Abstract
The fungal community of six sand samples from Saudi Arabia and Jordan deserts was characterized by culture‐independent analysis via next generation sequencing of the 18S rRNA genes and by culture‐dependent methods followed by sequencing of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. By 18S sequencing were identified from 163 to 507 OTUs per sample, with a percentage of fungi ranging from 3.5% to 82.7%. The identified fungal Phyla were Ascomycota, Basal fungi, and Basidiomycota and the most abundant detected classes were Dothideomycetes, Pezizomycetes, and Sordariomycetes. A total of 11 colonies of filamentous fungi were isolated and cultured from six samples, and the ITS sequencing pointed toward five different species of the class Sordariomycetes, belonging to genera Fusarium (F. redolens, F. solani, F. equiseti), Chaetomium (C. madrasense), and Albifimbria (A. terrestris). The results of this study show an unexpectedly large fungal biodiversity in the Middle East desert sand and their possible role and implications on human health.
Highlights
Hot deserts are characterized by exceptionally limited availability of water and nutrients, extreme temperatures with wide day/night excursion, strong winds, and high ultraviolet (UV) radiation (Makhalanyane et al, 2015)
We sampled a transect of three locations from Jordan to Central Saudi Arabia (Wadi Rum, Mada’in Saleh and Riyadh), exploiting for the first time eukaryotic population diversity of surface desert sand samples, with particular reference to fungal communities, using a metagenomic DNA sequencing approach as well as culture-based analyses
The most abundant fungal Phylum identified in all the samples analyzed was Ascomycota and the prevalent classes were Dothideomycetes, Sordariomycetes, and Pezizomycetes
Summary
Hot deserts are characterized by exceptionally limited availability of water and nutrients, extreme temperatures with wide day/night excursion, strong winds, and high ultraviolet (UV) radiation (Makhalanyane et al, 2015). The climate of Saudi Arabia deserts is represented by extremely high daytime temperatures and an extreme temperature drop during nights, while Jordan has moderate temperature. Only dated culture-based studies have been carried out on Saudi Arabia desert fungi (Abdel-hafez, 1981; Abdel-Hafez, 1982a,b,c,d), whereas the fungal communities of Jordan deserts have not yet been investigated. The aim of this study was to improve the knowledge of the biodiversity of the filamentous fungi in these deserts sand by culture-dependent and independent methods. The identification of these fungi could be useful in the recognition of new sources for bioactive metabolites and in the determination of hazards posed by desert fungi on the development of human infection diseases
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