Pairwise fungal-bacterial interactions as a model to understand dynamics in deep-sea hydrothermal systems at the southern Gulf of California

HERNANDEZ-MONROY, JESICA ABRIL; SALCEDO, DIANA; ESPINOSA-ASUAR, LAURA; DIMITROVA DINKOVA, TZVETANKA ; LUJAN-SOTO, EDUARDO; PAJARES, SILVIA; SOTO, LUIS A.; PAOLINELLI, MARCOS; GASCA-PINEDA, JAIME; VELEZ, PATRICIA

Brest

Simposio; 16th Deep Sea Biology Symposium; 2021

IFREMER

The heterotrophic microbial communities in deep-sea hydrothermal vents include a wide variety oftaxa such as fungi and bacteria. Heterotrophic bacteria inhabiting vents have been characterized asimportant players in carbon cycling processes; whereas fungi have been hypothesized to accomplish a fundamental role making carbon available to the overall community. Additionally, the cross-kingdom interactions between fungi and heterotrophic bacteria in terrestrial ecosystems have been proved to be important for the overall community due to the physical and metabolic relationships that facilitates the nutrient uptake, production of by-products, and for the synergistic interaction degrading organic matter. Nevertheless, the ecological interactions between these groups in deep-sea hydrothermal systems remains unexplored, leaving a knowledge gap in the understanding of the ecological dynamics and functioning of these ecosystems. Therefore, the aim of this work was to characterize fungal-bacterial ecological interactions using a comparative transcriptomic approach in order to understand the molecular interactions between them. To accomplish this objective, microorganisms isolated from the deep-sea hydrothermal system The Pescadero Transform Fault located at the southern Gulf of California were used. Two filamentous fungi Aspergillaceae and Eurotiales, were growth in pairwise in vitro bioassays with Bacillus. The comparative transcriptomic analysis revealed a specific response of each organism, exposing a complex molecular interaction and crosstalk between them. This research opens a new paradigm of how fungi and bacteria are important interacting groups with a functional and ecological role in deep-sea hydrothermal systems.