Fungi, bacteria and oomycota opportunistically isolated from the seagrass, Zostera marina

Ettinger, Cassandra L.; Eisen, Jonathan A.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0236135

Cited by 34 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 114 publications

(218 reference statements)

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“…Marinomonas appears to be a true associate of seagrass, and we find Marinomonas in the new growth and overall Zostera core (Figure 4). This genus has been recently isolated from Zostera marina leaf tissues from Bodega Bay, California (Ettinger and Eisen, 2020). Several species of Marinomonas have also been isolated from the seagrass Posidonia oceanica on the coast of Spain (Espinosa et al, 2010;Lucas-Elió et al, 2011), including M. posidonica, which is in the core of new leaves here (Figure 4).…”

Section: Several Core Seagrass Taxa Likely Perform Important Functionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Host-Specificity and Core Taxa of Seagrass Leaf Microbiome Identified Across Tissue Age and Geographical Regions

et al. 2020

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The seagrass Zostera marina is a widespread foundational species in temperate coastal ecosystems that supports diverse communities of epiphytes and grazers. Bacteria link the production of seagrass to higher trophic levels and are thought to influence seagrass biology and health. Yet, we lack a clear understanding of the factors that structure the seagrass microbiome, or whether there is a consistent microbial community associated with seagrass that underpins functional roles. We sampled surface microbiome (epibiota) from new and old growth seagrass leaves and the surrounding seawater in eight meadows among four regions along the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada to assess microbiome variability across space and as leaves age. We found that the seagrass leaf microbiome differs strongly from seawater. Microbial communities in new and old growth leaves are different from each other and from artificial seagrass leaves we deployed in one meadow. The microbiome on new leaves is less diverse and there is a small suite of core OTUs (operational taxonomic units) consistently present across regions. The overall microbial community for new leaves is more dispersed but with little regional differentiation, while the epiphytes on old leaves are regionally distinct. Many core OTUs on old leaves are commonly associated with marine biofilms. Together these observations suggest a stronger role for host filtering in new compared to old leaves, and a stronger influence of the environment and environmental colonization in old leaves. We found 11 core microbial taxa consistently present on old and new leaves and at very low relative abundance on artificial leaves and in the water column. These 11 taxa appear to be strongly associated with Z. marina. These core taxa may perform key functions important for the host such as detoxifying seagrass waste products, enhancing plant growth, and controlling epiphyte cover.

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Section: Several Core Seagrass Taxa Likely Perform Important Functionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Host-Specificity and Core Taxa of Seagrass Leaf Microbiome Identified Across Tissue Age and Geographical Regions

et al. 2020

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“…The global mycobiome of Z. marina was generally composed of taxa previously observed to associate with Z. marina and other seagrass species using cultureindependent methods (Figure S14) (37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42). This diversity is also in line with cultivation efforts (37,70,71). Altogether these results are consistent with the seagrass mycobiome being comprised of many ASVs, including many Chytridiomycota lineages, for which a specific taxonomic assignment cannot be made based on current datasets that are biased towards terrestrial fungi (39,40,42).…”

Section: Global Mycobiome Highlights Importance Of Chytridiomycota Lineagesmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Colletotrichum sp.) (37). One hypothesis for this pattern is that the fungal community is assembled neutrally through stochastic processes.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…culture-independent effort of Z. marina which found that the bacterial and eukaryotic epibiont communities were highly correlated (26). Additionally, oomycetes have been previously cultured in association with Z. marina and are thought to function as opportunistic pathogens or saprotrophs in this system (37,90,91).…”

Section: Colletotrichum Sp Appear To Be Endemic To Only a Few Locationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Global Diversity and Biogeography of the Zostera marina Mycobiome

Ettinger

Vann

Eisen

2021

Appl Environ Microbiol

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Seagrasses are marine flowering plants that provide critical ecosystem services in coastal environments worldwide. Marine fungi are often overlooked in microbiome and seagrass studies, despite terrestrial fungi having critical functional roles as decomposers, pathogens or endophytes in global ecosystems. Here we characterize the distribution of fungi associated with the seagrass, Zostera marina, using leaves, roots, and rhizosphere sediment from 16 locations across its full biogeographic range. Using high throughput sequencing of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and 18S ribosomal RNA gene, we first measured fungal community composition and diversity. We then tested hypotheses of neutral community assembly theory and the degree to which deviations suggested amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) were plant-selected or dispersal-limited. Finally, we identified a core mycobiome and investigated the global distribution of differentially abundant ASVs. We found that the fungal community is significantly different between sites and that the leaf mycobiome follows a weak, but significant pattern of distance decay in the Pacific Ocean. Generally, there was evidence for both deterministic and stochastic factors contributing to community assembly of the mycobiome, with most taxa assembling through stochastic processes. The Z. marina core leaf and root mycobiomes were dominated by unclassified Sordariomycetes spp., unclassified Chytridiomycota lineages (including Lobulomycetaceae spp.), unclassified Capnodiales spp. and Saccharomyces sp. It is clear from the many unclassified fungal ASVs and fungal functional guilds, that knowledge of marine fungi is still rudimentary. Further studies characterizing seagrass-associated fungi are needed to understand the roles of these microorganisms generally and when associated with seagrasses. Importance Fungi have important functional roles when associated with land plants, yet very little is known about the roles of fungi associated with marine plants, like seagrasses. In this study, we report the results of a global effort to characterize the fungi associated with the seagrass, Zostera marina, across its full biogeographic range. Although we defined a putative global core fungal community, it is apparent from the many fungal sequences and predicted functional guilds that had no matches to existing databases, that general knowledge of seagrass-associated fungi and marine fungi generally is lacking. This work serves as an important foundational step towards future work investigating the functional ramifications of fungi in the marine ecosystem.

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“…Plant-microbe associations are critical to the health and functioning of terrestrial plants (Vandenkoornhuyse et al, 2015;Crump et al, 2018), but little is known of the role, diversity and structure of microbial communities in seagrasses and other marine plants (Cúcio et al, 2016;Fahimipour et al, 2017;Crump et al, 2018). However, this is beginning to change as researchers start to examine the microbiomes of marine and coastal plants (Fahimipour et al, 2017;Wainwright et al, 2018Wainwright et al, , 2019bHurtado-McCormick et al, 2019;Lee et al, 2019;Ettinger and Eisen, 2020). Marine plant-associated microbes are involved in sulphide oxidation and reduction, nitrogen fixation, and nutrient cycling.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and Structural Factors Shape Seagrass-Associated Bacterial Communities in Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia

et al. 2021

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Plant-microbe relationships play critical roles in the functioning and health of terrestrial plants, but little is known about this relationship in marine angiosperms such as seagrasses. Here, we investigated the microbial communities associated with the seagrass Enhalus acoroides throughout Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia. At each sampling location we collected 10 individual and unconnected plants. Each plant was subsequently broken down into leaves, roots, and rhizomes. In addition to living plant parts a sediment sample was taken in close proximity to each. Using high throughput 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing we characterised the bacterial communities associated with each plant part and the associated sediment sample. Results indicate geographic structuring of bacterial communities, with a significant pattern of distance decay suggesting dispersal limitation is a contributing factor to the differences we see in bacterial community structure. Bacterial communities can be further differentiated by the function of the collected sample (leaf, root, and rhizome), and we identified a number of microbial indicator species that are associated with each plant part. Further analysis revealed the presence of several microbial taxa that have previously been identified as indicators of “unhealthy” or “stressed” seagrass meadows. This study addresses a current scientific gap related to the characterisation of seagrass microbiomes, and provides a foundation on which future studies can build, particularly those in the Southeast Asian seagrass biodiversity hotspot.

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Fungi, bacteria and oomycota opportunistically isolated from the seagrass, Zostera marina

Cited by 34 publications

References 114 publications

Host-Specificity and Core Taxa of Seagrass Leaf Microbiome Identified Across Tissue Age and Geographical Regions

Host-Specificity and Core Taxa of Seagrass Leaf Microbiome Identified Across Tissue Age and Geographical Regions

Global Diversity and Biogeography of the Zostera marina Mycobiome

Spatial and Structural Factors Shape Seagrass-Associated Bacterial Communities in Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia

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