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Marine sponges have recently been recognized as natural samplers of environmental DNA (eDNA) due to their effective water filtration and their ubiquitous, sessile, and regenerative nature. However, laboratory workflows for metabarcoding of sponge tissue have not been optimized to ensure that these natural samplers achieve their full potential for community survey. We used a phased approach to investigate the influence of DNA isolation procedures on the biodiversity information recovered from sponges. In Phase 1, we compared three treatments of residual ethanol preservative in sponge tissue alongside five DNA extraction protocols. The results of Phase 1 informed which ethanol treatment and DNA extraction protocol should be used in Phase 2, where we assessed the effect of starting tissue mass on extraction success and whether homogenization of sponge tissue is required. Phase 1 results indicated that ethanol preservative may contain unique and/or additional biodiversity information to that present in sponge tissue, but blotting tissue dry generally recovered more taxa and generated more sequence reads from the wild sponge species. Tissue extraction protocols performed best in terms of DNA concentration, taxon richness, and proportional read counts, but the non-commercial tissue protocol was selected for Phase 2 due to cost-efficiency and greater recovery of target taxa. In Phase 2 overall, we found that homogenization may not be required for sponge tissue and more starting material does not necessarily improve taxon detection. These results combined provide an optimized DNA isolation procedure for sponges to enhance marine biodiversity assessment using natural sampler DNA metabarcoding., This study was funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council grant NE/T007028/1. A.R. was also supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation grant (RYC2018-024247-I) and CSIC intramural grant (202030E006). M.B.A. was supported by the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID), fellowship program Postdoctorado en el extranjero/2019-74200143.

16 Pág. Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas (CBGP), LSU proteins belong to a plant-specific gene family initially characterized by their strong induction in response to sulfate (S) deficiency. In the last few years, LSUs have arisen as relevant hubs in protein-protein interaction networks, in which they play relevant roles in the response to abiotic and biotic stresses. Most of our knowledge on LSU genomic organization, expression and function comes from studies in Arabidopsis and tobacco, while little is known about the LSU gene repertoire and evolution of this family in land plants. In this work, a total of 270 LSU family members were identified using 134 land plant species with whole-genome sequences available. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that LSU genes belong to a Spermatophyta-specific gene family, and their homologs are distributed in three major groups, two for dicotyledons and one group for monocotyledons. Protein sequence analyses showed four new motifs that further support the subgroup classification by phylogenetic analyses. Moreover, we analyzed the expression of LSU genes in one representative species of each phylogenetic group (wheat, tomato and Arabidopsis) and found a conserved response to S deficiency, suggesting that these genes might play a key role in S stress responses. In summary, our results indicate that LSU genes belong to the Spermatophyta-specific gene family and their response to S deficiency is conserved in angiosperms., This work was funded by the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) Chile with Program FONDECYT Regular 1190812 and FONDECYT Regular 1211130 and Spanish Science Ministry (PID2020-114165RR-C21 to J.M). J.C. and E.A.V. were supported by ANID—Millennium Science Initiative Program—ICN17_022. We also want to acknowledge the “Severo Ochoa Program for Centres of Excellence in R&D” (CEX2020-000999-S) supported by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033.

Nothofagus obliqua (Nothofagaceae) is a native tree to Chile, which hosts at least seven gall morphotypes, two of them induced by Hymenoptera, Pteromalidae. The life cycle of these pteromalids, particularly the feeding activity of their larvae, has a high impact on host plant tissues toward new shapes and functions, leading the gall formation. The Pteromalidae genus are mostly parasitoids of other insects, rarely inducing galls. This rare phenomenon is herein addressed in two models of study, the galls induced by Espinosa nothofagi and Plastobelyta gallicola on N. obliqua in Chilean flora. We assume that the two pteromalids have a similar impact over their host plant tissues, inducing similar galls regarding their anatomical and histochemical profiles. Our results confirm that E. nothofagi induces a clavate bud gall (CG), but P. gallicola induces a stem globoid gall (GG) herein describeb for the first time. Our premise is not supported, because the CG follows the structural and histochemical patterns described for hymenopteran galls, but the GG is peculiarly different. The CG has concentric layers of specialized tissues around the larval chamber, where lipids, proteins, and starch accumulate, while starch, alkaloids, proanthocyanidins, and lignins accumulate in the outer tissue compartment. The GG is simpler than the CG on the anatomical basis as it does not develop specialized tissue layers, and in addition, it does not accumulate starch and proanthocyanidins in any tissue layers. The distinct anatomical and histochemical profiles of the two galls indicate the specific impact of E. nothofagi and P. gallicola in the inner tissue layers. The similarities of the outer tissue layers between the two galls relate to the host stem morphogenetical constraints and lower plasticity., This work was supported by the Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo de Chile (ANID) [NA and LMG FONDECYT 11200360], by the CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico) [RMSI, 304535/2019-2]; the CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) [NCJ, 88882.184396/2018-01]; and the FAPEMIG (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais) [RMSI].

10 Pág. Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal (CISA), Recent advances in high-throughput sequencing have enabled the large-scale interrogation of microbiota in the most diverse environments, including host-associated microbiota. This has led to the recognition that the skin microbiota of rorquals is specific and structurally different from that of the ocean. This study reveals the skin microbiome of 85 wild individuals along the Chilean coast belonging to Megaptera novaeangliae, Balaenoptera musculus and Balaenoptera physalus. Alpha diversity analysis revealed significant differences in richness and phylogenetic diversity, particularly among humpback whales from different locations and between blue and humpback whales. Beta diversity was partially explained by host and location but only accounting for up to 17% of microbiota variability (adjusted VPA). Overall, we found that microbiota composition was dominated by bacterial genera such as Cardiobacter, Moraxella, Tenacibaculum, Stenotrophomonas, Flavobacteria and Pseudomonas. We also found that no ASVs were associated with the three rorqual species. Up to four ASVs were specific of a location, indicating a great variability in the microbiota. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the composition and structure of the skin microbiota of whales off the coast of Chile, providing a foundational dataset to understand the microbiota's role in rorquals., This work was funded by ‘ANID-FONDECYT Regular 1200834’ and by ‘ANID-PIA-Anillo INACH ACT192057’.

Novel species of fungi described in this study include those from various countries as follows: Antartica, Cladosporium austrolitorale from coastal sea sand. Australia, Austroboletus yourkae on soil, Crepidotus innuopurpureus on dead wood, Curvularia stenotaphri from roots and leaves of Stenotaphrum secundatum and Thecaphora stajsicii from capsules of Oxalis radicosa. Belgium, Paraxerochrysium coryli (incl. Paraxerochrysium gen. nov.) from Corylus avellana. Brazil, Calvatia nordestina on soil, Didymella tabebuiicola from leaf spots on Tabebuia aurea, Fusarium subflagellisporum from hypertrophied floral and vegetative branches of Mangifera indica and Microdochium maculosum from living leaves of Digitaria insularis. Canada, Cuphophyllus bondii fromagrassland. Croatia, Mollisia inferiseptata from a rotten Laurus nobilis trunk. Cyprus, Amanita exilis oncalcareoussoil. Czech Republic, Cytospora hippophaicola from wood of symptomatic Vaccinium corymbosum. Denmark, Lasiosphaeria deviata on pieces of wood and herbaceousdebris. Dominican Republic, Calocybella goethei among grass on a lawn. France (Corsica) , Inocybe corsica onwetground. France (French Guiana) , Trechispora patawaensis on decayed branch of unknown angiosperm tree and Trechispora subregularis on decayed log of unknown angiosperm tree. [...], P.R. Johnston thanks J. Sullivan (Lincoln University) for the habitat image of Kowai Bush, Duckchul Park (Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research) for the DNA sequencing, and the New Zealand Department of Conservation for permission to collect the specimens; this research was supported through the Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research Biota Portfolio with funding from the Science and Innovation Group of the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. V. Hubka was supported by the Czech Ministry of Health (grant number NU21-05-00681), and is grateful for the support from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science – grant-in-aid for JSPS research fellow (grant no. 20F20772). K. Glässnerová was supported by the Charles University Grant Agency (grant No. GAUK 140520). J. Trovão and colleagues were financed by FEDERFundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional funds through the COMPETE 2020 – Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), and by Portuguese funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia in the framework of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-PTDC/ EPH-PAT/3345/2014. This work was carried out at the R&D Unit Centre for Functional Ecology – Science for People and the Planet (CFE), with reference UIDB/04004/2020, financed by FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC). J. Trovão was also supported by POCH – Programa Operacional Capital Humano (co-funding by the European Social Fund and national funding by MCTES), through a ‘FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia’ PhD research grant (SFRH/BD/132523/2017). D. Haelewaters acknowledges support from the Research Foundation – Flanders (Junior Postdoctoral Fellowship 1206620N). M. Loizides and colleagues are grateful to Y. Cherniavsky for contributing collections AB A12-058-1 and AB A12- 058-2, and Á. Kovács and B. Kiss for their help with molecular studies of these specimens. C. Zmuda is thanked for assisting with the collection of ladybird specimens infected with Hesperomyces parexochomi. A.V. Kachalkin and colleagues were supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant No. 19-74-10002). The study of A.M. Glushakova was carried out as part of the Scientific Project of the State Order of the Government of Russian Federation to Lomonosov Moscow State University No. 121040800174-6. S. Nanu acknowledges the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE) for granting a research fellowship and is grateful to the Chief Conservator of Forests and Wildlife for giving permission to collect fungal samples. A. Bañares and colleagues thank L. Monje and A. Pueblas of the Department of Drawing and Scientific Photography at the University of Alcalá for their help in the digital preparation of the photographs, and J. Rejos, curator of the AH herbarium for his assistance with the specimens examined in the present study. The research of V. Antonín received institutional support for long-term conceptual development of research institutions provided by the Ministry of Culture (Moravian Museum, ref. MK000094862). The studies of E.F. Malysheva, V.F. Malysheva, O.V. Morozova, and S.V. Volobuev were carried out within the framework of a research project of the Komarov Botanical Institute RAS, St Petersburg, Russia (АААА-А18-118022090078-2) using equipment of its Core Facility Centre ‘Cell and Molecular Technologies in Plant Science’.The study of A.V. Alexandrova was carried out as part of the Scientific Project of the State Order of the Government of Russian Federation to Lomonosov Moscow State University No. 121032300081-7. The Kits van Waveren Foundation (Rijksherbariumfonds Dr E. Kits van Waveren, Leiden, Netherlands) contributed substantially to the costs of sequencing and travelling expenses for M.E. Noordeloos. The work of B. Dima was partly supported by the ÚNKP- 20-4 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology from the source of the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund. The work of L. Nagy was supported by the ‘Momentum’ program of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (contract No. LP2019- 13/2019 to L.G.N.). G.A. Kochkina and colleagues acknowledge N. Demidov for the background photograph, and N. Suzina for the SEM photomicrograph. The research of C.M. Visagie and W.J. Nel was supported by the National Research Foundation grant no 118924 and SFH170610239162. C. Gil-Durán acknowledges Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo, Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología, Conocimiento e Innovación, Gobierno de Chile, for grant ANID – Fondecyt de Postdoctorado 2021 – N° 3210135. R. Chávez and G. Levicán thank DICYT-USACH and acknowledges the grants INACH RG_03-14 and INACH RT_31-16 from the Chilean Antarctic Institute, respectively. S. Tiwari and A. Baghela would like to acknowledge R. Avchar and K. Balasubramanian from the Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, Maharashtra for helping with the termite collection. S. Tiwari is also thankful to the University Grants Commission, Delhi (India) for a junior research fellowship (827/(CSIR-UGC NET DEC.2017)). R. Lebeuf and I. Saar thank D. and H. Spencer for collecting and photographing the holotype of C. bondii, and R. Smith for photographing the habitat. A. Voitk is thanked for helping with the colour plate and review of the manuscript, and the Foray Newfoundland and Labrador for providing the paratype material. I. Saar was supported by the Estonian Research Council (grant PRG1170) and the European Regional Development Fund (Centre of Excellence EcolChange). M.P.S. Câmara acknowledges the ‘Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – CNPq’ for the research productivity fellowship, and financial support (Universal number 408724/2018-8). W.A.S. Vieira acknowledges the ‘Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento Pessoal de Ensino Superior – CAPES’ and the ‘Programa Nacional de Pós-Doutorado/CAPES – PNPD/CAPES’ for the postdoctoral fellowship. A.G.G. Amaral acknowledges CNPq, and A.F. Lima and I.G. Duarte acknowledge CAPES for the doctorate fellowships. F. Esteve-Raventós and colleagues were financially supported by FEDER/ Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades – Agencia Estatal de Investigación (Spain)/ Project CGL2017-86540-P. The authors would like to thank L. Hugot and N. Suberbielle (Conservatoire Botanique National de Corse, Office de l’Environnement de la Corse, Corti) for their help. The research of E. Larsson is supported by The Swedish Taxonomy Initiative, SLU Artdatabanken, Uppsala. Financial support was provided to R.J. Ferreira by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), and to I.G. Baseia, P.S.M. Lúcio and M.P. Martín by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) under CNPq-Universal 2016 (409960/2016-0) and CNPq-visiting researcher (407474/2013-7). J. Cabero and colleagues wish to acknowledge A. Rodríguez for his help to describe Genea zamorana, as well as H. Hernández for sharing information about the vegetation of the type locality. S. McMullan-Fisher and colleagues acknowledge K. Syme (assistance with illustrations), J. Kellermann (translations), M. Barrett (collection, images and sequences), T. Lohmeyer (collection and images) and N. Karunajeewa (for prompt accessioning). This research was supported through funding from Australian Biological Resources Study grant (TTC217-06) to the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. The research of M. Spetik and co-authors was supported by project No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0 /16_017/0002334. N. Wangsawat and colleagues were partially supported by NRCT and the Royal Golden Jubilee Ph.D. programme, grant number PHD/0218/2559. They are thankful to M. Kamsook for the photograph of the Phu Khiao Wildlife Sanctuary and P. Thamvithayakorn for phylogenetic illustrations. The study by N.T. Tran and colleagues was funded by Hort Innovation (Grant TU19000). They also thank the turf growers who supported their surveys and specimen collection. N. Matočec, I. Kušan, A. Pošta, Z. Tkalčec and A. Mešić thank the Croatian Science Foundation for their financial support under the project grant HRZZ-IP-2018-01-1736 (ForFungiDNA). A. Pošta thanks the Croatian Science Foundation for their support under the grant HRZZ-2018-09-7081. A. Morte is grateful to Fundación Séneca – Agencia de Ciencia y Tecnología de la Región de Murcia (20866/ PI/18) for financial support. The research of G. Akhmetova, G.M. Kovács, B. Dima and D.G. Knapp was supported by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office, Hungary (NKFIH KH-130401 and K-139026), the ELTE Thematic Excellence Program 2020 supported by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (TKP2020-IKA-05) and the Stipendium Hungaricum Programme. The support of the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Bolyai+ New National Excellence Program of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology to D.G. Knapp is highly appreciated. F.E. Guard and colleagues are grateful to the traditional owners, the Jirrbal and Warungu people, as well as L. and P. Hales, Reserve Managers, of the Yourka Bush Heritage Reserve. Their generosity, guidance, and the opportunity to explore the Bush Heritage Reserve on the Einasleigh Uplands in far north Queensland is greatly appreciated. The National Science Foundation (USA) provided funds (DBI#1828479) to the New York Botanical Garden for a scanning electron microscope used for imaging the spores. V. Papp was supported by the ÚNKP-21-5 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology from the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund of Hungary. A.N. Miller thanks the WM Keck Center at the University of Illinois Urbana – Champaign for sequencing Lasiosphaeria deviata. J. Pawłowska acknowledges support form National Science Centre, Poland (grant Opus 13 no 2017/25/B/NZ8/00473). The research of T.S. Bulgakov was carried out as part of the State Research Task of the Subtropical Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Theme No. 0492-2021- 0007). K. Bensch (Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, Utrecht) is thanked for correcting the spelling of various Latin epithets.

14 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, supplementary material https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2020.01590/full#supplementary-material.-- Data Availability Statement. The raw sequence data have been deposited at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). The data can be accessed online (https://www.ncbi.nlm) with the code PRJNA345534, Seasonal dynamics of ocean prokaryotic communities in the free-living fraction have been widely described, but less is known about the seasonality of prokaryotes inhabiting marine particles. We describe the seasonality of bacterial communities in the particulate matter continuum by sampling monthly over two years in a temperate oligotrophic coastal ecosystem and using a serial filtration (including six size-fractions spanning from 0.2 to 200 μm). We observed that bacterial communities in the particulate matter continuum had annual changes following harmonic seasonal oscillations, where alpha, beta, and gamma diversity increased during the warm period and decreased during the cold period. Communities in each size-fraction changed gradually over time, being the communities in larger size-fractions the ones with stronger annual changes. Annual community changes were driven mainly by day length and sea surface temperature, and each size-fraction was additionally affected by other variables (e.g., smaller size-fractions by dissolved PO4 and larger size-fractions by turbidity). While some taxonomic groups mantained their preference for a given size fraction during most of the year, others varied their distribution into different size fractions over time, as e.g., SAR11, which increased its presence in particles during the cold period. Our results indicate that the size-fractionation scheme provides novel seasonal patterns that are not possible to unveil by analyzing only free-living bacteria, and that help to better understand the temporal dynamics of prokaryotes, This research was funded by projects STORM (CTM2009-09352), ADEPT (CTM2011-23458), REMEI (CTM2015-70340-R), ANIMA (CTM2015-65720-R), and MIAU (RTI2018-101025-B-I00) funded by the former Spanish Ministries of Science and Innovation, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, and now Science, Innovation and Universities. JH was partially supported by the Chilean National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) (FONDECYT-POSTDOCTORADO 3180152). MM was supported by a CSIC JAEPredoc Grant, by the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security of Spain and by the Chilean National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) (FONDAP-IDEAL 15150003 and FONDECYT-POSTDOCTORADO 3190369). The publication fee was supported by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI), Spain, With the funding support of the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S), of the Spanish Research Agency (AEI)

The impact of plant–plant interactions on species diversity patterns has been broadly addressed in stressful environments, such as alpine ecosystems, where foundation species promote species richness by creating habitat for other species. However, foundation species with contrasting phenotypes might modify the microhabitat differently, which would alter the subordinate community composition, and coincide with distinct feedback effects of those subordinate species on the foundation species. However, the precise interaction mechanisms that facilitate species are not fully understood, especially the relative contribution of above- and below-ground compartments of foundation species to subordinate species and the potential feedbacks they receive. We explored whether two contrasted canopy phenotypes (tight and loose) of the shrub Cytisus galianoi differed in their effects on the microhabitat and on subordinate plant community composition in a dry subalpine system. We also experimentally distinguished the relative contribution of above- (canopy) and below-ground (soil) effects of C. galianoi on the most frequent subordinate species, Festuca indigesta, as well as the reciprocal effects of F. indigesta on C. galianoi. We performed observational and manipulative experiments to assess the influence of phenotypic differences of the shrub on understorey microhabitat and subordinate plant community composition. Reciprocal effects were assessed by removing either F. indigesta from the understorey of the two shrub phenotypes or the C. galianoi canopy from the immediate vicinity of F. indigesta. The two C. galianoi phenotypes differed in mean values of functional traits (like stem density or plant height), modified their understorey microhabitats differently and hosted distinct subordinate communities. Loose phenotypes had more positive effects on community composition and diversity than tight phenotypes. In addition, tight phenotypes simultaneously showed both more positive above-ground and more negative below-ground effects on F. indigesta than loose phenotypes. There were no significant feedback effects of F. indigesta on C. galianoi. The two phenotypes of the foundation species C. galianoi showed contrasting effects on the subordinate plant community: Compared to the tight phenotype, the loose phenotype had higher associated species diversity and reduced reciprocal interaction intensities above- and below-ground with the subordinate species F. indigesta. This highlights the impact of phenotypic variation for plant interactions and community-level diversity. A plain language summary is available for this article., This work was funded by the Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacionales (Grant Nos. 0002/9 and 1578/2015) and AEI- MINECO (CGL2014-59010-R and CGL2017-84515-R). N.P. was supported by a JAEPredoc CSIC and a Brazilian CAPES PVE Grant Number 88881.068053/2014; C.S. by the Swiss National Science Foundation (PZ00P3_148261, PP00P3_170645); P.M. by LINCGlobal, GACR 17-20839S and by a CzechPolar Grant Number MSMT LM2015083; and C.A. by a Spanish Government “Ramón y Cajal” contract (RYC-2012-12277).

Symbiosis and coloniality are ecologically important traits for corals of the order Scleractinia. Symbiotic (zooxanthellate) species are highly successful in shallow waters of tropical and subtropical seas and most of them are colonial. On the other hand, azooxanthellate species present wide distribution ranges and expand to the deep-sea at more than 6,000 m depth. These are mostly solitary, with only few species colonial that form extensive deep reefs. Each ecologically distinctive group encompasses half of the biodiversity of the order and they are not grouped into differentiated monophyletic clades. Paleontologists and evolutionary biologists have debated for decades whether modern scleractinian corals have evolved from symbiotic or colonial ancestors and how these traits have evolved and being involved in the diversification process in corals. Previous comparative analyses throw evidence in favor of coevolution of these characters and toward repetitive loss of symbiosis and coloniality. Nevertheless, the discovery of the origin of the group deep in the Paleozoic, with a deep divergent clade composed of only azooxanthellate corals has questioned these findings. With this work, we disentangle the patterns in the evolution of symbiosis and coloniality, testing if they are correlated and if they follow a gradual or episodic mode of evolution. To this end, we first produce the most complete time-calibrated phylogenetic tree for the order Scleractinia, including new sequences of never-before sampled species and genera. These novel sequences contribute to alleviate the current molecular under sampling of azooxanthellate species. Incorporating phylogenetic uncertainty, we obtained strong evidence in favor of a correlated and episodic model of evolution. This model led to the inference of an azooxanthellate and solitary most recent ancestor of scleractinians. Transition rates between the four different combinations of the two traits showed that while coloniality is gained and lost multiple times, symbiosis first appears around 282 Ma and is never lost. Also, coloniality seems to have appeared before symbiosis in azooxanthellate lineages. Thus, azooxanthellate corals, and especially colonial lineages, have been acting as a source of biodiversity for shallow zooxanthellate coral communities, highlighting the uniqueness of shallow and deep species and the need to preserve them., This work was funded by the ANID doctoral fellowship 21170577. FONDECYT supported this research through grants 1170815, 1201506 (CH), and 1200843 (MR). CV was supported by the RPG-20 Leverhulme Trust17-071.