Lichenized association between Septonema tormes sp. nov., a coccoid cyanobacterium, and a green alga with an unforeseen biopreservation effect of Villamayor sandstone at ‘Casa Lis’ of Salamanca, Spain

• Published in: Mycological research 1997-12, Vol.101 (12), p.1489-1495
• Main Authors: GRONDONA, I., MONTE, E., RIVES, V., VICENTE, M. A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: algae and seaweeds; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied sciences; biofilm; Biological and medical sciences; biopreservation; Buildings. Public works; conidia; Corrosion; Cyanobacteria; Cyanothece; descriptions; Deuteromycotina; Durability. Pathology. Repairing. Maintenance; Exact sciences and technology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gloeocystis rupestris; humidity; lichen crusts; Lichenes; lichens; Microbial ecology; new species; Plant cytology, morphology, systematics, chorology and evolution; sandstone; Septonema tormes; symbiosis; taxonomy; Thallophyta; Various environments (extraatmospheric space, air, water); weathering; weathering crusts
• ISSN: 0953-7562; 1469-8102
• DOI: 10.1017/S0953756297004309

‘Casa Lis’ is the most characteristic building in Salamanca, Spain, belonging to the modernist trend. It was built with Villamayor sandstone from nearby Salamanca, which has high porosity providing an easy medium for water absorption and capillarity. During a restoration process on the southern wall, near an underground water flow, two well defined, naturally developed layers were observed on the sandstone surface: an outer, hard crust with greyish shades and whitish salt patches resulting from rising damp, and an inner, green layer with organic material linking the sandstone to the inorganic crust. The microbiological study of this biofilm showed an ecologically obligate, stable mutualism between a dematiaceous mitosporic fungus (Septonema tormes sp. nov.), a coccoid cyanobacterium (Cyanothece-group) and a green alga (Gloeocystis rupestris), with the accumulation of different metabolites excreted by these microorganisms. The case reported here is one of the few studies where a microbial mat, in association with the external crust, avoids a further weathering of the stone because of an unforeseen biopreservation effect due to the maintenance of humidity at constant levels under the crust avoids changes in clay swelling and subsequent surface arenization of the sandstone. The lichenized complex of a mitosporic mycobiont and two photobionts, in this case, has not been reported before as a stable association on this kind of substrate.