A worldwidesampling of rock fungi.

Daniela Isola, Laura Selbmann, Sybren de Hoog,Laura Zucconi and Silvano Onofri

Exposed rocks as extreme environment

Black fungi are amongst the persistentsettlers of bare rocks

• Discovered in the ‘80 in the hot deserts and in Antarctica

• They domonstrate to be frequent rock colonizers evenin more temperate climates

• They are common in semiarid and arid habitats, wheremay thrive both because of their extremotolerance and absence of competitors

Their bewildering survival abilities along with a capacity to penetrate minerals make this guild

attractive for investigations in microbialecophysiology and applied reserches

Black fungi are a modelto study evolution under extreme condition

Different studies have been carried out on black fungi

• To test the limit of their tolerance

• phylogeny

Much more remains understood about theirbiodiversity, distribution and evolution

293 rock samples were collected

from different latitudes, climates and lithic substrate

SAMPLING SITES

Mt. Rosa - ItalyMt. K2 - Pakistan

Mt. Fitz- Roy - Argentina Mt. Zugspitze - Austria

Stelvio- Italy

Mt. Aconcagua- Argentina

Ladakh – Indian Himalaya

Iceland Greenland

Scotland Norway

Low temperature

• Gobi desert• valley• Greenland• Iceland

China New Zealand

Bolivian Salar

Antarctic cold desert

Grece

Mediterranean basin

Cyprus

Italy

Osmotic stress: cliffs on sea

England

New Zealand France

Croatia

Italy

Australian desertAustralian desert

Algerian Hoggar

171 have been analysed by molecular methods

• 139 rock samples were analyzed• 800 fungal isolates were recovered• 324 black fungi isolated

The spanning of these fungi is high even in consideration of the limits of cultural methods

Neighbour JoiningITS Tree

• Isolates fall mainly in theOrder Capnodiales.

• Only few isolates fall in theOrders Dothideales andChaetothyriales.

• Some groups, e.g. CryomycesSelbmann et al., or Group IIdo not belong to any knownOrder

Chaetothyriales

Capnodiales

Dothideales

Dot

hide

omyc

etes

Group I

Group II

Group III

Davidiellaceae

Capnodiales

Group I

Davidiellaceae

Group I

Capnodiales

Capnodiales

Recurvomyces Selbmann & de Hoog

FriedmanniomycesOnofri

Phaeotheca triangularisde Hoog & Beguin

Hortaea werneckiiNishim. & Miyaji

ElasticomycesZucconi & Selbmann

Capnodiales

CryomycesSelbmann et al.

Group II

AcidomycesSelbmann, de Hoog & De Leo

Group III

CONCLUSIONS

• This is the first worldwide sampling ofblack fungi.

• We have deepen the knowledge on thebiodiversity and distribution of black fungi

• On the base of results 2 new genera(Elasticomyces Zucconi & Selbmann andRecurvomyces Selbmann & de Hoog) havebeen described and many others will bedescribed in the next future.

• We assume that larger sampling is stillnecessary.

AknowledgementsEmanuele Aronne

Renzo Cabassi

Danilla Castoldi

Eduardo Ciano

Marcello Cominetti

Paolo Erba

Davide Glarey

Paola Grispigni

Marco Heltai

Jay Ram Lamichane

Jader Monari

Paolo Montagna

Renato Moro

Letizia Mussano

Daniele Nardi

Paolo Pazzaglia

Karin Pizzinini

Francesco Perroni

Piero Poleggi

Duccio Platone

Michelangelo Ruju

Elisa Scanavino

Andrea Serafini

Lorenzo Serafini

Plamen Shopski

Donatella Tesei

Maurizio Turco

Dimensione Avventura X-Mountain Kailas Viaggi

ICPH (Italian Comitee Project Hessdalen)

Albero Neighbour Joining LSU

Gruppo I

Gruppo II

Albero Neighbour Joining SSU

Group I

Group II

Group III

KAKADU N.P.- NOURLANGIE ROCK

DEVILS MARBLES

OLGA MOUNTAINS KATA TJUTA

ULURU- AYERS ROCK

KINGS CANYON

Davil’s Marbles

Kings Canyon

Olga Mountains

Nourlangie Rock

SAMPLING SITES