Abstract
When colonizing stone monuments, microcolonial black fungi are considered one of the most severe and resistant groups of biodeteriorating organisms, posing a very difficult challenge to conservators and biologists working with cultural heritage preservation. During an experimental survey aimed to isolate fungi from a biodeteriorated limestone art piece in the Old Cathedral of Coimbra, Portugal (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), an unknown microcolonial black fungus was retrieved. The isolated fungus was studied through a complete examination based on multilocus phylogeny of a combined dataset of ITS rDNA, LSU and rpb2, in conjunction with morphological, physiological, and ecological characteristics. This integrative analysis allows for the description of a new family, Aeminiaceae fam. nov., a new genus Aeminium gen. nov., and a new species, Aeminiumludgeri sp. nov., in the order Capnodiales.
Highlights
Microcolonial black fungi (MCBF) are a remarkably diverse fungal group characterized by unique phenotypic features, such as strongly melanized cell walls, slow growth, ability to shift from a mycelial to a meristematic state, high morphological plasticity, and predominant asexual reproduction (Butinar et al 2005, Sterflinger 2006, Selbmann et al 2015)
The phylogenetic analysis was performed using the aligned sequences of the concatenated three-gene dataset with 1301 characters (627 for LSU, 204 for rpb2 and 470 for ITS), encompassing 133 representative sequences belonging to the different families of the order Capnodiales (Fig. 1)
From the phylogenetic data obtained in this study, we were able to verify that the isolated fungi clustered in a monophyletic group with strong support (100% Bayesian posterior probability), distinctly placed from other families in the order Capnodiales but related to the families Extremaceae and Neodevriesiaceae
Summary
Microcolonial black fungi (MCBF) are a remarkably diverse fungal group characterized by unique phenotypic features, such as strongly melanized cell walls, slow growth, ability to shift from a mycelial to a meristematic state, high morphological plasticity, and predominant asexual reproduction (Butinar et al 2005, Sterflinger 2006, Selbmann et al 2015) They exhibit several physiological adaptations allowing their tolerance to various stress factors, including extreme temperatures, high solar and ultraviolet radiation, osmotic changes, and severe drought (Sterflinger 2006; Zakharova et al 2013, Selbmann et al 2015). Due to their powerful destructive potential and their high resistance to many types of restoration treatments, they are one of the major challenges for conservators and biologists working with biodeterioration of cultural heritage materials (Isola et al 2013)
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