Abstract
Phyllosphere microbiota play a crucial role in plant-environment interactions and their microbial community and function are influenced by biotic and abiotic factors. However, there is little research on how pathogens affect the microbial community of phyllosphere fungi. In this study, we collected 16 pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata) leaf samples which exhibited powdery mildew disease, with a severity ranging from L1 (least severe) to L4 (most severe). The fungal community structure and diversity was examined by Illumina MiSeq sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of ribosomal RNA genes. The results showed that the fungal communities were dominated by members of the Basidiomycota and Ascomycota. The Podosphaera was the most dominant genus on these infected leaves, which was the key pathogen responsible for the pumpkin powdery mildew. The abundance of Ascomycota and Podosphaera increased as disease severity increased from L1 to L4, and was significantly higher at disease severity L4 (P < 0.05). The richness and diversity of the fungal community increased from L1 to L2, and then declined from L2 to L4, likely due to the biotic pressure (i.e., symbiotic and competitive stresses among microbial species) at disease severity L4. Our results could give new perspectives on the changes of the leaf microbiome at different pumpkin powdery mildew disease severity.
Highlights
Powdery mildew is a common fungal disease of cucurbits and the major cause of losses in cucurbit production worldwide (Bellon-Gómez et al, 2011)
The four-way Venn diagrams in Fig. S2 show the distribution of the operational taxonomic units (OTUs) in the four disease severity groups
Results of the multi-response permutation procedures (MRPP) analysis of fungal community composition showed an overall significant difference among four treatment levels based on the OTU table (p < 0.05)
Summary
Powdery mildew is a common fungal disease of cucurbits and the major cause of losses in cucurbit production worldwide (Bellon-Gómez et al, 2011). Sphaerotheca fuliginea) are the two main pathogenic fungi that cause powdery mildew in the cucurbits (Lebeda, Mggrath & Sedlakova, 2010). Impacts of powdery mildew on crop production include reduced photosynthesis, impaired growth, premature senescence, and yield loss How to cite this article Zhang et al (2018), Pumpkin powdery mildew disease severity influences the fungal diversity of the phyllosphere.
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