Higher host plant specialization of root‐associated endophytes than mycorrhizal fungi along an arctic elevational gradient

Abstract

How community‐level specialization differs among groups of organisms, and changes along environmental gradients, is fundamental to understanding the mechanisms influencing ecological communities. In this paper, we investigate the specialization of root‐associated fungi for plant species, asking whether the level of specialization varies with elevation. For this, we applied DNA barcoding based on the ITS region to root samples of five plant species equivalently sampled along an elevational gradient at a high arctic site. To assess whether the level of specialization changed with elevation and whether the observed patterns varied between mycorrhizal and endophytic fungi, we applied a joint species distribution modeling approach. Our results show that host plant specialization is not environmentally constrained in arctic root‐associated fungal communities, since there was no evidence for changing specialization with elevation, even if the composition of root‐associated fungal communities changed substantially. However, the level of specialization for particular plant species differed among fungal groups, root‐associated endophytic fungal communities being highly specialized on particular host species, and mycorrhizal fungi showing almost no signs of specialization. Our results suggest that plant identity affects associated mycorrhizal and endophytic fungi differently, highlighting the need of considering both endophytic and mycorrhizal fungi when studying specialization in root‐associated fungal communities.

Climate warming dominates over plant genotype in shaping the seasonal trajectory of foliar fungal communities on oak

“…We further found that warming influenced the fungal community composition, with a particularly strong effect towards the end of the growing season. In line with this finding, several observational studies have reported shifts in the composition of foliar fungal communities along altitudinal and elevational gradients, which are often used as proxies for changes in climate (Hashizume et al ., 2010; Cordier et al ., 2012; Davey et al ., 2013; Coince et al ., 2014; Whitaker et al ., 2018; Abrego et al ., 2020a,b; Cai et al ., 2020). However, findings along such gradients are often confounded by concurrent changes in abiotic and biotic environmental conditions.…”

Endophytic Fungi as a Source of Antiviral Compounds – A Review

“…[17] Thus, the presence of endophytic fungi can provide host plants with several benefits, such as resistance to attack by herbivores, heat and drought, in addition to promoting growth and increasing nutrient recycling. [18 -20] According to Azevedo, [20] endophytic microorganisms can be found in the tissues of all plants studied around the world, including those in tropical forests, [7] coastal forests, [21] deserts, [22] Brazilian savannas, [23] tundra, [24] mangroves, [25] Antarctica, [26] the Arctic region, [27] Pantanal, [28] and prairies. [29] Some works have reported that secondary metabolites of fungi are also produced by the respective host plant, which may be related to a horizontal transfer of genes that may have occurred during the co-evolution between the endophytic fungus and the host plant.…”

Ecology and potential functions of plant-associated microbial communities in cold environments

“… 2019 ; Abrego et al . 2020 ; Arraiano-Castilho et al . 2020 ; Fujimura and Egger 2012 ; Garnica et al .…”

“… 2019 ; Abrego et al . 2020 ). However, plant species have variable effect on the plant-associated fungal communities depending on the fungal group (e.g.…”

“… 2014 ; Zhang and Yao 2015 ), indicating differential effects according to the fungal taxa (Abrego et al . 2020 ). Thus, further characterizations of plant-associated microbial communities are needed, particularly for some poorly studied Arctic regions, such as Norrbotten (Sweden), Iceland and Greenland (Denmark), Siberia and Novaya Zemlya (Russia), in order to better clarify the key drivers (i.e.…”