Lost in diversity: the interactions between soil‐borne fungi, biodiversity and plant productivity

Mommer, Liesje; Cotton, T. E. Anne; Raaijmakers, Jos M.; Termorshuizen, A.J.; Ruijven, Jasper van; Hendriks, Marloes; Rijssel, Sophia Q. van; Mortel, Judith E. van de; Paauw, Jan Willem van der; Schijlen, Elio; Smit‐Tiekstra, Annemiek E.; Berendse, F.; Kroon, Hans de; Dumbrell, Alex J.

doi:10.1111/nph.15036

Cited by 193 publications

(222 citation statements)

References 78 publications

(106 reference statements)

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“…The fraction of OTUs that matched well-described, i.e. cultured, species in the studies mentioned above ranged from only 10% (Tedersoo et al 2014) to 39% (Mommer et al 2018). Furthermore, when sequences from uncultured fungi are included in the matches, still 10-30% of fungal …”

Section: Soil-borne Pathogenic Fungi In Species-rich Grasslandsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…When re-introduced, four of these Pythium species reduced plant biomass of both grasses, while another grass (Anthoxanthum odoratum) and a forb (Plantago lanceolata) were not adversely affected. Recently, Mommer et al (2018) isolated 27 fungal species from symptomatic roots of the grass Anthoxanthum odoratum and the forb Leucanthemum vulgare in a grassland biodiversity experiment. Two of them (Magnaporthiopsis panicorum and Paraphoma chrysanthemicola) induced adverse host-specific effects on seedling biomass, when inoculated on different plants species (Mommer et al 2018).…”

Section: Soil-borne Pathogenic Fungi In Species-rich Grasslandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, Mommer et al (2018) isolated 27 fungal species from symptomatic roots of the grass Anthoxanthum odoratum and the forb Leucanthemum vulgare in a grassland biodiversity experiment. Two of them (Magnaporthiopsis panicorum and Paraphoma chrysanthemicola) induced adverse host-specific effects on seedling biomass, when inoculated on different plants species (Mommer et al 2018). These studies and others (see Table 1) show that the most commonly documented fungal pathogenic effect on the host plants under controlled conditions is a reduction in (total) biomass.…”

Section: Soil-borne Pathogenic Fungi In Species-rich Grasslandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the last decade, next-generation sequencing (NGS) techniques have allowed us to improve our knowledge of soil and root-associated fungal biodiversity in natural ecosystems (Hannula et al 2017;Jumpponen et al 2010;Mommer et al 2018;Wehner et al 2014). Such sequencing techniques provide information about the community composition of fungal operational taxonomic units (OTU) in plant roots, rhizosphere or bulk soil.…”

Section: Soil-borne Pathogenic Fungi In Species-rich Grasslandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…insects and nematodes (Bagchi et al 2014;de Deyn et al 2003;Knops et al 1999)) and pathogens (viruses, bacteria, and fungi (Maron et al 2011;Moore and Borer 2012;Packer and Clay 2000;Petermann et al 2008;Rottstock et al 2014)), has proven difficult, especially belowground (Alexander 2010). There is interest in the role of fungal pathogens to explain the maintenance of biodiversity (Bever et al 2015;Gilbert 2002), but in this review we focus on the other way around: the role of plant species diversity to reduce the build-up of soilborne fungal disease (Latz et al 2012;Mommer et al 2018;Yang et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Linking ecology and plant pathology to unravel the importance of soil-borne fungal pathogens in species-rich grasslands

et al. 2018

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Soil-borne fungal diseases are a major problem in agriculture. A century ago, the Dutch plant pathologist Johanna Westerdijk recognized the importance of linking fungal biology with ecology to understand plant disease dynamics. To explore new ways to manage soil-borne fungal disease in agriculture by 'learning from nature', we follow in her footsteps: we link below ground plant-fungal pathogen interactions to ecological settings, i.e. natural grasslands. Ecological research hypothesised that the build-up of 'enemies' is reduced in species-rich vegetation compared to monocultures. To understand how plant diversity can suppress soilborne fungal pathogens, we first need to identify fungal actors in species-rich grasslands. Next-generation sequencing revealed a first glimpse of the potential fungal actors, but their ecological functions often remain elusive. Databases are becoming available to predict the ecological fungal guild, but classic phytopathology studies that isolate and characterize -taxonomically and functionally -, remain essential. Secondly, we need to set-up experiments that reveal ecological mechanisms underlying the complex below ground interactions between plant diversity and fungal pathogens. Several studies suggested that disease incidence of (hostspecific) pathogens is related to abundance of the host plant species. However, recent studies suggest that next to host species density, presence of heterospecific species additionally affects disease dynamics. We explore the direct and indirect ways of these neighboring plants diluting pathogen pressure. We argue that combining the expertise of plant pathologists and ecologists will improve our understanding of belowground plant-fungal pathogen interactions in natural grasslands and contribute to the design of sustainable and productive intercropping strategies in agriculture.

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Section: Soil-borne Pathogenic Fungi In Species-rich Grasslandsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Soil-borne Pathogenic Fungi In Species-rich Grasslandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Soil-borne Pathogenic Fungi In Species-rich Grasslandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Soil-borne Pathogenic Fungi In Species-rich Grasslandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Linking ecology and plant pathology to unravel the importance of soil-borne fungal pathogens in species-rich grasslands

et al. 2018

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Neighboring trees regulate the root‐associated pathogenic fungi on the host plant in a subtropical forest

Cheng

2020

Ecology and Evolution

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It has been challenging for ecologists to understand the mechanisms by which abundant species coexist in plant communities for decades.An influential explanation for this maintenance of species diversity is the Janzen-Connell hypothesis (Connell, 1971;Janzen, 1970), which proposes that host-specific natural enemies, such as fungal pathogens and herbivores, spread from adult trees to their nearby offspring in a density-dependent trend, which leaves a vacant space for the establishment of other species. Recently, numerous experimental and phenomenological investigations have provided evidence to support this hypothesis in tropical and temperate forests (Comita Abstract Root-associated fungi and host-specific pathogens are major determinants of species coexistence in forests. Phylogenetically related neighboring trees can strongly affect the fungal community structure of the host plant, which, in turn, will affect the ecological processes. Unfortunately, our understanding of the factors influencing fungal community composition in forests is still limited. In particular, investigation of the relationship between the phytopathogenic fungal community and neighboring trees is incomplete. In the current study, we tested the host specificity of members of the root-associated fungal community collected from seven tree species and determined the influence of neighboring trees and habitat variation on the composition of the phytopathogenic fungal community of the focal plant in a subtropical evergreen forest. Using high-throughput sequencing data with respect to the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, we characterized the community composition of the root-associated fungi and found significant differences with respect to fungal groups among the seven tree species. The density of conspecific neighboring trees had a significantly positive influence on the relative abundance of phytopathogens, especially host-specific pathogens, while the heterospecific neighbor density had a significant negative impact on the species richness of host-specific pathogens, as well as phytopathogens. Our work provides evidence that the root-associated phytopathogenic fungi of a host plant depend greatly on the tree neighbors of the host plant. K E Y W O R D S host specificity, Janzen-Connell hypothesis, neighbor influences, phytopathogenic fungi, root-associated fungi, subtropical forest S U PP O RTI N G I N FO R M ATI O N Additional supporting information may be found online in the Supporting Information section.

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Abundance, origin, and phylogeny of plants do not predict community‐level patterns of pathogen diversity and infection

Schmidt

Auge

Deising

et al. 2020

Ecology and Evolution

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Pathogens have the potential to shape plant community structure, and thus, it is important to understand the factors that determine pathogen diversity and infection in communities. The abundance, origin, and evolutionary relationships of plant hosts are all known to influence pathogen patterns and are typically studied separately. We present an observational study that examined the influence of all three factors and their interactions on the diversity of and infection of several broad taxonomic groups of foliar, floral, and stem pathogens across three sites in a temperate grassland in the central United States. Despite that pathogens are known to respond positively to increases in their host abundances in other systems, we found no relationship between host abundance and either pathogen diversity or infection. Native and exotic plants did not differ in their infection levels, but exotic plants hosted a more generalist pathogen community compared to native plants. There was no phylogenetic signal across plants in pathogen diversity or infection. The lack of evidence for a role of abundance, origin, and evolutionary relationships in shaping patterns of pathogens in our study might be explained by the high generalization and global distributions of our focal pathogen community, as well as the high diversity of our plant host community. In general, the community‐level patterns of aboveground pathogen infections have received less attention than belowground pathogens, and our results suggest that their patterns might not be explained by the same drivers.

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Lost in diversity: the interactions between soil‐borne fungi, biodiversity and plant productivity

Cited by 193 publications

References 78 publications

Linking ecology and plant pathology to unravel the importance of soil-borne fungal pathogens in species-rich grasslands

Linking ecology and plant pathology to unravel the importance of soil-borne fungal pathogens in species-rich grasslands

Neighboring trees regulate the root‐associated pathogenic fungi on the host plant in a subtropical forest

Abundance, origin, and phylogeny of plants do not predict community‐level patterns of pathogen diversity and infection

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