Diversity of foliar endophytic ascomycetes in the endemic Corsican pine forests. (December 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Taudière, Adrien; Bellanger, Jean-Michel; Carcaillet, Christopher; Hugot, Laetitia; Kjellberg, Finn; Lecanda, Aarón; Lesne, Annick; Moreau, Pierre-Arthur; Scharmann, Karin; Leidel, Sebastian; Richard, Franck
• Is Part Of: Fungal ecology. Volume 36(2018)
• Page Start: 128
• Page End: 140
• Publication Date: 2018-12
• Subjects: Foliar endophyte -- Fungi -- Community ecology -- Metabarcoding -- Cyclaneusma minus -- Pinus nigra subsp. laricio -- Mediterranean -- Endemism -- Environmental sequencing; Fungi -- Ecology -- Periodicals; Mycology -- Periodicals; 579.517
• DOI: 10.1016/j.funeco.2018.07.008
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1754-5048

Abstract

Abstract: Plant leaves host species rich communities of foliar endophytic fungi (FEF). Compared to the other compartments of the plant microbiome, FEF diversity is poorly known. Here we document the communities of FEF associated with the endemic Corsican pine Pinus nigra subsp. laricio at three sites across its natural range and examine the effect of forest site, tree age and light exposure on FEF composition. Metabarcoding using next-generation sequencing provided 8, 243, 608 Ascomycota ITS2 sequences clustered into 642 FEF operational taxonomic units (OTUs). FEF communities did not differ in species richness across sites and tree cohorts, but differed in composition among forest patches and according to tree age. FEF community composition did not correlate with needle location (shade vs full light). Results are robust against the various options of the bioinformatic pipeline specifically developed. This study provides the first picture of FEF diversity in a Mediterranean island and underlines the complementarity of forest massifs for fungal conservation. Highlights: We sequenced foliar endophytic fungi (FEF) of Pinus nigra subsp. laricio using Illumina. Over 8 million Ascomycota ITS2 sequences were assigned to 642 FEF operational taxonomic units. FEF richness was globally independent of the analyzed factors (location, tree age, height within tree). FEF composition correlated with site and to a lesser extent with tree age and with the interaction between site and tree age. Different bioinformatic workflows led to similar results.