AM and DSE colonization of invasive plants in urban habitat: a study of Upper Silesia (southern Poland)

Journal of Plant Research, Feb 2016

Interactions between invasive plants and root endophytes may contribute to the exploration of plant invasion causes. Twenty plant species of alien origin differing in invasiveness were studied in terms of status and typical structures of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and dark septate endophytes (DSE) in urban habitats in Silesia Upland (southern Poland). We observed that 75 % of investigated plant species were mycorrhizal. The arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) of most plant species was of the Arum morphology. The nearly 100 % mycorrhizal frequency, high intensity of AM colonization within root cortex and the presence of arbuscules in all mycorrhizal plant species indicate that the investigated species are able to establish AM associations in the secondary range and urban habitats. DSE were present in all mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal species. The frequency of DSE was significantly lower in non-mycorrhizal group of plants, however, sclerotia of DSE were found mainly in the roots of non-mycorrhizal plant species. The group of species native to North America including three Solidago congeners have the highest values of all AM mycorrhization and DSE indices. Moreover, we observed that most mycorrhizal invasive species belonged to the family Asteraceae. In turn, representatives of Poaceae had the lowest values of AM mycorrhization. Nevertheless, quite high values of DSE frequency were also encountered in roots of Poaceae species. The high invasiveness of the representatives of the Asteraceae family from North America support theory that both taxonomic pattern, and the fact of root endophytes colonization contribute to invasion success. While, the taxa of Reynoutria also represent successful invaders but they are of Asiatic origin, non-mycorrhizal and weakly colonized by DSE fungi.

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AM and DSE colonization of invasive plants in urban habitat: a study of Upper Silesia (southern Poland)

J Plant Res AM and DSE colonization of invasive plants in urban habitat: a study of Upper Silesia (southern Poland) Ewa Gucwa‑Przepióra 0 1 Damian Chmura 0 1 Kamila Sokołowska 0 1 0 Institute of Environmental Protection and Engineering, Faculty of Materials, Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Bielsko-Biała , 2 Willowa Street, 43-309 Bielsko-Biała , Poland 1 Department of Botany and Nature Protection, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Silesia , Jagiellonska 28, 40-032 Katowice , Poland Interactions between invasive plants and root endophytes may contribute to the exploration of plant invasion causes. Twenty plant species of alien origin differing in invasiveness were studied in terms of status and typical structures of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and dark septate endophytes (DSE) in urban habitats in Silesia Upland (southern Poland). We observed that 75 % of investigated plant species were mycorrhizal. The arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) of most plant species was of the Arum morphology. The nearly 100 % mycorrhizal frequency, high intensity of AM colonization within root cortex and the presence of arbuscules in all mycorrhizal plant species indicate that the investigated species are able to establish AM associations in the secondary range and urban habitats. DSE were present in all mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal species. The frequency of DSE was significantly lower in non-mycorrhizal group of plants, however, sclerotia of DSE were found mainly in the roots of non-mycorrhizal plant species. The group of species native to North America including three Solidago congeners have the highest values of all AM mycorrhization and DSE indices. Moreover, we observed that most mycorrhizal invasive species belonged to the family Asteraceae. In turn, representatives of Poaceae had the lowest values of AM mycorrhization. Nevertheless, quite high values of DSE frequency were also encountered in roots of Poaceae species. The high invasiveness of the representatives of the Asteraceae family from North America support theory that both taxonomic pattern, and the fact of root endophytes colonization contribute to invasion success. While, the taxa of Reynoutria also represent successful invaders but they are of Asiatic origin, non-mycorrhizal and weakly colonized by DSE fungi. Plant-microbial interactions; Root endophytes; Species invasiveness; Biological invasion; Neophytes; Knotweed; Goldenrod - Arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) is the most ancestral and commonest type of mycorrhizal symbiosis (Brundrett 2002), in which the fungal hyphae penetrate the cortical cell wall of the host plant’s root. It is characterized by the arbuscules and vesicles formed by the aseptate, obligately symbiotic fungi of the phylum Glomeromycota (Schüßler et al. 2001). In this association the host plant provides the fungus with assimilates i.e. soluble carbon sources, whereas the fungus provides the host plant with an increased capacity to absorb water and nutrients from the soil. It has been discovered that invasive alien plants take advantage from mycorrhizas (Klironomos 2002; Smith and Read 2008). The feedback between alien plants and soil fungal communities may strongly contribute to species invasiveness, affecting the ability of a plant to grow, establish, invade and persist in a local habitat (Bray et al. 2003; Chmura and Gucwa-Przepióra 2012). There are many case studies demonstrating that arbuscular mycorrhiza-invasive plants feedback can be rather positive than negative when AMF also become beneficial and increase their abundance (Levine et al. 2006; Stampe and Daehler 2003; Zhang et al. 2010). It is important to determine the role of AM in species invasion. It is possible that invasive alien species benefit from arbuscular mycorrhiza or conversely, they are not encouraged by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and other factors influence their invasiveness (Shah et al. 2009). Dark-septate root endophytes (DSE) are an artificial assemblage of fungi that have darkly pigmented, septate hyphae and are frequent intracellular root associates of plants (Piercey et al. 2004). They colonize the cortical cells and intercellular regions of roots and form densely septated intracellular structures called microsclerotia (Jumpponen and Trappe 1998). In contrast to the wide knowledge of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, the role of DSE in the ecosystem is not clearly understood. The relationship between host plants and DSE range from symbiotic to parasitic associations (Newsham 2011). At the beginning the association of DSE with plant roots was described as being parasitic (Melin 1922; Wilcox and Wang 1987) while later studies demonstrated commensal to beneficial effects on the host plant (Addy et al. 2005; Likar and Regvar 2013). Only few studies concern DSE colonization in invasive plant species (Knapp et al. 2012). Similarly to AMF it might be possible that DSE colonization play an important role in improving alien p (...truncated)


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Ewa Gucwa-Przepióra, Damian Chmura, Kamila Sokołowska. AM and DSE colonization of invasive plants in urban habitat: a study of Upper Silesia (southern Poland), Journal of Plant Research, 2016, pp. 603-614, Volume 129, Issue 4, DOI: 10.1007/s10265-016-0802-7