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Molecular Community Analysis of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in Roots of Geothermal Soils in Yellowstone National Park (USA)

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Abstract

To better understand adaptation of plants and their mycorrhizae to extreme environmental conditions, we analyzed the composition of communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in roots from geothermal sites in Yellowstone National Park (YNP), USA. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi were identified using molecular methods including seven specific primer pairs for regions of the ribosomal DNA that amplify different subgroups of AMF. Roots of Dichanthelium lanuginosum, a grass only occurring in geothermal areas, were sampled along with thermal and nonthermal Agrostis scabra and control plants growing outside the thermally influenced sites. In addition, root samples of Agrostis stolonifera from geothermal areas of Iceland were analyzed to identify possible common mycosymbionts between these geographically isolated locations. In YNP, 16 ribosomal DNA phylotypes belonging to the genera Archaeospora, Glomus, Paraglomus, Scutellospora, and Acaulospora were detected. Eight of these phylotypes could be assigned to known morphospecies, two others have been reported previously in molecular studies from different environments, and six were new to science. The most diverse and abundant lineage was Glomus group A, with the most frequent phylotype corresponding to Glomus intraradices. Five of the seven phylotypes detected in a preliminary sampling in a geothermal area in Iceland were also found in YNP. Nonthermal vegetation was dominated by a high diversity of Glomus group A phylotypes while nonthermal plants were not. Using multivariate analyses, a subset of three phylotypes were determined to be associated with geothermal conditions in the field sites analyzed. In conclusion, AMF communities in geothermal soils are distinct in their composition, including both unique phylotypes and generalist fungi that occur across a broad range of environmental conditions.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by a grant from the Thermal Biology Institute, Montana State University, to C.Z and D.R., which is gratefully acknowledged. The authors also would like to thank the following persons: Thomas Boller and Andres Wiemken at the Botanical Institute, University of Basel for continuing support of D.R.; Rebecca Bunn, Tracy McCreery, and Lorna McIntyre for their help in taking samples in Yellowstone; Zuzana Sýkorová and Isabelle Hijri for sequencing; Thomas Wohlgemuth for help with multivariate analysis; Hafdis Hanna Aegisdottir and Ulfur Oskarsson for help in finding field sites and sampling in Iceland; Christie Hendrix (Yellowstone National Park Research Office) for administrative help.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Susann Appoloni

    Present address: Biolytix AG, Witterswil, 4108, Switzerland

  2. Ylva Lekberg

    Present address: Department of Mycology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

  3. Michael T. Tercek

    Present address: Walking Shadow Ecology, Gardiner, MT, 59030, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Botany, University of Basel, Hebelstrasse 1, 4056, Basel, Switzerland

    Susann Appoloni & Dirk Redecker

  2. Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences, Montana State University Bozeman, 821 Leon Johnson Hall, Bozeman, MT, 59717, USA

    Ylva Lekberg, Michael T. Tercek & Catherine A. Zabinski

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  1. Susann Appoloni
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  4. Catherine A. Zabinski
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dirk Redecker.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

248_2008_9384_MOESM1_ESM.doc

Table S1 Overview of samples analyzed and phylotypes detected. RC—Rabbit Creek, LG Lone Star Geyser Basin, n.a. not available. (DOC 59 KB)

248_2008_9384_MOESM2_ESM.pdf

Fig. S1 Phylogenetic tree of Glomus group A based on 5.8S rDNA and ITS2. The tree was obtained by neighbor joining. Numbers above branches denote bootstrap values from 1,000 replications. For an explanation of the label details, see Fig. 1. The tree focuses on phylotypes Glom A-1, A-13, and A-20. Note the grouping of Glom A-1 sequences amidst sequences originating from a single G. intraradices spore (JJ1 and JJ3). Glom A-13 sequences group with G. diaphanum, of which no 18S SSU sequence (Fig. 1) is available. (PDF 51 KB)

248_2008_9384_MOESM3_ESM.pdf

Fig. S2 Phylogenetic tree of Acaulospora based on 5.8S rDNA and ITS2. The tree was obtained by neighbor joining. Numbers above branches denote bootstrap values from 1,000 replications. For an explanation of the label details, see Fig. 1. For comparison, some sequences from another study are included, which originate from another field site LG3 in YNP (Lekberg et al. unpublished). (PDF 64 KB)

248_2008_9384_MOESM4_ESM.pdf

Fig. S3 Sampling effort curve for the main field sites and the plant species studied. Sample order was randomized by 100 replications in EstimateS 7.5 [6]. Dich—D. lanuginosum; Agr t—thermal A. scabra; Agr nt—nonthermal A. scabra; RC—Rabbit Creek; YNP—Yellowstone National Park; Iceland—field site in Iceland. (PDF 57 KB)

248_2008_9384_MOESM5_ESM.pdf

Fig. S4 Species-environmental variables biplot (arrows—environmental variables, triangles—AMF phylotypes) showing a CCA of the Rabbit Creek dataset with environmental variables restricted to temperature and host plants. The x-axis shows the first canonical axis, the y-axis the second canonical axis. Temp = Temperature, Dich = D. lanuginosum; Agr t = thermal A. scabra; Agr nt = nonthermal A. scabra. The phylotype cluster containing AMF phylotypes specifically occurring in geothermal samples is encircled. (PDF 38 KB)

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Appoloni, S., Lekberg, Y., Tercek, M.T. et al. Molecular Community Analysis of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in Roots of Geothermal Soils in Yellowstone National Park (USA). Microb Ecol 56, 649–659 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-008-9384-9

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