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Both abundant and rare fungi colonizing Fagus sylvatica ectomycorrhizal root-tips shape associated bacterial communities.

Marlies DietrichAlicia Montesinos-NavarroRaphael GabrielFlorian StrasserDimitri V MeierWerner MayerhoferStefan GorkaJulia WiesenbauerVictoria MartinMarieluise WeidingerAndreas RichterChristina KaiserDagmar Woebken
Published in: Communications biology (2022)
Ectomycorrhizal fungi live in close association with their host plants and form complex interactions with bacterial/archaeal communities in soil. We investigated whether abundant or rare ectomycorrhizal fungi on root-tips of young beech trees (Fagus sylvatica) shape bacterial/archaeal communities. We sequenced 16S rRNA genes and fungal internal transcribed spacer regions of individual root-tips and used ecological networks to detect the tendency of certain assemblies of fungal and bacterial/archaeal taxa to inhabit the same root-tip (i.e. modularity). Individual ectomycorrhizal root-tips hosted distinct fungal communities associated with unique bacterial/archaeal communities. The structure of the fungal-bacterial/archaeal association was determined by both, dominant and rare fungi. Integrating our data in a conceptual framework suggests that the effect of rare fungi on the bacterial/archaeal communities of ectomycorrhizal root-tips contributes to assemblages of bacteria/archaea on root-tips. This highlights the potential impact of complex fine-scale interactions between root-tip associated fungi and other soil microorganisms for the ectomycorrhizal symbiosis.
Keyphrases
  • gene expression
  • air pollution
  • transcription factor
  • climate change
  • electronic health record
  • cell wall
  • big data
  • high resolution
  • bioinformatics analysis
  • plant growth