Fungal diversity in landfill soil from a waste treatment plant in Hebei, China with the description of Scytalidium asiaticum sp. nov. (Helotiales, Ascomycota)

Vollständiger Abstract

Worum geht es in dieser Arbeit?

Soil is one of the most favored habitats for fungi, but fungal diversity from plastic-contaminated soil has rarely been explored. This study focused on landfill soil at a waste treatment plant in Hebei, China, resulting in the isolation of 62 strains. These strains were identified to 25 species, belonging to the genera Alternaria, Aspergillus, Beauveria, Cephalotrichum, Cladosporium, Fusarium, Gliomastix, Marquandomyces, Metarhizium, Mortierella, Mucor, Paraphaeosphaeria, Penicillium, Pseudogymnoascus, Scytalidium, Trichoderma and Yamadazyma. Species in some of these genera, such as Alternaria alternata, Aspergillus sydowii and Cladosporium cladosporioides identified from the newly isolated strains, have previously been reported as plastic-degrading fungi. Nevertheless, no plastic degradation experiments were conducted in this study, and consequently, the potential ability of 62 strains for plastic degradation remains unclear and warrants further investigation. In addition, two strains from the genus Scytalidium were identified as a hitherto unknown species and newly described as S. asiaticum. This new species differs from phylogenetically close species S. sphaerosporum in having larger arthroconidia. The current results indicate that further exploration of landfill soil is necessary to comprehensively assess soil fungal diversity.