Journal
POLAR BIOLOGY
Volume 39, Issue 3, Pages 523-532Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00300-015-1804-y
Keywords
Arctic; Bird; Feathers; Culturable fungi; Keratinophilic fungi
Categories
Funding
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [15H06825] Funding Source: KAKEN
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Despite feather fungi being an important component of the Arctic fungal flora, their ecological role and diversity are not fully known. In the current study, fungal cultures were isolated from feathers (barnacle goose, common eider, and glaucous gull) collected in the Ny-lesund region, Svalbard. Isolates were identified by ITS region sequences, which include the ITS1, ITS2, and 5.8S rRNA. The result showed culturable yeast and filamentous fungi belonging to three classes: Ascomycota (Pyrenochaetopsis pratorum, Cladosporium herbarum, Thelebolus microsporus, Aspergillus versicolor, Penicillium commune, and Venturia sp.), Basidiomycota (Mrakia blollopis and Rhodotorula mucilaginosa), and Zygomycota (Mucor flavus). Most of the fungal isolates appeared to be cold-tolerant, and about 60 % of the isolates showed keratinase activity. The reasonably low fungal diversity colonizing feathers indicates that the birds of Svalbard are casual carriers of fungi which may result in a negligible impact on their health. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first record of fungal communities present on the feathers of birds in the high Arctic.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available