Partial overlap of fungal communities associated with nettle and poplar roots when co-occurring at a trace metal contaminated site

• Published in: The Science of the total environment 2021-08, Vol.782, p.146692-146692, Article 146692
• Main Authors: Yung, Loïc, Bertheau, Coralie, Tafforeau, Flavien, Zappelini, Cyril, Valot, Benoit, Maillard, François, Selosse, Marc-André, Viotti, Chloé, Binet, Philippe, Chiapusio, Geneviève, Chalot, Michel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ecology, environment; Ectomycorrhizal fungi; Environmental metabarcoding; Fungal network; Life Sciences; Metal-enriched sediments; Phytomanagement; Root-associated mycobiome; Urtica dioica L
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146692

Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica L.) raises growing interest in phytomanagement because it commonly grows under poplar Short Rotation Coppices (SRC) set up at trace-metal (TM) contaminated sites and provides high-quality herbaceous fibres. The mycobiome of this non-mycorhizal plant and its capacity to adapt to TM-contaminated environments remains unknown. This study aimed at characterizing the mycobiome associated with nettle and poplar roots co-occurring at a TM-contaminated site. Plant root barcoding using the fungi-specific ITS1F-ITS2 primers and Illumina MiSeq technology revealed that nettle and poplar had distinct root fungal communities. The nettle mycobiome was dominated by Pezizomycetes from known endophytic taxa and from the supposedly saprotrophic genus Kotlabaea (which was the most abundant). Several ectomycorrhizal fungi such as Inocybe (Agaricomycetes) and Tuber (Pezizomycetes) species were associated with the poplar roots. Most of the Pezizomycetes taxa were present in the highly TM-contaminated area whereas Agaricomycetes tended to be reduced. Despite being a known non-mycorrhizal plant, nettle was associated with a significant proportion of ectomycorrhizal OTU (9.7%), suggesting some connexions between the poplar and the nettle root mycobiomes. Finally, our study raised the interest in reconsidering the fungal networking beyond known mycorrhizal interactions. [Display omitted] •Urtica dioica L. raises growing interest because it easily grows at metal contaminated sites and represents a source of high-quality fibres.•We characterized the mycobiomes associated with nettle and poplar roots co-occuring at a TM-contaminated site.•Nettle was dominated by endophytic and saprotrophic taxa while poplar was associated with ectomycorrhizal fungi.•Pezizomycetes taxa were more represented in the highly TM-contaminated area whereas Agaricomycetes tended to be reduced.•We detected a partial overlap of communities, suggesting some connexions between the poplar and the nettle root mycobiomes.