Abstract
This study analysed the mycobiota on exoskeleton debris of the crab Neohelice granulata collected from an alkaline salt marsh and assessed the in vitro enzyme ability of selected isolates at different temperatures and pH. Exoskeleton fragments were incubated in moist chambers on paper and on agar medium. Growth and enzyme ability of selected fungi were also evaluated in agar media with 0.5 % casein, 1% Tween®20, and Chitin-Azure® by the production of a halo/growth ratio. We identified 22 fungal species using both methods. Since the two isolation methods added information to one another, both ones are necessary to recover the cultivable mycobiota associated with the exoskeleton debris. All fungi showed greater levels of enzyme activity in alkaline than acid medium with Tween®20. The halo diameter on casein and chitin varied according to the fungal isolate and pH. Most fungi had a larger halo at 4°C than at the other temperatures tested. Clonostachys rosea showed the greatest activity in all media at 4ºC. We conclude that exoskeletons of the N. granulata are a source of fungi able to produce enzyme activities that show differences upon incubation conditions to which they are cultivated such as ones including specific temperatures and pH values.
Highlights
Extreme ecosystems are currently considered the most interesting places to investigate microorganisms and/or their roles and enzymes, mainly due to the stressful conditions in which they grow
There were no significant differences between diversity and evenness indexes of the mycobiota obtained from exoskeleton pieces incubated in moist chambers (H:1.86; E: 0.48) and from washed exoskeletons cultivated on agar media (H: 2.13, E: 0.51; P> 0.001)
Two isolation methods were used to recover the cultivable mycobiota associated with the moult of N. granulata inhabiting a brackish salt marsh in Campos del Tuyú National Park (Argentina), which were complementary because they revealed specific taxa
Summary
Extreme ecosystems are currently considered the most interesting places to investigate microorganisms and/or their roles and enzymes, mainly due to the stressful conditions in which they grow. Our working group and other researchers at world level are analyzing in different stressful ecosystems specific organic materials as source of fungi to identify isolates with specific physiological behaviours and able to synthetize enzymes, that might be active under stressful conditions and to be evaluated as potential tools for biotechnological applications (Saparrat et al 2007, Franco et al 2018) An example of this type of ecosystem, from which there is not any information available, is a brackish salt marsh called “cangrejal”, which is located at Campos del Tuyú National Park, in the eastern part of the Salado Sedimentary Basin (36°21 ́00”S; 56°52 ́00”W).
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