potential effect of the application of different bioinformatics workflow on the results, we compared the performance of different analysis platforms on two contrasting high-throughput sequencing data sets. Our analysis revealed that the computation time, quality of error filtering and hence output of specific bioinformatics process largely depends on the platform used. Our results show that none of the bioinformatics workflows appears to perfectly filter out the accumulated errors and generate Operational Taxonomic Units, although PipeCraft, LotuS and PIPITS perform better than QIIME2 and Galaxy for the tested fungal amplicon dataset. We conclude that the output of each platform requires manual validation of the OTUs by examining the taxonomy assignment values.
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25. |
- Abrego, Nerea, et al.
(author)
-
Airborne DNA reveals predictable spatial and seasonal dynamics of fungi
- 2024
-
In: Nature. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 631, s. 835-842
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Fungi are among the most diverse and ecologically important kingdoms in life. However, the distributional ranges of fungi remain largely unknown as do the ecological mechanisms that shape their distributions1,2. To provide an integrated view of the spatial and seasonal dynamics of fungi, we implemented a globally distributed standardized aerial sampling of fungal spores3. The vast majority of operational taxonomic units were detected within only one climatic zone, and the spatiotemporal patterns of species richness and community composition were mostly explained by annual mean air temperature. Tropical regions hosted the highest fungal diversity except for lichenized, ericoid mycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal fungi, which reached their peak diversity in temperate regions. The sensitivity in climatic responses was associated with phylogenetic relatedness, suggesting that large-scale distributions of some fungal groups are partially constrained by their ancestral niche. There was a strong phylogenetic signal in seasonal sensitivity, suggesting that some groups of fungi have retained their ancestral trait of sporulating for only a short period. Overall, our results show that the hyperdiverse kingdom of fungi follows globally highly predictable spatial and temporal dynamics, with seasonality in both species richness and community composition increasing with latitude. Our study reports patterns resembling those described for other major groups of organisms, thus making a major contribution to the long-standing debate on whether organisms with a microbial lifestyle follow the global biodiversity paradigms known for macroorganisms4,5.
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26. |
- Nilsson, R. Henrik, 1976, et al.
(author)
-
How, not if, is the question mycologists should be asking about DNA-based typification
- 2023
-
In: MycoKeys. - : Pensoft Publishers. - 1314-4057 .- 1314-4049. ; :96, s. 143-157
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Fungal metabarcoding of substrates such as soil, wood, and water is uncovering an unprecedented number of fungal species that do not seem to produce tangible morphological structures and that defy our best attempts at cultivation, thus falling outside the scope of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants. The present study uses the new, ninth release of the species hypotheses of the UNITE database to show that species discovery through environmental sequencing vastly outpaces traditional, Sanger sequencing-based efforts in a strongly increasing trend over the last five years. Our findings chal-lenge the present stance of some in the mycological community - that the current situation is satisfactory and that no change is needed to "the code" - and suggest that we should be discussing not whether to allow DNA-based descriptions (typifications) of species and by extension higher ranks of fungi, but what the precise requirements for such DNA-based typifications should be. We submit a tentative list of such criteria for further discussion. The present authors hope for a revitalized and deepened discussion on DNA-based typification, because to us it seems harmful and counter-productive to intentionally deny the overwhelming majority of extant fungi a formal standing under the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants.
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27. |
- Hartmann, Martin, et al.
(author)
-
Significant and persistent impact of timber harvesting on soil microbial communities in Northern coniferous forests
- 2012
-
In: The ISME Journal. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1751-7362 .- 1751-7370. ; 6:12, s. 2199-2218
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Forest ecosystems have integral roles in climate stability, biodiversity and economic development. Soil stewardship is essential for sustainable forest management. Organic matter (OM) removal and soil compaction are key disturbances associated with forest harvesting, but their impacts on forest ecosystems are not well understood. Because microbiological processes regulate soil ecology and biogeochemistry, microbial community structure might serve as indicator of forest ecosystem status, revealing changes in nutrient and energy flow patterns before they have irreversible effects on long-term soil productivity. We applied massively parallel pyrosequencing of over 4.6 million ribosomal marker sequences to assess the impact of OM removal and soil compaction on bacterial and fungal communities in a field experiment replicated at six forest sites in British Columbia, Canada. More than a decade after harvesting, diversity and structure of soil bacterial and fungal communities remained significantly altered by harvesting disturbances, with individual taxonomic groups responding differentially to varied levels of the disturbances. Plant symbionts, like ectomycorrhizal fungi, and saprobic taxa, such as ascomycetes and actinomycetes, were among the most sensitive to harvesting disturbances. Given their significant ecological roles in forest development, the fate of these taxa might be critical for sustainability of forest ecosystems. Although abundant bacterial populations were ubiquitous, abundant fungal populations often revealed a patchy distribution, consistent with their higher sensitivity to the examined soil disturbances. These results establish a comprehensive inventory of bacterial and fungal community composition in northern coniferous forests and demonstrate the long-term response of their structure to key disturbances associated with forest harvesting.
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28. |
- Tedersoo, Leho, et al.
(author)
-
Standardizing metadata and taxonomic identification in metabarcoding studies
- 2015
-
In: GigaScience. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 2047-217X .- 2047-217X. ; 4
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- High-throughput sequencing-based metabarcoding studies produce vast amounts of ecological data, but a lack of consensus on standardization of metadata and how to refer to the species recovered severely hampers reanalysis and comparisons among studies. Here we propose an automated workflow covering data submission, compression, storage and public access to allow easy data retrieval and inter-study communication. Such standardized and readily accessible datasets facilitate data management, taxonomic comparisons and compilation of global metastudies.
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29. |
- Schoch, Conrad L., et al.
(author)
-
Finding needles in haystacks: linking scientific names, reference specimens and molecular data for Fungi
- 2014
-
In: Database: The Journal of Biological Databases and Curation. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1758-0463. ; 2014:bau061, s. 1-21
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- DNA phylogenetic comparisons have shown that morphology-based species recognition often underestimates fungal diversity. Therefore, the need for accurate DNA sequence data, tied to both correct taxonomic names and clearly annotated specimen data, has never been greater. Furthermore, the growing number of molecular ecology and microbiome projects using high-throughput sequencing require fast and effective methods for en masse species assignments. In this article, we focus on selecting and re-annotating a set of marker reference sequences that represent each currently accepted order of Fungi. The particular focus is on sequences from the internal transcribed spacer region in the nuclear ribosomal cistron, derived from type specimens and/or ex-type cultures. Re-annotated and verified sequences were deposited in a curated public database at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), namely the RefSeq Targeted Loci (RTL) database, and will be visible during routine sequence similarity searches with NR_prefixed accession numbers. A set of standards and protocols is proposed to improve the data quality of new sequences, and we suggest how type and other reference sequences can be used to improve identification of Fungi.
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30. |
- Bates, Scott T., et al.
(author)
-
Meeting Report: Fungal ITS Workshop (October 2012)
- 2013
-
In: Standards in Genomic Sciences. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1944-3277. ; 8:1, s. 118-123
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This report summarizes a meeting held in Boulder, CO USA (19–20 October 2012) on fungal community analyses using ultra-high-throughput sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the nuclear ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes. The meeting was organized as a two-day workshop, with the primary goal of supporting collaboration among researchers for improving fungal ITS sequence resources and developing recommendations for standard ITS primers for the research community.
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31. |
- Tedersoo, Leho, et al.
(author)
-
Shotgun metagenomes and multiple primer pair-barcode combinations of amplicons reveal biases in metabarcoding analyses of fungi
- 2015
-
In: MycoKeys. - : Pensoft Publishers. - 1314-4057 .- 1314-4049. ; 10, s. 1-43
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Rapid development of high-throughput (HTS) molecular identification methods has revolutionized our knowledge about taxonomic diversity and ecology of fungi. However, PCR-based methods exhibit multiple technical shortcomings that may bias our understanding of the fungal kingdom. This study was initiated to quantify potential biases in fungal community ecology by comparing the relative performance of amplicon-free shotgun metagenomics and amplicons of nine primer pairs over seven nuclear ribosomal DNA (rDNA) regions often used in metabarcoding analyses. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) barcodes ITS1 and ITS2 provided greater taxonomic and functional resolution and richness of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) at the 97% similarity threshold compared to barcodes located within the ribosomal small subunit (SSU) and large subunit (LSU) genes. All barcode-primer pair combinations provided consistent results in ranking taxonomic richness and recovering the importance of floristic variables in driving fungal community composition in soils of Papua New Guinea. The choice of forward primer explained up to 2.0% of the variation in OTU-level analysis of the ITS1 and ITS2 barcode data sets. Across the whole data set, barcode-primer pair combination explained 37.6–38.1% of the variation, which surpassed any environmental signal. Overall, the metagenomics data set recovered a similar taxonomic overview, but resulted in much lower fungal rDNA sequencing depth, inability to infer OTUs, and high uncertainty in identification. We recommend the use of ITS2 or the whole ITS region for metabarcoding and we advocate careful choice of primer pairs in consideration of the relative proportion of fungal DNA and expected dominant groups.
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32. |
- Kerekes, Jennifer, et al.
(author)
-
Nutrient enrichment increased species richness of leaf litter fungal assemblages in a tropical forest
- 2013
-
In: Molecular Ecology. - : Wiley. - 0962-1083 .- 1365-294X. ; 22:10, s. 2827-2838
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Microbial communities play a major role in terrestrial ecosystem functioning, but the determinates of their diversity and functional interactions are not well known. In this study, we explored leaf litter fungal diversity in a diverse Panama lowland tropical forest in which a replicated factorial N, P, K and micronutrient fertilization experiment of 40 × 40 m plots had been ongoing for nine years. We extracted DNA from leaf litter samples and used fungal-specific amplification and a 454 pyrosequencing approach to sequence two loci, the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and the nuclear ribosomal large subunit (LSU) D1 region. Using a 95% sequence similarity threshold for ITS1 spacer recovered a total of 2523 OTUs, and the number of unique ITS1 OTUs per 0.5–1.0 g leaf litter sample ranged from 55 to 177. Ascomycota were the dominant phylum among the leaf litter fungi (71% of the OTUs), followed by Basidiomycota (26% of the OTUs). In contrast to our expectations based on temperate ecosystems, long-term addition of nutrients increased, rather than decreased, species richness relative to controls. Effect of individual nutrients was more subtle and seen primarily as changes in community compositions especially at lower taxonomic levels, rather than as significant changes in species richness. For example, plots receiving P tended to show a greater similarity in community composition compared to the other nutrient treatments, the +PK, +NK and +NPK plots appeared to be more dominated by the Nectriaceae than other treatments, and indicator species for particular nutrient combinations were identified.
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33. |
- Olsson, Urban, 1954, et al.
(author)
-
The Lanius excubitor (Aves, Passeriformes) conundrum – Taxonomic dilemma when molecular and non-molecular data tell different stories.
- 2010
-
In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. - : Elsevier BV. - 1055-7903 .- 1095-9513. ; 55:2, s. 347-357
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The phylogeny of 18 taxa in the Lanius excubitor complex, and the related species L. sphenocercus, L. ludovicianus and L. somalicus, was estimated based on the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene and the non-coding D-loop (in total ∼1.3 kb). According to the mitochondrial gene tree, Lanius excubitor s.l. is non-monophyletic, with some of its subspecies being more closely related to L. sphenocercus, L. ludovicianus, and L. somalicus. Also the division of the L. excubitor complex into a northern (L. excubitor) and a southern (L. meridionalis) species, as has been proposed based on morphological and ecological similarity and geographical distributions, is not compatible with the mitochondrial tree. Overall, genetic divergences among the ingroup taxa are small, indicating a recent radiation. A tree based on the nuclear ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) introns 6–7 is unresolved with respect to the ingroup, but provides strong support for a clade containing the Lanius excubitor complex, L. sphenocercus, L. ludovicianus and L. somalicus. We discuss the incongruence between the current taxonomy and the mitochondrial gene tree, and conclude that based on the latter the Lanius excubitor complex may be treated as at least six species, L. borealis, L. elegans, L. excubitor, L. lahtora, L. meridionalis, and L. uncinatus, but that other taxonomic treatments are also possible. However, uncertainty regarding to which extent the mitochondrial gene tree reflects the species phylogeny prevents us from recommending taxonomic change without further investigation. This study highlights the possible danger of relying on a single molecular marker, such as mitochondrial DNA, in taxonomic revisions and phylogenetic inference
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34. |
- Šandová, Markéta, et al.
(author)
-
Relationships within Capitotricha bicolor (Lachnaceae, Ascomycota) as inferred from ITS rDNA sequences, including some notes on the Brunnipila and Erioscyphella clades
- 2018
-
In: Mycological progress. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1617-416X .- 1861-8952. ; 17:1-2 / S1, s. 89-101
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- DNA sequences of Capitotricha bicolor from Quercus, Fagus sylvatica, Alnus alnobetula, and Nothofagus, and C. rubi from Rubus idaeus were obtained from apothecia to establish whether specimens from different hosts belong to separate species. The obtained ITS1–5.8S–ITS2 rDNA sequences were examined with Bayesian and parsimony phylogenetic analyses. Intra- and interspecific variation was also investigated based on molecular distances in the ITS region. The phylogenetic analyses supported the specific distinctness of Capitotricha rubi and the Capitotricha from Nothofagus, but also suggest specific distinctness between samples from Quercus, Fagus, and Alnus. The interspecific distances were larger than intraspecific distances for all examined units. The smallest distance was found between the “Alnus alnobetula” and “Fagus sylvatica” units. Two new sequences of Brunnipila are published. Capitotricha, Lachnum, and Erioscyphella are compared to each other based on hair and excipulum characteristics.
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35. |
- Durkin, Louisa, et al.
(author)
-
When mycologists describe new species, not all relevant information is provided (clearly enough).
- 2020
-
In: MycoKeys. - 1314-4049. ; 72, s. 109-128
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Taxonomic mycology struggles with what seems to be a perpetual shortage of resources. Logically, fungal taxonomists should therefore leverage every opportunity to highlight and visualize the importance of taxonomic work, the usefulness of taxonomic data far beyond taxonomy, and the integrative and collaborative nature of modern taxonomy at large. Is mycology really doing that, though? In this study, we went through ten years' worth (2009-2018) of species descriptions of extant fungal taxa - 1,097 studies describing at most ten new species - in five major mycological journals plus one plant journal. We estimated the frequency at which a range of key words, illustrations, and concepts related to ecology, geography, taxonomy, molecular data, and data availability were provided with the descriptions. We also considered a range of science-demographical aspects such as gender bias and the rejuvenation of taxonomy and taxonomists as well as public availability of the results. Our results show that the target audience of fungal species descriptions appears to be other fungal taxonomists, because many aspects of the new species were presented only implicitly, if at all. Although many of the parameters we estimated show a gradual, and in some cases marked, change for the better over time, they still paint a somewhat bleak picture of mycological taxonomy as a male-dominated field where the wants and needs of an extended target audience are often not understood or even considered. This study hopes to leave a mark on the way fungal species are described by putting the focus on ways in which fungal taxonomy can better anticipate the end users of species descriptions - be they mycologists, other researchers, the public at large, or even algorithms. In the end, fungal taxonomy, too, is likely to benefit from such measures.
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36. |
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37. |
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38. |
- Lindahl, Björn, et al.
(author)
-
Fungal community analysis by high-throughput sequencing of amplified markers – a user's guide
- 2013
-
In: New Phytologist. - : Wiley. - 0028-646X .- 1469-8137. ; 199:1, s. 288-299
-
Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- * Novel high-throughput sequencing methods outperform earlier approaches in terms of resolution and magnitude. They enable identification and relative quantification of community members and offer new insights into fungal community ecology. These methods are currently taking over as the primary tool to assess fungal communities of plant-associated endophytes, pathogens, and mycorrhizal symbionts, as well as free-living saprotrophs. * Taking advantage of the collective experience of six research groups, we here review the different stages involved in fungal community analysis, from field sampling via laboratory procedures to bioinformatics and data interpretation. We discuss potential pitfalls, alternatives, and solutions. * Highlighted topics are challenges involved in: obtaining representative DNA/RNA samples and replicates that encompass the targeted variation in community composition, selection of marker regions and primers, options for amplification and multiplexing, handling of sequencing errors, and taxonomic identification. * Without awareness of methodological biases, limitations of markers, and bioinformatics challenges, large-scale sequencing projects risk yielding artificial results and misleading conclusions.
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39. |
- Nilsson, R. Henrik, 1976
(author)
-
Unifying fungi
- 2015
-
In: Science & Technology. - 2049-2391 .- 2049-2405. ; :14, s. 204-206
-
Journal article (other academic/artistic)
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40. |
- Nilsson, R. Henrik, 1976, et al.
(author)
-
A comprehensive, automatically updated fungal ITS sequence dataset for reference-based chimera control in environmental sequencing efforts
- 2015
-
In: Microbes and Environments. - 1342-6311 .- 1347-4405. ; 30:2, s. 145-150
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region is the most commonly chosen genetic marker for the molecular identification of fungi in environmental sequencing and molecular ecology studies. Several analytical issues complicate such efforts, one of which is the formation of chimeric—artificially joined—DNA sequences during PCR amplification or sequence assembly. Several software tools are currently available for chimera detection, but rely to various degrees on the presence of a chimera-free reference dataset for optimal performance. However, no such dataset is available for use with the fungal ITS region. This study introduces a comprehensive, automatically updated reference dataset for fungal ITS sequences based on the UNITE database for the molecular identification of fungi. This dataset supports chimera detection throughout the fungal kingdom and for full-length ITS sequences as well as partial (ITS1 or ITS2 only) datasets. The performance of the dataset on a large set of artificial chimeras was above 99.5%, and we subsequently used the dataset to remove nearly 1,000 compromised fungal ITS sequences from public circulation. The dataset is available at http://unite.ut.ee/repository.php and is subject to web-based third-party curation.
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41. |
- Lindner, Daniel L., et al.
(author)
-
Employing 454 amplicon pyrosequencing to reveal intragenomic divergence in the internal transcribed spacer rDNA region in fungi
- 2013
-
In: Ecology and Evolution. - : Wiley. - 2045-7758. ; 3:6, s. 1751-1764
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region has been accepted as a DNA barcoding marker for fungi and is widely used in phylogenetic studies; however, intragenomic ITS variability has been observed in a broad range of taxa, including prokaryotes, plants, animals, and fungi, and this variability has the potential to inflate species richness estimates in molecular investigations of environmental samples. In this study 454 amplicon pyrosequencing of the ITS1 region was applied to 99 phylogenetically diverse axenic single-spore cultures of fungi (Dikarya: Ascomycota and Basidiomycota) to investigate levels of intragenomic variation. Three species (one Basidiomycota and two Ascomycota), in addition to a positive control species known to contain ITS paralogs, displayed levels of molecular variation indicative of intragenomic variation; taxon inflation due to presumed intragenomic variation was ≈9%. Intragenomic variability in the ITS region appears to be widespread but relatively rare in fungi (≈3–5% of species investigated in this study), suggesting this problem may have minor impacts on species richness estimates relative to PCR and/or pyrosequencing errors. Our results indicate that 454 amplicon pyrosequencing represents a powerful tool for investigating levels of ITS intragenomic variability across taxa, which may be valuable for better understanding the fundamental mechanisms underlying concerted evolution of repetitive DNA regions.
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42. |
- Borchert, Erik, et al.
(author)
-
Deciphering a Marine Bone-Degrading Microbiome Reveals a Complex Community Effort
- 2021
-
In: mSystems. - 2379-5077 .- 2379-5077. ; 6:1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The marine bone biome is a complex assemblage of macro- and microor- ganisms; however, the enzymatic repertoire to access bone-derived nutrients remains unknown. The bone matrix is a composite material made up mainly of organic colla- gen and inorganic hydroxyapatite. We conducted field experiments to study microbial assemblages that can use organic bone components as nutrient source. Bovine and turkey bones were deposited at 69 m depth in a Norwegian fjord (Byfjorden, Bergen). Metagenomic sequence analysis was used to assess the functional potential of micro- bial assemblages from bone surface and the bone-eating worm Osedax mucofloris, which is a frequent colonizer of whale falls and known to degrade bone. The bone microbiome displayed a surprising taxonomic diversity revealed by the examination of 59 high-quality metagenome-assembled genomes from at least 23 bacterial families. Over 700 genes encoding enzymes from 12 relevant enzymatic families pertaining to collagenases, peptidases, and glycosidases putatively involved in bone degradation were identified. Metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) of the class Bacteroidia con- tained the most diverse gene repertoires. We postulate that demineralization of inor- ganic bone components is achieved by a timely succession of a closed sulfur biogeo- chemical cycle between sulfur-oxidizing and sulfur-reducing bacteria, causing a drop in pH and subsequent enzymatic processing of organic components in the bone sur- face communities. An unusually large and novel collagen utilization gene cluster was retrieved from one genome belonging to the gammaproteobacterial genus Colwellia. IMPORTANCE Bones are an underexploited, yet potentially profitable feedstock for biotechnological advances and value chains, due to the sheer amounts of residues produced by the modern meat and poultry processing industry. In this metagenomic study, we decipher the microbial pathways and enzymes that we postulate to be involved in bone degradation in the marine environment. We here demonstrate the interplay between different bacterial community members, each supplying different enzymatic functions with the potential to cover an array of reactions relating to the degradation of bone matrix components. We identify and describe a novel gene cluster for collagen utilization, which is a key function in this unique environment. We propose that the interplay between the different microbial taxa is necessary to achieve the complex task of bone degradation in the marine environment.
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43. |
- Crous, P. W., et al.
(author)
-
Fusarium : more than a node or a foot-shaped basal cell
- 2021
-
In: Studies in mycology. - : CENTRAALBUREAU SCHIMMELCULTURE. - 0166-0616 .- 1872-9797. ; :98
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Recent publications have argued that there are potentially serious consequences for researchers in recognising distinct genera in the terminal fusarioid clade of the family Nectriaceae. Thus, an alternate hypothesis, namely a very broad concept of the genus Fusarium was proposed. In doing so, however, a significant body of data that supports distinct genera in Nectriaceae based on morphology, biology, and phylogeny is disregarded. A DNA phylogeny based on 19 orthologous protein-coding genes was presented to support a very broad concept of Fusarium at the F1 node in Nectriaceae. Here, we demonstrate that re-analyses of this dataset show that all 19 genes support the F3 node that represents Fusarium sensu stricto as defined by F. sambucinum (sexual morph synonym Gibberella pulicaris). The backbone of the phylogeny is resolved by the concatenated alignment, but only six of the 19 genes fully support the F1 node, representing the broad circumscription of Fusarium. Furthermore, a re-analysis of the concatenated dataset revealed alternate topologies in different phylogenetic algorithms, highlighting the deep divergence and unresolved placement of various Nectriaceae lineages proposed as members of Fusarium. Species of Fusarium s. str. are characterised by Gibberella sexual morphs, asexual morphs with thin- or thick-walled macroconidia that have variously shaped apical and basal cells, and trichothecene mycotoxin production, which separates them from other fusarioid genera. Here we show that the Wollenweber concept of Fusarium presently accounts for 20 segregate genera with clear-cut synapomorphic traits, and that fusarioid macroconidia represent a character that has been gained or lost multiple times throughout Nectriaceae. Thus, the very broad circumscription of Fusarium is blurry and without apparent synapomorphies, and does not include all genera with fusarium-like macroconidia, which are spread throughout Nectriaceae (e.g., Cosmosporella, Macroconia, Microcera). In this study four new genera are introduced, along with 18 new species and 16 new combinations. These names convey information about relationships, morphology, and ecological preference that would otherwise be lost in a broader definition of Fusarium. To assist users to correctly identify fusarioid genera and species, we introduce a new online identification database, Fusarioid-ID, accessible at www.fusarium.org. The database comprises partial sequences from multiple genes commonly used to identify fusarioid taxa (act1, CaM, his3, rpb1, rpb2, tef1, tub2, ITS, and LSU). In this paper, we also present a nomenclator of names that have been introduced in Fusarium up to January 2021 as well as their current status, types, and diagnostic DNA barcode data. In this study, researchers from 46 countries, representing taxonomists, plant pathologists, medical mycologists, quarantine officials, regulatory agencies, and students, strongly support the application and use of a more precisely delimited Fusarium (= Gibberella) concept to accommodate taxa from the robust monophyletic node F3 on the basis of a well-defined and unique combination of morphological and biochemical features. This F3 node includes, among others, species of the F. fujikuroi, F. incarnatum-equiseti, F. oxysporum, and F. sambucinum species complexes, but not species of Bisifusarium [F. dimerum species complex (SC)], Cyanonectria (F. buxicola SC), Geejayessia (F. staphyleae SC), Neocosmospora (F. solani SC) or Rectifusarium (F. ventricosum SC). The present study represents the first step to generating a new online monograph of Fusarium and allied fusarioid genera (www.fusarium.org).
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44. |
- Janzon, Anders, 1978, et al.
(author)
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Exploring the microbial resistome in river sediments exposed to extraordinary high levels of antibiotics
- 2010
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In: 35th FEBS Congress: Molecules of Life.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The rapid development and propagation of antibiotic resistance in pathogenic and opportunistic bacteria is a major threat to public health worldwide. The phenomenon has been widely studied in the clinical setting, but comparatively little is known about the prevalence and diversity of antibiotic resistance in communities of environmental bacteria, often referred to as the environmental resistome. As the external environment may function as a reservoir of resistance genes to human pathogens, we are interested in how environmental bacteria are affected by antibiotic pollution. We have previously isolated microbial DNA from river sediments taken up- and downstream from a water treatment plant that processes waste water from several pharmaceutical plants producing antibiotics. In a previous study, we used deep sequencing to identify unprecedented frequencies of known resistance genes to several classes of antibiotics in these samples. In this study, we aim to functionally characterize the resistome in a more open and exploratory way by screening genomic DNA libraries transformed into sensitive hosts. To generate the libraries, several experimental strategies were explored, including mechanical shearing and enzymatic digestion of the isolated DNA followed by blunt- or sticky end cloning into different plasmids, subsequently transformed into sensitive E. coli. Pros and cons of the different strategies will be discussed along with preliminary results of the screening against selected antibiotics.
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45. |
- Nilsson, R. Henrik, 1976, et al.
(author)
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A software pipeline for processing and identification of fungal ITS sequences
- 2009
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In: Source Code for Biology and Medicine. - 1751-0473. ; 4:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background Fungi from environmental samples are typically identified to species level through DNA sequencing of the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region for use in BLAST-based similarity searches in the International Nucleotide Sequence Databases. These searches are time-consuming and regularly require a significant amount of manual intervention and complementary analyses. We here present software - in the form of an identification pipeline for large sets of fungal ITS sequences - developed to automate the BLAST process and several additional analysis steps. The performance of the pipeline was evaluated on a dataset of 350 ITS sequences from fungi growing as epiphytes on building material. Results The pipeline was written in Perl and uses a local installation of NCBI-BLAST for the similarity searches of the query sequences. The variable subregion ITS2 of the ITS region is extracted from the sequences and used for additional searches of higher sensitivity. Multiple alignments of each query sequence and its closest matches are computed, and query sequences sharing at least 50 % of their best matches are clustered to facilitate the evaluation of hypothetically conspecific groups. The pipeline proved to speed up the processing, as well as enhance the resolution, of the evaluation dataset considerably, and the fungi were found to belong chiefly to the Ascomycota, with Penicillium and Aspergillus as the two most common genera. The ITS2 was found to indicate a different taxonomic affiliation than did the complete ITS region for 10 % of the query sequences, though this figure is likely to vary with the taxonomic scope of the query sequences. Conclusions The present software readily assigns large sets of fungal query sequences to their respective best matches in the international sequence databases and places them in a larger biological context. The output is highly structured to be easy to process, although it still needs to be inspected and possibly corrected for the impact of the incomplete and sometimes erroneously annotated fungal entries in these databases. The open source pipeline is available for UNIX-type platforms, and updated releases of the target database are made available biweekly. The pipeline is easily modified to operate on other molecular regions and organism groups.
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46. |
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47. |
- Hallenberg, Nils, 1947, et al.
(author)
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Pseudolagarobasidium (Basidiomycota): on the reinstatement of a genus of parasitic, saprophytic, and endophytic resupinate fungi
- 2008
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In: Botany. - 1916-2804. ; 86:11, s. 1319-1325
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The small resupinate genus Pseudolagarobasidium (Polyporales, Basidiomycota) presently comprises less than five species, all of which were described from tropical to subtropical regions, and two of which are root parasites on leguminous trees. The genus has recently been synonymized with Radulodon on morphological grounds, and the present study evaluates this proposal in a molecular context. Pseudolagarobasidium was found to constitute a well supported, monophyletic group excluding Radulodon and this synonymy is rejected. The ecological range of the genus spans saprotrophy to parasitism, and this study presents evidence that at least one lineage in Pseudolagarobasidium is endophytic in the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao L.). Key words: Polyporales, Radulodon, phylogeny, plant interactions. Résumé: Le Pseudolagarobasidium (Polyporales, Basidiomycota) constitue un genre de petits champignons résupinés qui comporte actuellement cinq espèces, toutes décrites à partir de régions tropicales ou subtropicales, incluant deux espèces parasites des racines d'arbres de la famille des légumineuses. On en a récemment établi la synonymie avec le genre Radulodon sur la base morphologique, mais les auteurs utilisent ici l'approche moléculaire. On constate que le genre Pseudolagarobasidium constitue un groupe monophylétique robuste excluant les Radulodon ce qui conduit au rejet de cette synonymie. L'amplitude écologique du genre va du saprophytisme au parasitisme, et on présente des preuves qu'au moins une lignée est un endophyte du cacaoyer (Theobroma cacao L.). Mots-clés : Polyporales, Radulon, phylogénie, interactions végétales.
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48. |
- Ritter, Camila, et al.
(author)
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Biodiversity assessments in the 21st century: The potential of insect traps to complement environmental samples for estimating eukaryotic and prokaryotic diversity using high-throughput DNA metabarcoding.
- 2019
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In: Genome. - : Canadian Science Publishing. - 1480-3321 .- 0831-2796. ; 62:3, s. 147-159
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The rapid loss of biodiversity, coupled with difficulties in species identification, call for innovative approaches to assess biodiversity. Insects make up a substantial proportion of extant diversity and play fundamental roles in any given ecosystem. To complement morphological species identification, new techniques such as metabarcoding make it possible to quantify insect diversity and insect-ecosystem interactions through DNA sequencing. Here we examine the potential of bulk insect samples (i.e., containing many non-sorted specimens) to assess prokaryote and eukaryote biodiversity and to complement the taxonomic coverage of soil samples. We sampled 25 sites on three continents and in various ecosystems, collecting insects with Slam-traps (Brazil) and Malaise-traps (South Africa and Sweden). We then compared our diversity estimates with the results obtained with biodiversity data from soil samples from the same localities. We found a largely different taxonomic composition between the soil and insect samples, testifying to the potential of bulk insect samples to complement soil samples. Finally, we found that non-destructive DNA extraction protocols, which preserve insect specimens for morphological studies, constitute a promising choice for cost-effective biodiversity assessments. We propose that the sampling and sequencing of insect samples should become a standard complement for biodiversity studies based on environmental DNA.
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49. |
- Hibbett, David, et al.
(author)
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Sequence-based classification and identification of Fungi
- 2016
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In: Mycologia. - 0027-5514. ; 108:6, s. 1049-1068
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Fungal taxonomy and ecology have been revolutionized by the application of molecular methods and both have increasing connections to genomics and functional biology. However, data streams from traditional specimen- and culture-based systematics are not yet fully integrated with those from metagenomic and metatranscriptomic studies, which limits understanding of the taxonomic diversity and metabolic properties of fungal communities. This article reviews current resources, needs, and opportunities for sequence-based classification and identification (SBCI) in fungi as well as related efforts in prokaryotes. To realize the full potential of fungal SBCI it will be necessary to make advances in multiple areas. Improvements in sequencing methods, including long-read and single-cell technologies, will empower fungal molecular ecologists to look beyond ITS and current shotgun metagenomics approaches. Data quality and accessibility will be enhanced by attention to data and metadata standards and rigorous enforcement of policies for deposition of data and workflows. Taxonomic communities will need to develop best practices for molecular characterization in their focal clades, while also contributing to globally useful datasets including ITS. Changes to nomenclatural rules are needed to enable valid publication of sequence-based taxon descriptions. Finally, cultural shifts are necessary to promote adoption of SBCI and to accord professional credit to individuals who contribute to community resources.
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50. |
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