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Ericaceous dwarf shrubs affect ectomycorrhizal fungal community of the invasive Pinus strobus and native Pinus sylvestris in a pot experiment

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Abstract

This study aimed to elucidate the relationship between ericaceous understorey shrubs and the diversity and abundance of ectomycorrhizal fungi (EcMF) associated with the invasive Pinus strobus and native Pinus sylvestris. Seedlings of both pines were grown in mesocosms and subjected to three treatments simulating different forest microhabitats: (a) grown in isolation and grown with (b) Vaccinium myrtillus or (c) Vaccinium vitis-idaea. Ericaceous plants did not act as a species pool of pine mycobionts and inhibited the ability of the potentially shared species Meliniomyces bicolor to form ectomycorrhizae. Similarly, Ericaceae significantly reduced the formation of Thelephora terrestris ectomycorrhizae in P. sylvestris. EcMF species composition in the mesocosms was strongly affected by both the host species and the presence of an ericaceous neighbour. When grown in isolation, P. strobus root tips were predominantly colonised by Wilcoxina mikolae, whereas those of P. sylvestris were more commonly colonised by Suillus and Rhizopogon spp. Interestingly, these differences were less evident (Suillus + Rhizopogon spp.) or absent (W. mikolae) when the pines were grown with Ericaceae. P. strobus exclusively associated with Rhizopogon salebrosus s.l., suggesting the presence of host specificity at the intrageneric level. Ericaceous plants had a positive effect on colonisation of P. strobus root tips by R. salebrosus s.l. This study demonstrates that the interaction of selective factors such as host species and presence of ericaceous plants may affect the realised niche of the ectomycorrhizal fungi.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge Petra Wildová for excellent lab assistance, Kateřina Štajerová for suggestions that improved the manuscript and Tony Dixon for language correction. We would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their highly valuable comments on our manuscript. Grant Agency of Charles University (9714/2009), COST OC 10058 (Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic) and Charles University SVV 261209/2010 provided financial support. This study is a part of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic research programme AV0Z60050516.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mycorrhizal Symbioses, Institute of Botany ASCR, Zámek 1, Průhonice, 25243, Czech Republic

    Petr Kohout, Zuzana Sýkorová, Jana Albrechtová & Martin Vohník

  2. Department of Experimental Plant Biology, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Viničná 5, 12843, Prague, Czech Republic

    Petr Kohout, Jana Albrechtová & Martin Vohník

  3. Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, Tartu University, 40 Lai, 51005, Tartu, Estonia

    Mohammad Bahram & Leho Tedersoo

  4. Department of Population Ecology, Institute of Botany ASCR, 25243, Průhonice, Czech Republic

    Věroslava Hadincová

  5. Natural History Museum, Tartu University, 40 Lai, 51005, Tartu, Estonia

    Mohammad Bahram & Leho Tedersoo

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  1. Petr Kohout
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Correspondence to Petr Kohout.

Electronic supplementary material

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Supplementary material S1

Numbers of EcM root tips colonised by different morphotypes in each pot. Each row represents a single pot. Sy Pinus sylvestris grown in isolation, SyVm P. sylvestris gown with Vaccinium myrtillus, SyVv P. sylvestris grown with V. vitis-idaea, St P. strobus grown in isolation, StVm P. strobus grown with V. myrtillus, StVv P. strobus grown with V. vitis-idaea, nm non-mycorrhizal. (PDF 36 kb)

Supplementary material S2

Numbers of sequences obtained from all suilloid EcM fungi in each pot. Each row represents a single pot. Sy Pinus sylvestris grown in isolation, SyVm P. sylvestris grown with Vaccinium myrtillus, SyVv P. sylvestris grown with V. vitis-idaea, St P. strobus grown in isolation, StVm P. strobus grown with V. myrtillus, StVv P. strobus grown with V. vitis-idaea. EcM fungi: SBO Suillus bovinus, SVA S. variegatus, SGR1 S. granulatus 1, SGR2 S. granulatus 2, SLU S. luteus, RRO Rhizopogon roseolus s.l., RLU R. luteolus, RSA R. salebrosus s.l. (PDF 37 kb)

Supplementary material S3

Phylogenetic tree of part of Rhizoscyphus ericae aggregate based on a neighbour-joining analysis of 470 characters of ITS1, 5,8S rDNA and part of the ITS2 sequences. Numbers above branches denote neighbour-joining bootstrap values from 1,000 replications. The tree was rooted using sequences of Hymenoscyphus fructigenus and Anguillospora crassa. Sequences obtained in the present study are shown in bold. They are labelled with the database accession number, the host plant species from which they were obtained and the cultivation treatment (Sy Pinus sylvestris grown in isolation, SyVm P. sylvestris gown with Vaccinium myrtillus, St P. strobus grown in isolation). The parentheses show the delimitation of the fungal taxa. (PDF 223 kb)

Supplementary material S4

Phylogenetic tree of part of Rhizopogon salebrosus s.l. based on a neighbour-joining analysis of 503 characters of ITS1, 5,8S rDNA and part of the ITS2 sequences. Numbers denote neighbour-joining bootstrap values from 1,000 replications. The tree was rooted using sequence of Rhizopogon roseolus. Sequences obtained in the present study are shown in bold. R. salebrosus fruit bodies’ sequences obtained from the EMBL database are labelled with the database accession number and country of origin; EMBL database sequences originating from root tips are labelled in addition with the host plant species. (PDF 256 kb)

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Kohout, P., Sýkorová, Z., Bahram, M. et al. Ericaceous dwarf shrubs affect ectomycorrhizal fungal community of the invasive Pinus strobus and native Pinus sylvestris in a pot experiment. Mycorrhiza 21, 403–412 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00572-010-0350-2

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