How distinct are arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities associating with grapevines?

Grapevines form associations with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. These root-dwelling fungi have the potential to contribute to crop vigor, productivity, pathogen protection, and nutrient content in grapes. In this study the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities of grapevines and the surrounding interrow and native vegetation are compared. We found over 40 different taxa associating with both vines and interrow vegetation, but these communities differed based on host plant identity. These differences were apparent even after accounting for differences in soil chemical properties and differences in host plant diversity between vinerows and interrows, indicating that Vitis preferentially interacts with a subset of the viticultural fungal community. Since AM fungal communities play a major role in grapevine health, our results suggest that host identity and the diversity of AM fungal hosts in a vineyard can have strong effects on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi community structure. In this paper, we used high throughput sequencing of the large subunit rDNA to analyze the diversity of AM fungi growing in a vineyard.