Are lulworthioid fungi dark septate endophytes of the dominant Mediterranean seagrass Posidonia oceanica?

Abstract

A previous study from Sicily, Italy, indicated that the dominant Mediterranean seagrass Posidonia oceanica forms a dark septate endophytic (DSE) association with a lulworthioid fungus ('Lulwoana sp.'). This conflicts with several other studies from the NW Mediterranean Sea that point at the recently described pleosporalean fungus Posidoniomyces atricolor. I collected P. oceanica roots at eight sites around Sicily and checked them for fungal colonization using light microscopy. At three sites, root fungal symbionts (mycobionts) were isolated into pure cultures and identified using ITS rDNA sequences. Posidoniomyces atricolor represented the most frequent mycobiont (56 isolates), closely followed by lulworthioid fungi (51). The obtained mycobiont spectrum also included Cladosporium (2), Alternaria (1), Corollospora (1), Fusarium (1), Penicillium (1) and Vishniacozyma (1) isolates. The characteristic DSE root colonization, similar to those occurring in terrestrial plants but not known from any other seagrass, was found in all investigated P. oceanica individuals. The microscopy screening suggests that P. atricolor is responsible for the observed DSE colonization. This study extends the known range of Pos. atricolor and the DSE association characteristic for P. oceanica to the southern Tyrrhenian Sea/Sicily. While lulworthioid fungi regularly occur in P. oceanica tissues, including terminal fine roots, their significance and functioning (e.g. parasitic, pathogenic, endophytic) are unknown and require further investigation. However, there is currently no proof that they belong among dark septate endophytes of this seagrass.