Relationships between Phyllosphere Bacterial Communities and Leaf Functional Traits in a Temperate Forest
Zuoqiang Yuan,
Ji Ye,
Fei Lin,
Xing Wang,
Teng Yang,
Boyuan Bi,
Zikun Mao,
Shuai Fang,
Xugao Wang,
Zhanqing Hao,
Arshad Ali
Affiliations
Zuoqiang Yuan
Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Qinling Ecological Intelligent Monitoring and Protection, School of Ecology and Environment, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China
Ji Ye
CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
Fei Lin
CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
Xing Wang
CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
Teng Yang
State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, East Beijing Road 71, Nanjing 210008, China
Boyuan Bi
Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Qinling Ecological Intelligent Monitoring and Protection, School of Ecology and Environment, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China
Zikun Mao
CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
Shuai Fang
CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
Xugao Wang
CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
Zhanqing Hao
Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Qinling Ecological Intelligent Monitoring and Protection, School of Ecology and Environment, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China
Arshad Ali
Forest Ecology Research Group, College of Life Sciences, Hebei University, Baoding 071002, China
As a vital component of biodiversity, phyllosphere bacteria in forest canopy play a critical role in maintaining plant health and influencing the global biogeochemical cycle. There is limited research on the community structure of phyllosphere bacteria in natural forests, which creates a gap in our understanding of whether and/or how phyllosphere bacteria are connected to leaf traits of their host. In this study, we investigated the bacterial diversity and composition of the canopy leaves of six dominant tree species in deciduous broad-leaved forests in northeastern China, using high-throughput sequencing. We then compare the differences in phyllosphere bacterial community structure and functional genes of dominant tree species. Fourteen key leaf functional traits of their host trees were also measured according to standard protocols to investigate the relationships between bacterial community composition and leaf functional traits. Our result suggested that tree species with closer evolutionary distances had similar phyllosphere microbial alpha diversity. The dominant phyla of phyllosphere bacteria were Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Firmicutes. For these six tree species, the functional genes of phyllosphere bacteria were mainly involved in amino acid metabolism and carbohydrate metabolism processes. The redundancy and envfit analysis results showed that the functional traits relating to plant nutrient acquisition and resistance to diseases and pests (such as leaf area, isotope carbon content, and copper content) were the main factors influencing the community structure of phyllosphere bacteria. This study highlights the key role of plant interspecific genetic relationships and plant attributes in shaping phyllosphere bacterial diversity.
