Ochs Callie, Hayer Michaela, Schwartz Egbert, Hungate Bruce, Marks Jane
Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Department of Biology, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA.
Ecology. 2025 Jan;106(1):e4513. doi: 10.1002/ecy.4513.
Fungi play a crucial role in aquatic leaf litter decomposition. Aquatic fungi have long been thought to spend the majority of their lives in the water. Here, we explore the possibility of an amphibious life cycle, where phyllosphere fungi spend part of their life cycle in aquatic systems. We used internal transcribed spacer (ITS) fungal sequencing to follow phyllosphere fungi onto submerged litter, and quantitative stable isotope probing (qSIP) to differentiate active and inactive fungi. We found that around 30% of fungi active on aquatic litter entered the stream with the leaf and that these phyllosphere fungi were as active, if not more active than, as the fungi colonizing from the water column. These results demonstrate that phyllosphere fungi are an important part of aquatic fungal communities.
真菌在水生落叶分解过程中起着关键作用。长期以来，水生真菌一直被认为大部分时间生活在水中。在此，我们探讨了一种两栖生命周期的可能性，即叶际真菌在水生系统中度过其生命周期的一部分。我们使用内转录间隔区（ITS）真菌测序来追踪叶际真菌到淹没的落叶上，并使用定量稳定同位素探测（qSIP）来区分活跃和不活跃的真菌。我们发现，在水生落叶上活跃的真菌中，约30%随叶片进入溪流，并且这些叶际真菌与从水柱中定殖的真菌一样活跃，甚至更活跃。这些结果表明，叶际真菌是水生真菌群落的重要组成部分。
