Journal
FUNGAL ECOLOGY
Volume 6, Issue 1, Pages 65-69Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.funeco.2012.08.002
Keywords
Cayos cochinos; Central American grasses; Eustachys petraea; Panicum maximum; Root endophytes
Funding
- Summer Fellowship grant from Truman State University
- National Science Foundation [DEB-0715746]
- National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This study characterized the root-associated fungal (RAF) communities inhabiting Eustachys petraea and Panicum maximum, two tropical and weedy grass species on an island off the coast of Honduras, Central America. Media-based analyses revealed that fungi colonizing these grasses exhibited similar morphotypes (albeit in different proportions). Conversely, molecular-based analyses suggested that the community of fungal OTUs were dissimilar, with several OTUs commonly present on only one plant and no AMF sequences present in either plant species. When compared to various datasets of RAF obtained from the North American mainland (with similar methods), the Honduran grasses harbored a different set of fungal OTUs. Interestingly, some cosmopolitan taxonomic clades commonly encountered on the mainland were also isolated in Honduras, though based on ITS rDNA the fungi were only related distantly to those on the mainland. Additional work is necessary to determine how the RAF communities change over geographic distance and whether invasive grasses are constitutionally set up to accept relationships with a different suite of RAF species. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd and The British Mycological Society.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available