Abstract
Plants depend on beneficial interactions between roots and fungal endophytes for growth, disease suppression, and stress tolerance. In this study, we characterized the endophytic fungal communities associated with the roots and corresponding seeds of soybeans grown in the Huang-Huai region of China. For the roots, we identified 105 and 50 genera by culture-independent and culture-dependent (CD) methods, respectively, and isolated 136 fungal strains (20 genera) from the CD samples. Compared with the 52 soybean endophytic fungal genera reported in other countries, 28 of the genera we found were reported, and 90 were newly discovered. Even though Fusarium was the most abundant genus of fungal endophyte in every sample, soybean root samples from three cities exhibited diverse endophytic fungal communities, and the results between samples of roots and seeds were also significantly different. Together, we identified the major endophytic fungal genera in soybean roots and seeds, and revealed that the diversity of soybean endophytic fungal communities was influenced by geographical effects and tissues. The results will facilitate a better understanding of soybean–endophytic fungi interaction systems and will assist in the screening and utilization of beneficial microorganisms to promote healthy of plants such as soybean.
Highlights
Fungal endophytes differ from pathogens, which lead to disease and reduce the fitness of their host plants
Endophytic fungal communities in the collected healthy soybean root samples We analyzed endophytic fungal communities by high-throughput internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequencing of 18 CI root samples (CI-seq), e.g., the six samples from Jining were designated as JN1b, JN1c, JN1d, JN2b, JN2c, and JN2d
The resulting high-quality reads with >97% sequence identity were clustered into 385 operational taxonomic units (OTUs), ranging from 37 to 116 OTUs per sample
Summary
Fungal endophytes differ from pathogens, which lead to disease and reduce the fitness of their host plants. Fungal endophytes inhabit the asymptomatic aboveground and underground tissues of their hosts and are found in all species and in all divisions of land plants (Zimmerman & Vitousek, 2012). Endophytes often form mutualistic interactions with their host, with the relationship benefitting both partners (Deshmukh et al, 2006). Fungal endophytes and land plants have interacted for over 400 million years (Krings et al, 2007). The relationships between endophytic fungi and medicinal plants have been reported (Jia et al, 2016)
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