Aquatic Fungi

Aquatic, Soil, and Endophytic fungi --ASEs

Some fungi are able destructively digest plant litter in streams and also live inside living plants without harm to their hosts. In the genus Tetracladium, the fungi also are abundantly found in soils. Thus, Anderson calls these fungi ASE fungi (pronounced like 'ace'). These fungi are being studied to understand how they achieve this multi-niche multifunctional lifestyle using phylogenomics, comparative genomics, transcriptomics, and experiments. Taxonomic revision of the genus is also underway.

Fungi connecting fields and streams

ASE fungi bridge the 'divide' between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. However, today, we understand little about how this is achieved. Is there mixing of the pools of individuals on land and in water? Are they unique populations? To address these questions, diversity on land and water are being compared using a metabarcoding approach.

Protecting and monitoring aquatic fungi

The Aquatic Fungus Group is highly engaged in ongoing efforts to include these fungi in conservation and monitoring plans. Please read more about these projects at their respective pages FUNACTION and MoSTFun, or the SLU project pages with links below.

Anderson is also a founding member of the IUCN SSC Aquatic Fungi Specialist Group, which undertaks conservation assessment, planning and action efforts for aquatic fungi.

Pathgens of the invasive aquatic plant Nymphoides peltata

Fringed water lily (Sjögull in Swedish) is invasive across the southern third of Sweden. After unprecedent plant deaths were reported in 2023, the Aquatic Fungi Group led the investigation into whether or not a fungus or fungi may be at work. We identified many plant pathogens in association with the plants, including Septoria villarsiae, the only pathogen reported to kill N. peltata. Find the project report online.