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Co-occurring grass species differ in their associated microbial community composition in a temperate native grassland

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-17, 19:02 authored by Osanai, Y, Bougoure, DS, Hayden, HL, Mark HovendenMark Hovenden
Background and aims: Specific associations exist between plant species and the soil microbial community and these associations vary between habitat types and different plant groups. However, there is evidence that the associations are highly specific. Hence, we aimed to determine the specificity of plant-microbe relationships amongst co-occurring grass species in a temperate grassland. Methods and results: We examined the broad microbial groups of bacteria and fungi as well as a specific fungal group, the arbuscular mycorrhizal community amongst two dominant C3 and C4 species and one sub-dominant C3 species using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis. We found that the two dominant species were more similar to each other in their bacterial and arbuscular mycorrhizal community composition than either was to the sub-dominant species, but not in their fungal community composition. We also found no clear evidence that those differences were directly linked to soil chemical properties. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that co-occurring grass species have a distinct soil microbial community and T-RFLP analysis is able to detect plant species effect on the microbial community composition on an extremely local scale, providing an insight into the differences in the response of bacterial, fungal and arbuscular mycorrhizal communities to different, but similar and co-occurring, plant species. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

Funding

Australian Research Council

History

Publication title

Plant and Soil

Volume

368

Pagination

419-431

ISSN

0032-079X

Department/School

School of Natural Sciences

Publisher

Kluwer Academic Publ

Place of publication

Van Godewijckstraat 30, Dordrecht, Netherlands, 3311 Gz

Rights statement

Copyright 2012 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Expanding knowledge in the environmental sciences

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