A few Ascomycota taxa dominate soil fungal communities worldwide

Eleonora Egidi; Manuel Degado-Baquerizo; Jonathan M. Plett; Juntao Wang; David J. Eldridge; Richard D. Bardgett; Fernando T. Maestre; Brajesh K. Singh

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-10373-z

A few Ascomycota taxa dominate soil fungal communities worldwide

Eleonora Egidi, Manuel Degado-Baquerizo, Jonathan M. Plett, Juntao Wang, David J. Eldridge, Richard D. Bardgett, Fernando T. Maestre, Brajesh K. Singh

Western Sydney University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

492 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Despite having key functions in terrestrial ecosystems, information on the dominant soil fungi and their ecological preferences at the global scale is lacking. To fill this knowledge gap, we surveyed 235 soils from across the globe. Our findings indicate that 83 phylotypes (<0.1% of the retrieved fungi), mostly belonging to wind dispersed, generalist Ascomycota, dominate soils globally. We identify patterns and ecological drivers of dominant soil fungal taxa occurrence, and present a map of their distribution in soils worldwide. Whole-genome comparisons with less dominant, generalist fungi point at a significantly higher number of genes related to stress-tolerance and resource uptake in the dominant fungi, suggesting that they might be better in colonising a wide range of environments. Our findings constitute a major advance in our understanding of the ecology of fungi, and have implications for the development of strategies to preserve them and the ecosystem functions they provide.

Original language	English
Article number	2369
Number of pages	9
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	10
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10373-z
Publication status	Published - 2019

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Keywords

ascomycetes
ecology
fungi

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10.1038/s41467-019-10373-z

Cite this

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abstract = "Despite having key functions in terrestrial ecosystems, information on the dominant soil fungi and their ecological preferences at the global scale is lacking. To fill this knowledge gap, we surveyed 235 soils from across the globe. Our findings indicate that 83 phylotypes (<0.1% of the retrieved fungi), mostly belonging to wind dispersed, generalist Ascomycota, dominate soils globally. We identify patterns and ecological drivers of dominant soil fungal taxa occurrence, and present a map of their distribution in soils worldwide. Whole-genome comparisons with less dominant, generalist fungi point at a significantly higher number of genes related to stress-tolerance and resource uptake in the dominant fungi, suggesting that they might be better in colonising a wide range of environments. Our findings constitute a major advance in our understanding of the ecology of fungi, and have implications for the development of strategies to preserve them and the ecosystem functions they provide.",

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AU - Egidi, Eleonora

AU - Degado-Baquerizo, Manuel

AU - Plett, Jonathan M.

AU - Wang, Juntao

AU - Eldridge, David J.

AU - Bardgett, Richard D.

AU - Maestre, Fernando T.

AU - Singh, Brajesh K.

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

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AB - Despite having key functions in terrestrial ecosystems, information on the dominant soil fungi and their ecological preferences at the global scale is lacking. To fill this knowledge gap, we surveyed 235 soils from across the globe. Our findings indicate that 83 phylotypes (<0.1% of the retrieved fungi), mostly belonging to wind dispersed, generalist Ascomycota, dominate soils globally. We identify patterns and ecological drivers of dominant soil fungal taxa occurrence, and present a map of their distribution in soils worldwide. Whole-genome comparisons with less dominant, generalist fungi point at a significantly higher number of genes related to stress-tolerance and resource uptake in the dominant fungi, suggesting that they might be better in colonising a wide range of environments. Our findings constitute a major advance in our understanding of the ecology of fungi, and have implications for the development of strategies to preserve them and the ecosystem functions they provide.

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KW - ecology

KW - fungi

UR - http://handle.westernsydney.edu.au:8081/1959.7/uws:51792

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A few Ascomycota taxa dominate soil fungal communities worldwide

Abstract

Open Access - Access Right Statement

Keywords

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