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The best for the guest: high Andean nurse cushions of Azorella madreporica enhance arbuscular mycorrhizal status in associated plant species

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Abstract

Positive interactions between cushion plant and associated plants species in the high Andes of central Chile should also include the effects of fungal root symbionts. We hypothesized that higher colonization by arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi exists in cushion-associated (nursling) plants compared with conspecific individuals growing on bare ground. We assessed the AM status of Andean plants at two sites at different altitudes (3,200 and 3,600 m a.s.l.) in 23 species, particularly in cushions of Azorella madreporica and five associated plants; additionally, AM fungal spores were retrieved from soil outside and beneath cushions. 18 of the 23 examined plant species presented diagnostic structures of arbuscular mycorrhiza; most of them were also colonized by dark-septate endophytes. Mycorrhization of A. madreporica cushions showed differences between both sites (68% and 32%, respectively). In the native species Hordeum comosum, Nastanthus agglomeratus, and Phacelia secunda associated to A. madreporica, mycorrhization was six times higher than in the same species growing dispersed on bare ground at 3,600 m a.s.l., but mycorrhiza development was less cushion dependent in the alien plants Cerastium arvense and Taraxacum officinale at both sites. The ratio of AM fungal spores beneath versus outside cushions was also 6:1. The common and abundant presence of AM in cushion communities at high altitudes emphasizes the importance of the fungal root symbionts in such situations where plant species benefit from the microclimatic conditions generated by the cushion and also from well-developed mycorrhizal networks.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Ewald Sieverding for his valuable help with the identification of Glomeromycotan spores. Many thanks also to Drs. Guillermo Pereira and Angela Machuca from Los Angeles for providing the sieves for spore extraction and Drs. León Bravo of Plant Physiology and Eugenio Sanfuentes of Biotechnology Center, University of Concepción, for laboratory facilities used to carry out our study. Important improvements of the original manuscript were possible due to the valuable comments of two anonymous reviewers which are highly appreciated. This research was supported by grants from FONDECYT 1090389, P05-02F ICM, and PBF-23 CONICYT.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Biotecnología, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile

    M. Angélica Casanova-Katny

  2. Departamento de Botánica, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de Concepción, Casilla 160-C, Concepción, Chile

    Gustavo Adolfo Torres-Mellado, Goetz Palfner & Lohengrin A. Cavieres

  3. Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad (IEB), Casilla 653, Santiago, Chile

    Lohengrin A. Cavieres

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  1. M. Angélica Casanova-Katny
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  2. Gustavo Adolfo Torres-Mellado
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  3. Goetz Palfner
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  4. Lohengrin A. Cavieres
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Correspondence to M. Angélica Casanova-Katny.

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Fig. 4

Examples of AM fungal spores from soil beneath cushions of Azorella madreporica and associated plants at Cerro Franciscano (3,600 m a.s.l.); a Glomus-type spore; b Acaulospora-type spore in optical section; c, d Acaulospora-type spores in surface view; bars (for all figures) = 50 μm (JPEG 481 kb)

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Casanova-Katny, M.A., Torres-Mellado, G.A., Palfner, G. et al. The best for the guest: high Andean nurse cushions of Azorella madreporica enhance arbuscular mycorrhizal status in associated plant species. Mycorrhiza 21, 613–622 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00572-011-0367-1

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