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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Fungal Biol.
Sec. Fungal Physiology and Metabolism
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/ffunb.2024.1400380
This article is part of the Research Topic Highlights of the 1st FUN-EX conference: Evolution, biodiversity, taxonomy and genomics of extremophilic and extremotolerant fungi View all articles

Diversity of fungi associated to petroglyph sites in the Negev desert, Israel, and their potential role in bioweathering

Provisionally accepted
Laura Rabbachin Laura Rabbachin 1*Irit Nir Irit Nir 2Monika Waldherr Monika Waldherr 3Ylenia Vassallo Ylenia Vassallo 4Guadalupe Pinar Guadalupe Pinar 1Alexandra Graf Alexandra Graf 3Ariel Kushmaro Ariel Kushmaro 2,5Katja Sterflinger Katja Sterflinger 1*
  • 1 INTK, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Vienna, Vienna, Austria
  • 2 Avram and Stella Goldstein-Goren Department of Biotechnology Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Southern District, Israel
  • 3 Department of Bioinformatics, University of Applied Sciences Wien, Vienna, Vienna, Austria
  • 4 Department of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Lazio, Italy
  • 5 Goldman Sonnenfeldt School of Sustainability and Climate Change, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The petroglyphs of the Negev desert, Israel, are a famous and valuable archaeological remain. Previous studies have investigated the microbial communities associated with petroglyphs and their potential role in stone deterioration, nevertheless the role of fungi remains unclear. In this study, the fungal communities present on the stone and, as a comparison, in the surrounding environment (soil and air) at Negev petroglyph sites were analyzed by means of culture-dependent and -independent (metagenomic) techniques. The metagenomic results showed a high fungal biodiversity in the soil, and both approaches highlighted the prevalence of species producing melanized, large, thick-walled spores (mainly Alternaria spp.). From the air sampling, instead, mostly Cladosporium spp. were retrieved. On the other hand, on the rock, the results seem to indicate a low presence of fungi, but with a rock-specialized mycobiota, consisting of extremotolerant microcolonial fungi (MCF) (e.g. Vermiconidia, Coniosporium) and lichens (Flavoplaca). In addition, low proportions of cosmopolitan fungi were detected on the stone, but the comparison of the data clearly indicates that they are transients from surrounding environment. The ability of the isolated strains to dissolve CaCO3, and therefore be a potential threat to the petroglyphs (limestone substrate) was tested, but only one strain resulted positive to acid production under laboratory conditions. Nevertheless, both lichens as well as MCF detected in this study are well-known stone deteriogens, thus may have a significant impact on the petroglyphs deterioration.

    Keywords: extremotolerant fungi, Rock-inhabiting fungi, Soil mycobiota, Stone biodeterioration, ITS long-amplicon sequencing

    Received: 13 Mar 2024; Accepted: 14 May 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Rabbachin, Nir, Waldherr, Vassallo, Pinar, Graf, Kushmaro and Sterflinger. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Laura Rabbachin, INTK, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Vienna, 1010, Vienna, Austria
    Katja Sterflinger, INTK, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Vienna, 1010, Vienna, Austria

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