The Mina & Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences Bar-Ilan University, 5290002, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
School of Natural Sciences, Department of Biological Sciences, Keimyung University, Daegu, 42601, Republic of Korea.
Microb Ecol. 2023 Jul;86(1):200-212. doi: 10.1007/s00248-022-02039-z. Epub 2022 Jun 1.
In a recent study, we found a distinct soil bacterial community associated with male and female plants of the desert gymnosperm Welwitschia mirabilis. In this subsequent study, we also found that the soil fungal community associated with Welwitschia differs between male and female plants, and between unvegetated areas and the soil under plants. Site location, pH, and soil moisture also had an important influence on the composition of the fungal community. A number of Ascomycota and Chytrid species were found to be distinct indicators of male and female plants, respectively, but there was no overall difference at the phylum level or in terms of diversity. The unvegetated areas between plants also differed in terms of several Ascomycota OTUs. Network connectivity of the fungal communities was found to be higher under both male and female Welwitschia plants than in unvegetated control areas. As with the bacterial community, it is unclear what processes produce the gender-distinct fungal community, and also the more general plant-associated community, and also what the effects on the biology of the plants are. One possibility behind the gender-related difference in fungal community is that there are differences in the production of pollen or nectar between the two plant genders, affecting the below-ground soil community.
在最近的一项研究中，我们发现了一个与沙漠裸子植物百岁兰的雌雄植株相关的独特土壤细菌群落。在随后的这项研究中，我们还发现，与百岁兰相关的土壤真菌群落也存在于雌雄植株之间、无植被区和植物下的土壤之间的差异。地点位置、pH 值和土壤湿度对真菌群落的组成也有重要影响。一些子囊菌门和壶菌门的物种分别被发现是雌雄植株的明显指示物，但在门水平或多样性方面没有总体差异。植物之间的无植被区在几个子囊菌门的 OTUs 方面也存在差异。在雌雄百岁兰植物下的真菌群落的网络连通性均高于无植被对照区。与细菌群落一样，目前尚不清楚是什么过程产生了性别特异的真菌群落，以及更普遍的与植物相关的群落，以及对植物生物学的影响。真菌群落性别差异的背后可能存在花粉或花蜜在两种植物性别之间的产生差异，从而影响地下土壤群落。
