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Application of slow-release phosphorus fertilizers increases arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal diversity in the roots of apple trees

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Abstract

Aims

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) play a key role in the functioning of agricultural ecosystems. Therefore, understanding how the application of fertilizers, a common management practice, affects AMF communities is of major importance. Here we aimed to: (i) experimentally test whether different amounts and forms of phosphorus (P) fertilizer affect AMF diversity and community composition associated with the roots of apple trees (Malus domestica); (ii) identify differences in tolerance to P fertilization between AMF taxa.

Methods

We used 454-pyrosequencing of the small subunit rRNA gene amplicons to quantify AMF diversity and community composition in root samples obtained from a three year field experiment, with two inorganic, three slow-release P fertilization and one control treatment.

Results

The slow-release fertilizer treatments showed significantly higher AMF richness and differed in community composition compared to the inorganic fertilizer treatments. The distribution of AMF OTUs showed a significantly nested pattern. Additionally, AMF communities in the inorganic fertilizer treatments were a subset of the communities in the slow-release fertilizer treatments.

Conclusions

We demonstrate that application of slow-release fertilizers promoted AMF diversity in the roots of cultivated apple trees in comparison to the other treatments. The application of inorganic fertilizers elevated levels of plant-available P in the soil and selected only a small subset of abundant AMF, resulting in a lower AMF diversity. This may result in AMF communities dominated by inferior AMF mutualists.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the project IWT-LA 110775 of the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation by Science and Technology in Flanders.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plant Conservation and Population Biology, Department of Biology, KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 31, B-3001, Heverlee, Belgium

    Maarten Van Geel, Matthias De Beenhouwer, Tobias Ceulemans, Kenny Caes & Olivier Honnay

  2. Research Station for Fruit Cultivation, Department of Mycology, B-3800, Sint-Truiden, Belgium

    An Ceustermans, Dany Bylemans & Ann Gomand

  3. Laboratory for Process Microbial Ecology and Bioinspirational Management (PME&BIM), Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems (M2S), KU Leuven, Campus De Nayer, B-2860, Sint Katelijne-Waver, Belgium

    Bart Lievens

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  1. Maarten Van Geel
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  2. Matthias De Beenhouwer
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  3. Tobias Ceulemans
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  4. Kenny Caes
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  5. An Ceustermans
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  7. Ann Gomand
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  8. Bart Lievens
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  9. Olivier Honnay
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Correspondence to Maarten Van Geel.

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Responsible Editor: Tatsuhiro Ezawa.

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Online Resource 1

Rarefaction curves of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal operational taxonomic units for all treatments. The chemical and slow-release fertilizers are shown in red and green, respectively. Each treatment consisted of four samples (1399 sequences per sample), except the Chemical fertilizer 20 and the Mushroom compost treatment which consisted of only three samples after rarefying. All rarefaction curves tended to saturation. Online Resource 2 List of the 39 operational taxonomic units (OTUs), identified at a 3 % sequence dissimilarity cut-off discovered in our study. The taxonomic affiliations were obtained by BLAST analysis against the MaarjAM database. (PDF 575 kb)

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Van Geel, M., De Beenhouwer, M., Ceulemans, T. et al. Application of slow-release phosphorus fertilizers increases arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal diversity in the roots of apple trees. Plant Soil 402, 291–301 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-015-2777-x

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