Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Lai 40, Tartu 51005, Estonia.
Centre for Mycorrhizal Research, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi 110 003, India.
Science. 2015 Aug 28;349(6251):970-3. doi: 10.1126/science.aab1161.
The global biogeography of microorganisms remains largely unknown, in contrast to the well-studied diversity patterns of macroorganisms. We used arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungus DNA from 1014 plant-root samples collected worldwide to determine the global distribution of these plant symbionts. We found that AM fungal communities reflected local environmental conditions and the spatial distance between sites. However, despite AM fungi apparently possessing limited dispersal ability, we found 93% of taxa on multiple continents and 34% on all six continents surveyed. This contrasts with the high spatial turnover of other fungal taxa and with the endemism displayed by plants at the global scale. We suggest that the biogeography of AM fungi is driven by unexpectedly efficient dispersal, probably via both abiotic and biotic vectors, including humans.
与研究充分的大型生物多样性模式相比，微生物的全球生物地理学在很大程度上仍是未知的。我们使用了来自全球 1014 个植物根系样本中的丛枝菌根（AM）真菌 DNA，以确定这些植物共生体的全球分布。我们发现，AM 真菌群落反映了当地的环境条件和地点之间的空间距离。然而，尽管 AM 真菌显然具有有限的扩散能力，我们发现 93%的分类群存在于多个大陆上，34%的分类群存在于调查的所有六个大陆上。这与其他真菌分类群的高空间周转率以及全球范围内植物的特有现象形成了对比。我们认为，AM 真菌的生物地理学是由出乎意料的高效扩散驱动的，可能通过包括人类在内的生物和非生物载体进行。
