Extremophilic fungi
Z_Myc
From 03/2013 to 03/2015Principal Investigator: Gerhard Rambold
Staff: Alfons Weig, Derek Peršoh
Fungi thriving in extreme environments provide key insights into the limits of life and molecular adaptation. Two complementary studies led by members of our team shed light on how fungi have adapted to hypersaline habitats. In a genomic study of the halophilic fungus Eurotium rubrum from the Dead Sea, Kis-Papo et al. (2014) uncovered specific adaptations that enable survival under high salinity. These include the expansion of gene families involved in stress responses, accumulation of acidic amino acids in proteins, and features supporting osmotic balance — all contributing to the organism’s halophilic lifestyle. Greiner et al. (2014) described Phialosimplex salinarum, a novel species of Eurotiomycetes isolated from a hypersaline environment. Morphological and molecular analyses confirmed its distinct taxonomic position and ecological specialization. The discovery expands our knowledge of fungal biodiversity in saline ecosystems and demonstrates convergent strategies of adaptation among unrelated fungal lineages. Together, these studies reveal both evolutionary innovation and physiological resilience among extremophilic fungi — opening new avenues for ecological research and biotechnological applications.
List of publications of this Project
| Liu, JK; et al., ; Greiner, K; Rambold, G; et al., : Fungal diversity notes 1–110: taxonomic and phylogenetic contributions to fungal species, Fungal Diversity, 72 (2015), doi:10.1007/s13225-015-0324-y -- Details |
| Kis-Papo, T; Weig, A; Riley, R; Peršoh, D; Salamov, A; Sun, H; Lipzen, A; Wasser, SP; Rambold, G; Grigoriev, I; Nevo, E: Genomic adaptations of the halophilic Dead Sea filamentous fungus Eurotium rubrum, Nature Communications, 5, Article number: 3745 (2014), doi:10.1038/ncomms4745 -- Details |
| Greiner, K; Peršoh, D; Weig, A; Rambold, G: Phialosimplex salinarum, a new species of Eurotiomycetes from a hypersaline habitat, IMA Fungus, 5(2), 161–172 (2014), doi:10.5598/imafungus.2014.05.02.01 PDF -- Details |