title: Understanding fungal functional biodiversity during the mitigation of environmentally dispersed pentachlorophenol in cork oak forest soils.
abstract: Pentachlorophenol (PCP) is globally dispersed and contamination of soil with this biocide adversely affects its functional biodiversity, particularly of fungi - key colonizers. Their functional role as a community is poorly understood, although a few pathways have been already elucidated in pure cultures. This constitutes here our main challenge - elucidate how fungi influence the pollutant mitigation processes in forest soils. Circumstantial evidence exists that cork oak forests in N. W. Tunisia - economically critical managed forests are likely to be contaminated with PCP, but the scientific evidence has previously been lacking. Our data illustrate significant forest contamination through the detection of undefined active sources of PCP. By solving the taxonomic diversity and the PCP-derived metabolomes of both the cultivable fungi and the fungal community, we demonstrate here that most strains (predominantly penicillia) participate in the pollutant biotic degradation. They form an array of degradation intermediates and by-products, including several hydroquinone, resorcinol and catechol derivatives, either chlorinated or not. The degradation pathway of the fungal community includes uncharacterized derivatives, e.g. tetrachloroguaiacol isomers. Our study highlights fungi key role in the mineralization and short lifetime of PCP in forest soils and provide novel tools to monitor its degradation in other fungi dominated food webs.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Av. da República, 2780-157, Oeiras, Portugal.|Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinária, Av. da República, Quinta do Marquês, 2784-505, Oeiras, Portugal.
authors.forename: Adélia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Varela
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Av. da República, 2780-157, Oeiras, Portugal.|Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica, Apartado 12, 2781-901, Oeiras, Portugal.
authors.forename: Celso
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Martins
authors.affiliation: Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Barcelona, Diagonal 645, E-08028, Barcelona, Spain.|Serra Húnter Programme, Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Oscar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Núñez
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Av. da República, 2780-157, Oeiras, Portugal.|Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica, Apartado 12, 2781-901, Oeiras, Portugal.
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Martins
authors.affiliation: CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre, P.O. Box 85167-3508AD, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jos A M P
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Houbraken
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Av. da República, 2780-157, Oeiras, Portugal.
authors.forename: Tiago M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Martins
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Av. da República, 2780-157, Oeiras, Portugal.
authors.forename: M Cristina
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Leitão
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical and Environmental Health Research, School of Science and Sport, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley Campus, PA1 2BE, Paisley, UK.
authors.forename: Iain
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: McLellan
authors.affiliation: Institute of Food Chemistry (170b), University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany.
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Vetter
authors.affiliation: Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Barcelona, Diagonal 645, E-08028, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: M Teresa
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Galceran
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Av. da República, 2780-157, Oeiras, Portugal.|CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre, P.O. Box 85167-3508AD, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Robert A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Samson
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical and Environmental Health Research, School of Science and Sport, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley Campus, PA1 2BE, Paisley, UK.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hursthouse
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Av. da República, 2780-157, Oeiras, Portugal.|Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica, Apartado 12, 2781-901, Oeiras, Portugal.|Institute of Food Chemistry (170b), University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Silva Pereira
mesh_terms: D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D044822:Biodiversity; D004787:Environmental Pollution; D065928:Forests; D005658:Fungi / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D010416:Pentachlorophenol / Q000378:metabolism*; D029963:Quercus / Q000378:metabolism*; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000378:metabolism*; D014416:Tunisia
chemical_list: D012987:Soil; D012989:Soil Pollutants; D010416:Pentachlorophenol