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Divergence of Root Microbiota in Different Habitats based on Weighted Correlation Networks
Published on: September 25, 2021
Niche-driven divergence of prokaryotic and viral communities in Pogonatum cirratum
Chao-Jian Hu1, Muhammad Asif1, Jin-Hui Liu1
1School of Life Sciences, School of Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Stress Biology and State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Abstract:
Ecological niche partitioning shapes microbial communities in terrestrial mosses, yet its underlying mechanisms and associated viral diversity remain poorly understood. Here, we characterized prokaryotic and viral communities in the rhizosphere soil (Rs) and endophytic niche (Pc) of Pogonatum cirratum using amplicon and metagenomic sequencing. Rs exhibited higher species richness, co-dominated by Pseudomonadota, Acidobacteriota, and Actinomycetota, whereas Pc was dominated by Pseudomonadota (81.13%) but showed greater functional diversity. Source tracking revealed that 10.57% of Pc taxa originated from Rs, suggesting host-mediated filtration of beneficial microbes. Deterministic processes predominantly governed prokaryotic assembly, with iron cycling accounting for ∼14% of total metabolic potential in both niches. Rs contained more biosynthetic gene clusters, while viral communities diverged in taxonomy and auxiliary metabolic genes profiles. These findings demonstrate that P. cirratum maintains compartmentalized prokaryotic and viral communities through niche-specific abiotic filtering and biotic selection, promoting nutrient acquisition and stress resilience in bryophyte-dominated ecosystems.
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