Journal
FEMS MICROBIOLOGY ECOLOGY
Volume 97, Issue 9, Pages -Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/femsec/fiab109
Keywords
sand dunes; arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi; root microbial community; microbial community assembly; plant-microbe interactions; symbiotic mycorrhizal interactions
Categories
Funding
- EU (European Social Fund-ESF)
- Greek national funds through the Operational Program 'Education and Lifelong Learning' of the NSRF-Research Funding Program: Thales. Investing in knowledge society through the European Social Fund [IIS 380233]
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The assembly of root-colonizing AMF communities in the eastern Mediterranean sand dunes is mainly driven by host specificity, with geographical distance having little influence. The colonizer AMF communities are characterized by dominance of a single OTU that is host-specific among locations. Sites with small disturbances exhibit greater dissimilarity in AMF communities compared to undisturbed sites.
Sand dunes of the Mediterranean region constitute drought-stressed, low-fertility ecosystems. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are regarded as key components of their biota, that contribute to plant host adaptation and fitness. However, AMF community assembly rules in the roots of the psammophilous plants of coastal sand dunes have not been investigated. We studied the root colonizing AMF communities of four characteristic native plants of eastern Mediterranean coastal foredunes, in nine locations in Greece. Host-specificity (plant identity) was the major driver of AMF community assembly in the plant roots, while geographical distance between locations was not related to differences in the AMF communities. Additionally, colonizer AMF communities were characterized by over-dominance of a single operational taxanomic unit (OTUs), which was remarkably host-specific among locations. Wider dissimilarity in AMF communities was observed in small and disturbed (SD) sites compared to large and undisturbed (LU) sites, a trait that may be attributed to relaxed environmental filtering and facilitated AMF dispersal/immigration in SD sites from surrounding habitats. Overall, our results indicate that the assembly of root-colonizing AMF communities in the eastern Mediterranean sand dunes is characterized by strong biotic filtering (host identity), suggesting that co-adaptation processes may be more pronounced than previously proposed, under extreme environmental conditions.
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