Abstract
The kingdom Fungi is a megadiverse group represented in all ecosystem types. The global diversity and distribution of fungal taxa are poorly known, in part due to the limitations related to traditional fruit-body survey methods. These previous hurdles are now being overcome by rapidly developing DNA-based surveys. Past fungal DNA surveys have predominantly examined soil samples, which capture high species diversity but represent only the local soil community. Recent work has shown that DNA samples collected from the air with cyclone samplers provide information on fungal diversity at the scale of some tens of kilometres around the sampling location. To test the feasibility of air sampling for investigating global patterns of fungal diversity, we established a new initiative called the Global Spore Sampling Project (GSSP). The GSSP currently involves 50 sampling locations distributed on all continents, with each location collecting two 24-hr samples per week. Here we describe the GSSP methodology, including the sampling, DNA extraction and sequencing protocols, and the bioinformatics pipeline. We further report results based on 75 pilot samples from five locations, of which three in Europe, one in Australia, and one in Greenland. The results show highly consistent patterns, suggesting that GSSP holds much promise for systematic global fungal monitoring. The GSSP provides highly standardized sampling across space and time, enabling much-improved estimation of total fungal diversity, the global distribution of different fungal groups, fungal fruiting phenology, and the extent of long-distance dispersal in fungi.
Highlights
Species in the megadiverse fungal kingdom play fundamental roles in ecosystem functioning as mutualists, decomposers, and pathogens
With the help of taxonomic placement of the unknown operational taxonomical units (OTUs) (Abarenkov et al, 2018), Global Spore Sampling Project (GSSP) will further help to reveal those groups of fungi that are least represented in taxonomy and sequence reference databases
It will provide a much-improved view of global fungal biogeography, shedding light e.g. on how fungal diversity changes along latitude
Summary
Species in the megadiverse fungal kingdom play fundamental roles in ecosystem functioning as mutualists, decomposers, and pathogens. Pathogenic fungi have important implications for human health and food production (Almeida et al, 2019) Despite their importance, our knowledge of global fungal diversity and biogeography is minimal. With the help of taxonomic placement of the unknown OTUs (Abarenkov et al, 2018), GSSP will further help to reveal those groups of fungi that are least represented in taxonomy and sequence reference databases Most importantly, it will provide a much-improved view of global fungal biogeography, shedding light e.g. on how fungal diversity changes along latitude. Based on research on soil fungi, such patterns may deviate substantially from those in other organisms (Tedersoo et al, 2014) These global data may reveal the distributions and temporal dynamics of fungi affecting humans, such as pathogenic fungi causing diseases or infecting crop plants. We further report results based on 75 pilot samples from five locations, of which three in Europe, one in Australia, and one in Greenland
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