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    STUDIA BIOLOGIA - Issue no. 1 / 2019  
         
  Article:   MG2+-RICH BITTERNS HOST HIGHLY ADAPTED FUNGI.

Authors:  POLONA ZALAR, IVANA STRMECKI, JANJA ZAJC, CENE GOSTINČAR, NINA GUNDE-CIMERMAN.
 
       
         
  Abstract:  Bittern brines, the residual water after the precipitation of NaCl in solar salterns, are highly enriched with magnesium salts, mostly with MgCl2. These brines were long considered sterile, as high concentrations of Mg2+ are toxic for the majority of biological systems. However, it was shown that bittern brines of the Sečovlje salterns (Slovenia) are not completely free of living microorganisms (Zajc et al., 2014). To isolate fungi from bitterns, we used three different isolation techniques: filtration, enrichment in liquid shaken cultures, and dilution to extinction in liquid standing cultures. Using all three techniques, we isolated 120 fungal strains and identified them using morphological and molecular markers. Their abundance and biodiversity was found to be much lower in comparison to NaCl-rich brines: out of 68 fungal genera recorded in Sečovlje brines, only representatives of ten were found also in bitterns: Aspergillus, Alternaria, Cladosporium, Debaryomyces, Hortaea, Meyerozyma, Penicillium, Phaeotheca, Vishniacozyma, and Wallemia. Beside these, we recorded for NaCl-rich brines yet unknown species: Bullera alba, Cadophora luteo-olivacea, Cladosporium langeronii, Peroneutypa scoparia, Pseudotaeniolina globosa, Toxicocladosporium irritans, and Verrucocladosporium dirinae. Selected isolates were tested for growth in media with MgCl2, and some of them could grow at a concentration of 1.5 M MgCl2. Mg-rich brines can be considered as a distinct extreme habitat harbouring a mycobiome that only partially overlaps with that of thalassohaline brine.

Keywords: bittern, brine, extremophiles, fungi, hypersaline.
 
         
     
         
         
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