Heritable Epichloë symbiosis shapes fungal but not bacterial communities of plant leaves

Abstract

Keystone microbial species have driven eco-evolutionary processes since the origin of life. However, due to our inability to detect the majority of microbiota, members of diverse microbial communities of fungi, bacteria and viruses have largely been ignored as keystone species in past literature. Here we tested whether heritable Epichloë species of pooidae grasses modulate microbiota of their shared host plant.

Figure 1

Taxonomic composition of Schedonorus phoenix endophytic fungal communites in Epichloë colonized (E+) and uncolonized (E−) plants. (A) total fungal communities, (B) fungal communities based on Epichloë depleted dataset. Fungal communities are presented at fungal genus level. 15 biological replicates of both E+ and E− plants were used in analysis of total communities, while 10 biological replicates of E+ and E− plants were used in Epichloë depleted dataset analysis. Neotyphodium = Epichloë.

Figure 2

Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) of endophytic fungal communities in E+ and E− plants. (A) total communities, (B) fungal communities based on Epichloë depleted dataset. PCoAs are based on Bray-Curtis distance matrices of standardized, square root transformed community data of 15 (A) and 10 (B) biological replicates of E+ and E− plants.

Figure 3

Taxomonic composition (A) and principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) of community structures (B) of endophytic bacterial communities in E+ and E− plants. PCoA is based on Bray-Curtis distance matrix of standardized, square root transformed community data.