We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Alien plants associate with widespread generalist arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal taxa: evidence from a continental-scale study using massively parallel 454 sequencing.
- Authors
Moora, Mari; Berger, Silje; Davison, John; Öpik, Maarja; Bommarco, Riccardo; Bruelheide, Helge; Kühn, Ingolf; Kunin, William E.; Metsis, Madis; Rortais, Agnes; Vanatoa, Alo; Vanatoa, Elise; Stout, Jane C.; Truusa, Merilin; Westphal, Catrin; Zobel, Martin; Walther, Gian-Reto
- Abstract
The biogeography of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi is poorly understood, and consequently the potential of AM fungi to determine plant distribution has been largely overlooked. We aimed to describe AM fungal communities associating with a single host-plant species across a wide geographical area, including the plant's native, invasive and experimentally introduced ranges. We hypothesized that an alien AM plant associates primarily with the geographically widespread generalist AM fungal taxa present in a novel range. Europe, China. We transplanted the palm Trachycarpus fortunei into nine European sites where it does not occur as a native species, into one site where it is naturalized (Switzerland), and into one glasshouse site. We harvested plant roots after two seasons. In addition, we sampled palms at three sites in the plant's native range (China). Roots were subjected to DNA extraction, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and 454 sequencing of AM fungal sequences. We analysed fungal communities with non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) ordination and cluster analysis and studied the frequency of geographically widespread fungal taxa with log-linear analysis. We compared fungal communities in the roots of the palm with those in resident plants at one site in the introduced range (Estonia) where natural AM fungal communities had previously been studied. We recorded a total of 73 AM fungal taxa. AM fungal communities in the native and introduced ranges differed from one another, while those in the invasive range contained taxa present in both other ranges. Geographically widespread AM fungal taxa were over-represented in palm roots in all regions, but especially in the introduced range. At the Estonian site, the palm was colonized by the same community of widespread AM fungal taxa as associate with resident habitat-generalist plants; by contrast, resident forest-specialist plants were colonized by a diverse community of widespread and other AM fungal taxa. AM fungal communities in the native, invasive and experimentally introduced ranges varied in taxonomic composition and richness, but they shared a pool of geographically widespread, non-host-specific taxa that might support the invasion of a generalist alien plant. Our dataset provides the first geographical overview of AM taxon distributions obtained using a single host-plant species.
- Subjects
PLANT classification; FUNGAL communities; VESICULAR-arbuscular mycorrhizas; INTRODUCED plants; GREENHOUSE plants; POLYMERASE chain reaction; MULTIDIMENSIONAL scaling; CLUSTER analysis (Statistics)
- Publication
Journal of Biogeography, 2011, Vol 38, Issue 7, p1305
- ISSN
0305-0270
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1365-2699.2011.02478.x