Phytobiome Stampede: Bison as Potential Dispersal Agents for the Tallgrass Prairie Microbiome

Abstract

Dispersal by grazing and browsing animals has the potential to structure plant-associated microbes in plant communities. Bison are one of the largest grazing animals in North America and charismatic symbols of the Great Plains. They have an important role in maintaining plant communities in tallgrass prairie and may have played a significant role in microbial dispersal across the Great Plains, along with other grazers and herbivores in general. To determine whether bison saliva could maintain viable fungal propagules, we sampled saliva from bison at Konza Prairie Biological Station. Fifty-nine internal transcribed spacer sequences were recovered from distinct fungal colonies on media selective for Fusarium species and Macrophomina phaseolina, representing at least 26 fungal species. Most sequences were identified as originating from potential plant pathogens, indicating that bison may play a role in spreading plant pathogens throughout the prairie. Given their historic numbers and extensive migration across North America, bison may have had a role in establishing the current structure of the prairie microbiome. [Figure: see text] Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.

Keywords

• American bison
• fungal dispersal
• grasslands
• microbiome
• prairie
• switchgrass