Fungal communities in Scandinavian lakes along a longitudinal gradient

Abstract This study investigates the diversity and distribution of fungal communities in 77 oligotrophic lakes in southern Norway and Sweden using 454-sequencing with fungal-specific primers targeting ITS2 region of the rRNA gene. A total of 232 operational taxonomic units(OTUs) belonging to four recognized phyla were detected. A large proportion (70.69%) of the detected OTUs were Dikarya( Ascomycotaand Basidiomycota), while Chytridiomycotadominated quantitatively (63.37% reads). The most abundant aquaticfungi were taxonomically assigned to Chytridiomycota, whose members are known to be saprobes on a large variety of substrates and parasites of phytoplankton, zooplankton, fungi and invertebrates, suggesting that resident fungi strictly depend on surfaces and, therefore, are closely associated with other types of aquaticorganisms. Our results indicate that surface waters of oligotrophic lakes harbour a diverse pool of fungi, both with tentative terrestrial and true aquaticorigin. Longitude and environmental factors were important in structuring the fungal community composition.