Ericoid Roots and Mycospheres Govern Plant-Specific Bacterial Communities in Boreal Forest Humus
2017
In this study, the bacterial populations of roots and mycospheres of the
borealpine forest ericoid plants, heather (
Callunavulgaris),
bilberry(
Vaccinium myrtillus), and
lingonberry(
Vaccinium vitis-idaea), were studied by qPCR and next-generation sequencing (NGS). All bacterial communities of mycosphere soils differed from soils uncolonized by mycorrhizal mycelia. Colonization by mycorrhizal hyphae increased the total number of bacterial 16S
ribosomal DNA(rDNA) gene copies in the
humusbut decreased the number of different bacterial
operational taxonomic units(OTUs). Nevertheless, ericoid roots and mycospheres supported numerous OTUs not present in uncolonized
humus. Bacterial communities in
bilberrymycospheres were surprisingly similar to those in pine mycospheres but not to bacterial communities in heather and
lingonberrymycospheres. In contrast, bacterial communities of ericoid roots were more similar to each other than to those of pine roots. In all sample types, the relative abundances of bacterial sequences belonging to
Alphaproteobacteriaand
Acidobacteriawere higher than the sequences belonging to other classes. Soil samples contained more
Actinobacteria,
Deltaproteobacteria, Opitutae, and Planctomycetia, whereas Armatimonadia,
Betaproteobacteria,
Gammaproteobacteria, and
Sphingobacteriiawere more common to roots. All mycosphere soils and roots harbored bacteria unique to that particular habitat. Our study suggests that the habitation by ericoid plants increases the overall bacterial diversity of
borealforest soils.
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