Vertical Structure of Phyllosphere Fungal Communities in a Tropical Forest in Thailand Uncovered by High-Throughput Sequencing.

ABSTRACT: Phyllosphere fungi harbor a tremendous species diversity and play important ecological roles. However, little is known about their distribution patterns within forest ecosystems. We examined how species diversity and community composition of phyllosphere fungi change along a vertical structure in a tropical forest in Thailand. Fungal communities in 144 leaf samples from 19 vertical layers (1.28-34.4 m above ground) of 73 plant individuals (27 species) were investigated by metabarcoding analysis using Ion Torrent sequencing. In total, 1,524 fungal operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were detected among 890,710 reads obtained from the 144 leaf samples. Taxonomically diverse fungi belonging to as many as 24 orders of Ascomycota and 21 orders of Basidiomycota were detected, most of which inhabi

SUBMITTER: Izuno A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5115777 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature