Correlation analysis between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community and host plant phylogeny

Aims The objective of this study was to understand how arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal community would vary with plant evolution. Methods Data-mining was carried out against MaarjAM database with ribosomal small subunit (SSU) gene. We predicted that the richness of root-associated AM fungal species increases from lower to higher modern land plants. Totally, 188 host plant species were selected in this analysis. Important findings The AM fungal species richness increased with the divergence of host plant species, and significantly differed among plant phylogenetic groups. The more recently diverged host plants (i.e. gymnosperms and angiosperms) harbored higher AM fungal species richness, whereas the earlier-originated plants (liverworts, hornworts and ferns) possessed lower AM fungal species richness. The myco-heterotrophytes in angiosperms showed similarly low richness of AM fungal species to the lower plants. In addition, the AM fungal community composition significantly differed among different plant phylogenetic groups. Findings in this study provided some indirect evidence that AM fungal communities varied with plant evolution. It is suggested that plants might maintain the most effective AM fungi but discard those inefficient ones during evolution.