The poly-extreme tolerant black yeasts are prevalent under high ultraviolet light and climatic seasonality across soils of global biomes

Abstract

Black yeasts are among the most stress-tolerantorganisms of the planet, thriving under all types ofterrestrial habitats and extreme environments. Yet,their global patterns and ecology remain far lessstudied, limiting our capacity to identify the mainenvironmental drivers of these important organismsacross biomes. Tofill this knowledge gap, weanalysed topsoils from 235 terrestrial ecosystemsacross and within globally distributed climate groups(i.e. dry, temperate and continental). We found thatsoils are important repositories of black yeasts, andthat ultraviolet light,fine soil texture, and precipita-tion seasonality are the most consistent environmen-tal factors associated with their diversity acrossbiomes. Finally, we identifiedExophialaandCladophialophoraas the most dominant black yeastsgenera in soils across the globe. Thesefindings pro-vide novel evidence of global distribution of blackyeasts and their key environmental predictors, giving new insights for speculating the evolution andspreading of these extreme-tolerant organismsthroughout both natural and human associatedextreme environments