Phylogenetic relatedness explains highly interconnected and nested symbiotic networks of woody plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in a Chinese subtropical forest

Abstract

Elucidating symbiotic relationships between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and plants contributes to a better understanding of their reciprocally dependent coexistence and community assembly. However, the main drivers of plant and AMF community assembly remain unclear. In this study, we examined AMF communities from 166 root samples of 17 woody plant species from 10 quadrats in a Chinese subtropical forest using 454 pyrosequencing of 18S rRNA gene to describe symbiotic AMF–plant association. Our results show the woody plant–AMF networks to be highly interconnected and nested, but in antimodular and antispecialized manners. The nonrandom pattern in the woody plant–AMF network was explained by plant and AMF phylogenies, with a tendency for a stronger phylogenetic signal by plant than AMF phylogeny. This study suggests that the phylogenetic niche conservatism in woody plants and their AMF symbionts could contribute to interdependent AMF and plant community assembly in this subtropical forest ecosystem.