Microorganisms (Jul 2024)

Analysis of the Fungal Community Composition in Endemic Orchids with Terrestrial Habitat in Subtropical Regions

  • Xinyue Hu,
  • Xiujin Qi,
  • María Daniela Artigas Ramírez,
  • Qi Wu,
  • Shiyong Liu,
  • Zhenhai Deng,
  • Xiuzhong Li,
  • Nan Zhang,
  • Hongfeng Zhang,
  • Heran Dai,
  • Rongshi Xin,
  • Xiaofeng Wu,
  • Jin Cheng

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms12071412
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 7
p. 1412

Abstract

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Habenaria and Liparis are well-known orchid genera that grow in terrestrial habitats in the tropics, subtropics or temperate zones. Three species have been found in subtropical regions of China, inhabiting terrestrial to epiphytic habitats. This study focuses on three species, H. dentata (distributed in Asia), H. yachangensis, and L. gigantea. For H. yachangensis and L. gigantea, there is no information about the mycorrhizal community in these species. This study aims to conduct the fungal community screening of Chinese ground orchids from subtropical regions. We performed a comparative analysis of the fungal community among H. dentata, H. yachangensis, and L. gigantea, determining their ITS regions using NGS paired-end sequences. The results clarified the diversity and the predominance of fungal genera. Ascomycota was abundant compared to Basidiomycota or other fungi groups in all communities, with a high dominance in all populations, especially for L. gigantea. At different root spatial locations, the fungal community diversity and richness were higher in the soil than in the rhizosphere or inner root. However, the results suggest that L. gigantea has a different fungal community compared to Habenaria species. In this order, the subtropical terrestrial orchids have a different fungal network compared to the northern terrestrial orchids. Also, there is a high probability of co-existence and co-evolution of endophytic fungi in these terrestrial orchids, indicating the potential role of host plants in selecting an endophytic fungal community. Furthermore, our results highlight the need to elucidate the microbe interactions of these unique orchids for long-term purposes, such as isolating indigenous fungi for suitable inoculants for further orchid propagation, restoration, and conservation.

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