Muggia Lucia, Zalar Polona, Azua-Bustos Armando, González-Silva Carlos, Grube Martin, Gunde-Cimerman Nina
Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, via Giorgieri 10, 34127 Trieste, Italy.
Department of Biology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Večnapot 111, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Symbiosis. 2020 Nov;82(1):123-131. doi: 10.1007/s13199-020-00697-6. Epub 2020 Jul 27.
Lichenized fungi usually develop complex, stratified morphologies through an intricately balanced living together with their algal partners, but several species are known to form only more or less loose associations with algae. These borderline lichens are still little explored although they could inform us about early stages of lichen evolution. We studied the association of the extremely halotolerant fungus with the alga , discovered in a cave in the Atacama Desert (Chile), and with . , common inhabitant of saltern brines. . forms small colonies, in which cells of . can be frequently observed, while such interaction has not been observed with . . As symbiotic interactions between and have not been reported, we performed a series of co-cultivation experiments to inspect whether these species could interact and develop more distinct lichen-like symbiotic structures. We set up co-cultures between axenic strains of (isolated both from Mediterranean salterns and from the Atacama cave) and isolates of . (from the Atacama cave) and . (isolated from Mediterranean salterns). Although we used different growth media and cultivation approaches, bright field and SEM microscopy analyses did not indicate any mutual effects in these experiments. We discuss the implications for fungal algal interactions along the transition from algal exploiters to lichen symbioses.
地衣化真菌通常通过与它们的藻类伙伴错综复杂地共生而形成复杂的分层形态，但已知有几个物种仅与藻类形成或多或少的松散关联。这些临界地衣仍鲜为人知，尽管它们可以让我们了解地衣进化的早期阶段。我们研究了在智利阿塔卡马沙漠的一个洞穴中发现的极端耐盐真菌与藻类以及盐田卤水的常见栖息者之间的关联。[具体真菌名称]形成小菌落，其中经常可以观察到[具体藻类名称]的细胞，而与[另一种藻类名称]未观察到这种相互作用。由于尚未报道[具体真菌名称]和[具体藻类名称]之间的共生相互作用，我们进行了一系列共培养实验，以检查这些物种是否能够相互作用并形成更明显的地衣状共生结构。我们在[具体真菌名称]的无菌菌株（从地中海盐田和阿塔卡马洞穴中分离）与[具体藻类名称]的分离株（来自阿塔卡马洞穴）和[具体藻类名称]（从地中海盐田分离）之间建立了共培养。尽管我们使用了不同的生长培养基和培养方法，但明场和扫描电子显微镜分析在这些实验中未显示出任何相互影响。我们讨论了从藻类利用者到地衣共生过渡过程中真菌与藻类相互作用的意义。
