RESUMEN

Fungal endophytes are critical members of the plant microbiome, but their community dynamics throughout an entire growing season are underexplored. Additionally, most fungal endophyte research has centred on seed-reproducing hosts, while spore-reproducing plants also host endophytes and may be colonized by unique community members. In order to examine annual fungal endophyte community dynamics in a spore-reproducing host, we explored endophytes in a single population of ferns, Polystichum munitum, in the Pacific Northwest. Through metabarcoding, we characterized the community assembly and temporal turnover of foliar endophytes throughout a growing season. From these results, we selected endophytes with outsized representations in sequence data and performed in vitro competition assays. Finally, we inoculated sterile fern gametophytes with dominant fungi observed in the field and determined their effects on host performance. Sequencing demonstrated that ferns were colonized by a diverse community of fungal endophytes in newly emerged tissue, but diversity decreased throughout the season leading to the preponderance of a single fungus in later sampling months. This previously undescribed endophyte appears to abundantly colonize the host to the detriment of other microfungi. Competition assays on a variety of media types failed to demonstrate that the dominant fungus was competitive against other fungi isolated from the same hosts, and inoculation onto sterile fern gametophytes did not alter growth compared to sterile controls, suggesting its effects are not antagonistic. The presence of this endophyte in the fern population probably demonstrates a case of repeated colonization driving competitive exclusion of other fungal community members.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Polar systems are experiencing rapid climate change and the high sensitivity of these Arctic and Antarctic ecosystems make them especially vulnerable to accelerated ecological transformation. In Antarctica, warming results in a mosaic of ice-free terrestrial habitats dominated by a diverse assemblage of cryptogamic plants (i.e. mosses and lichens). Although these plants provide key habitat for a wide array of microorganisms and invertebrates, we have little understanding of the interaction between trophic levels in this terrestrial ecosystem and whether there are functional effects of plant species on higher trophic levels that may alter with warming. Here, we used open top chambers on Fildes Peninsula, King George Island, Antarctica, to examine the effects of passive warming and moss species on the abiotic environment and ultimately on higher trophic levels. For the dominant mosses, Polytrichastrum alpinum and Sanionia georgicouncinata, we found species-specific effects on the abiotic environment, including moss canopy temperature and soil moisture. In addition, we found distinct shifts in sexual expression in P. alpinum plants under warming compared to mosses without warming, and invertebrate communities in this moss species were strongly correlated with plant reproduction. Mosses under warming had substantially larger total invertebrate communities, and some invertebrate taxa were influenced differentially by moss species. However, warmed moss plants showed lower fungal biomass than control moss plants, and fungal biomass differed between moss species. Our results indicate that continued warming may impact the reproductive output of Antarctic moss species, potentially altering terrestrial ecosystems dynamics from the bottom up. Understanding these effects requires clarifying the foundational, mechanistic role that individual plant species play in mediating complex interactions in Antarctica's terrestrial food webs.

RESUMEN

Plants simultaneously maintain mutualistic relationships with different partners that are connected through the same host, but do not interact directly. One or more participating mutualists may alter their host's phenotype, resulting in a shift in the host's ecological interactions with all other mutualists involved. Understanding the functional interplay of mutualists associated with the same host remains an important challenge in biology. Here, we show belowground nitrogen-fixing rhizobia on lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus) alter their host plant's defensive mutualism with aboveground ants. We induced extrafloral nectar (EFN), an indirect defense acting through ant attraction. We also measured various nutritive and defensive plant traits, biomass, and counted ants on rhizobial and rhizobia-free plants. Rhizobia increased plant protein as well as cyanogenesis, a direct chemical defense against herbivores, but decreased EFN. Ants were significantly more attracted to rhizobia-free plants, and our structural equation model shows a strong link between rhizobia and reduced EFN as well as between EFN and ants: the sole path to ant recruitment. The rhizobia-mediated effects on simultaneously expressed defensive plant traits indicate rhizobia can have significant bottom-up effects on higher trophic levels. Our results show belowground symbionts play a critical and underestimated role in determining aboveground mutualistic interactions.

Asunto(s)