Abstract
BackgroundShort-term experiments have indicated that warmer temperatures can alter fungal biomass production and CO2 respiration, with potential consequences for soil C storage. However, we know little about the capacity of fungi to adapt to warming in ways that may alter C dynamics. Thus, we exposed Neurospora discreta to moderately warm (16 °C) and warm (28 °C) selective temperatures for 1500 mitotic generations, and then examined changes in mycelial growth rate, biomass, spore production, and CO2 respiration. We tested the hypothesis that strains will adapt to its selective temperature. Specifically, we expected that adapted strains would grow faster, and produce more spores per unit biomass (i.e., relative spore production). In contrast, they should generate less CO2 per unit biomass due to higher efficiency in carbon use metabolism (i.e., lower mass specific respiration, MSR).ResultsIndeed, N. discreta adapted to warm temperatures, based on patterns of relative spore production. Adapted strains produced more spores per unit biomass than parental strains in the selective temperature. Contrary to our expectations, this increase in relative spore production was accompanied by an increase in MSR and a reduction in mycelial growth rate and biomass, compared to parental strains.ConclusionsAdaptation of N. discreta to warm temperatures may have elicited a tradeoff between biomass production and relative spore production, possibly because relative spore production required higher MSR rates. Therefore, our results do not support the idea that adaptation to warm temperatures will lead to a more efficient carbon use metabolism. Our data might help improve climate change model simulations and provide more concise predictions of decomposition processes and carbon feedbacks to the atmosphere.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12862-015-0482-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Short-term experiments have indicated that warmer temperatures can alter fungal biomass production and CO2 respiration, with potential consequences for soil C storage
We examined the adaptation of N. discreta to warm temperatures
The strains grew along 30 cm race tubes while exposed to the selective temperature
Summary
Short-term experiments have indicated that warmer temperatures can alter fungal biomass production and CO2 respiration, with potential consequences for soil C storage. We can examine evolutionary responses of fungi to warming by conducting selection experiments on a model fungus with a fast generation time. This approach should provide information that we can compare with community and ecosystem level observations [7]. Toward this end, we selected the renowned model fungus Neurospora discreta, because it is a globallydistributed saprotrophic fungus that persists in natural fungal communities [8,9,10,11,12]. It is readily manipulated under laboratory conditions, where it can complete thousands of generations within a few months [13]
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