The bacterial and fungal microbiomes of ectomycorrhizal roots from stone oaks and Yunnan pines in the subtropical forests of the Ailao Mountains of Yunnan

Qingchao Zeng; Xiaowu Man; Annie Lebreton; Yucheng Dai; Francis M Martin

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2022.916337

The bacterial and fungal microbiomes of ectomycorrhizal roots from stone oaks and Yunnan pines in the subtropical forests of the Ailao Mountains of Yunnan

Front Microbiol. 2022 Jul 29:13:916337. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.916337. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Qingchao Zeng^{1

2}, Xiaowu Man^{1

3}, Annie Lebreton^{1

4}, Yucheng Dai^{2

1}, Francis M Martin^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Tree Breeding by Molecular Design, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China.
² School of Ecology and Nature Conservation, Institute of Microbiology, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China.
³ College of Forestry, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China.
⁴ Université de Lorraine, INRAE, UMR Interactions Arbres/Microorganismes, Centre INRAE, Grand Est-Nancy, Champenoux, France.

Abstract

Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) symbioses play an important role in tree biology and forest ecology. However, little is known on the composition of bacterial and fungal communities associated to ECM roots. In the present study, we surveyed the bacterial and fungal microbiome of ECM roots from stone oaks (Lithocarpus spp.) and Yunnan pines (Pinus yunnanensis) in the subtropical forests of the Ailao Mountains (Yunnan, China). The bacterial community was dominated by species pertaining to Rhizobiales and Acidobacteriales, whereas the fungal community was mainly composed of species belonging to the Russulales and Thelephorales. While the bacterial microbiome hosted by ECM roots from stone oaks and Yunnan pines was very similar, the mycobiome of these host trees was strikingly distinct. The microbial networks for bacterial and fungal communities showed a higher complexity in Lithocarpus ECM roots compared to Pinus ECM roots, but their modularity was higher in Pinus ECM roots. Seasonality also significantly influenced the fungal diversity and their co-occurrence network complexity. Our findings thus suggest that the community structure of fungi establishing and colonizing ECM roots can be influenced by the local soil/host tree environment and seasonality. These results expand our knowledge of the ECM root microbiome and its diversity in subtropical forest ecosystems.

Keywords: community structure; evergreen forest; host impact; mycorrhizal symbioses; season.