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Species-specific effects of polyploidisation and plant traits of Centaurea maculosa and Senecio inaequidens on rhizosphere microorganisms

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Abstract

Invasive plant species represent a threat to terrestrial ecosystems, but their effects on the soil biota and the mechanisms involved are not yet well understood. Many invasive species have undergone polyploidisation, leading to the coexistence of various cytotypes in the native range, whereas, in most cases, only one cytotype is present in the introduced range. Since genetic variation within a species can modify soil rhizosphere communities, we studied the effects of different cytotypes and ranges (native diploid, native tetraploid and introduced tetraploid) of Centaurea maculosa and Senecio inaequidens on microbial biomass carbon, rhizosphere total DNA content and bacterial communities of a standard soil in relation to plant functional traits. There was no overall significant difference in microbial biomass between cytotypes. The variation of rhizosphere total DNA content and bacterial community structure according to cytotype was species specific. The rhizosphere DNA content of S. inaequidens decreased with polyploidisation in the native range but did not vary for C. maculosa. In contrast, the bacterial community structure of C. maculosa was affected by polyploidisation and its diversity increased, whereas there was no significant change for S. inaequidens. Traits of S. inaequidens were correlated to the rhizosphere biota. Bacterial diversity and total DNA content were positively correlated with resource allocation to belowground growth and late flowering, whereas microbial biomass carbon was negatively correlated to investment in reproduction. There were no correlations between traits of the cytotypes of C. maculosa and corresponding rhizosphere soil biota. This study shows that polyploidisation may affect rhizosphere bacterial community composition, but that effects vary among plant species. Such changes may contribute to the success of invasive polyploid genotypes in the introduced range.

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Acknowledgments

This project was funded by the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Plant Survival, a research program of the Swiss National Science Foundation. We thank Joanne Félix, Elena Rossel, Daniela Steiner and Damien Pasche for technical assistance. We are grateful to Olivier Broennimann, Signe Normand, and Urs Treier for collecting seeds of C. maculosa, and to Daniel Prati for supplying seeds of S. inaequidens. We also thank the University of Lausanne for providing greenhouse facilities and material. We are grateful to Wim van der Putten and two anonymous reviewers whose comments greatly improved the manuscript. This experiment complies with the Swiss regulation for invasive plant experimentation, as stated by the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Ecological Systems, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Station 2, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Aurélie Thébault, Edward A. D. Mitchell & Alexandre Buttler

  2. Rhizosphere Processes Group, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, 8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

    Beat Frey

  3. Wetlands Research Group and Restoration Ecology Research Group, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Station 2, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Edward A. D. Mitchell & Alexandre Buttler

  4. Laboratory of Soil Biology, University of Neuchâtel, Rue Emile-Argand 11, 2009, Neuchâtel, Switzerland

    Edward A. D. Mitchell

  5. Laboratoire de Chrono-environnement, UMR 6249 CNRS, UFR des Sciences et Techniques, Université de Franche-Comté, 16 route de Gray, 25030, Besançon, France

    Alexandre Buttler

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  1. Aurélie Thébault
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Correspondence to Aurélie Thébault.

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Communicated by Tim Seastedt.

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Thébault, A., Frey, B., Mitchell, E.A.D. et al. Species-specific effects of polyploidisation and plant traits of Centaurea maculosa and Senecio inaequidens on rhizosphere microorganisms. Oecologia 163, 1011–1020 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-010-1598-0

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