1 Citation 89 Views 2 Downloads
The phyllosphere is a wide and complex ecosystem that provides key support
for microbial diversity. Fungal communities inhabiting the leaf are
functionally variable and play important roles on plant performance.
Factors conditioning the arrival and colonization of fungal communities
will determine the phyllosphere fungal composition. Plant identity, leaf
functional traits and host plant phylogeny have been shown to be
regulators of the microbial colonization of the leaves and can be
considered as biotic filters determining the assembly of phyllosphere
fungal communities. By high-throughput sequencing, we analysed the
phyllosphere fungal communities from 38 Mediterranean woody plant species
in two forests of the south-eastern Iberian Peninsula. We analysed the
effect of plant species and site on fungal community composition. We also
tested the effect of leaf functional traits and plant phylogeny on plant
species differences in their fungal communities, and on the structure of
the plant-fungus interaction network. Plant species account for a larger
proportion than site in the variability of the composition of phyllosphere
fungal communities. Leaf traits and host phylogeny influence the arrival
and colonization of phyllosphere fungal communities across plant species.
Plants with pubescent leaves and phylogenetically closer harbour more
similar communities of decomposers, pathogens and epiphytes. Leaf habit
(i.e., evergreen vs. deciduous) also influences the community composition
of decomposer and epiphytic fungi. Leaf carbon, leaf water content and
leaf mass per area affect differentially each functional guild.
Plant-fungus interaction networks present a modular structure in which
plants belonging to the same module share more fungal species and are
phylogenetically closer. We provide evidence that even though phyllosphere
fungal communities are complex ecosystems, fungi with contrasting
relationships with the plant (decomposers, epiphytes and pathogens)
respond similarly to a common subset of leaf traits that impose physical
limitations to the assembly of phyllosphere fungal communities.
89 views reported since publication in 2022.