Seasonality of parasitic and saprotrophic zoosporic fungi: linking sequence data to ecological traits.

ABSTRACT: Zoosporic fungi of the phylum Chytridiomycota (chytrids) regularly dominate pelagic fungal communities in freshwater and marine environments. Their lifestyles range from obligate parasites to saprophytes. Yet, linking the scarce available sequence data to specific ecological traits or their host ranges constitutes currently a major challenge. We combined 28 S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing with targeted isolation and sequencing approaches, along with cross-infection assays and analysis of chytrid infection prevalence to obtain new insights into chytrid diversity, ecology, and seasonal dynamics in a temperate lake. Parasitic phytoplankton-chytrid and saprotrophic pollen-chytrid interactions made up the majority of zoosporic fungal reads. We explicitly demonstrate the recurrent dominance of p

SUBMITTER: Van den Wyngaert S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9381765 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature