The interactions between plant life form and fungal traits of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi determine the symbiotic community

Abstract

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi have traditionally been considered generalist symbionts. However, an increasing number of studies are pointing out the selectivity potential of plant hosts. Plant life form, determined by plant life history traits, seems to drive the AM fungal community composition. The AM fungi also exhibit a wide diversity of functional traits known to be responsible for their distribution in natural ecosystems. However, little is known about the role of plant and fungal traits driving the resultant symbiotic assemblages. With the aim of testing the feedback relationship between plant and fungal traits on the resulting AM fungal community, we inoculated three different plant life forms, i.e. annual herbs, perennial herbs and perennial semi-woody plants, with AM fungal communities sampled in different seasons. We hypothesized that the annual climate variation will induce changes in the mean traits of the AM fungal communities present in the soil throughout the year. Furthermore, the association of plants with different life forms with AM fungi with contrasting life history traits will show certain preferences according to reciprocal traits of the plants and fungi. We found changes in the AM fungal community throughout the year, which were differentially disrupted by disturbance and altered by plant growth form and plant biomass. Both plant and fungal traits clearly contributed to the resultant AM fungal communities. The revealed process can have implications for the functioning of ecosystems since changes in dominant plant life forms or climatic variables could influence the traits of AM fungal communities in soil and hence ecosystem processes.

Spring to autumn changes in the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community composition in the different propagule types associated to a Mediterranean shrubland

“…The fact that the five target plant species, chosen because they are the most common at the study site, have similar functional characteristics could minimize the differences in terms of AMF community composition in agreement with previous studies (Yang et al 2012). A host plant effect could have been more easily detected if a group of more ecologically dissimilar plants had been selected, according to other studies developed in the same area (López-García et al 2014a).…”

“…However, some studies have found preferences of certain host plants for certain fungal species, indicating that the host partner can influence the AMF community associated to it (Helgason et al 2002;Vandenkoornhuyse et al 2003;Li et al 2010). Nowadays, it is increasingly accepted that the mycorrhizal symbiotic assemblages are mainly driven by the plant ecological group rather than by the plant species identity (Öpik et al 2009;Yang et al 2012;López-García et al 2014a). In any case, the relationship between AMF and host plant species could be explained by functional differences among AMF taxa, especially in relation to the effect they have on their hosts (Munkvold et al 2004).…”

Non‐random association patterns in a plant–mycorrhizal fungal network reveal host–symbiont specificity

“…The minor seasonal variation apparent in our data might be related to the fact that all but three of the plant species were perennial. Furthermore, seasonal variability in AM fungal community composition has been shown to be relatively low in herbaceous plants (López‐García, Azcón‐Aguilar, & Barea, ), which represent the majority of the plant community in this study.…”

The influence of environmental factors on communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi associated with Chenopodium ambrosioides revealed by MiSeq sequencing investigation

“…These results indicated that the AMF recruitment preferences by C. ambrosioides differed among sampling sites. Several explanations for the differences in the AMF present in the roots and rhizosphere soils of the same plant have been proposed, including different AMF life strategies, differential sporulation dynamics, and seasonal changes in the AMF community505152.…”