Seed and Root Endophytic Fungi in a Range Expanding and a Related Plant Species

• Published in: Frontiers in microbiology Vol. 8; p. 1645
• Main Authors: Geisen, Stefan, Kostenko, Olga, Cnossen, Mark C, Ten Hooven, Freddy C, Vreš, Branko, van der Putten, Wim H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 29-08-2017
• Subjects: Cultivation; Endophytes; Fungi; Microbiology; Phylogeny; Range expanding plant species; Seeds; Soil; Soil Sterilization; soil sterilization; fungi; seeds; range expanding plant species; phylogeny; soil; cultivation; endophytes
• ISSN: 1664-302X; 1664-302X
• DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.01645

Climate change is accelerating the spread of plants and their associated species to new ranges. The differences in range shift capacity of the various types of species may disrupt long-term co-evolved relationships especially those belowground, however, this may be less so for seed-borne endophytic microbes. We collected seeds and soil of the range-expanding
and the congeneric
from three populations growing in Slovenia (native range of both
species) and the Netherlands (expanded range of
, native range of
). We isolated and identified endophytic fungi directly from seeds, as well as from roots of the plants grown in Slovenian, Dutch or sterilized soil to compare fungal endophyte composition. Furthermore, we investigated whether
hosts a reduced community composition of endophytes in the expanded range due to release from plant-species specific fungi while endophyte communities in
in both ranges are similar. We cultivated 46 unique and phylogenetically diverse endophytes. A majority of the seed endophytes resembled potential pathogens, while most root endophytes were not likely to be pathogenic. Only one endophyte was found in both roots and seeds, but was isolated from different plant species. Unexpectedly, seed endophyte diversity of southern
populations was lower than of populations from the north, while the seed endophyte community composition of northern
populations was significantly different southern
as well as northern and southern
populations. Root endophyte diversity was considerably lower in
than in
independent of plant and soil origin, but this difference disappeared when plants were grown in sterile soils. We conclude that the community composition of fungal endophytes not only differs between related plant species but also between populations of plants that expand their range compared to their native habitat. Our results suggest that fungal endophytes of two
species are not able to systemically infect plants. We highlight that endophytes remain poorly studied and further work should investigate the functional importance of endophytes.