Microbial community structure and niche differentiation under different health statuses of Pinus bungeana in the Xiong'an New Area in China

Abstract

Pinus bungeana is a native but endangered plant species in China, with high ornamental value and adaptability to drought and cold. The relationship between the soil community structure and endophytic microbes in the tissues of P. bungeana under different health statuses is poorly understood. In this study, the endophytic bacterial and fungal communities of P. bungeana under different health statuses were compared and analyzed in the Xiong'an New Area. Using high-throughput deep sequencing [16S and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) rRNA] techniques, the effect of the health status of P. bungeana on the microbial communities in bulk soil, rhizospheric soil, roots, stems, and leaves was determined in this study. We observed that the diversity of the bacterial and fungal communities of the aboveground parts (stems and leaves) of healthy P. bungeana plants was much higher than that of the unhealthy plants. However, the diversity of bacterial and fungal communities in the belowground parts (bulk soil, rhizospheric soil, and roots) showed almost no difference in microbial community richness, indicating that the possible cause of illness was transmitted in a “top-down” manner. Furthermore, there were significant differences in the microbial diversity and community structure in different ecological niches of P. bungeana (P < 0.01). Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria were the dominant bacterial phyla, while Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Mortierellomycota were the predominant fungal phyla. Redundancy analysis (RDA) revealed that soil organic matter (SOM), total phosphorous (TP), total potassium (TK), total nitrogen (TN), water content (WC), power of hydrogen (pH), total carbon (TC), and the ratio of carbon to nitrogen (C/N) were significantly correlated with the composition of the microbial communities. Altogether, these results provide a scientific basis for further studies on the mechanism underlying the “aboveground–underground” microbial interactions in plantation forests, which can aid in promoting the healthy and sustainable development of the Millennium Xiulin forest in the Xiong'an New Area.

Leaf Health Status Regulates Endophytic Microbial Community Structure, Network Complexity, and Assembly Processes in the Leaves of the Rare and Endangered Plant Species Abies fanjingshanensis

“…The present study showed that the alpha diversity of the endophytic microbial community was significantly greater in healthy leaves than in non-healthy leaves, and these results corroborate previous studies showing that a greater proportion of the endophytic microbiome is found in healthy plant tissues [56,57]. Healthy plant tissues often provide a stable nutrient supply for the recruitment and establishment of the plant endophytic microbiome and present a complex and challenging environment for pathogen entry; in contrast, studies have suggested that plant tissues are more susceptible to colonization by some pathotrophic and saprotrophic microbial species after the vitality of plant tissues deteriorates or when a plant dies [56,58]; these species subsequently rapidly occupy the limited ecological niches available within the plant tissues, reducing the colonization of other endophytic microbiomes. Furthermore, the results of NMDS and PERMANOVA showed that the leaf endophytic microbial community significantly differed between healthy and non-healthy leaves, which is consistent with the findings of previous studies in the leaves of Olea europaea [19] and Gala apple [59].…”

Effects of Long-Term (17 Years) Nitrogen Input on Soil Bacterial Community in Sanjiang Plain: The Largest Marsh Wetland in China

“…The procedures involved quality filtering and splicing of bases, screening for non-compliant sequences, distinguishing samples, and adjusting sequences accordingly. For a more detailed explanation, please refer to Ma and Yang’s study [ 31 , 32 ].…”

Fungal diversities and community assembly processes show different biogeographical patterns in forest and grassland soil ecosystems

“…According to our previous publications, obtained data were analyzed ( Masoudi et al, 2020 ; Wang et al, 2020 , 2021 ; Yang et al, 2022 ). Basic information was collected during the construction of OTUs, such as valid tags data, low-frequency tags data, and annotation data of tags ( Supplementary Figure S1 ; Supplementary Table S2 ; Supplementary Information ).…”