Shifts in community composition and co-occurrence patterns of phyllosphere fungi inhabitingMussaenda shikokianaalong an elevation gradient

Abstract

The altitudinal effects on the distributions of phyllosphere fungal assemblages in conspecific plants remain poorly elucidated. To address this, phyllosphere fungal communities associated with Mussaenda shikokiana were investigated at four sites across a 350 m elevation gradient in a subtropical forest by employing Illumina metabarcoding of the fungal internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) region. Our results demonstrated that phyllosphere fungal assemblages with a single host possessed high taxonomic diversity and multiple trophic guilds. OTU richness was significantly influenced by elevation. The elevation gradient also entailed distinct shifts in the community composition of phyllosphere fungi, which was significantly related to geographical distance and mean annual temperature (MAT). Additionally, comparison of phyllosphere fungal networks showed reduced connectivity with increasing elevation. Our data provide insights on the distribution and interactions of the phyllosphere fungal community associated with a single host along a short elevation gradient.

Investigation of an Elevational Gradient Reveals Strong Differences Between Bacterial and Eukaryotic Communities Coinhabiting Nepenthes Phytotelmata

“…Microbes have not been as extensively studied in the context of elevational gradients, but the past decade has seen an increasing number of studies examining elevational patterns of bacteria in soil [6,[8][9][10][11][12][20][21][22] and to a lesser extent, aquatic habitats [23][24][25][26]. Similar studies have also been conducted for fungi [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] and protists [18,[36][37][38][39]. Of these microbial elevational gradient studies, only a handful have compared diversity patterns of syntopic microbes and macrobes coinhabiting the same microhabitats.…”

Natural Products from Endophytic Fungi Associated with Rubiaceae Species

“…-dihydroxybut-3-enyl)-5H-furan-2-one (21) and (2E,4R)-2,4dimethylnon-2-enoic acid (22); seven phenolic derivatives: p-hydroxyphenyllactic acid (23), phenyllactic acid (24), p-hydroxybenzoic acid (25), p-hydroxybenzaldehyde (26), n-butyl-3,4dihydroxybenzoate (27), n-hexyl-3,4-dihydroxybenzoate (28) and n-octyl-3,4-dihydroxybenzoate (29); and the known compound (2E,4S)-2,4-dimethyloct-2-enoic acid (30) ( Figure 5) [102]. Extracts of solid cultures of Sporormiella minimoides (Sporormiaceae), isolated as an endophytic fungus from leaves Hintonia latiflora collected in Mexico, yielded five polyketides, 3,6-dimethoxy-8methyl-1H,6Hbenzo[de]isochromene-1,9-dione (31), 3-hydroxy-1,6,10-trimethoxy-8-methyl-1H,3Hbenzo[de]isochromen-9-one (32), 5-hydroxy-2,7-dimethoxy-8-methylnaphthoquinone (33), minimoidiones A (34) and B (35), along with four known compounds: corymbiferone (36), ziganein (37), brocaenol B (38) and preussochromone C (39) [103][104][105]. Two other compounds, 9S,11R(+)-ascosalitoxin (40) and vermelhotin (41), were also produced by endophytes from this plant [105,106].…”

“…In addition, the compounds (3S,4S)-4-hydroxymellein (9), (3S)-8-methylmellein (10), and the quinone derivatives 2-hydroxy-5-methoxy-3-methylcyclohexa-2,5-diene-1,4-dione (47), 4S,5S,6S-4hydroxy-3-methoxy-5-methyl-5,6-epoxycyclohex-2-en-1-one (48), and 4R,5R-dihydroxy-3-methoxy-5methylcyclohexen-2-en-1-one (49) were obtained ( Figure 6) [108]. Extracts of solid cultures of Sporormiella minimoides (Sporormiaceae), isolated as an endophytic fungus from leaves Hintonia latiflora collected in Mexico, yielded five polyketides, 3,6-dimethoxy-8methyl-1H,6Hbenzo[de]isochromene-1,9-dione (31), 3-hydroxy-1,6,10-trimethoxy-8-methyl-1H,3Hbenzo[de]isochromen-9-one (32), 5-hydroxy-2,7-dimethoxy-8-methylnaphthoquinone (33), minimoidiones A (34) and B (35), along with four known compounds: corymbiferone (36), ziganein (37), brocaenol B (38) and preussochromone C (39) [103][104][105]. Two other compounds, 9S,11R(+)ascosalitoxin (40) and vermelhotin (41), were also produced by endophytes from this plant [105,106].…”

“…The research on microorganisms associated with the Rubiaceae family, for biotechnological applications, led to the isolation of endophytic fungi [ 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ] and the discovery of several bioactive metabolites [ 38 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 ]. The diversity of chemical structures observed for secondary metabolites synthesized by fungi isolated from Rubiaceae species showed a dynamic range of metabolites pathways used by these microorganisms.…”

Mainland and island populations of Mussaenda kwangtungensis differ in their phyllosphere fungal community composition and network structure

“…Recently, Bouffaud et al 30 demonstrated that across the European regions, closely-related arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) tended to co-occur with a significantly higher probability than distantly-related ones. Qian et al 31 found a trend of reduced connectivity in phyllosphere fungal co-occurrence networks with increasing elevation. However, we still lack fundamental knowledge concerning factors that are predictive of differences among network structures.…”