Phyllosphere epiphytic and endophytic fungal community and network structures differ in a tropical mangrove ecosystem

Abstract

Background Revealing the relationship between plants and fungi is very important in understanding biodiversity maintenance, community stability, and ecosystem functioning. However, differences in the community and network structures of phyllosphere epiphytic and endophytic fungi are currently poorly documented. In this study, we examined epiphytic and endophytic fungal communities associated with the leaves of six mangrove species using Illumina MiSeq sequencing of internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) sequences. Results A total of 635 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) of endophytic and epiphytic fungi were obtained at a 97% sequence similarity level; they were dominated by Dothideomycetes and Tremellomycetes . Plant identity had a significant effect on the OTU richness of endophytic fungi, but not on epiphytic fungi. The community composition of epiphytic and endophytic fungi was significantly different, and plant identity had a greater effect on endophytic fungi than on epiphytic fungi. Network analysis showed that both epiphytic and endophytic network structures were characterized by significantly highly specialized and modular but lowly connected and anti-nested properties. Furthermore, the endophytic network had higher levels of specialization and modularity but lower connectance and stronger anti-nestedness than the epiphytic network. Conclusions This study reveals that the phyllosphere epiphytic and endophytic fungal communities differ, and plant identity has a greater effect on the endophytic fungi than on epiphytic fungi. These findings demonstrate the role of host plant identity in driving phyllosphere epiphytic and endophytic community structure. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s40168-019-0671-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Phyllospheric Microbiomes: Diversity, Ecological Significance, and Biotechnological Applications

“…There are several reports revealed that phyllosphere fungi have a profound role in the residing host. Both epiphytic and endophytic fungi inhabiting the leaf are of high species diversity with diverse metabolic functions (Yao et al 2019), such as leaf litter decomposition and recycling the carbon and nitrogen (Kannadan and Rudgers 2008;Guerreiro et al 2018). In general, endophytic fungi can help plant growth and also provide resistance to biotic (pathogens) and abiotic (drought and salinity) stresses, (Arnold et al 2007;Purahong and Hyde 2011;Guerreiro et al 2018;Yadav et al 2018c).…”

Diversity and community of culturable endophytic fungi from stems and roots of desert halophytes in northwest China

“…Ten healthy individuals of each plant species were uprooted to collect twig and root samples at the location. All sampled individuals of the same species were more than 50 m away from each other, in order to reduce the spatial autocorrelation and recover representative local endophyte community (Li et al 2016, Yao et al 2019. The collected samples were immediately placed in autoclaved paper bags, labeled, and transported to the laboratory in an ice-box.…”

“…Endophytic fungi live within plant organs for some time or throughout their life, without causing apparent harm to their host (Petrini 1991). They are widely distributed and significantly contribute to the biodiversity in natural ecosystems (Rodriguez et al 2009;Porras-Alfaro and Bayman 2011;Hardoim et al 2015;Yao et al 2019). These fungi are beneficial to host plants by improving growth performance (Waller et al 2005;Kannadan and Rudgers 2008;Behie et al 2012;Khan et al 2016), providing tolerance against abiotic and biotic stresses (Arnold et al 2003;Waller et al 2005;Kannadan and Rudgers 2008;Hartley and Gange 2009;Yuan et al 2016).…”

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“…The washing solution was ltered with 0.22 µm clean sterile cellulose membrane lter to capture all the microbes in the solution. The membrane was cut into pieces (2 × 2 mm) with sterilized scissors [37].…”