Endophytic fungi are diverse and ubiquitous in nature, yet studies simultaneously comparing endophyte communities in above- and below-ground plant tissues are relatively scarce. The main goal of our study was to compare the diversity and community composition of endophytic fungi associated with above- and below-ground tissues of the plant Aristolochia chilensis in an arid ecosystem. Endophytic fungi were isolated from healthy leaves and roots of A. chilensis, and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region was sequenced for phylogenetic and taxonomic analysis. A combined total of 457 fungal isolates were cultured from leaf and root tissues, belonging to 54 operational taxonomic units (OTUs). The genera Fusarium, Penicillium, Phialemonium and Trichoderma were the most representative endophyte taxa identified in A. chilensis tissues; nevertheless, Fusarium was significantly more dominant in the below-ground community, while foliar endophyte community was dominated by Penicillium. Whereas OTU richness and diversity were not different between below-ground and above-ground tissues, endophyte abundance was on average twice as high in below-ground tissue than in above-ground tissue. Fungal endophyte communities in the two tissue types were significantly dissimilar. Results from this study indicate that A. chilensis harbors a similar diversity of endophytic fungi in above- and below-ground tissues. Dominant endophytic fungi were found to be dependent on tissue type, which potentially resulted in marked differences in community structure between above- and below-ground tissues. Ecological processes potentially affecting this pattern are discussed.

中文翻译：

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干旱生态系统中马兜铃地上部和地下部组织内生真菌群落组成的差异

内生真菌在自然界中多种多样且无处不在，但同时比较地上和地下植物组织中内生菌群落的研究相对较少。我们研究的主要目标是比较干旱生态系统中与植物马兜铃的地上和地下组织相关的内生真菌的多样性和群落组成。从 A. chilensis 的健康叶和根中分离出内生真菌，并对内部转录间隔区 (ITS) 区域进行测序以进行系统发育和分类学分析。从叶和根组织中培养出总共 457 个真菌分离株，属于 54 个操作分类单位 (OTU)。Fusarium、Penicillium、Phialemonium 和 Trichoderma 属是在 A. chilensis 组织中鉴定出的最具代表性的内生菌类群；尽管如此，镰刀菌在地下群落中明显占优势，而叶内生菌群落以青霉菌为主。虽然地下组织和地上组织之间的 OTU 丰富度和多样性没有差异，但地下组织中的内生菌丰度平均是地上组织的两倍。两种组织类型中的真菌内生菌群落显着不同。这项研究的结果表明，A. chilensis 在地上和地下组织中含有相似的内生真菌多样性。发现优势内生真菌依赖于组织类型，这可能导致地上和地下组织之间的群落结构存在显着差异。讨论了可能影响这种模式的生态过程。