Both abundant and rare fungi colonizing Fagus sylvatica ectomycorrhizal root-tips shape associated bacterial communities

• Published in: Communications biology 2022-11, Vol.5 (1), p.1261-1261, Article 1261
• Main Authors: Dietrich, Marlies, Montesinos-Navarro, Alicia, Gabriel, Raphael, Strasser, Florian, Meier, Dimitri V., Mayerhofer, Werner, Gorka, Stefan, Wiesenbauer, Julia, Martin, Victoria, Weidinger, Marieluise, Richter, Andreas, Kaiser, Christina, Woebken, Dagmar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 45; 45/23; 631/326/193/2539; 631/326/2565/855; 631/326/41/547; 96/63; Archaea - genetics; Bacteria; Bacteria - genetics; Biology; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Ectomycorrhizas; Fagus - genetics; Fagus - microbiology; Fagus sylvatica; Fungi; Host plants; Life Sciences; Mycorrhizae - genetics; Plant Roots - microbiology; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics; rRNA 16S; Soil; Soil Microbiology; Soil microorganisms; Spacer region; Symbiosis
• ISSN: 2399-3642; 2399-3642
• DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-04178-y

Ectomycorrhizal fungi live in close association with their host plants and form complex interactions with bacterial/archaeal communities in soil. We investigated whether abundant or rare ectomycorrhizal fungi on root-tips of young beech trees ( Fagus sylvatica ) shape bacterial/archaeal communities. We sequenced 16S rRNA genes and fungal internal transcribed spacer regions of individual root-tips and used ecological networks to detect the tendency of certain assemblies of fungal and bacterial/archaeal taxa to inhabit the same root-tip (i.e. modularity). Individual ectomycorrhizal root-tips hosted distinct fungal communities associated with unique bacterial/archaeal communities. The structure of the fungal-bacterial/archaeal association was determined by both, dominant and rare fungi. Integrating our data in a conceptual framework suggests that the effect of rare fungi on the bacterial/archaeal communities of ectomycorrhizal root-tips contributes to assemblages of bacteria/archaea on root-tips. This highlights the potential impact of complex fine-scale interactions between root-tip associated fungi and other soil microorganisms for the ectomycorrhizal symbiosis. The bacterial/archaeal and fungal communities inhabiting beech tree root-tips are examined by marker gene sequencing followed by ecological network analysis, highlighting complex interactions in the ectomycorrhizal symbiosis.