Indoor fungal destroyers of wooden materials Their identification in present review

The wood-destroying fungi traditionally were separated from one another primarily on a basis of their sporocarp and/or strain morphology. Their diversity and simple macro- and micromorphology of fungal structures have been major obstacles for more rapid progress in this regard. However, over the past two decades, there has been substantial progress in our understanding of genetic variability within traditionally recognized morphospecies. In this study we have overviewed genetic variation and phylogeography of macrofungi, which are important destroyers of wooden materials indoor of buildings. Several morphologically defined species of these fungal destroyers (Coniophora puteana, C. olivacea, C. arida, Serpula himantioides) have been shown to actually encompass several genetically isolated lineages (cryptic species). The protective efficacy against cryptic species within traditionally recognized morphospecies through laboratory tests (EN 113) and field trials (EN 252) might be sufficient to better prognosis of decay development in wooden materials for hazard assessment and for proper conservation and management plans. © 2018 Statny Drevarsky Vyskumny Ustav.This work has been supported by grants from the Grant Agencies of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic (VEGA No. 1/0286/17 and KEGA No. 025UMB-4/2017) and the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Ostrava, Czech Republic (SGS No. 16/PřF/2016).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Contrasting demographic histories revealed in two invasive populations of the dry rot fungus Serpula lacrymans

Globalization and international trade have impacted organisms around the world leading to a considerable number of species establishing in new geographic areas. Many organisms have taken advantage of human-made environments, including buildings. One such species is the dry rot fungus Serpula lacrymans, which is the most aggressive wood-decay fungus in indoor environments in temperate regions. Using population genomic analyses of 36 full genome sequenced isolates, we demonstrated that European and Japanese isolates are highly divergent and the populations split 3000–19,000 generations ago, probably predating human influence. Approximately 250 generations ago, the European population went through a tight bottleneck, probably corresponding to the fungus colonization of the built environment in Europe. The demographic history of these populations, probably lead to low adaptive potential. Only two loci under selection were identified using a Fst outlier approach, and selective sweep analyses identified three loci with extended haplotype homozygosity. The selective sweep analyses found signals in genes possibly related to decay of various substrates in Japan and in genes involved DNA replication and protein modification in Europe. Our results suggest that the dry rot fungus independently established in indoor environments in Europe and Japan and that invasive species can potentially establish large populations in new habitats based on a few colonizing individuals

Environmental responses of fruiting fungal communities are phylogenetically structured

Through their ephemeral reproductive structures (fruiting bodies), ectomycorrhizal forest soil fungi provide a resource for a plethora of organisms. Thus, resolving what biotic and abiotic factors determine the occurrence and abundance of fruiting bodies is fundamental for understanding the dynamics of forest trophic networks. While the influence of abiotic factors such as moisture and temperature on fungal fruiting are relatively well established, little is known about how these processes interact with the evolutionary history of fungal species to determine when, where, and in which abundance fungal fruiting bodies will emerge. A specific knowledge gap relates to whether species' responses to their environment are phylogenetically structured. Here, we ask whether related fungal taxa respond similarly to climatic factors and forest habitat characteristics, and whether such correlated responses will affect the assembly of fungal fruiting communities. To resolve these questions, we fitted joint species distribution models combining data on the species composition and abundance of fungal fruiting bodies, environmental variation, and phylogenetic relationships among fungal taxa. Our results show that both site-level forest characteristics (dominant tree species and forest age) and climatic factors related to phenology (effective heat sum) greatly influence the occurrence and abundance of fruiting bodies. More importantly, while different fungal species responded unequally to their shared environment, there was a strong phylogenetic signal in their responses, so that related fungal species tended to fruit under similar environmental conditions. Thus, not only are fruiting bodies short-lived and patchily distributed, but the availability of similar resources will be further aggregated in time and space. These strong constraints on resource availability for fungus-associated taxa highlight the potential of fungus-based networks as a model system for studies on the ecology and evolution of resource-consumer relations in ephemeral systems of high spatiotemporal patchiness

Predicting species‐specific responses of fungi to climatic variation using historical records

Although striking changes have been documented in plant and animal phenology over the past century, less is known about how the fungal kingdom's phenology has been changing. A few recent studies have documented changes in fungal fruiting in Europe in the last few decades, but the geographic and taxonomic extent of these changes, the mechanisms behind these changes, and their relationships to climate are not well understood. Here, we analyzed herbarium data of 274 species of fungi from Michigan to test the hypotheses that fruiting times of fungi depend on annual climate and that responses depend on taxonomic and functional groups. We show that the fungal community overall fruits later in warmer and drier years, which has led to a shift toward later fruiting dates for autumn‐fruiting species, consistent with existing evidence. However, we also show that these effects are highly variable among species and are partly explained by basic life‐history characteristics. Resulting differences in climate sensitivities are expected to affect community structure as climate changes. This study provides a unique picture of the climate dependence of fungal phenology in North America and an approach for quantifying how individual species and broader fungal communities will respond to ongoing climate change.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/100145/1/gcb12278.pd

Larger testes are associated with a higher level of polyandry, but a smaller ejaculate volume, across bushcricket species (Tettigoniidae)

While early models of ejaculate allocation predicted that both relative testes and ejaculate size should increase with sperm competition intensity across species, recent models predict that ejaculate size may actually decrease as testes size and sperm competition intensity increase, owing to the confounding effect of potential male mating rate. A recent study demonstrated that ejaculate volume decreased in relation to increased polyandry across bushcricket species, but testes mass was not measured. Here, we recorded testis mass for 21 bushcricket species, while ejaculate ( ampulla) mass, nuptial gift mass, sperm number and polyandry data were largely obtained from the literature. Using phylogenetic-comparative analyses, we found that testis mass increased with the degree of polyandry, but decreased with increasing ejaculate mass. We found no significant relationship between testis mass and either sperm number or nuptial gift mass. While these results are consistent with recent models of ejaculate allocation, they could alternatively be driven by substances in the ejaculate that affect the degree of polyandry and/or by a trade-off between resources spent on testes mass versus non-sperm components of the ejaculate

Can root-associated fungi mediate the impact of abiotic conditions on the growth of a High Arctic herb?

Arctic plants are affected by many stressors. Root-associated fungi are thought to influence plant performance in stressful environmental conditions. However, the relationships are not well-known; do the number of fungal partners, their ecological functions and community composition mediate the impact of environmental conditions and/or influence host plant performance? To address these questions, we used a common arctic plant as a model system: Bistorta vivipara. Whole plants (including root system, n = 214) were collected from nine locations in Spitsbergen. Morphometric features were measured as a proxy for plant performance and combined with metabarcoding datasets of their root-associated fungi (amplicon sequence variants, ASVs), edaphic and meteorological variables. Seven biological hypotheses regarding fungal influence on plant measures were tested using structural equation modelling. The best-fitting model revealed that local temperature affected plants both directly (negatively aboveground and positively below-ground) and indirectly - mediated by fungal richness and the ratio of symbio- and saprotrophic ASVs. The influence of temperature on host plants is therefore complex and should be examined further. Fungal community composition did not impact plant measurements and plant reproductive investment was not influenced by any fungal parameters. The lack of impact of fungal community composition on plant performance suggests that the functional importance of fungi is more essential for the plant than their identity

Climate Change and Biosphere Response: Unlocking the Collections Vault

Natural history collections (NHCs) are an important source of the long-term data needed to understand how biota respond to ongoing anthropogenic climate change. These include taxon occurrence data for ecological modeling, as well as information that can be used to reconstruct mechanisms through which biota respond to changing climates. The full potential of NHCs for climate change research cannot be fully realized until high-quality data sets are conveniently accessible for research, but this requires that higher priority be placed on digitizing the holdings most useful for climate change research (e.g., whole-biota studies, time series, records of intensively sampled common taxa). Natural history collections must not neglect the proliferation of new information from efforts to understand how present-day ecosystems are responding to environmental change. These new directions require a strategic realignment for many NHC holders to complement their existing focus on taxonomy and systematics. To set these new priorities, we need strong partnerships between NHC holders and global change biologists

Mycena species can be opportunist-generalist plant root invaders

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We thank Karl-Henrik Larsson and Arne Aronsen for provisions of specimens from the Natural History Museum of Oslo and help with the identification of field specimens from Svalbard. We further thank Cecilie Mathiesen and Mikayla Jacobs for technical assistance in the laboratory, Brendan J. Furneaux for valuable input to the R script, and the curators of H, TUR, and OULU. The Mycena ITS sequences originating from the specimens deposited in H, TUR, and OULU were produced as part of the Finnish Barcode of Life Project (FinBOL) funded by the Ministry of Environment, Finland (YM23/5512/2013), Otto A Malm's Donationsfond, and the Kone Foundation. We thank the European Commission (grant no. 658849) and the Carlsberg Foundation (grant no. CF18-0809) for grants to C.B. Harder that made this research possible. C.B. Harder was financed by a grant from the Danish Independent Research Fund DFF/FNU 2032-00064B (SapMyc) at the time of writing. Research Funding Carlsbergfondet. Grant Number: CF18-0809 Danish Independent Research Fund. Grant Number: 2032-00064B European Commission. Grant Number: 658849 Ministry of Environment, Finland. Grant Number: YM23/5512/2013Peer reviewedPublisher PD