DNA metabarcoding of fungal diversity in air and snow of Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica.

ABSTRACT: We assessed fungal diversity present in air and freshly deposited snow samples obtained from Livingston Island, Antarctica, using DNA metabarcoding through high throughput sequencing (HTS). A total of 740 m³ of air were pumped through a 0.22 µm membrane. Snow obtained shortly after deposition was kept at room temperature and yielded 3.760 L of water, which was filtered using Sterivex membranes of 0.22 µm mesh size. The total DNA present was extracted and sequenced. We detected 171 fungal amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), 70 from the air and 142 from the snow. They were dominated by the phyla Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Mortierellomycota and Mucoromycota. Pseudogymnoascus, Cladosporium, Mortierella and Penicillium sp. were the most dominant ASVs detected in the air in rank order.

SUBMITTER: Rosa LH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7733504 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature