TY - JOUR

T1 - Interactions of Fungi and Algae from the Greenland Ice Sheet

AU - Perini, L.

AU - Gostinčar, C.

AU - Likar, M.

AU - Frisvad, J. C.

AU - Kostanjšek, R.

AU - Nicholes, M.

AU - Williamson, C.

AU - Anesio, A. M.

AU - Zalar, P.

AU - Gunde-Cimerman, N.

N1 - Funding Information: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant MicroArctic agreement No. 675546 and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (ERC Synergy Grant ‘Deep Purple’ under grant agreement No. 856416). We further acknowledge support from the UK Natural Environment Research Council Consortium Grant ‘Black and Bloom’ (NE/M021025/1). We received financial support from the Slovenian Research Agency to the Infrastructural Centres Mycosmo and Microscopy of Biological Samples (both MRIC UL), as well as to the programs P1-0170 and P1-0198 and the project J4-2549. JCF thanks the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF137) for support to Center for Microbial Secondary Metabolites and Agilent for a Thought Leader Award (#2871). Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Heavily pigmented glacier ice algae Ancylonema nordenskiöldii and Ancylonema alaskanum (Zygnematophyceae, Streptophyta) reduce the bare ice albedo of the Greenland Ice Sheet, amplifying melt from the largest cryospheric contributor to eustatic sea-level rise. Little information is available about glacier ice algae interactions with other microbial communities within the surface ice environment, including fungi, which may be important for sustaining algal bloom development. To address this substantial knowledge gap and investigate the nature of algal-fungal interactions, an ex situ co-cultivation experiment with two species of fungi, recently isolated from the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet (here proposed new species Penicillium anthracinoglaciei Perini, Frisvad and Zalar, Mycobank (MB 835602), and Articulospora sp.), and the mixed microbial community dominated by glacier ice algae was performed. The utilization of the dark pigment purpurogallin carboxylic acid-6-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (C18H18O12) by the two fungi was also evaluated in a separate experiment. P. anthracinoglaciei was capable of utilizing and converting the pigment to purpurogallin carboxylic acid, possibly using the sugar moiety as a nutrient source. Furthermore, after 3 weeks of incubation in the presence of P. anthracinoglaciei, a significantly slower decline in the maximum quantum efficiency (Fv/Fm, inverse proxy of algal stress) in glacier ice algae, compared to other treatments, was evident, suggesting a positive relationship between these species. Articulospora sp. did uptake the glycosylated purpurogallin, but did not seem to be involved in its conversion to aglycone derivative. At the end of the incubation experiments and, in conjunction with increased algal mortality, we detected a substantially increasing presence of the zoosporic fungi Chytridiomycota suggesting an important role for them as decomposers or parasites of glacier ice algae.

AB - Heavily pigmented glacier ice algae Ancylonema nordenskiöldii and Ancylonema alaskanum (Zygnematophyceae, Streptophyta) reduce the bare ice albedo of the Greenland Ice Sheet, amplifying melt from the largest cryospheric contributor to eustatic sea-level rise. Little information is available about glacier ice algae interactions with other microbial communities within the surface ice environment, including fungi, which may be important for sustaining algal bloom development. To address this substantial knowledge gap and investigate the nature of algal-fungal interactions, an ex situ co-cultivation experiment with two species of fungi, recently isolated from the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet (here proposed new species Penicillium anthracinoglaciei Perini, Frisvad and Zalar, Mycobank (MB 835602), and Articulospora sp.), and the mixed microbial community dominated by glacier ice algae was performed. The utilization of the dark pigment purpurogallin carboxylic acid-6-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (C18H18O12) by the two fungi was also evaluated in a separate experiment. P. anthracinoglaciei was capable of utilizing and converting the pigment to purpurogallin carboxylic acid, possibly using the sugar moiety as a nutrient source. Furthermore, after 3 weeks of incubation in the presence of P. anthracinoglaciei, a significantly slower decline in the maximum quantum efficiency (Fv/Fm, inverse proxy of algal stress) in glacier ice algae, compared to other treatments, was evident, suggesting a positive relationship between these species. Articulospora sp. did uptake the glycosylated purpurogallin, but did not seem to be involved in its conversion to aglycone derivative. At the end of the incubation experiments and, in conjunction with increased algal mortality, we detected a substantially increasing presence of the zoosporic fungi Chytridiomycota suggesting an important role for them as decomposers or parasites of glacier ice algae.

KW - Greenland Ice Sheet

KW - HPLC

KW - Light microscopy

KW - Penicillium anthracinoglaciei

KW - Purpurogallin carboxylic acid

KW - Purpurogallin carboxylic acid-6-O-β-D-glucopyranoside

KW - SEM

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85130736309&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s00248-022-02033-5

DO - 10.1007/s00248-022-02033-5

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 35608637

AN - SCOPUS:85130736309

JO - Microbial Ecology

JF - Microbial Ecology

SN - 0095-3628

ER -