Microbial communities associated with honey bees in Brazil and in the United States.

Honey bee colony losses worldwide call for a more in-depth understanding of the pathogenic and mutualistic components of the honey bee microbiota and their relation with the environment. In this descriptive study, we characterized the yeast and bacterial communities that arise from six substrates associated with honey bees: corbicular pollen, beebread, hive debris, intestinal contents, body surface of nurses and forager bees, comparing two different landscapes, Minas Gerais, Brazil and Maryland, United States. The sampling of five hives in Brazil and four in the USA yielded 217 yeast and 284 bacterial isolates. Whereas the yeast community, accounted for 47 species from 29 genera, was dominated in Brazil by Aureobasidium sp. and Candida orthopsilosis, the major yeast recovered from the USA was Debaryomyces hansenii. The bacterial community was more diverse, encompassing 65 species distributed across 31 genera. Overall, most isolates belonged to Firmicutes, genus Bacillus. Among LAB, species from Lactobacillus were the most prevalent. Cluster analysis evidenced high structuration of the microbial communities, with two distinguished microbial groups between Brazil and the United States. In general, the higher difference among sites and substrates were dependents on the turnover effect (~ 93% of the beta diversity), with a more pronounced effect of nestedness (~ 28%) observed from Brazil microbiota change. The relative abundance of yeasts and bacteria also showed the dissimilarity of the microbial communities between both environments. These results provide a comprehensive view of microorganisms associated with A. mellifera, highlighting the importance of the environment in the establishment of the microbiota associated with honey bees.

DNA metabarcoding of fungal diversity in air and snow of Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica.

We assessed fungal diversity present in air and freshly deposited snow samples obtained from Livingston Island, Antarctica, using DNA metabarcoding through high throughput sequencing (HTS). A total of 740 m3 of air were pumped through a 0.22 µm membrane. Snow obtained shortly after deposition was kept at room temperature and yielded 3.760 L of water, which was filtered using Sterivex membranes of 0.22 µm mesh size. The total DNA present was extracted and sequenced. We detected 171 fungal amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), 70 from the air and 142 from the snow. They were dominated by the phyla Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Mortierellomycota and Mucoromycota. Pseudogymnoascus, Cladosporium, Mortierella and Penicillium sp. were the most dominant ASVs detected in the air in rank order. In snow, Cladosporium, Pseudogymnoascus, Penicillium, Meyerozyma, Lecidea, Malassezia, Hanseniaspora, Austroplaca, Mortierella, Rhodotorula, Penicillium, Thelebolus, Aspergillus, Poaceicola, Glarea and Lecanora were the dominant ASVs present. In general, the two fungal assemblages displayed high diversity, richness, and dominance indices, with the assemblage found in snow having the highest diversity indices. Of the total fungal ASVs detected, 29 were only present in the air sample and 101 in the snow sample, with only 41 present in both samples; however, when only the dominant taxa from both samples were compared none occurred only in the air and, among the rare portion, 26 taxa occurred in both air and snow. Application of HTS revealed the presence of a more diverse fungal community in the air and snow of Livingston Island in comparison with studies using traditional isolation methods. The assemblages were dominated by cold-adapted and cosmopolitan fungal taxa, including members of the genera Pseudogymnoascus, Malassezia and Rhodotorula, which include some taxa reported as opportunistic. Our results support the hypothesis that the presence of microbiota in the airspora indicates the possibility of dispersal around Antarctica in the air column. However, further aeromycology studies are required to understand the dynamics of fungal dispersal within and beyond Antarctica.

Diversity and distribution of hidden cultivable fungi associated with marine animals of Antarctica.

In the present study, we surveyed the distribution and diversity of fungal assemblages associated with 10 species of marine animals from Antarctica. The collections yielded 83 taxa from 27 distinct genera, which were identified using molecular biology methods. The most abundant taxa were Cladosporium sp. 1, Debaryomyces hansenii, Glaciozyma martinii, Metschnikowia australis, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, Thelebolus cf. globosus, Pseudogymnoascus pannorum, Tolypocladium tundrense, Metschnikowia australis, and different Penicillium species. The diversity, richness, and dominance of fungal assemblages ranged among the host; however, in general, the fungal community, which was composed of endemic and cold-adapted cosmopolitan taxa distributed across the different sites of Antarctic Peninsula, displayed high diversity, richness, and dominance indices. Our results contribute to knowledge about fungal diversity in the marine environment across the Antarctic Peninsula and their phylogenetic relationships with species that occur in other cold, temperate, and tropical regions of the World. Additionally, despite their extreme habitats, marine Antarctic animals shelter cryptic and complex fungal assemblages represented by endemic and cosmopolitan cold-adapted taxa, which may represent interesting models to study different symbiotic associations between fungi and their animal hosts in the extreme conditions of Antarctica.

Leveduras isoladas de uvas Vitis vinifera L. cultivadas na região equatorial brasileira / Yeasts isolated from Vitis vinifera L. grapes cultivated in Brazilian Equatorial region

O Vale do Submédio São Francisco, localizado nos estados da Bahia e Pernambuco, é uma das regiões mais promissoras na produção de vinho no Brasil. É ainda desconhecida a possibilidade dessa região em produzir vinhos por fermentação espontânea e gerar produto com características típicas regionais. Neste estudo foram isoladas e identificadas as leveduras da superfície de uvas Vitis vinifera L. frescas, cultivadas na região do Vale do Submédio São Francisco, Brasil. Os isolados foram identificados pelas características morfofisiológicas, habilidade de crescimento em meio de cultura ágar L-lisina e identificação bioquímica, baseando-se em testes fisiológicos (habilidade de fermentação da glicose, assimilação de fontes de carbono e nitrogênio, osmotolerância e termotolerância). Sessenta isolados de leveduras foram obtidos no meio ágar extrato de malte-extrato de levedura (YM); e todos foram pertencentes ao grupo não-Saccharomyces. Por meio de testes fisiológicos, 20 dos 60 isolados não foram agrupados em nenhum gênero. 40 dessas leveduras foram sugestivamente identificadas como pertencentes ao gênero Hanseniaspora spp. Dessas 40 amostras, 17 receberam sugestiva identificação como pertencentes à espécie Hanseniaspora guilliermondi. Em conclusão, a microbiota da casca das uvas cultivadas nessa região é predominada por leveduras não Saccharomyces, especificamente Hanseniaspora spp.

Yeasts Occurring in Surface and Mouth Cavity of Two Chelonian Species, Podocnemis expansa Schweigger and P. unifilis Troschel (Reptilia: Chelonia: Pelomedusidae), in the Javaés River Border of Araguaia National Park in Brazil.

Thirty-eight specimens of free-ranging Podocnemis expansa (Amazon turtle) and 22 of P. unifilis (Tracajá) were screened for yeast isolation from surface (plastron, skin, and nails), eye, and mouth cavity. A hundred and eighteen yeast isolates belonging to 39 species were obtained. Debaryomyces hansenii, Candida galli, C. sake, and Rhodotorula mucilaginosa were the most frequent species isolated from these chelonians. Species diversity measured by Shannon's index was shown to be low and a degree of dominance could be detected as species known as potential pathogens were commonly isolated. The effective number of species in plastron of P. expansa was higher than in mouth samples, but not in P. unifilis probably due to dietary factors. P. expansa animals were captured on the beaches, and the superficial yeast populations may include terrestrial species. P. unifilis animals were captured in the water and the yeasts from superficial sites may represent species from river water.