Abstract
Caves are important roosts for hundreds of bat species worldwide. Such habitats frequently harbour rich and extremely specialised biotas; however, they remain among the least-studied places on Earth, particularly in the tropical region. The fungal richness in tropical caves in Brazil has recently been studied, and these surveys have reported a largely unexplored mycobiome, highlighting some bat caves as hotspots for fungal findings. During a speleomycological survey in a bat cave in the Caatinga dry forest in Brazil, 15 Cladosporium isolates were obtained from the air and ectoparasitic bat flies (Diptera: Streblidae) collected from the bat Pteronotus gymnonotus (Chiroptera: Mormoopidae). Based on morphological features and multi-gene (ITS rDNA, ACT, and TEF1) phylogenetic analyses, we reported eight Cladosporium species in this cave. Two new species, Cladosporium cavernicola and Cladosporium pernambucoense, were isolated from the cave air and have been formally described here. They, along with Cladosporium puris, Cladosporium subuliforme, and Cladosporium tenuissimum, were related to the Cladosporium cladosporioides species complex. Additionally, we recorded Cladosporium austrohemisphaericum, Cladosporium parahalotolerans, and Cladosporium sphaerospermum (C. sphaerospermum species complex). Our findings emphasise the large potential for new fungal species associated with caves and bats worldwide.
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DNA sequences generated during the current study are available in GenBank. Alignments were deposited in TreeBASE.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Diego Bento, Jocy Cruz (ICMBio/CECAV), and Jailton Fernandes (ICMBio/PARNA do Catimbau) for their logistical support, and Narjara Pimentel (UFPE) for their invaluable help during the fieldwork. Special thanks to colleagues of the Laboratório de Taxonomia e Biotecnologia Utilizando Fungos/UFPE for their help during fungal isolation.
Funding
This research was supported by the Fundação de Amparo à Ciência e Tecnologia de Pernambuco (FACEPE—Finance code APQ-0350–2.12/19), the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES—Finance code 001; CAPES-PRInt process number 88887.311891/2018–00), and the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq). Funding for fieldwork was also partially provided by the Anglo American. E. Barbier has a postdoctoral grant from CAPES and FACEPE (Process number 88887.353052/2019–00). C.M. Souza-Motta and E. Bernard have a fellowship from CNPq.
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M.L.S.P. and J.L.V.R.C.: formal analysis, investigation, data curation, writing (original draft); J.M.S.L.: formal analysis, investigation, data curation; E.B., E.B., J.D.P.B., and C.M.S.M.: conceptualization, supervision, project administration, funding acquisition, writing (original draft, review, and editing).
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Pereira, M.L.S., Carvalho, J.L.V.R., Lima, J.M.S. et al. Richness of Cladosporium in a tropical bat cave with the description of two new species. Mycol Progress 21, 345–357 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11557-021-01760-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11557-021-01760-2