Can soil Chytridiomycota survive and grow in different osmotic potentials?

Twenty isolates from soil in the orders Spizellomycetales, Blastocladiales and Chytridiales (Chytridiomycota) grew on complex solid media supplemented with 10 g l−1 sodium chloride. In a synthetic liquid medium, 4.4 g l−1 sodium chloride strongly inhibited growth in three of the five isolates, possibly because of the effect of the ions or osmolarity of the solution. The maximum concentration for growth in synthetic liquid medium with different osmotic potentials using polyethylene glycol (PEG) varied considerably amongst the isolates. Three patterns of growth with increasing concentrations of PEG were evident among isolates within the genus Rhizophydium. Up to the concentration where growth ceased, the dry weight of each isolate either decreased, remained constant, or in one case, increased. Most of the fungi survived when incubated at room temperature for 7 d in complex liquid media supplemented with 35 g l−1 sodium chloride or 300 g l−1 PEG. These data indicate that soil Chytridiomycota can survive various osmotic potentials that may occur during the wetting and drying phases in soils.