Fungal communities of Antarctic Dry Valley lakes are dominated by Cryptomycota and Chytridiomycota

In this study, we aimed at exploring the diversity and community composition of fungi in four pristine and permanently ice-covered lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Southern Victoria Land, Antarctica. This offers the unique opportunity to study aquatic fungal communities in extreme environments that have not experienced major alterations (including anthropogenic influence) for thousands of years. For this, we collected several samples at multiple depths from four lakes: Lake Fryxell, Lake Hoare, Lake Miers, and the East and West Lobes of Lake Bonney, during the austral summer 2011-2012. Using a culture-independent approach, based on high throughput sequencing of the small subunit of the ribosomal RNA, we characterized the fungal populations and their relationships with other detected eukaryotes according to major variables such as lake type, depth layer, and habitat type (i.e. brackish vs. freshwater).

本研究旨在探究南极洲维多利亚地南部麦克默多干谷内四座原始未受干扰且永久冰封的湖泊中的真菌多样性与群落组成。这为研究数千年来未发生重大改变（含人为活动影响）的极端环境中的水生真菌群落提供了绝佳契机。为此，我们于2011-2012年南半球夏季期间，从四座湖泊——弗莱克塞尔湖（Lake Fryxell）、霍尔湖（Lake Hoare）、迈尔斯湖（Lake Miers）以及邦尼湖（Lake Bonney）东西分支——的多个深度层采集了多份样本。本研究采用基于核糖体RNA小亚基（small subunit of the ribosomal RNA）高通量测序（high throughput sequencing）的免培养方法（culture-independent approach），解析了真菌种群结构，并结合湖泊类型、深度层、生境类型（即咸水与淡水）等主要变量，探究了真菌种群与其他检出真核生物之间的相互关联。