TY - JOUR
T1 - Understanding fungal functional biodiversity during the mitigation of environmentally dispersed pentachlorophenol in cork oak forest soils
AU - Varela, Adelia
AU - Martins, Celso
AU - Nunez, Oscar
AU - Martins, Isabel
AU - Houbraken, Jos A. M. P.
AU - Martins, Tiago M.
AU - Leitao, M. Cristina
AU - McLellan, Iain
AU - Vetter, Walter
AU - Galceran, M. Teresa
AU - Samson, Robert A.
AU - Hursthouse, Andrew
AU - Pereira, Cristina Silva
PY - 2015/8
Y1 - 2015/8
N2 - Pentachlorophenol (PCP) is globally dispersed and contamination of soil with this biocide adversely affects its functional biodiversity, particularly of fungi – key colonizers. Their functional role as a community is poorly understood, although a few pathways have been already elucidated in pure cultures. This constitutes here our main challenge – elucidate how fungi influence the pollutant mitigation processes in forest soils. Circumstantial evidence exists that cork oak forests in N. W. Tunisia – economically critical managed forests are likely to be contaminated with PCP, but the scientific evidence has previously been lacking. Our data illustrate significant forest contamination through the detection of undefined active sources of PCP. By solving the taxonomic diversity and the PCP-derived metabolomes of both the cultivable fungi and the fungal community, we demonstrate here that most strains (predominantly penicillia) participate in the pollutant biotic degradation. They form an array of degradation intermediates and by-products, including several hydroquinone, resorcinol and catechol derivatives, either chlorinated or not. The degradation pathway of the fungal community includes uncharacterized derivatives, e.g. tetrachloroguaiacol isomers. Our study highlights fungi key role in the mineralization and short lifetime of PCP in forest soils and provide novel tools to monitor its degradation in other fungi dominated food webs.
AB - Pentachlorophenol (PCP) is globally dispersed and contamination of soil with this biocide adversely affects its functional biodiversity, particularly of fungi – key colonizers. Their functional role as a community is poorly understood, although a few pathways have been already elucidated in pure cultures. This constitutes here our main challenge – elucidate how fungi influence the pollutant mitigation processes in forest soils. Circumstantial evidence exists that cork oak forests in N. W. Tunisia – economically critical managed forests are likely to be contaminated with PCP, but the scientific evidence has previously been lacking. Our data illustrate significant forest contamination through the detection of undefined active sources of PCP. By solving the taxonomic diversity and the PCP-derived metabolomes of both the cultivable fungi and the fungal community, we demonstrate here that most strains (predominantly penicillia) participate in the pollutant biotic degradation. They form an array of degradation intermediates and by-products, including several hydroquinone, resorcinol and catechol derivatives, either chlorinated or not. The degradation pathway of the fungal community includes uncharacterized derivatives, e.g. tetrachloroguaiacol isomers. Our study highlights fungi key role in the mineralization and short lifetime of PCP in forest soils and provide novel tools to monitor its degradation in other fungi dominated food webs.
U2 - 10.1111/1462-2920.12837
DO - 10.1111/1462-2920.12837
M3 - Article
SN - 1462-2912
VL - 17
SP - 2922
EP - 2934
JO - Environmental Microbiology
JF - Environmental Microbiology
IS - 8
ER -