Identificação de fungos isolados de cavidades naturais subterrâneas do Parque Estadual do Sumidouro

• Ano de defesa: 2015
• Autor(a) principal: Fabio Luis Bondezan da Costa
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais; UFMG
• Palavras-chave em Português: Cavernas; Fungos filamentosos; Parque estadual do sumidouro; Microbiologia; Parque Estadual do Sumidouro, MG; Fungos
• Link de acesso: http://hdl.handle.net/1843/BUOS-B27NAS

Caves are favorable environments for fungal growth due to their physical characteristics that include high humidity, permanent absence of light, temperatures representing the average of annual external temperatures, and high stability. Additionally, the soil is considered a primordial microbial habitat where numerous and variable microorganisms populations can coexist representing a genetic diversity reservoir. Molecular biology techniques are quick and highly sensitive and has been widely used to identify environmental microorganisms. These techniques can be used alone or in association with morphology-based methods for identification purposes. This work aimed the isolation and identification of soil fungi from natural caves located at Parque Estadual do Sumidouro/MG, using morphological and molecular methods, to expand the knowledge about cave environments in tropical and subtropical regions. The analyses were performed in 4 caves: Lapinha, Macumba, Túneis and DOC. Physico-chemical characteristics (temperature/humidity/ nitrogen and phosphorus soil's content) were evaluated and we could not determine a direct link between them and fungal abundance. Using methodologies previously described in the literature, 806 filamentous fungi colonies were isolated and grouped into 38 distinct genera. The fungi were identified by sequencing the internal transcribed region (ITS1-5.8 S-ITS2) of the rRNA gene and by morphologic characteristics analysis. We show that 9 identified genera have not been yet described in cave environments (Ceriporia, Cochliobolus, Cytospora Eutypella, Haplosporangium, Myriodontium, Ninograna, Metacordyceps, Verticicladium). Twenty-four genera (36.8%) include pathogenic and potentially pathogenic species and these are overrepresented in the Lapinhas cave (65%) when compared to the other caves. Based in our results, the DOC cave can be considered a high risk environment to fungal diseases since it contains 55% of all potentially pathogenic genera and is a small cavity. These characteristics could result in visitors increased risk contact with fungal spores. In summary, our results contribute to the knowledge about the fungal community in Brazilian caves and as suggested by other authors, point to the need of extensive studies focusing on the microbial populations of these environments to preserve and increase the source of bioprospection studies