DOI

The Chernevaya taiga of Western Siberia is a unique and complex ecosystem, distinguished by the unusually large sizes of herbaceous plants, the reasons for which are poorly understood. Here, we explored the fungal diversity of the Chernevaya taiga soils in the Tomsk regions of Western Siberia in comparison with other soil types. The soil biomes of Chernevaya taiga and the control regions were investigated using Illumina ITS rRNA sequencing, and taxonomic analysis revealed a predominance of fungal phyla in the different soils. These results demonstrate that the fungi of the Chernevaya taiga regions have a higher species diversity (Faith’s PD) vs. the control soils, and the diversity is due more to the sampling sites rather than to the seasons (Bray-Curtis distance). We studied most of the differentially abundant taxa among the soil types, and we annotated the taxa with their ecological guilds and trophic types. Some of the abundant fungal taxa in the summer-and fall-Chernevaya taiga samples belong to the phylum Glomeromycota—arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiotrophs, which are known to establish symbiotic relationships and enhance plant growth. Additionally, several OTUs were assigned to novel genera in the Glomeraceae and Claroideoglomeraceae families. Our findings add a potential explanation of the high productivity and plant gigantism in Chernevaya taiga and expand our knowledge of fungal biodiversity.

Original languageEnglish
Article number908
Number of pages12
JournalJournal of Fungi
Volume7
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2021

    Scopus subject areas

  • Microbiology (medical)
  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • Plant Science

    Research areas

  • Arbuscular mycorrhiza, Chernevaya taiga, Community composition, Diversity, Fungi, FUNGuild, Plant gigantism, Soil properties, plant gigantism, ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZAL FUNGI, diversity, COMMUNITY, fungi, community composition, soil properties, arbuscular mycorrhiza

ID: 88101704