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Bacterial Community Assemblages Associated with the Phyllosphere, Dermosphere, and Rhizosphere of Tree Species of the Atlantic Forest are Host Taxon Dependent

  • Plant Microbe Interactions
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Abstract

Bacterial communities associated with tree canopies have been shown to be specific to their plant hosts, suggesting that plant species-specific traits may drive the selection of microbial species that comprise their microbiomes. To further examine the degree to which the plant taxa drive the assemblage of bacterial communities in specific plant microenvironments, we evaluated bacterial community structures associated with the phyllosphere, dermosphere, and rhizosphere of seven tree species representing three orders, four families and four genera of plants from a pristine Dense Ombrophilous Atlantic forest in Brazil, using a combination of PCR-DGGE of 16S rRNA genes and clone library sequencing. Results indicated that each plant species selected for distinct bacterial communities in the phyllosphere, dermosphere, and rhizosphere, and that the bacterial community structures are significantly related to the plant taxa, at the species, family, and order levels. Further characterization of the bacterial communities of the phyllosphere and dermosphere of the tree species showed that they were inhabited predominantly by species of Gammaproteobacteria, mostly related to Pseudomonas. In contrast, the rhizosphere bacterial communities showed greater species richness and evenness, and higher frequencies of Alphaproteobacteria and Acidobacteria Gp1. With individual tree species each selecting for their specific microbiomes, these findings greatly increase our estimates of the bacterial species richness in tropical forests and provoke questions concerning the ecological functions of the microbial communities that exist on different plant parts.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues for coordinating the Biota project, Gerd Sparovek for contribution and discussion of ideas, Geraldo Franco for assistance in identifying the tree species, Marianna Giannoti and Natalia Ivanauskas for logistical support, and Robinson M. Andrade and Rafael D. Armas for helping with sample and data analyses. This project was supported by BIOTA-FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation, São Paulo, Brazil).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Soil Science, University of São Paulo, Av. Pádua Dias, 11, 13418-900, Piracicaba, SP, Brazil

    Marcio R. Lambais & Adriano R. Lucheta

  2. Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California, 900 University Ave, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA

    David E. Crowley

Authors
  1. Marcio R. Lambais
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  2. Adriano R. Lucheta
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  3. David E. Crowley
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Marcio R. Lambais or David E. Crowley.

Additional information

The nucleotide sequence data reported are available in the GenBank databases under the accession numbers KC745794-KC746536, KC742543-KC743241, and KC744053-KC745793.

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Lambais, M.R., Lucheta, A.R. & Crowley, D.E. Bacterial Community Assemblages Associated with the Phyllosphere, Dermosphere, and Rhizosphere of Tree Species of the Atlantic Forest are Host Taxon Dependent. Microb Ecol 68, 567–574 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-014-0433-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-014-0433-2

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