Spatial turnover of fungi and partner choice shape mycorrhizal networks in epiphytic orchids

Rémi Petrolli (1) , Lucie Zinger (2, 3) , Benoît Perez-Lamarque (1, 2) , Géromine Collobert (1) , Chantal Griveau (1) , Thierry Pailler (4) , Marc‐André Selosse (1, 5, 6, 7) , Florent Martos (1)

1 ISYEB - Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité
2 IBENS - Institut de biologie de l'ENS Paris
3 Naturalis Biodiversity Center [Leiden]
4 UMR PVBMT - Peuplements végétaux et bioagresseurs en milieu tropical
5 UG - University of Gdańsk
6 Department of Plant Taxonomy and Nature Conservation
7 IUF - Institut universitaire de France

In soils, plants and fungi can form complex mycorrhizal networks allowing nutrient transfers between plant individuals and species. It is less clear, however, whether such networks exist on the bark of trees where epiphytic plant communities thrive in rainforests. Previous work showed that tropical epiphytic orchids especially, harbour symbiotic fungi in their roots, but the structure and determinants of the resulting networks remain unknown at the tree scale. We tested the hypothesis that epiphytic orchids rooted in the same area on the bark share mycorrhizal fungi, regardless of their species (i.e. spatial determinant). For this purpose, we selected the trunk of six trees of two common species in a rainforest and sampled orchid roots, protocorms and surrounding bark. We identified mycorrhizal fungi including Tulasnellaceae using high-throughput sequencing of the ITS2 marker, and reconstructed orchid-fungus bipartite networks for each tree to analyse their structure and the spatial turnover of this symbiosis. We found that epiphytic orchid communities form antinested and highly modular networks with mycorrhizal fungi spread on the bark. As expected, modules of interactions are explained by their spatial structure, with nearby roots sharing fungi, but also by the orchid species involved. These results reveal the presence of shared mycelial networks in epiphytic habitats, whose roles in the resilience and facilitation of epiphytic plant communities need to be assessed. Synthesis. Tropical tree barks are densely colonized by certain mycorrhizal fungi that can form symbioses in nearby adult and young orchids simultaneously. These mycorrhizal networks may allow water and nutrient transfers to alleviate the stressful conditions of the epiphytic habitats.

Domaines: Botanique; Interactions entre organismes; Mycologie

Rémi Petrolli, Lucie Zinger, Benoît Perez-Lamarque, Géromine Collobert, Chantal Griveau, et al.. Spatial turnover of fungi and partner choice shape mycorrhizal networks in epiphytic orchids. Journal of Ecology, 2022, 110 (11), pp.2568-2584. ⟨10.1111/1365-2745.13986⟩. ⟨hal-03792570⟩