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Updated: Jan 8, 2026

Isolation, Characterization, and Total DNA Extraction to Identify Endophytic Fungi in Mycoheterotrophic Plants
Published on: May 5, 2023
Molecular Functional Diversity of Foliar Endophytic Fungi and Their Contributions to Seedling Survival in a
Baocai Han1,2, Yunquan Wang3, Sirong Zhang1,4
1Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Abstract:
Plant-microbe interactions are critical in shaping forest dynamics, yet the molecular functions through which foliar endophytic fungi (FEF) influence seedling survival and coexistence remain unresolved. By combining FEF transcriptomics with seedling dynamics in a subtropical forest, we tested whether FEF molecular functions regulate seedling survival via host fitness differences and niche differentiation under modern coexistence theory. We found that FEF transcript diversity was strongly associated with host divergence time and maximum height, and FEF functions significantly enhanced seedling survival through fitness-related and niche-related processes. Among these FEF functions, gene ontology (GO) terms with high host-phylogeny dependence enhance seedling survival through fitness differences associated with multi-organism interactions, while those with high host-trait dependence enhance seedling survival through niche differentiation related to basic life processes. Our findings establish a bridge between microbial functional genomics and modern coexistence theory in natural forests.
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