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Patterns of fungal diversity and composition along a salinity gradient.

ABSTRACT: Estuarine salinity gradients are known to influence plant, bacterial and archaeal community structure. We sequenced 18S rRNA genes to investigate patterns in sediment fungal diversity (richness and evenness of taxa) and composition (taxonomic and phylogenetic) along an estuarine salinity gradient. We sampled three marshes--a salt, brackish and freshwater marsh--in Rhode Island. To compare the relative effect of the salinity gradient with that of plants, we sampled fungi in plots with Spartina patens and in plots from which plants were removed 2 years prior to sampling. The fungal sediment community was unique compared with previously sampled fungal communities; we detected more Ascomycota (78%), fewer Basidiomycota (6%) and more fungi from basal lineages (16%) (Chytridiomycota, Glomeromycota and four additional groups) than typically found in soil. Across marshes, fungal composition changed substantially, whereas fungal diversity differed only at the finest level of genetic resolution, and was highest in the intermediate, brackish marsh. In contrast, the presence of plants had a highly significant effect on fungal diversity at all levels of genetic resolution, but less of an effect on fungal composition. These results suggest that salinity (or other covarying parameters) selects for a distinctive fungal composition, and plants provide additional niches upon which taxa within these communities can specialize and coexist. Given the number of sequences from basal fungal lineages, the study also suggests that further sampling of estuarine sediments may help in understanding early fungal evolution.

SUBMITTER: Mohamed DJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3105720 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Patterns of fungal diversity and composition along a salinity gradient.

Mohamed Devon J DJ Martiny Jennifer B H JB

The ISME journal 20100930 3

Estuarine salinity gradients are known to influence plant, bacterial and archaeal community structure. We sequenced 18S rRNA genes to investigate patterns in sediment fungal diversity (richness and evenness of taxa) and composition (taxonomic and phylogenetic) along an estuarine salinity gradient. We sampled three marshes--a salt, brackish and freshwater marsh--in Rhode Island. To compare the relative effect of the salinity gradient with that of plants, we sampled fungi in plots with Spartina pa ...[more]

PMID: 20882058

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Project description:Altitudinal gradients provide valuable information about the effects of environmental variables on changes in species richness and composition as well as the distribution of below ground fungal communities. Since most knowledge in this respect has been gathered on aboveground communities, we focused our study towards the characterization of belowground fungal communities associated with two different ages of Norway spruce (Picea abies) trees along an altitudinal gradient. By sequencing the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region on the Illumina platform, we investigated the fungal communities in a floristically and geologically relatively well explored forest on the slope of Mt. Iseler of the Bavarian Alps. From fine roots and rhizosphere of a total of 90 of Norway spruce trees from 18 plots we detected 1285 taxa, with a range of 167 to 506 (average 377) taxa per plot. Fungal taxa are distributed over 96 different orders belonging to the phyla Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Chrytridiomycota, Glomeromycota, and Mucoromycota. Overall the Agaricales (438 taxa) and Tremellales (81 taxa) belonging to the Basidiomycota and the Hypocreales (65 spp.) and Helotiales (61 taxa) belonging to the Ascomycota represented the taxon richest orders. The evaluation of our multivariate generalized mixed models indicate that the altitude has a significant influence on the composition of the fungal communities (p < 0.003) and that tree age determines community diversity (p < 0.05). A total of 47 ecological guilds were detected, of which the ectomycorrhizal and saprophytic guilds were the most taxon-rich. Our ITS amplicon Illumina sequencing approach allowed us to characterize a high fungal community diversity that would not be possible to capture with fruiting body surveys alone. We conclude that it is an invaluable tool for diverse monitoring tasks and inventorying biodiversity, especially in the detection of microorganisms developing very ephemeral and/or inconspicuous fruiting bodies or lacking them all together. Results suggest that the altitude mainly influences the community composition, whereas fungal diversity becomes higher in mature/older trees. Finally, we demonstrate that novel techniques from bacterial microbiome analyses are also useful for studying fungal diversity and community structure in a DNA metabarcoding approach, but that incomplete reference sequence databases so far limit effective identification.

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Patterns of fungal diversity and composition along a salinity gradient.

Publications

Patterns of fungal diversity and composition along a salinity gradient.

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