Biology subjects

Lin, Y.-f.

Publications and source records attributed to Lin, Y.-f..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2023

An acidophilic fungus is integral to prey digestion in a carnivorous plant

Carnivorous plant leaves, such as those of the spoon-leaved sundew Drosera spatulata, secrete mucilage which hosts microorganisms potentially aiding in prey digestion. We characterised the mucilage microbial communities and identified the acidophilic fungus Acrodontium crateriforme as the ecologically dominant species. The fungus grows and sporulates on sundew glands as its preferred acidic environment. We show that the A. crateriforme has a reduced genome similar to that of other symbiotic fungi. Based on the transcriptomes when encountering prey insects, we revealed a high degree of genes co-option in each species during fungus-plant coexistence and digestion. Expression patterns of the holobiont during digestion further revealed synergistic effects in several gene families including fungal aspartic and sedolisin peptidases, facilitating the digestion of sundews prey, as well as transporters and dose-dependent responses in plant genes involved in jasmonate signalling pathway. This study establishes that botanical carnivory is defined by multidimensional adaptations correlated with interspecies interactions.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2021

Genomes of keystone Mortierella species lead to better in silico prediction of soil mycobiome functions from Taiwan's offshore islands

The ability to correlate the functional relationship between microbial communities and their environment is critical to understanding microbial ecology. There is emerging knowledge on island biogeography of microbes but how island characteristics influence functions of microbial community remain elusive. Here, we explored soil mycobiomes from nine islands adjacent to Taiwan using ITS2 amplicon sequencing. Geographical distances and island size were positively correlated to dissimilarity in mycobiomes, and we identified 56 zero-radius operational taxonomic units (zOTUs) that were ubiquitously present across all islands, and as few as five Mortierella zOTUs dominate more than half of mycobiomes. Correlation network analyses revealed that seven of the 45 hub species were part of the ubiquitous zOTUs belonging to Mortierella, Trichoderma, Aspergillus, Clonostachys and Staphylotrichum. We sequenced and annotated the genomes of seven Mortierella isolates, and comparative predictions of KEGG orthologues using PICRUSt2 database updated with new genomes increased sequence reads coverage by 62.9% at the genus level. In addition, genes associated with carbohydrate and lipid metabolisms were differentially abundant between islands which remained undetected in the original database. Predicted functional pathways were similar across islands despite their geographical separation, difference in differentially abundant genes and composition. Our approach demonstrated the incorporation of the key taxa genomic data can improve functional gene prediction results and can be readily applied to investigate other niches of interests.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2019

Nest microbiota and pathogen abundance impact hatching success in sea turtle conservation

Hatchery practices are pivotal to conservation success. In sea turtle hatchery, reusing the same sand has been a norm but remains unclear whether such approach increases the risk of Fusarium solani species complex (FSSC) infection causing huge mortality in sea turtle eggs worldwide. We employed 16S and ITS amplicon sequencing in 123 sand samples and isolated fungal strains from diseased eggs across seven hatcheries and neighboring beaches in Malaysia. FSSC was isolated from all sampled hatcheries where F. solani/falciforme was the predominant species. A distinct microbial composition and higher abundance of FSSC (mean = 5.2 %) was found in all but one hatchery when compared to nesting beaches (mean = 1.3 %). Specifically, an ascomycetous fungus Pseudallescheria boydii consistently appeared in higher abundance (mean = 11.4 %) in FSSC-infected nests and was significantly associated with lower hatching success. The hatchery that maintained the most stringent practice by changing sand every nesting season had a microbiota resembling nesting beaches as well as lowest FSSC and P. boydii abundance. The results of current study imply the need to avoid reusing sand in sea turtle hatchery.

ecology↗