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Differences in fungal communities associated to Festuca paniculata roots in subalpine grasslands

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Abstract

Mycorrhizal fungi or endphytes colonize plant roots and their occurrence and composition depend on biotic and abiotic characteristics of the ecosystem. We investigated the composition of these microbial communities associated with Festuca paniculata, a slow growing species, which dramatically impacts functional plant diversity and the recycling of organic matter in subalpine grasslands. F. paniculata individuals from both mown and unmown grasslands were randomly collected and the microscopic observation of the plant roots revealed a difference in fungal colonization according to management. The ITS regions of root-associated fungi were amplified, cloned and sequenced. Bioinformatic analysis revealed a total of 43 and 35 phylotypes in mown and unmown grasslands respectively, highlighting a remarkable difference in the composition between both fungal communities. The phylotypes were assigned to 9 classes in which two classes Eurotiomycetes and Lecanoromycetes were specific to mown grasslands, while Tremellomycetes were specific to unmown grasslands and only five phylotypes were common to both locations. The comparative analysis of fungal lifestyles indicated the dominance of saprobes and a large proportion of endophytes compared to the mycorrhizal fungi (7/1 and 11/2 phylotypes in mown and unmown grasslands, respectively). Endophyte richness was greater in the unmown gassland than in the mown grassland and their relative proportion was twice higher. Our results suggest that endophytes may offer potential resources to F. paniculata and play an important role in the regulation of plant diversity.

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Acknowledgments

This research was conducted on the long term research site Zone Atelier Alpes, a member of the ILTER-Europe network. It contributes to Era-Net BiodivERsA project VITAL. The authors would like to thank Sylvie Veyrenc for her help in the lab. We also really appreciated the critical reading of the manuscript by Viviane Barbreau and address our special thanks to Nael Mouhamadou for his help. Logistic support was provided by the ‘Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine’ (UMR 5553 CNRS/UJF, Joseph Fourier University) and the ‘Station Alpine Joseph Fourier’ (UMS 2925 CNRS/UJF, Joseph Fourier University)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine, UMR 5553 UJF/CNRS, Université Joseph Fourier, BP 53. 38041, Grenoble cedex 9, France

    Bello Mouhamadou, Claire Molitor, Florence Baptist, Lucile Sage, Jean-Christophe Clément, Sandra Lavorel, Armelle Monier & Roberto A. Geremia

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  1. Bello Mouhamadou
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  2. Claire Molitor
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  3. Florence Baptist
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  4. Lucile Sage
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  5. Jean-Christophe Clément
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  6. Sandra Lavorel
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  7. Armelle Monier
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  8. Roberto A. Geremia
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Correspondence to Bello Mouhamadou.

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Mouhamadou, B., Molitor, C., Baptist, F. et al. Differences in fungal communities associated to Festuca paniculata roots in subalpine grasslands. Fungal Diversity 47, 55–63 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13225-011-0091-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13225-011-0091-3

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