Cara M. Santelli

Abstract Filamentous fungi play crucial roles in global carbon and nutrient cycling, soil carbon sequestration, agricultural soil management, contaminant fate and transport, biofouling of engineered materials and human health. Although these processes typically involve multiple fluid phases in porous media, the mechanisms by which fungi regulate fluid flow remain poorly understood, limiting our ability to predict and harness fungus-mediated processes.

Abstract Organosulfur compounds (OrgS) are fundamental components of life’s biomass, yet the cycling of these compounds in the terrestrial deep subsurface, one of Earth’s largest ecosystems, has gone relatively unexplored. Here, we show that all subsurface microbial genomes reconstructed from Soudan Underground Mine State Park have the capacity to cycle organic sulfur species.