Six new polyphenolic metabolites isolated from the Suillus granulatus and their cytotoxicity against HepG2 cells.

Edible mushrooms are an important source of nutraceuticals and for the discovery of bioactive metabolites as pharmaceuticals. In this work, six new polyphenolic metabolites suillusol A-D (1-4), suillusinoic acid (5), ethyl suillusinoate (6), were isolated from the Suillus granulatus. The structures of new compounds were elucidated using high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance data, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. As far as we know, compound 1 represents an unprecedented type of natural product and compound 3 represents a new type of polyphenol fungal pigment, which may be biosynthetically related to thelephoric acid. The cytotoxicity against HepG2 cells of the new compounds were also evaluated. Compound 2 demonstrate significant inhibitory activity against HepG2 cells with IC50 values of 10.85 µM, surpassing that of positive control cisplatin. Moreover, compound 1 and 3 also exhibited moderate cytotoxic activity with their IC50 values measured at 35.60 and 32.62 µM, respectively. Our results indicate that S. granulatus is a rich source of chemical constituents that may provide new lead compounds for the development of anticancer agents.

Survival dynamics of stick insect and the impact of environmental factors on natural fungal infection during the rainy season.

Phasmatodea, commonly known as stick insects, are recognized as noteworthy pests globally, impacting agriculture and forest ecosystems. Among them, the outbreak of Ramulus mikado has emerged as a notable concern in East Asian forests. Recently, Metarhizium phasmatodeae has been identified as utilizing stick insects as hosts. We have observed evidence of this entomopathogenic fungus infecting stick insects. Given the increase in these occurrences during the rainy period, this study investigated the relationship between the survival of R. mikado and the M. phasmatodeae infection during the rainy seasons of 2022 and 2023. We collected stick insects in two representative forests of the Republic of Korea and examined insect survival, fungal infection, and various environmental factors. No infections were detected in specimens collected in June before the rainy season, but from July onwards, both the mortality of R. mikado and the fungal infection substantially increased. By the last sampling date of each year, 75% (2022), 71.4% (2023) of the specimens were infected, and over 90% of the total individuals succumbed as a result. Fungi isolated from deceased R. mikado were successfully identified as M. phasmatodeae using morphological and taxonomic approaches. Various statistical analyses, including principal component analysis and modeling, revealed a robust association between fungal infection and the survival of stick insects. The results highlight the correlation between mass deaths of stick insects and fungal infection, particularly during the summer rainy season. These findings offer valuable insights for forecasting R. mikado population in the upcoming year and developing effective pest control strategies.

Does sorghum phenolic extract have antifungal effect?

This study aimed to evaluate the antifungal effect of SC319 sorghum phenolic extract (SPE) on the Aspergillus, Fusarium, Penicillium, Stenocarpella, Colletotrichum, and Macrophomina genera. SPE was extracted by 20% ethanol and used in four assays: (1) against Fusarium verticillioides in solid (PDA) and liquid (PD) potato dextrose media; (2) Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) assay with 16 fungi isolates; (3) Conidial Germination Rate (CGR) with 14 fungi isolates and (4) Growth Curve (GC) with 11 fungi isolates. There was no reduction in the mycelial growth (colony diameter and dry weight) and in the number of Fusarium verticillioides spores in assay 1 (PDA and PD). The colony's dry weight was almost six times higher in the presence than in the absence of SPE. All SPE samples presented MIC (assay 1) above the maximum concentration tested (5000 µg.mL-1) for the 16 isolates. Also, there was no inhibitory effect of SPE on conidia germination rate (CGR). Oppositely, in GC assay, the control had a higher CFU count than the samples with SPE in 24 h. This result suggests that SPE can delay the fungal growth in the first hours of incubation, which is an important finding that may help reduce the severity of fungal diseases in plants. However, further studies are needed to confirm these results, including sorghum genotypes with different profiles of phenolic compounds. Although the SC319 SPE was not effective as an antifungal agent, it may have potential as a growth promoter of beneficial fungi in the food and pharmaceutical industries.

Assessment of textile effluent treatment by immobilized Trametes pubescens MB 89 for plant growth promotion.

Industrialization and the ever-increasing world population have diminished high-quality water resources for sustainable agriculture. It is imperative to effectively treat industrial effluent to render the treated water available for crop cultivation. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of textile effluent treated with Trametes pubescens MB 89 in supporting maize cultivation. The fungal treatment reduced the amounts of Co, Pb and As in the textile effluent. The biological oxygen demand, total dissolved solids and total suspended solids were within the permissible limits in the treated effluent. The data indicated that the irrigation of maize with fungal-treated textile effluent improved the growth parameters of the plant including root, shoot length, leaf area and chlorophyll content. Moreover, better antioxidant activity, total phenol content and protein content in roots, stems and leaves of maize plants were obtained. Photosynthetic parameters (potential quantum yield, electron transport rate and fluorescence yield of non-photochemical losses other than heat) were also improved in the plants irrigated with treated effluent as compared to the control groups. In conclusion, the treatment of textile effluent with the immobilized T. pubescens presents a sustainable solution to minimize chemical pollution and effectively utilize water resources.

The AMSlide for noninvasive time-lapse imaging of arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis, the nutritional partnership between AM fungi and most plant species, is globally ubiquitous and of great ecological and agricultural importance. Studying the processes of AM symbiosis is confounded by its highly spatiotemporally dynamic nature. While microscopy methods exist to probe the spatial side of this plant-fungal interaction, the temporal side remains more challenging, as reliable deep-tissue time-lapse imaging requires both symbiotic partners to remain undisturbed over prolonged time periods. Here, we introduce the AMSlide: a noninvasive, high-resolution, live-imaging system optimised for AM symbiosis research. We demonstrate the AMSlide's applications in confocal microscopy of mycorrhizal roots, from whole colonisation zones to subcellular structures, over timeframes from minutes to weeks. The AMSlide's versatility for different microscope set-ups, imaging techniques, and plant and fungal species is also outlined. It is hoped that the AMSlide will be applied in future research to fill in the temporal blanks in our understanding of AM symbiosis, as well as broader root and rhizosphere processes.

Tuning interdomain conjugation to enable in situ population modification in yeasts.

The ability to modify and control natural and engineered microbiomes is essential for biotechnology and biomedicine. Fungi are critical members of most microbiomes, yet technology for modifying the fungal members of a microbiome has lagged far behind that for bacteria. Interdomain conjugation (IDC) is a promising approach, as DNA transfer from bacterial cells to yeast enables in situ modification. While such genetic transfers have been known to naturally occur in a wide range of eukaryotes and are thought to contribute to their evolution, IDC has been understudied as a technique to control fungal or fungal-bacterial consortia. One major obstacle to the widespread use of IDC is its limited efficiency. In this work, we manipulated metabolic and physical interactions between genetically tractable Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae to control the incidence of IDC. We test the landscape of population interactions between the bacterial donors and yeast recipients to find that bacterial commensalism leads to maximized IDC, both in culture and in mixed colonies. We demonstrate the capacity of cell-to-cell binding via mannoproteins to assist both IDC incidence and bacterial commensalism in culture and model how these tunable controls can predictably yield a range of IDC outcomes. Furthermore, we demonstrate that these controls can be utilized to irreversibly alter a recipient yeast population, by both "rescuing" a poor-growing recipient population and collapsing a stable population via a novel IDC-mediated CRISPR/Cas9 system.IMPORTANCEFungi are important but often unaddressed members of most natural and synthetic microbial communities. This work highlights opportunities for modifying yeast microbiome populations through bacterial conjugation. While conjugation has been recognized for its capacity to deliver engineerable DNA to a range of cells, its dependence on cell contact has limited its efficiency. Here, we find "knobs" to control DNA transfer, by engineering the metabolic dependence between bacterial donors and yeast recipients and by changing their ability to physically adhere to each other. Importantly, we functionally validate these "knobs" by irreversibly altering yeast populations. We use these controls to "rescue" a failing yeast population, demonstrate the capacity of conjugated CRISPR/Cas9 to depress or collapse populations, and show that conjugation can be easily interrupted by disrupting cell-to-cell binding. These results offer building blocks toward in situ mycobiome editing, with significant implications for clinical treatments of fungal pathogens and other fungal system engineering.

Optimised Degradation of Lignocelluloses by Edible Filamentous Fungi for the Efficient Biorefinery of Sugar Beet Pulp.

The degradation of the complex structure of lignocellulosic biomass is important for its further biorefinery to value-added bioproducts. The use of effective fungal species for the optimised degradation of biomass can promote the effectiveness of the biorefinery of such raw material. In this study, the optimisation of processing parameters (temperature, time, and s/w ratio) for cellulase activity and reducing sugar (RS) production through the hydrolysis of sugar beet pulp (SBP) by edible filamentous fungi of Aspergillus, Fusarium, Botrytis, Penicillium, Rhizopus, and Verticillium spp. was performed. The production of RS was analysed at various solid/water (s/w) ratios (1:10-1:20), different incubation temperatures (20-35 °C), and processing times (60-168 h). The Aspergillus niger CCF 3264 and Penicillium oxalicum CCF 3438 strains showed the most effective carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) degrading activity and also sugar recovery (15.9-44.8%) from SBP biomass in the one-factor experiments. Mathematical data evaluation indicated that the highest RS concentration (39.15 g/100 g d.w.) and cellulolytic activity (6.67 U/g d.w.) could be achieved using A. niger CCF 3264 for the degradation of SBP at 26 °C temperature with 136 h of processing time and a 1:15 solid/water ratio. This study demonstrates the potential of fungal degradation to be used for SBP biorefining.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and Streptomyces: brothers in arms to shape the structure and function of the hyphosphere microbiome in the early stage of interaction.

BACKGROUND: Fungi and bacteria coexist in a wide variety of environments, and their interactions are now recognized as the norm in most agroecosystems. These microbial communities harbor keystone taxa, which facilitate connectivity between fungal and bacterial communities, influencing their composition and functions. The roots of most plants are associated with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, which develop dense networks of hyphae in the soil. The surface of these hyphae (called the hyphosphere) is the region where multiple interactions with microbial communities can occur, e.g., exchanging or responding to each other's metabolites. However, the presence and importance of keystone taxa in the AM fungal hyphosphere remain largely unknown. RESULTS: Here, we used in vitro and pot cultivation systems of AM fungi to investigate whether certain keystone bacteria were able to shape the microbial communities growing in the hyphosphere and potentially improved the fitness of the AM fungal host. Based on various AM fungi, soil leachates, and synthetic microbial communities, we found that under organic phosphorus (P) conditions, AM fungi could selectively recruit bacteria that enhanced their P nutrition and competed with less P-mobilizing bacteria. Specifically, we observed a privileged interaction between the isolate Streptomyces sp. D1 and AM fungi of the genus Rhizophagus, where (1) the carbon compounds exuded by the fungus were acquired by the bacterium which could mineralize organic P and (2) the in vitro culturable bacterial community residing on the surface of hyphae was in part regulated by Streptomyces sp. D1, primarily by inhibiting the bacteria with weak P-mineralizing ability, thereby enhancing AM fungi to acquire P. CONCLUSIONS: This work highlights the multi-functionality of the keystone bacteria Streptomyces sp. D1 in fungal-bacteria and bacterial-bacterial interactions at the hyphal surface of AM fungi. Video Abstract.

Diversity of fungal communities on Cabernet and Aglianico grapes from vineyards located in Southern Italy.

Grape-associated microbial community is influenced by a combination of viticultural, climatic, pedological and anthropological factors, collectively known as terroir. Therefore, grapes of the same cultivar grown in different areas can be appreciated for their distinctive biogeographic characteristics. In our previous study, we showed that the phenotypic response of Aglianico and Cabernet grapevines from Molise and Sicily regions is significantly influenced by the prevailing pedoclimatic conditions, particularly soil physical properties. However, the scale at which microbial communities differ could be important in clarifying the concept of terroir, including whether it is linked to the grape variety present in a particular vineyard. To explore this further, in the research presented here, a comparative study on the fungal communities inhabiting the berry surfaces of Cabernet and Aglianico cultivars was conducted on different vineyards located in Southern Italy (Molise, Sicily and Campania regions, the first two of which had been involved in our previous study) by using high-throughput sequencing (HTS) and multivariate data analysis. The descriptive approach through relative abundance analysis showed the most abundant phyla (Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Chytridiomycota), families (Cladosporiaceae, Saccotheciaceae, Pleosporaceae, Saccharomycodaceae, Sporidiobolaceae, Didymellaceae, Filobasidiaceae, Bulleribasidiaceae, and Saccharomycetaceae) and genera (Cladosporium, Aureobasidium, Alternaria, Stemphylium and Filobasidium) detected on grape berries. The multivariate data analysis performed by using different packages (phyloseq, Vegan, mixOmics, microbiomeMarker and ggplot2) highlighted that the variable "vineyard location" significantly affect the fungal community, while the variable "grape variety" has no significant effect. Thus, some taxa are found to be part of specific vineyard ecosystems rather than specific grape varieties, giving additional information on the microbial contribution to wine quality, thanks to the presence of fermentative yeasts or, conversely, to the involvement in negative or detrimental roles, due to the presence of grape-deriving fungi implied in the spoilage of wine or in grapevine pathogenesis. In this connection, the main functions of core taxa fungi, whose role in the vineyard environment is still poorly understood, are also described.

Sanghuangporus vaninii extract ameliorates hyperlipidemia in rats by mechanisms identified with transcriptome analysis.

The increasing incidence of hyperlipidemia is a serious threat to public health. The development of effective and safe lipid-lowering drugs with few side effects is necessary. The purpose of this study was to assess the lipid-lowering activity of Sanghuangporus vaninii extract (SVE) in rat experiments and reveal the molecular mechanism by transcriptome analysis. Hyperlipidemia was induced in the animals using a high-fat diet for 4 weeks. At the end of the 4th week, hyperlipidemic rats were assigned into two control groups (model and positive simvastatin control) and three treatment groups that received SVE at 200, 400, or 800 mg kg-1 day-1 for another 4 weeks. A last control group comprised normal chow-fed rats. At the end of the 8th week, rats were sacrificed and lipid serum levels, histopathology, and liver transcriptome profiles were determined. SVE was demonstrated to relieve the lipid disorder and improve histopathological liver changes in a dose-dependent manner. The transcriptomic analysis identified changes in hepatocyte gene activity for major pathways including steroid biosynthesis, bile secretion, cholesterol metabolism, AMPK signaling, thyroid hormone signaling, and glucagon signaling. The changed expression of crucial genes in the different groups was confirmed by qPCR. Collectively, this study revealed that SVE could relieve hyperlipidemia in rats, the molecular mechanism might be to promote the metabolism of lipids and the excretion of cholesterol, inhibit the biosynthesis of cholesterol by activating the AMPK signaling pathway, the thyroid hormone signaling pathway, and the glucagon signaling pathway.

Three strategy rules of filamentous fungi in hydrocarbon remediation: an overview.

Remediation of hydrocarbon contaminations requires much attention nowadays since it causes detrimental effects on land and even worse impacts on aquatic environments. Tools of bioremediation especially filamentous fungi permissible for cleaning up as much as conceivable, at least they turn into non-toxic residues with less consumed periods. Inorganic chemicals, CO2, H2O, and cell biomass are produced as a result of the breakdown and mineralization of petroleum hydrocarbon pollutants. This paper presents a detailed overview of three strategic rules of filamentous fungi in remediating the various aliphatic, and aromatic hydrocarbon compounds: utilizing carbons from hydrocarbons as sole energy, Co-metabolism manners (Enzymatic and Non-enzymatic theories), and Biosorption approaches. Upliftment in the degradation rate of complex hydrocarbon by the Filamentous Fungi in consortia scenario we can say, "Fungal Talk", which includes a variety of cellular mechanisms, including biosurfactant production, biomineralization, and precipitation, etc., This review not only displays its efficiency but showcases the field applications - cost-effective, reliable, eco-friendly, easy to culture as biomass, applicable in both land and any water bodies in operational environment cleanups. Nevertheless, the potentiality of fungi-human interaction has not been fully understood, henceforth further studies are highly endorsed with spore pathogenicity of the fungal species capable of high remediation rate, and the gene knockout study, if the specific peptides cause toxicity to any living matters via Genomics and Proteomics approaches, before application of any in situ or ex situ environments.

Fungal Thalamic Abscess Caused by Rhinocladiella mackenziei in an Immunocompetent Patient.

Cerebral phaeohyphomycosis (CP) stands as an exceedingly uncommon yet severe type of fungal infection affecting the central nervous system, attributable to dematiaceous fungi. Despite the patient's immune status, CP is associated with grave prognosis. In the present study, authors describe the first case of left thalamic fungal abscess due to Rhinocladiella mackenziei in an immunocompetent 39-year-old male patient in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Early diagnosis by direct microscopy of aspirated pus and extensive management with surgical excision and prolonged antifungal coverage showed favourable outcome. The present case is one of the few cases documented globally who has survived.

Novel Alkaloids from Aspergillus fumigatus VDL36, an Endophytic Fungus Associated with Vaccinium dunalianum.

Eleven alkaloids (1-11) including seven new ones, 1-7, were isolated from the solid fermentation of Aspergillus fumigatus VDL36, an endophytic fungus isolated from the leaves of Vaccinium dunalianum Wight (Ericaceae), a perennial evergreen shrub distributed across the Southwest regions of China, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of extensive spectroscopic methods. The isolates were evaluated for in vitro antifungal activities against five phytopathogenic fungi (Fusarium oxysporum, Coriolus versicolor, Fusarium solani, Botrytis cinerea, Fusarium graminearum). As a result, the new compounds fumigaclavine I (1), 13-ethoxycyclotryprostatin A (5), 13-dehydroxycyclotryprostatin A (6), and 12ß-hydroxy-13-oxofumitremorgin C (7) exhibited antifungal activities with MIC values of 7.8-62.5 µg/mL which were comparable to the two positive controls ketoconazole (MIC = 7.8-31.25 µg/mL) and carbendazim (MIC = 1.95-7.8 µg/mL). Furthermore, compounds 1 and 5 demonstrated potent protective and curative effects against the tomato gray mold in vivo. Preliminary structure-activity relationships of the tested indole diketopiperazine alkaloids indicate that the introduction of a substituent group at position C-13 enhances their biological activities.

Novel insights into dimethylsulfoniopropionate cleavage by deep subseafloor fungi.

Dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), a key organic sulfur compound in marine and subseafloor sediments, is degraded by phytoplankton and bacteria, resulting in the release of the climate-active volatile gas dimethylsulfide (DMS). However, it remains unclear if dominant eukaryotic fungi in subseafloor sediments possess specific abilities and metabolic mechanisms for DMSP degradation and DMS formation. Our study provides the first evidence that fungi from coal-bearing sediments ∼2 km below the seafloor, such as Aspergillus spp., Chaetomium globosum, Cladosporium sphaerospermum, and Penicillium funiculosum, can degrade DMSP and produce DMS. In Aspergillus sydowii 29R-4-F02, which exhibited the highest DMSP-dependent DMS production rate (16.95 pmol/µg protein/min), two DMSP lyase genes, dddP and dddW, were identified. Remarkably, the dddW gene, previously observed only in bacteria, was found to be crucial for fungal DMSP cleavage. These findings not only extend the list of fungi capable of degrading DMSP, but also enhance our understanding of DMSP lyase diversity and the role of fungi in DMSP decomposition in subseafloor sedimentary ecosystems.

Spatial organisation of fungi in soil biocrusts of the Kalahari is related to bacterial community structure and may indicate ecological functions of fungi in drylands.

Biological soil crusts, or biocrusts, are microbial communities found in soil surfaces in drylands and in other locations where vascular plant cover is incomplete. They are functionally significant for numerous ecosystem services, most notably in the C fixation and storage due to the ubiquity of photosynthetic microbes. Whereas carbon fixation and storage have been well studied in biocrusts, the composition, function and characteristics of other organisms in the biocrust such as heterotrophic bacteria and especially fungi are considerably less studied and this limits our ability to gain a holistic understanding of biocrust ecology and function. In this research we characterised the fungal community in biocrusts developed on Kalahari Sand soils from a site in southwest Botswana, and combined these data with previously published bacterial community data from the same site. By identifying organisational patterns in the community structure of fungi and bacteria, we found fungi that were either significantly associated with biocrust or the soil beneath biocrusts, leading to the conclusion that they likely perform functions related to the spatial organisation observed. Furthermore, we showed that within biocrusts bacterial and fungal community structures are correlated with each other i.e., a change in the bacterial community is reflected by a corresponding change in the fungal community. Importantly, this correlation but that this correlation does not occur in nearby soils. We propose that different fungi engage in short-range and long-range interactions with dryland soil surface bacteria. We have identified fungi which are candidates for further studies into their potential roles in biocrust ecology at short ranges (e.g., processing of complex compounds for waste management and resource provisioning) and longer ranges (e.g., translocation of resources such as water and the fungal loop model). This research shows that fungi are likely to have a greater contribution to biocrust function and dryland ecology than has generally been recognised.

Pleurotus extract-mediated selenium and zinc nanoparticles exhibited improved yield of biofortified fruit bodies.

The current study was aimed for the generation of Pleurotus extracellular extract-mediated selenium and zinc-oxide nanoparticles (NPs). The Pleurotus djamor (PD) and Pleurotus sajor-caju (PSC) extracts were incubated with different concentrations of sodium selenate and zinc acetate to yield BioSeNPs and BioZnONPs. The NPs formation led to visual color change (brick-red and white for Se and Zn nanosols, respectively). The synthesized NPs were spherical with size of 124 and 68 nm and 84 and 91 nm for PD and PSC BioSeNPs and BioZnONPs respectively. The UV absorbance peaks were recorded at 293.2 and 292.2 nm and 365.9 and 325.5 nm for BioSeNPs and BioZnONPs derived from PD and PSC respectively. FT-IR spectroscopy indicated specific functional group adoration on metal-based NPs. On supplementation in straw, these NPs improved the fruit body yield besides enhancing their protein and Se/ Zn contents. These biofortified mushrooms could be potential dietary supplement/ nutraceutical.

Shifts in mycorrhizal types of fungi and plants in response to fertilisation, warming and herbivory in a tundra grassland.

Climate warming is severely affecting high-latitude regions. In the Arctic tundra, it may lead to enhanced soil nutrient availability and interact with simultaneous changes in grazing pressure. It is presently unknown how these concurrently occurring global change drivers affect the root-associated fungal communities, particularly mycorrhizal fungi, and whether changes coincide with shifts in plant mycorrhizal types. We investigated changes in root-associated fungal communities and mycorrhizal types of the plant community in a 10-yr factorial experiment with warming, fertilisation and grazing exclusion in a Finnish tundra grassland. The strongest determinant of the root-associated fungal community was fertilisation, which consistently increased potential plant pathogen abundance and had contrasting effects on the different mycorrhizal fungal types, contingent on other treatments. Plant mycorrhizal types went through pronounced shifts, with warming favouring ecto- and ericoid mycorrhiza but not under fertilisation and grazing exclusion. Combination of all treatments resulted in dominance by arbuscular mycorrhizal plants. However, shifts in plant mycorrhizal types vs fungi were mostly but not always aligned in their magnitude and direction. Our results show that our ability to predict shifts in symbiotic and antagonistic fungal communities depend on simultaneous consideration of multiple global change factors that jointly alter plant and fungal communities.

Trees adjust nutrient acquisition strategies across tropical forest secondary succession.

Nutrient limitation may constrain the ability of recovering and mature tropical forests to serve as a carbon sink. However, it is unclear to what extent trees can utilize nutrient acquisition strategies - especially root phosphatase enzymes and mycorrhizal symbioses - to overcome low nutrient availability across secondary succession. Using a large-scale, full factorial nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization experiment of 76 plots along a secondary successional gradient in lowland wet tropical forests of Panama, we tested the extent to which root phosphatase enzyme activity and mycorrhizal colonization are flexible, and if investment shifts over succession, reflective of changing nutrient limitation. We also conducted a meta-analysis to test how tropical trees adjust these strategies in response to nutrient additions and across succession. We find that tropical trees are dynamic, adjusting investment in strategies - particularly root phosphatase - in response to changing nutrient conditions through succession. These changes reflect a shift from strong nitrogen to weak phosphorus limitation over succession. Our meta-analysis findings were consistent with our field study; we found more predictable responses of root phosphatase than mycorrhizal colonization to nutrient availability. Our findings suggest that nutrient acquisition strategies respond to nutrient availability and demand in tropical forests, likely critical for alleviating nutrient limitation.

Alterations in the gut mycobiome with coronary artery disease severity.

BACKGROUND: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a prevalent cardiovascular condition, and numerous studies have linked gut bacterial imbalance to CAD. However, the relationship of gut fungi, another essential component of the intestinal microbiota, with CAD remains poorly understood. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, we analyzed fecal samples from 132 participants, split into 31 healthy controls and 101 CAD patients, further categorized into stable CAD (38), unstable angina (41), and acute myocardial infarction (22) groups. We conducted internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) and 16S sequencing to examine gut fungal and bacterial communities. FINDINGS: Based on ITS1 analyses, Ascomycota and Basidiomycota were the dominant fungal phyla in all the groups. The α diversity of gut mycobiome remained unaltered among the control group and CAD subgroups; however, the structure and composition of the mycobiota differed significantly with the progression of CAD. The abundances of 15 taxa gradually changed with the occurrence and progression of the disease and were significantly correlated with major CAD risk factor indicators. The mycobiome changes were closely linked to gut microbiome dysbiosis in patients with CAD. Furthermore, disease classifiers based on gut fungi effectively identified subgroups with different degrees of CAD. Finally, the FUNGuild analysis further categorized these fungi into distinct ecological guilds. INTERPRETATION: In conclusion, the structure and composition of the gut fungal community differed from healthy controls to various subtypes of CAD, revealing key fungi taxa alterations linked to the onset and progression of CAD. Our study highlights the potential role of gut fungi in CAD and may facilitate the development of novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets for CAD. FUNDING: This work was supported by the grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82170302, 92168117, 82370432), National clinical key specialty construction project- Cardiovascular Surgery, the Reform and Development Program of Beijing Institute of Respiratory Medicine (No. Ggyfz202417, Ggyfz202308), the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (No. 7222068); and the Clinical Research Incubation Program of Beijing Chaoyang Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University (No. CYFH202209).