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AM fungal communities inhabiting the roots of submerged aquatic plant Lobelia dortmanna are diverse and include a high proportion of novel taxa

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Abstract

While the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis is known to be widespread in terrestrial ecosystems, there is growing evidence that aquatic plants also form the symbiosis. It has been suggested that symbiosis with AM fungi may represent an important adaptation for isoëtid plants growing on nutrient-poor sediments in oligotrophic lakes. In this study, we address AM fungal root colonization intensity, richness and community composition (based on small subunit (SSU) ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing) in five populations of the isoëtid plant species Lobelia dortmanna inhabiting oligotrophic lakes in Southern Sweden. We found that the roots of L. dortmanna hosted rich AM fungal communities and about 15 % of the detected molecular taxa were previously unrecorded. AM fungal root colonization intensity and taxon richness varied along an environmental gradient, being higher in oligotrophic and lower in mesotrophic lakes. The overall phylogenetic structure of this aquatic fungal community differed from that described in terrestrial systems: The roots of L. dortmanna hosted more Archaeosporaceae and fewer Glomeraceae taxa than would be expected based on global data from terrestrial AM fungal communities.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by grants from the Estonian Research Council (IUT 20-28) and the European Regional Development Fund (Centre of Excellence Ecolchange). We thank Prof. Annette Otte (Giessen University) for space in the common garden, Joseph Scholz-vom Hofe for nursing the collected plants and Ülle Saks for measuring AM fungal colonization in plant roots.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Lai 40, 51005, Tartu, Estonia

    Mari Moora, Maarja Öpik, John Davison, Teele Jairus, Martti Vasar & Martin Zobel

  2. Department of Environmental and Life Sciences-Biology, Karlstad University, SE-651 88, Karlstad, Sweden

    R. Lutz Eckstein

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  1. Mari Moora
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  2. Maarja Öpik
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Correspondence to Teele Jairus.

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Fig. S1

Percentage root length colonized (%RLC) by hyphae, arbuscules and vesicles of AM fungi in the roots of Lobelia dortmanna in five different local populations. Bars topped by the same letter do not differ significantly at P ≤ 0.05 (Fischer LSD test). (PDF 311 kb)

Fig. S2

Phylogenetic tree of virtual taxa (VT) type sequences in MaarjAM (modified from Öpik et al. 2013). Solid symbols at the right side of the tree indicate those VT that were detected from the roots of the five study plant populations (PDF 173 kb)

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Moora, M., Öpik, M., Davison, J. et al. AM fungal communities inhabiting the roots of submerged aquatic plant Lobelia dortmanna are diverse and include a high proportion of novel taxa. Mycorrhiza 26, 735–745 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00572-016-0709-0

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