Evaluation of host effects on ectomycorrhizal fungal community compositions in a forested landscape in northern Japan.

Shunsuke Matsuoka,Yoriko Sugiyama,Ryunosuke Tateno,Takashi Osono,Eri Kawaguchi,Shihomi Imamura

doi:10.1098/rsos.191952

Shunsuke Matsuoka, Yoriko Sugiyama + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.191952

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Abstract

Community compositions of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi are similar within the same host taxa. However, careful interpretation is required to determine whether the combination of ECM fungi and plants is explained by the host preference for ECM fungi, or by the influence of neighbouring heterospecific hosts. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the effects of host species on the ECM community compositions in a forested landscape (approx. 10 km) where monodominant forest stands of six ECM host species belonging to three families were patchily distributed. A total of 180 ECM operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were detected with DNA metabarcoding. Quantitative multivariate analyses revealed that the ECM community compositions were primarily structured by host species and families, regardless of the soil environments and spatial arrangements of the sampling plots. In addition, 38 ECM OTUs were only detected from particular host tree species. Furthermore, the neighbouring plots harboured similar fungal compositions, although the host species were different. The relative effect of the spatial factors on the ECM compositions was weaker than that of host species. Our results suggest that the host preference for ECM fungi is the primary determinant of ECM fungal compositions in the forested landscape.

Highlights

Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi are symbionts of tree species belonging to the families Fagaceae, Betulaceae and Pinaceae, among others, and represent a dominant group of microorganisms inhabiting temperate and boreal forest floors [1]
We clearly showed the relationships between host species and the ECM fungal community composition by investigating the monodominant forest stands of six ECM host species
We quantitatively evaluated the effect of host tree species, abiotic environments and spatial factors on ECM fungal communities in the field, thereby demonstrating the relative importance of the host

Summary

Introduction

Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi are symbionts of tree species belonging to the families Fagaceae, Betulaceae and Pinaceae, among others, and represent a dominant group of microorganisms inhabiting temperate and boreal forest floors [1]. Since the function or ability of ECM fungi varies from species to species, the community responses of ECM fungi to environmental changes are critical for determining and maintaining forest ecosystem processes [3]. Various factors such as host taxa [4], soil properties (e.g. pH) [5] and dispersal limitation [6] have been proposed to affect the compositions of ECM fungal communities. Researchers are trying to quantify the effect of each factor on ECM fungal communities separately and have found significant effects of host trees on ECM communities [8,9,10]

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