Freeze tolerance of soil chytrids from temperate climates in Australia

Very little is known about the capacity of soil chytrids to withstand freezing in the field. Tolerance to freezing was tested in 21 chytrids isolated from cropping and undisturbed soils in temperate Australia. Samples of thalli grown on peptone–yeast–glucose (PYG) agar were incubated for seven days at −15 °C. Recovery of growth after thawing and transferring to fresh medium at 20 °C indicated survival. All isolates in the Blastocladiales and Spizellomycetales survived freezing in all tests. All isolates in the Chytridiales also survived freezing in some tests. None of the isolates in the Rhizophydiales survived freezing in any of the tests. However, some isolates in the Rhizophydiales recovered growth after freezing if they were grown on PYG agar supplemented with either 1 % sodium chloride or 1 % glycerol prior to freezing. After freezing, the morphology of the thalli of all isolates was observed under LM. In those isolates that recovered growth after transfer to fresh media, mature zoosporangia were observed in the monocentric isolates and resistant sporangia or resting spores in the polycentric isolates. Encysted zoospores in some monocentric isolates also survived freezing. In some of the experiments the freezing and thawing process caused visible structural damage to the thalli. The production of zoospores after freezing and thawing was also used as an indicator of freeze tolerance. The chytrids in this study responded differently to freezing. These data add significantly to our limited knowledge of freeze tolerance in chytrids but leave many questions unanswered.