ArticlePloS one2020
Living in the dark: Bat caves as hotspots of fungal diversity.
Article in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
39 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 57 citations in OpenAlex.
- The microbiome of bat guano: for what is this knowledge important?Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2021Pooled it
- Fungal Communities Associated with Wooden Coffins in a Prehistoric Burial Cave.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Evaluation of the Bacterial Diversity in the World's Deepest Cave-Veryovkina, Arabika Massif, Western Caucasus.Microorganisms · 2026Article
- Amazonian Fungal Diversity and the Potential of Basidiomycetes as Sources of Novel Antimicrobials.Biology · 2026Review
- Microbial communities and biomineralization potential within mountain permafrost of the Devaux ice cave in the Central Pyrenees.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Seasonal Turnover in Bat Skin Mycobiota: Contrasting Fungal Communities Between Hibernation and Reproduction in Greater Mouse-Eared Bats (Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Article
- The shared performance of different COI regions increases the niche breadth detectable from bat guano eDNA.Genetics and molecular biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Culturable mycota from Karst caves in Yunnan Province, China.IMA fungus · 2026Article
- Surface geoenvironments shape organic matter inputs in iron-ore caves of Carajás, southeastern Amazonia.PloS one · 2026Article
- Insight into the Skin Mycobiota ofAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Unveiling the Subterranean Symphony: A Comprehensive Study of Cave Fungi Revealed Through National Center for Biotechnology Sequences.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Variation and assembly mechanisms ofMicrobiology spectrum · 2025Article
- Molluscicidal Screening ofJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- A Review of the Biotechnological Potential of Cave Fungi: A Toolbox for the Future.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Article
- Exploring Saccharomycotina Yeast Ecology Through an Ecological Ontology Framework.Yeast (Chichester, England) · 2024Review
- Understanding the role of bats as fungal vectors in the environment.IMA fungus · 2024Article
- Gypsum Cave Biofilm Communities are Strongly Influenced by Bat- And Arthropod-Related Fungi.Microbial ecology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Bat caves are very special roosts that harbour thousands of bats of one or more species. Such sites may hold an incredible "dark fungal diversity" which is still underestimated. We explored the culturable fungal richness in the air, on bats, and in the guano in a bat cave in Brazil's Caatinga dry forest. Fungal abundance was 683 colony-forming units (CFU) in the guano, 673 CFU in the air, and 105 CFU on the bats. Based on morphological and phylogenetic analysis of ITS, LSU, and TUB2 sequences, fungal isolates of 59 taxa belonging to 37 genera in the phyla Ascomycota (28 genera, including Aspergillus, Penicillium, Cladosporium, and Talaromyces), Basidiomycota (eight genera, including Rhodotorula and Schizophyllum), and Mucoromycota (only Rhizopus) were identified. The fungal richness in the air was 23 taxa (especially Aspergillus taxa), mainly found at 15 m and 45 m from the cave entrance; on the bodies of bats it was 36 taxa (mainly Aspergillus taxa), especially on their wing membranes (21 taxa, nine of which were exclusively found in this microhabitat); and in guano 10 fungal taxa (especially Aspergillus and Penicillium) were found. The fungal richness associated with guano (fresh and non-fresh) was similar from bats with different eating habits (insectivorous, frugivorous, and haematophagous). Sampling effort was not sufficient to reveal the total fungal taxa richness estimated. Eight (21.6%) of the 37 genera and 17 (53.1%) of the 32 identified fungal species are reported for the first time in caves. Our results highlight bat caves in Brazil as hotspots of fungal diversity, emphasizing the need to protect such special roosts.
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