Host tree organ is the primary driver of endophytic fungal community structure in a hemiboreal forest

Abstract

Despite numerous studies on plant endophytes, little is known about fungal communities associated with different aboveground tissues of living trees. We used high-throughput sequencing to compare the diversity and community structure of fungi inhabiting leaves, branches and trunks of Alnus incana and Corylus avellana growing at three hemiboreal forest sites. Our analysis revealed that tree organs are the main determinants of the structure of fungal communities, whereas the effects of host species and locality remained secondary and negligible, respectively. The structure of fungal communities in trunks was the most distinct compared to that in leaves and branches. The foliar fungal communities were more similar within than between individual trees, implying that certain fungi may grow through parts of the tree crown. The weak effect of locality compared to host organs and species identity suggests that the structural variation of fungal communities in the aboveground parts of trees depends mainly on deterministic factors rather than dispersal limitation.

Mycobiomes of Young Beech Trees Are Distinguished by Organ Rather Than by Habitat, and Community Analyses Suggest Competitive Interactions Among Twig Fungi

“…(Ragazzi et al, 2003). In a comparison of gray alder (Alnus incana) and hazel (Corylus avellana) (Küngas et al, 2020), further concluded that tree organs are the main determinants of fungal community structure, whereas the effect of host species and locality appears less important. In addition, tree health may also play a role (Berg et al, 2017).…”

Metagenomic assessment of the global diversity and distribution of bacteria and fungi

“…Given that hosts exist within external environments, external host habitats are much more complex in terms of scale, abiotic heterogeneity and C resources, compared with internal host habitats. Thus, environmental microbiomes – and to a lesser extent external host microbiomes – likely experience greater exposure to migrations of different organisms/genes, leading to a greater variety of niches suitable for the establishment of a larger variety of organisms compared with internal host habitats (Pent et al ., 2017; Küngas et al ., 2020). Different abiotic factors such as pH, climate and organic matter contents shape the environmental community compositions of bacteria and fungi (Tedersoo et al ., 2014; Louca et al ., 2016; Bahram et al ., 2018; Delgado‐Baquerizo et al ., 2018).…”

Endophytic fungi of olive tree and their exploitation in the biological control of olive anthracnose = Hongos endofíticos del olivo y su aprovechamiento para el control biológico de la antracnosis del olivo

“…This result is in agreement with previous studies suggesting organ-specificity of fungal endophytes in olive tree ). As previously suggested for other woody species (Küngas et al, 2020), it is likely that the growth of endophytes in olive is restricted by the features of a particular organ.…”

“…Plant genetics (at species or genotype level) also control endophytic fungal communities' composition of woody perennials Lamit et al, 2014;Bálint et al, 2015;Yao et al, 2019;Küngas et al, 2019). As far as we known, host plant effect on fungal assemblage have been recognized only on endophytes colonizing leaves Yao et al, 2019), roots (Andrade-Linares and Franken, 2013) and…”