Community Assembly of Endophytic Fungi in Ectomycorrhizae of Betulaceae Plants at a Regional Scale.

The interaction between aboveground and belowground biotic communities drives community assembly of plants and soil microbiota. As an important component of belowground microorganisms, root-associated fungi play pivotal roles in biodiversity maintenance and community assembly of host plants. The Betulaceae plants form ectomycorrhizae with soil fungi and widely distribute in various ecosystems.

Early stage root-Associated fungi show a high temporal turnover, but Are independent of beech progeny.

The relationship between trees and root-associated fungal communities is complex. By specific root deposits and other signal cues, different tree species are able to attract divergent sets of fungal species. Plant intraspecific differences can lead to variable fungal patterns in the root's proximity.

Late Quaternary climate change explains soil fungal community composition rather than fungal richness in forest ecosystems.

The dramatic climate fluctuations of the late Quaternary have influenced the diversity and composition of macroorganism communities, but how they structure belowground microbial communities is less well known. Fungi constitute an important component of soil microorganism communities. They play an important role in biodiversity maintenance, community assembly, and ecosystem functioning, and differ from many macroorganisms in many traits.

Host plant phylogeny and geographic distance strongly structure Betulaceae-associated ectomycorrhizal fungal communities in Chinese secondary forest ecosystems.

Environmental filtering and dispersal limitation are two of the primary drivers of community assembly in ecosystems, but their effects on ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungal communities associated with wide ranges of Betulaceae taxa at a large scale are poorly documented. In this study, we examined EM fungal communities associated with 23 species from four genera (Alnus, Betula, Carpinus and Corylus) of Betulaceae in Chinese secondary forest ecosystems, using Illumina MiSeq sequencing of the ITS2 region. Effects of host plant phylogeny, soil, climate and geographic distance on EM fungal community were explored.

Host Phylogeny Is a Major Determinant of Fagaceae-Associated Ectomycorrhizal Fungal Community Assembly at a Regional Scale.

Environmental filtering (niche process) and dispersal limitation (neutral process) are two of the primary forces driving community assembly in ecosystems, but how these processes affect the Fagaceae-associated ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungal community at regional scales is so far poorly documented. We examined the EM fungal communities of 61 plant species in six genera belonging to the Fagaceae distributed across Chinese forest ecosystems (geographic distance up to ∼3,757 km) using Illumina Miseq sequencing of ITS2 sequences. The relative effects of environmental filtering (e.

Relationships between soil fungal and woody plant assemblages differ between ridge and valley habitats in a subtropical mountain forest.

Elucidating interactions of above-ground and below-ground communities in different habitat types is essential for understanding biodiversity maintenance and ecosystem functioning. Using 454 pyrosequencing of ITS2 sequences we examined the relationship between subtropical mountain forest soil fungal communities, abiotic conditions, and plant communities using correlation and partial models. Ridge and valley habitats with differing fungal communities were delineated.