Invasion of the French Paleolithic painted cave of Lascaux by members of the Fusarium solani species complex

Abstract

A major fungal invasion was discovered in the prehistoric painted cave of Lascaux in France in Sep 2001. At least three species of the Fusarium solani complex were isolated and identified with a portion of the translation elongation factor 1α gene (EF-1α), a portion of the nuclear large subunit rDNA (LSU) and nuclear ribosomal intergenic spacer region (ITS). This study represents the first time that Fusarium species have been reported from a cave containing prehistoric paintings. Significant interspecific molecular variability was observed, suggesting that there might have been repeated introduction of the species, possibly carried by water from soils above the cave.

• Fusarium
• identification
• mural paintings
• prehistoric cave art

This research was supported by the Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication under 03 5698 05 and by the Consortium National de Recherche en Génomique and the service de systématique moléculaire of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (IFR 101). It is part of agreement No. 2005/67 between Genoscope and Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle on the project “Macrophylogeny of life” directed by Guillaume Lecointre. The authors thank D. Geiser who supplied a large dataset of EF sequences of the Fusarium solani species complex and helped with useful discussions regarding isolate identification, B. Duhem for drawing Fig. 1 and J. Taylor for kindly reviewing the manuscript before submission.