A cost-effective and efficient strategy for Illumina sequencing of fungal communities: A case study of beech endophytes identified elevation as main explanatory factor for diversity and community composition

Abstract

We describe an accurate and efficient workflow for highly multiplexed paired-end Illumina sequencing of fungal full-length ITS amplicons. The impact of habitat and substratum conditions on leaf-inhabiting fungal communities was analysed. Fully vital and clearly senescent leaves of European beech (Fagus sylvatica) were sampled along an elevation gradient of about 1000 m in the Bavarian Alps, Germany, in autumn 2013. Surface-sterilised leaves were used for genomicDNA extraction, tagging-by-amplification and high-throughput sequencing. Significant correlation of community composition with elevation was observed. The mycobiome was little affected by the physiological state of the leaves, because only a partial shift of taxonomic composition was observed from vital towards clearly senescent leaves. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd and The British Mycological Society. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Fagus sylvatica; European beech; Illumina sequencing; High throughput sequencing; Metabarcoding; Elevation; Environmental change; Leaf-inhabiting microfungi; Biodiversity; Ecology; Endophytes

Published in

Fungal Ecology
2016, volume: 20, pages: 175-185
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCI LTD

SLU Authors

• Siddique, Abu Bakar

  • University of Greifswald

UKÄ Subject classification

Ecology
Microbiology

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.funeco.2015.12.009

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/126655