Fungi associated with chimney and sulfide samples from a South Mid-Atlantic Ridge hydrothermal site: Distribution, diversity and abundance

Deep-sea hydrothermal vent ecosystems are known to support remarkably diverse microbial communities, ranging from chemoautotrophic prokaryotes to heterotrophic prokaryotes and microeukaryotes. While fungi have generally been identified as an important component of various microbial communities in the environment, little is known about the species richness and abundance of such microorganisms in deep-sea hydrothermal vent ecosystems. In this study, a combined culture-dependent and culture-independent sequence based approach was used to investigate fungal distribution and diversity at a deep-sea hydrothermal vent site located at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge of the South Atlantic Ocean. Sequence analyses showed that the fungal community was dominated by members of the Ascomycota and the Basidiomycota. Several new phylotypes (28 of 65 total fungal OTUs and 2 of 19 culturable fungal phylotypes) were identified, contributing to the literally unknown diversity of fungi in this understudied habitat. The fungal community structures in the chimney samples were distinct from those in three sulfide samples. The qPCR results revealed that fungal LSU rRNA gene copy numbers ranged from 5.88x10(5) to 6.77x10(6) copies/gram rock (wet weight), and the Ascomycota was significantly more abundant 2-3 orders) than the Basidiomycota. Our findings provide new insights into the diversity and abundance of fungi in deep-sea hydrothermal vent ecosystems, which increases our knowledge and understanding of the fungal diversity in deep-sea environments.