Wainwright Benjamin J, Zahn Geoffrey L, Spalding Heather L, Sherwood Alison R, Smith Celia M, Amend Anthony S
Department of Botany, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, United States of America.
PeerJ. 2017 Jul 11;5:e3532. doi: 10.7717/peerj.3532. eCollection 2017.
Mesophotic coral ecosystems are an almost entirely unexplored and undocumented environment that likely contains vast reservoirs of undescribed biodiversity. Twenty-four macroalgae samples, representing four genera, were collected from a Hawaiian mesophotic reef at water depths between 65 and 86 m in the 'Au'au Channel, Maui, Hawai'i. Algal tissues were surveyed for the presence and diversity of fungi by sequencing the ITS1 gene using Illumina technology. Fungi from these algae were then compared to previous fungal surveys conducted in Hawaiian terrestrial ecosystems. Twenty-seven percent of the OTUs present on the mesophotic coral ecosystem samples were shared between the marine and terrestrial environment. Subsequent analyses indicated that host species of algae significantly differentiate fungal community composition. This work demonstrates yet another understudied habitat with a moderate diversity of fungi that should be considered when estimating global fungal diversity.
中光层珊瑚生态系统是一个几乎完全未被探索和记录的环境，可能蕴藏着大量未被描述的生物多样性。从夏威夷毛伊岛“奥奥海峡水深65至86米处的一个夏威夷中光层珊瑚礁采集了代表四个属的24个大型藻类样本。通过使用Illumina技术对ITS1基因进行测序，对藻类组织中的真菌存在情况和多样性进行了调查。然后将这些藻类中的真菌与之前在夏威夷陆地生态系统中进行的真菌调查进行比较。中光层珊瑚生态系统样本中27%的操作分类单元在海洋和陆地环境之间共享。后续分析表明，藻类宿主物种显著区分真菌群落组成。这项工作表明，在估计全球真菌多样性时，这个真菌多样性适中但研究不足的栖息地应被考虑在内。
