Diversity of fungal microbiome obtained from plant rhizoplanes.

Microbial communities, and their ecological importance, have been investigated in several habitats. However, so far, most studies could not describe the closest microbial interactions and their functionalities. This study investigates the co-occurring interactions between fungi and bacteria in plant rhizoplanes and their potential functions.

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Taxa Show Variable Patterns of Micro-Scale Dispersal in Prairie Restorations.

Human land use disturbance is a major contributor to the loss of natural plant communities, and this is particularly true in areas used for agriculture, such as the Midwestern tallgrass prairies of the United States. Previous work has shown that arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) additions can increase native plant survival and success in plant community restorations, but the dispersal of AMF in these systems is poorly understood. In this study, we examined the dispersal of AMF taxa inoculated into four tallgrass prairie restorations.

Democratization of fungal highway columns as a tool to investigate bacteria associated with soil fungi.

Bacteria-fungi interactions (BFIs) are essential in ecosystem functioning. These interactions are modulated not only by local nutritional conditions but also by the physicochemical constraints and 3D structure of the environmental niche. In soils, the unsaturated and complex nature of the substrate restricts the dispersal and activity of bacteria.

Root pathogen diversity and composition varies with climate in undisturbed grasslands, but less so in anthropogenically disturbed grasslands.

Soil-borne pathogens structure plant communities, shaping their diversity, and through these effects may mediate plant responses to climate change and disturbance. Little is known, however, about the environmental determinants of plant pathogen communities. Therefore, we explored the impact of climate gradients and anthropogenic disturbance on root-associated pathogens in grasslands.

Bacterial spores, from ecology to biotechnology.

The production of a highly specialized cell structure called a spore is a remarkable example of a survival strategy displayed by bacteria in response to challenging environmental conditions. The detailed analysis and description of the process of sporulation in selected model organisms have generated a solid background to understand the cellular processes leading to the formation of this specialized cell. However, much less is known regarding the ecology of spore-formers.

Oxalic acid, a molecule at the crossroads of bacterial-fungal interactions.

Oxalic acid is the most ubiquitous and common low molecular weight organic acid produced by living organisms. Oxalic acid is produced by fungi, bacteria, plants, and animals. The aim of this review is to give an overview of current knowledge about the microbial cycling of oxalic acid through ecosystems.

Disturbance reduces the differentiation of mycorrhizal fungal communities in grasslands along a precipitation gradient.

Given that mycorrhizal fungi play key roles in shaping plant communities, greater attention should be focused on factors that determine the composition of mycorrhizal fungal communities and their sensitivity to anthropogenic disturbance. We investigate changes in arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal community composition across a precipitation gradient in North American grasslands as well as changes occurring with varying degrees of site disturbance that have resulted in invasive plant establishment. We find strong differentiation of AM fungal communities in undisturbed remnant grasslands across the precipitation gradient, whereas communities in disturbed grasslands were more homogeneous.

Evaluating methods to visualize patterns of genetic differentiation on a landscape.

With advances in sequencing technology, research in the field of landscape genetics can now be conducted at unprecedented spatial and genomic scales. This has been especially evident when using sequence data to visualize patterns of genetic differentiation across a landscape due to demographic history, including changes in migration. Two recent model-based visualization methods that can highlight unusual patterns of genetic differentiation across a landscape, SpaceMix and EEMS, are increasingly used.

Phylogenetically Structured Differences in rRNA Gene Sequence Variation among Species of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi and Their Implications for Sequence Clustering.

Unlabelled: Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi form mutualisms with plant roots that increase plant growth and shape plant communities. Each AM fungal cell contains a large amount of genetic diversity, but it is unclear if this diversity varies across evolutionary lineages. We found that sequence variation in the nuclear large-subunit (LSU) rRNA gene from 29 isolates representing 21 AM fungal species generally assorted into genus- and species-level clades, with the exception of species of the genera Claroideoglomus and Entrophospora However, there were significant differences in the levels of sequence variation across the phylogeny and between genera, indicating that it is an evolutionarily constrained trait in AM fungi.