Dataset Information

Ectomycorrhizal fungal communities in endangered Pinus amamiana forests.

ABSTRACT: Interactions between trees and ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi are critical for the growth and survival of both partners. However, ECM symbiosis in endangered trees has hardly been explored, complicating conservation efforts. Here, we evaluated resident ECM roots and soil spore banks of ECM fungi from endangered Pinus amamiana forests on Yakushima and Tanegashima Islands, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Soil samples were collected from remaining four forests in the two islands. The resident ECM roots in soil samples were subjected to molecular identification. Soil spore banks of ECM fungi were analyzed via bioassays using a range of host seedlings (P. amamiana, P. parviflora, P. densiflora and Castanopsis sieboldii) for 6-8 months. In all remaining P. amamiana forests, we discovered a new Rhizopogon species (Rhizopogon sp.1), the sequence of which has no match amoung numerous Rhizopogon sequences deposited in the international sequence database. Host identification of the resident ECM roots confirmed that Rhizopogon sp.1 was associated only with P. amamiana. Rhizopogon sp.1 was far more dominant in soil spore banks than in resident ECM roots, and its presence was confirmed in nearly all soil samples examined across the major remaining populations. While Rhizopogon sp.1 did not completely lose compatibility to other pine species, its infection rate in the bioassays was highest in the original host, P. amamiana, the performance of which was improved by the infection. These results indicate that Rhizopogon sp.1 is very likely to have a close ecological relationship with endangered P. amamiana, probably due to a long co-evolutionary period on isolated islands, and to play the key role in seedling establishment after disturbance. We may need to identify and utilize such key ECM fungi to conserve endangered trees practically.

SUBMITTER: Murata M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5736215 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Ectomycorrhizal fungal communities in endangered Pinus amamiana forests.

Murata Masao M Kanetani Seiichi S Nara Kazuhide K

PloS one 20171219 12

Interactions between trees and ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi are critical for the growth and survival of both partners. However, ECM symbiosis in endangered trees has hardly been explored, complicating conservation efforts. Here, we evaluated resident ECM roots and soil spore banks of ECM fungi from endangered Pinus amamiana forests on Yakushima and Tanegashima Islands, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Soil samples were collected from remaining four forests in the two islands. The resident ECM roots i ...[more]

PMID: 29261780

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Project description:BackgroundGlobal warming and drying have markedly enhanced in most forests the risk of fires across the world, which can affect the taxonomic and functional composition of key tree-associated organisms such as ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi. The present study was conducted to characterise the alterations in the extent of root ECM colonisation, the ECM fungal communities, and their exploration types (i.e., indicator of ECM soil foraging strategies) in regenerated pines within a burned site as compared with an unburned site (five years after the fire event) in the Forest District Myszyniec, Poland.MethodsTo assess the ECM fungal communities of burned and control sites, soil soil-root monoliths were collected from the study sites in September 2019. A total of 96 soil subsamples were collected for soil analysis and mycorrhizal assessment (6 trees × 2 sites × 4 study plots × 2 microsites (north and south) = 96 subsamples).ResultsThe percentage of root ECM colonisation was significantly lower in the burned site in comparison with the unburned (control) site. However, the ECM species richness did not differ between the control and burned sites. The identified ECM species in both sites were Imleria badia, Thelephora terrestris, Russula paludosa, R. badia, R. turci, R. vesca, Lactarius plumbeus, Phialocephala fortinii, and Hyaloscypha variabilis. The most frequent species in the burned and control sites were I. badia and T. terrestris, respectively. The relative abundances of contact, medium-distance smooth and long-distance exploration types in the burned site were significantly different from the control site, dominated by the medium-distance exploration type in both sites. The abundance of the long-distance exploration type in the burned site was markedly greater (27%) than that of the control site (14%), suggesting that the fire event had favoured this ECM foraging strategy. The results demonstrated that the fire led to reduced ECM colonisation of Scots pine trees in the burned site whereas the species richness was not affected, which can be attributed to degrees of fire-resistance in the ECM species, survival of ECM propagules in deeper soil layers, and/or continuous entry of spores/propagules of the ECM fungi from the adjacent forests via wind, water run-off or animals.

Project description:Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi are important mutualists for the growth and health of most boreal trees. Forest age and its host species composition can impact the composition of ECM fungal communities. Although plentiful empirical data exist for forested environments, the effects of established vegetation and its successional trajectories on ECM fungi in urban greenspaces remain poorly understood. We analyzed ECM fungi in 5 control forests and 41 urban parks of two plant functional groups (conifer and broadleaf trees) and in three age categories (10, ∼50, and >100 years old) in southern Finland. Our results show that although ECM fungal richness was marginally greater in forests than in urban parks, urban parks still hosted rich and diverse ECM fungal communities. ECM fungal community composition differed between the two habitats but was driven by taxon rank order reordering, as key ECM fungal taxa remained largely the same. In parks, the ECM communities differed between conifer and broadleaf trees. The successional trajectories of ECM fungi, as inferred in relation to the time since park construction, differed among the conifers and broadleaf trees: the ECM fungal communities changed over time under the conifers, whereas communities under broadleaf trees provided no evidence for such age-related effects. Our data show that plant-ECM fungus interactions in urban parks, in spite of being constructed environments, are surprisingly similar in richness to those in natural forests. This suggests that the presence of host trees, rather than soil characteristics or even disturbance regime of the system, determine ECM fungal community structure and diversity.IMPORTANCE In urban environments, soil and trees improve environmental quality and provide essential ecosystem services. ECM fungi enhance plant growth and performance, increasing plant nutrient acquisition and protecting plants against toxic compounds. Recent evidence indicates that soil-inhabiting fungal communities, including ECM and saprotrophic fungi, in urban parks are affected by plant functional type and park age. However, ECM fungal diversity and its responses to urban stress, plant functional type, or park age remain unknown. The significance of our study is in identifying, in greater detail, the responses of ECM fungi in the rhizospheres of conifer and broadleaf trees in urban parks. This will greatly enhance our knowledge of ECM fungal communities under urban stresses, and the findings can be utilized by urban planners to improve urban ecosystem services.

Project description:Forests and woodlands in the West African Guineo-Sudanian transition zone contain many tree species that form symbiotic interactions with ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi. These fungi facilitate plant growth by increasing nutrient and water uptake and include many fruiting body-forming fungi, including some edible mushrooms. Despite their importance for ecosystem functioning and anthropogenic use, diversity and distribution of ECM fungi is severely under-documented in West Africa. We conducted a broad regional sampling across five West African countries using soil eDNA to characterize the ECM as well as the total soil fungal community in gallery forests and savanna woodlands dominated by ECM host tree species. We subsequently sequenced the entire ITS region and much of the LSU region to infer a phylogeny for all detected soil fungal species. Utilizing a long read sequencing approach allows for higher taxonomic resolution by using the full ITS region, while the highly conserved LSU gene allows for a more accurate higher-level assignment of species hypotheses, including species without ITS-based taxonomy assignments. We detect no overall difference in species richness between gallery forests and woodlands. However, additional gallery forest plots and more samples per plot would have been needed to firmly conclude this pattern. Based on both abundance and richness, species from the families Russulaceae and Inocybaceae dominate the ECM fungal soil communities across both vegetation types. The community structure of both total soil fungi and ECM fungi was significantly influenced by vegetation types and showed strong correlation within plots. However, we found no significant difference in fungal community structure between samples collected adjacent to different host tree species within each plot. We conclude that within plots, the fungal community is structured more by the overall ECM host plant community than by the species of the individual host tree that each sample was collected from.

Dataset Information

Ectomycorrhizal fungal communities in endangered Pinus amamiana forests.

Publications

Ectomycorrhizal fungal communities in endangered Pinus amamiana forests.

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