Shifts in community composition and co-occurrence patterns of phyllosphere fungi inhabiting Mussaenda shikokiana along an elevation gradient
Xin Qian,
Liang Chen,
Xiaoming Guo,
Dan He,
Miaomiao Shi,
Dianxiang Zhang
Affiliations
Xin Qian
Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Liang Chen
CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Xiaoming Guo
Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Dan He
Center for Ecological and Environmental Sciences, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Miaomiao Shi
Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Dianxiang Zhang
Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
The altitudinal effects on the distributions of phyllosphere fungal assemblages in conspecific plants remain poorly elucidated. To address this, phyllosphere fungal communities associated with Mussaenda shikokiana were investigated at four sites across a 350 m elevation gradient in a subtropical forest by employing Illumina metabarcoding of the fungal internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) region. Our results demonstrated that phyllosphere fungal assemblages with a single host possessed high taxonomic diversity and multiple trophic guilds. OTU richness was significantly influenced by elevation. The elevation gradient also entailed distinct shifts in the community composition of phyllosphere fungi, which was significantly related to geographical distance and mean annual temperature (MAT). Additionally, comparison of phyllosphere fungal networks showed reduced connectivity with increasing elevation. Our data provide insights on the distribution and interactions of the phyllosphere fungal community associated with a single host along a short elevation gradient.
