Richness and metallo-tolerance of cultivable fungi recovered from three high altitude glaciers from Citlaltépetl and Iztaccíhuatl volcanoes (Mexico)

• Published in: Extremophiles : life under extreme conditions Vol. 24; no. 4; pp. 625 - 636
• Main Authors: Calvillo-Medina, Rosa Paulina, Gunde-Cimerman, Nina, Escudero-Leyva, Efraín, Barba-Escoto, Luis, Fernández-Tellez, Elisa Irma, Medina-Tellez, Ariadna Andrea, Bautista-de Lucio, Victor, Ramos-López, Miguel Ángel, Campos-Guillén, Juan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tokyo Springer Japan 01-07-2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Altitude; Biochemistry; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Bioremediation; Biotechnology; Chromium; Cladosporium; Climate change; DNA; Fungi; Glaciers; Global warming; Heavy metals; High altitude; Identification methods; Lead; Life Sciences; Mercury; Mercury (metal); Mercury compounds; Metallography; Metals; Microbial Ecology; Microbiology; Original Paper; Physical characteristics; Polar environments; Sordariomycetes; Trivalent chromium; Volcanoes; Mexico; Partial identification; Heavy metal tolerance; Volcanic glaciers; Psychrotolerant fungal isolates
• ISSN: 1431-0651; 1433-4909
• DOI: 10.1007/s00792-020-01182-0

In Mexico little is known about high-altitude glacial psychrotolerant or psychrophilic fungal species, with most glacial fungi isolated from polar environments or Alpine glaciers. It has been documented that some of these species may play an important role in bioremediation of contaminated environments with heavy metals. In the present study, 75 fungi were isolated from glaciers in Citlaltépetl (5675 masl) and Iztaccíhuatl (5286 masl) volcanoes. Combining morphological characteristics and molecular methods, based on ITS rDNA, 38 fungi were partially identified to genus level, 35 belonging to
Ascomycota
and three to
Mucoromycota
. The most abundant genera were
Cladosporium
, followed by
Alternaria
and
Sordariomycetes
order. All isolated fungi were psychrotolerant, pigmented and resistant to different concentrations of Cr(III) and Pb(II), while none tolerated Hg(II). Fungi most tolerant to Cr(III) and Pb(II) belong to the genera
Stemphylium
,
Cladosporium
and
Penicillium
and to a lesser extent
Aureobasidium
and
Sordariomycetes.
To our knowledge, this is the first report on cultivable mycobiota richness and their Cr and Pb tolerance. The results open new research possibilities about fungal diversity and heavy metals myco-remediation. Extremophilic fungal communities should be further investigated before global warming causes permanent changes and we miss the opportunity to describe these sites in Mexico.