# Diversity and distribution of lichen-associated fungi in the Ny-Ålesund Region (Svalbard, High Arctic) as revealed by 454 pyrosequencing

## TL;DR

This study explores the diversity of fungi living with lichens in the Arctic, revealing many new fungal species and their possible origins.

## Contribution

The study reveals high fungal diversity in lichen-associated communities and suggests long-distance dispersal and host influence in Arctic fungal ecology.

## Key findings

- Lichen-associated fungi in the Arctic showed high diversity with 370 operational taxonomic units identified.
- Most fungal OTUs were related to fungi from soil, rock, and plant habitats in polar and alpine regions.
- Host-related factors significantly shaped the composition of lichen-associated fungal communities.

## Abstract

This study assessed the diversity and distribution of fungal communities associated with seven lichen species in the Ny-Ålesund Region (Svalbard, High Arctic) using Roche 454 pyrosequencing with fungal-specific primers targeting the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the ribosomal rRNA gene. Lichen-associated fungal communities showed high diversity, with a total of 42,259 reads belonging to 370 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) being found. Of these OTUs, 294 belonged to Ascomycota, 54 to Basidiomycota, 2 to Zygomycota, and 20 to unknown fungi. Leotiomycetes, Dothideomycetes, and Eurotiomycetes were the major classes, whereas the dominant orders were Helotiales, Capnodiales, and Chaetothyriales. Interestingly, most fungal OTUs were closely related to fungi from various habitats (e.g., soil, rock, plant tissues) in the Arctic, Antarctic and alpine regions, which suggests that living in association with lichen thalli may be a transient stage of life cycle for these fungi and that long-distance dispersal may be important to the fungi in the Arctic. In addition, host-related factors shaped the lichen-associated fungal communities in this region. Taken together, these results suggest that lichens thalli act as reservoirs of diverse fungi from various niches, which may improve our understanding of fungal evolution and ecology in the Arctic.