AM and DSE colonization of invasive plants in urban habitat: a study of Upper Silesia (southern Poland)

Abstract

Interactions between invasive plants and root endophytes may contribute to the exploration of plant invasion causes. Twenty plant species of alien origin differing in invasiveness were studied in terms of status and typical structures of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and dark septate endophytes (DSE) in urban habitats in Silesia Upland (southern Poland). We observed that 75 % of investigated plant species were mycorrhizal. The arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) of most plant species was of the Arum morphology. The nearly 100 % mycorrhizal frequency, high intensity of AM colonization within root cortex and the presence of arbuscules in all mycorrhizal plant species indicate that the investigated species are able to establish AM associations in the secondary range and urban habitats. DSE were present in all mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal species. The frequency of DSE was significantly lower in non-mycorrhizal group of plants, however, sclerotia of DSE were found mainly in the roots of non-mycorrhizal plant species. The group of species native to North America including three Solidago congeners have the highest values of all AM mycorrhization and DSE indices. Moreover, we observed that most mycorrhizal invasive species belonged to the family Asteraceae. In turn, representatives of Poaceae had the lowest values of AM mycorrhization. Nevertheless, quite high values of DSE frequency were also encountered in roots of Poaceae species. The high invasiveness of the representatives of the Asteraceae family from North America support theory that both taxonomic pattern, and the fact of root endophytes colonization contribute to invasion success. While, the taxa of Reynoutria also represent successful invaders but they are of Asiatic origin, non-mycorrhizal and weakly colonized by DSE fungi.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10265-016-0802-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi favor invasive Echinops sphaerocephalus when grown in competition with native Inula conyzae

“…The majority of studies describing underlying mechanisms for successful invasion have focused on aboverather than belowground processes, however accumulating evidence suggests soil organisms may be important regulators of plant invasions [37][38][39][40] . Although many invasive plants are mycotrophic (~ 82% 41 , and fungal associations have been shown to both facilitate and hinder invasion success [42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50] , the role of AM mycelial networks in the invasion process has not been determined. Further, information on the role of mycorrhizae on invasive plant success is available for only a small number of plant species at this time.…”

Frequency of Dark Septate Endophytes Colonization in Iris germanica L.

“…According to previous research on herbaceous plants in field conditions, frequency of DSE colonization can vary widely between species but for comparison purposes are proposed three colonization frequency classes: first one DSE≤10% considered a low colonization level, DSE=11-49% considered a middle level of colonization and respectively DSE ≥50% considered a high colonization level. These classes can conveniently group plants into categories based on DSE frequency, as follows: a) Low colonization frequency levels (DSE≤10%) were reported for some common cultivated plants such as Echinacea purpurea, Mentha × citrata, Origanum majorana (Zubek and Błaszkowsk, 2009), Levisticum officinale, Verbena officinalis (Zubek et al, 2010), a highly invasive plant -Reynoutria sachalinensis (Gucwa-Przepióra et al, 2016) or some alpine plants: Homogyne alpina, Soldanella carpatica , as well as some ornamentals Helianthus annuus, Liatris spicata, Tanacetum vulgare, Cosmos bipinnatus, Zinnia elegans (Crișan et al, 2019b Punctual experiments such as this may constitute a piece in a larger puzzle that could pave the way to a better understanding of the conditions and factors that govern the interaction of these fungi with plants, and eventually how different the nature of this relationship is compared to other beneficial root fungal colonizers such as fine root endophytes or mycorrhizal fungi.…”

Is the Age of Novel Ecosystem the Factor Driving Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Colonization in Poa compressa and Calamagrostis epigejos?

“…However, in terms of N deficiency, it was considerably colonized by AMF [ 58 ]. In general, some plants, because of numerous root hairs and a high nutrient uptake capability, are less dependent on mycorrhizae unless they grow on degraded soils and in soils with an extreme nutrient deficiency [ 52 , 59 ]. However, grasses of alien origin could be more dependent on fungi root colonization, e.g., Avena fatua [ 60 ].…”