Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi promote coexistence and niche divergence of sympatric palm species on a remote oceanic island.

ABSTRACT: Microbes can have profound effects on their hosts, driving natural selection, promoting speciation and determining species distributions. However, soil-dwelling microbes are rarely investigated as drivers of evolutionary change in plants. We used metabarcoding and experimental manipulation of soil microbiomes to investigate the impact of soil and root microbes in a well-known case of sympatric speciation, the Howea palms of Lord Howe Island (Australia). Whereas H. forsteriana can grow on both calcareous and volcanic soils, H. belmoreana is restricted to, but more successful on, volcanic soil, indicating a trade-off in adaptation to the two soil types. We suggest a novel explanation for this trade-off. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are significantly depleted in H. forsteriana on volcan

SUBMITTER: Osborne OG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5813143 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature