Metabolic profiling of Minimedusa polyspora (Hotson) Weresub & P.M. LeClair, a cellulolytic fungus isolated from Mediterranean maquis, in southern Italy

The fungus Minimedusa polyspora (Hotson) Weresub & P.M. Le Clair was isolated during a survey aimed at collecting cellulolytic fungi from the soil-litter interface of the Mediterranean maquis environment in Italy. The metabolic profiling of the species and its ability to translocate nutrients between decaying leaf litter and soil have been investigated by means of Phenotype MicroArray (TM), Scanning Electron Microscopy and microanalysis techniques. The Phenotype MicroArray (TM) showed that the fungus possesses a preference for polysaccharides at the initial phases of its growth, and that it prefers hexoses and then oligosaccharides in the later phases of its development. M. polyspora proved to be capable of concentrating several important biogenic microelements (N, P, S, K and Ca), which are absent in the cellulosic substrate before fungal colonization. This capacity for nutrient uptake and translocation from other sources than cellulose makes this fungus a very efficient pioneer colonizer that requires little nitrogen, is fast growing, changes its own metabolism according to the early modifications of the substrate and uses inhibitory substances to make the habitat unfavourable for other species.