What do we learn from cultures in the omics age? High-throughput sequencing and cultivation of leaf-inhabiting endophytes from beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) revealed complementary community composition but similar correlations with local habitat conditions

Abstract

Comparative simultaneous studies of environmental high-throughput sequencing (HTS) and cultivation of plant-associated fungi have rarely been conducted in the past years. For the present contribution, HTS and extinction culturing were applied for the same leaf samples of European beech (Fagus sylvatica) in order to trace both “real” environmental drivers as well as method-dependent signals of the observed mycobiomes. Both approaches resulted in non-overlapping community composition and pronounced differences in taxonomic classification and trophic stages. However, both methods revealed similar correlations of the fungal communities with local environmental conditions. Our results indicate undeniable advantages of HTS over cultivation in terms of revealing a good representation of the major functional guilds, rare taxa and biodiversity signals of leaf-inhabiting fungi. On the other hand our results demonstrate that the immense body of literature about cultivable endophytic fungi can and should be used for the interpretation of community signals and environmental correlations obtained from HTS studies and that cultivation studies should be continued at the highest standards, e.g. when sequencing facilities are not available or if such surveys are expanded into functional aspects with experiments on living isolates.