title: First insight into dead wood protistan diversity: a molecular sampling of bright-spored Myxomycetes (Amoebozoa, slime-moulds) in decaying beech logs.
abstract: Decaying wood hosts a large diversity of seldom investigated protists. Environmental sequencing offers novel insights into communities, but has rarely been applied to saproxylic protists. We investigated the diversity of bright-spored wood-inhabiting Myxomycetes by environmental sequencing. Myxomycetes have a complex life cycle culminating in the formation of mainly macroscopic fruiting bodies, highly variable in shape and colour that are often found on decaying logs. Our hypothesis was that diversity of bright-spored Myxomycetes would increase with decay. DNA was extracted from wood chips collected from 17 beech logs of varying decay stages from the Hainich-Dün region in Central Germany. We obtained 260 partial small subunit ribosomal RNA gene sequences of bright-spored Myxomycetes that were assembled into 29 OTUs, of which 65% were less than 98% similar to those in the existing database. The OTU richness revealed by molecular analysis surpassed that of a parallel inventory of fruiting bodies. We tested several environmental variables and identified pH, rather than decay stage, as the main structuring factor of myxomycete distribution.
authors.affiliation: Zoology Institute, Terrestrial Ecology Group, University of Cologne, D-50674 Cologne, Germany fionn.clissmann@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Fionn
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Clissmann
authors.affiliation: Zoology Institute, Terrestrial Ecology Group, University of Cologne, D-50674 Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Anna Maria
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Fiore-Donno
authors.affiliation: Department of Soil Ecology, UFZ-Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, D-06120 Halle (Saale), Germany.
authors.forename: Björn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hoppe
authors.affiliation: Department of Soil Ecology, UFZ-Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, D-06120 Halle (Saale), Germany.
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Krüger
authors.affiliation: Chair of Silviculture, Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Freiburg, D-79085 Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Tiemo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kahl
authors.affiliation: Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, Ernst Moritz Arndt University Greifswald, D-17489 Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Unterseher
authors.affiliation: Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, Ernst Moritz Arndt University Greifswald, D-17489 Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schnittler
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D044822:Biodiversity; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000235:genetics*; D056890:Eukaryota; D029964:Fagus / Q000469:parasitology*; D005858:Germany; D009235:Myxomycetes / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014934:Wood / Q000737:chemistry / Q000469:parasitology*
chemical_list: D016054:DNA, Protozoan
keywords: Myxogastria; environmental DNA sampling; lignicolous; protozoa; saproxylic; wood biodiversity; wood microbiology