Rosado Rodríguez, Gualberto

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    Fungi associated with demosponges from Puerto Rico
    (2020-11-24) Rosado Rodríguez, Gualberto; Otero Morales, Ernesto; College of Arts and Sciences - Sciences; Maldonado Ramírez, Sandra L.; Schizas, Nikolaos; Cafaro, Matías J.; Department of Marine Sciences; Esteves Amador, René F.
    Fungi are distributed worldwide and perform a variety of services in the environment. They are regarded as decomposers, involved in carbon cycling and immobilization in the ecosystem. Many are important symbionts of plants, animals, or other fungi. Most are terrestrial, but several species are important components in freshwater and marine habitats. There is no consensus on the definition of marine fungi, and grouping is based on ecological rather than taxonomic basis. Fungi can be found in many marine habitats, including the water column, sediments, plants, algae, driftwood, and associated to invertebrates. Fungal associates from marine sponges are a diverse group within the sponge microbiome. However, their roles within the sponge holobiont are not completely understood. Documenting their fungal diversity is one of the first steps in order to elucidate possible roles. It has been argued that the association between fungi and sponges is not truly symbiotic, and fungal presence is incidental. Nevertheless, fungi associated with marine sponges are considered to be hyperdiverse. The present work focused on three main aspects of sponge-associated fungi: 1) diversity of cultivable fungi from three demosponges from Puerto Rico, 2) diversity of cultivable yeasts from demosponges of Puerto Rico and, 3) evaluation of fungal community composition in relation to heavy metals accumulation in sponge tissues. Fungi were identified by traditional morphological approaches and sequencing of the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. Concentration of heavy metals was determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Diversity of filamentous fungi was studied for Tedania ignis, Ircinia strobilina, and Chondrilla caribensis collected from La Parguera cays, Lajas, Puerto Rico. Fungal morphotypes representing at least 40 species within 10 orders, were documented. These include members of the Eurotiales, Hypocreales, Capnodiales, Diaporthales, Xylariales, Mycosphaerellales, Botryosphaeriales, Cantharellales, Russulales, and Geastrales. Tedania ignis and Chondrilla caribensis had the highest diversity, with 28 and 19 species recorded, respectively. From the Ascomycota, Eurotiales and Hypocreales were predominant. From the Eurotiales, members of the genus Aspergillus were recorded for all three sponges. Parengyodontium album and Fusarium incarnatum-equiseti species complex (FIESC) (Hypocreales) were recorded from T. ignis and C. caribensis. Cytospora rhizophorae (Diaporthales) was reported from T. ignis collected from red mangrove roots. This fungus was previously reported from La Parguera as causative agent of mangrove dieback. Fungi reported for the first time from marine sponges include Anthostoma decipiens, Aspergillus conicus, Aspergillus gracilis, Aspergillus glabripes, Talaromyces marneffei, Rhizoctonia, Geastrum, and Fusarium members of the FIESC. Three yeasts species were recorded for sponges from La Parguera. Saccharomyces cerevisiae was isolated from all samples, comprising the first report of this yeast as a common inhabitant in marine sponges. Other yeasts isolated include the halophilic black yeast, Hortaea werneckii, and an unidentified Rhodotorula species belonging to the Sporidiobolales (Basidiomycota). The high isolation frequency of S. cerevisiae from our sponge samples supports the possibility of Saccharomyces cerevisiae as an active member of the sponges’ microbial community. Finally, we examined the bioaccumulation of heavy metals by seven sponge species from Tallaboa Bay, Peñuelas, PR. At this site, seawater is used for the cooling towers of a power plant. Fungal communities associated with marine sponges were assessed to determine if their composition co-varied with heavy metals in sponge tissue. All sponges in our study were found to bioaccumulate arsenic, cadmium and, to a lesser extent, copper. From this study, nine orders of fungi were recorded, including Xylariares, Saccharomycetales, Pleosporales, Mucorales, Hypocreales, Eurotiales, Diaporthales, Capnodiales, and Botryosphaeriales. Fungi associated with the sponges showed variations in community composition among localities and sponge species. However, the highest fungal diversity was recorded from sponges with the lowest concentration of trace elements. In general, a tendency to a reduction of fungal species richness with increasing trace element concentration in sponge species was observed. Sponges, especially Tedania ignis, showed bioaccumulation for arsenic and cadmium.
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    Mycelial fungal diversity associated with leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) nests in the Mayagüez-Añasco Bay Coast, Western Puerto Rico
    (2011) Rosado Rodríguez, Gualberto; Maldonado Ramírez, Sandra L.; College of Arts and Sciences - Sciences; Montalvo Rodríguez, Rafael R.; Cafaro, Matías J.; Department of Biology; Grove, Kurt
    Dermochelys coriacea (leatherback) is one of the four sea turtles found in Puerto Rico and has the highest nesting frequency on the island. This species is currently listed as endangered due to habitat contamination, erosion, predation, and other anthropogenic pressures. Factors that influence its reproductive success include high relative humidity in the nests, relatively low temperatures, and infection by bacteria, protozoa, and fungi. The main objective of this work was to study mycelial fungal diversity associated with leatherback sea turtle nests and eggs from Mayagüez-Añasco Bay Coast (MABC), Puerto Rico. Comparison is made of conditions (i) previous to leatherback nesting season (August-December 2008), (ii) during leatherback nesting season (February-May 2009), and (iii) during nest hatching season (May-August 2009). Prior to D. coriacea nesting season the fungal community along the MABC showed a normal distribution (P=0.098) by One-Way ANOVA. We found that Aspergillus was the most frequent genera (0.15), followed by Cladosporium (0.09), and Curvularia (0.08). At the time of oviposition we found that Penicillium was the most frequent isolate (0.15), followed by Cladosporium (0.11), Aspergillus (0.11), and Fusarium (0.07). No fungi were isolated from nesting leatherback’s ovipositor. During the third sampling period fungal diversity was evaluated from the sand of hatched nests and from failed eggs. Fusarium solani was the most frequent isolate (0.57) from nest sand and was the only species isolated from failed eggs. Fungal abundance of sand from nests and failed eggs exhibited a strong and positive correlation (r=0.853, P=0.00000173). This was the first attempt to study fungal diversity associated with D. coriacea’s nest and eggs in Puerto Rico.