What lies beneath? Fungal diversity at the bottom of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior.

ABSTRACT: Fungi are phylogenetically diverse organisms found in nearly every environment as key contributors to the processes of nutrient cycling and decomposition. To date, most fungal diversity has been documented from terrestrial habitats leaving aquatic habitats underexplored. In particular, comparatively little is known about fungi inhabiting freshwater lakes, particularly the benthic zone, which may serve as an untapped resource for fungal biodiversity. Advances in technology allowing for direct sequencing of DNA from environmental samples provide a new opportunity to investigate freshwater benthic fungi. In this study, we employed both culture-dependent and culture-independent methods to evaluate the diversity of fungi in one of the largest freshwater systems on Earth, the North American Laur

SUBMITTER: Wahl HE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5935459 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature