Tracking fungal species-level responses in soil environments exposed to long-term warming and associated drying

Journal Article · 06 December 2023 · FEMS Microbiology Letters (Online)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/femsle/fnad128 · OSTI ID:2263430

Romero-Olivares, Adriana L.  ^[1]; Frey, Serita D.  ^[2]; Treseder, Kathleen K.  ^[3]

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1. New Mexico State Univ., Las Cruces, NM (United States)
2. Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States)
3. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)

Climate change is affecting fungal communities and their function in terrestrial ecosystems. Despite making progress in the understanding of how the fungal community responds to global change drivers in natural ecosystems, little is known on how fungi respond at the species level. Understanding how fungal species respond to global change drivers, such as warming, is critical, as it could reveal adaptation pathways to help us to better understand ecosystem functioning in response to global change. Here, we present a model study to track species-level responses of fungi to warming—and associated drying—in a decade-long global change field experiment; we focused on two free-living saprotrophic fungi which were found in high abundance in our site, Mortierella and Penicillium. Using microbiological isolation techniques, combined with whole genome sequencing of fungal isolates, and community level metatranscriptomics, we investigated transcription-level differences of functional categories and specific genes involved in catabolic processes, cell homeostasis, cell morphogenesis, DNA regulation and organization, and protein biosynthesis. We found that transcription-level responses were mostly species-specific but that under warming, both fungi consistently invested in the transcription of critical genes involved in catabolic processes, cell morphogenesis, and protein biosynthesis, likely allowing them to withstand a decade of chronic stress. Overall, our work supports the idea that fungi that invest in maintaining their catabolic rates and processes while growing and protecting their cells may survive under global climate change.

• Research Organization: Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Biological Systems Science (BSS); Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología de México (CONACyT); University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States (UCMEXUS); National Science Foundation (NSF)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0020382; DEB 1912525
• OSTI ID: 2263430
• Journal Information: FEMS Microbiology Letters (Online), Vol. 370; ISSN 1574-6968
• Publisher: Federation of European Microbiological SocietiesCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English