10.5061/DRYAD.6WWPZGMWR
Botnen, S S
0000-0001-5511-9189
University of Oslo
University of Oslo
Thoen, E
University of Oslo
University of Oslo
Eidesen, P B
University Centre in Svalbard
University Centre in Svalbard
Krabberød, A K
University of Oslo
University of Oslo
Kauserud, H
University of Oslo
University of Oslo
Community composition of arctic root-associated fungi mirrors host plant
phylogeny
Dryad
dataset
2020
The Research Council of Norway
https://ror.org/00epmv149
University of Oslo
https://ror.org/01xtthb56
2020-09-12T00:00:00Z
2020-09-12T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1093/femsec/fiaa185
12885433154 bytes
2
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
The number of plant species regarded as non-mycorrhizal increases at
higher latitudes, and several plant species in the High-Arctic Archipelago
Svalbard have been reported as non-mycorrhizal. We used the rRNA ITS2 and
18S gene markers to survey which fungi, as well as other micro-eukaryotes,
were associated with roots of 31 arctic plant species not usually regarded
as mycorrhizal in Svalbard. We assessed to what degree the root-associated
fungi showed any host preference and whether the phylogeny of the plant
hosts may mirror the composition of root-associated fungi. Fungal
communities were largely structured according to host plant identity and
to a less extent by environmental factors. We observed a positive
relationship between the phylogenetic distance of host plants and the
distance of fungal community composition between samples, indicating that
the evolutionary history of the host plants plays a major role for which
fungi colonize the plant roots. In contrast to the ITS2 marker, the 18S
rRNA gene marker showed that chytrid fungi were prevalently associated
with plant roots, together with a wide spectrum of amoeba-like protists
and nematodes. Our study confirms that arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi
are present also in arctic environments in low abundance.
ITS2 fungal amplicon data, and general eukarytic 18S V4 data from the
roots of 31 arctic plant species.