Fungal Diversity in the Soil of the Oxytropis glacialis Root System on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Peng-Xi Cao; Yixuan Liu; Hong-Mei Ma; Ning Zhao; Shu-Ting Chen; Guo-Qi Xu; Xing Liu

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2022.831783

Fungal Diversity in the Soil of the Oxytropis glacialis Root System on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Front Microbiol. 2022 Feb 24:13:831783. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.831783. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Peng-Xi Cao^{1

2

3}, Yixuan Liu^{1

2

3}, Hong-Mei Ma^{1

2}, Ning Zhao^{1

2}, Shu-Ting Chen^{1

2}, Guo-Qi Xu^{1

2}, Xing Liu^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Ecological Field Station Real-Time Monitoring Center, Research Center for Ecology, Tibet University, Lhasa, China.
² Laboratory of Adaptation and Evolution of Plateau Biota to Extreme Environments, Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, Tibet University, Lhasa, China.
³ College of Life Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.

Abstract

Because of swainonine-producing endophytic fungal, Oxytropis glacialis is one of the main poisonous weeds in the alpine grassland and desert grassland of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP). It has a severe impact on grassland degradation on the QTP. In this manuscript, the Internally Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region of fungal communities in the soil of the O. glacialis root system was sequenced by high-throughput sequencing and analyzed by bioinformatics methods. The physical and chemical properties of the soil samples were analyzed in combination with the fungal diversity and its relationship with the soil physical and chemical factors. The results showed that the soil fungal community in the O. glacialis root system are rich in diversity in different ecological environments and are most affected by the soil pH value and organic matter. The swainonine-producing fungal Embellisia oxytropis was first detected in the soil of the O. glacialis root system. This finding provides data to support the next step in demonstrating the horizontal spread of swainone-producing fungal from O. glacialis to soil. In addition, a stable network of core flora has a facilitating effect on the formation of O. glacialis as a dominant species in alpine ecosystems.

Keywords: Oxytropis glacialis; QTP; core microbiota; soil fungal of root system; swainonine-producing fungal.