Females and males of dioecious plants have evolved sex-specific characteristics in terms of their morphological and physiological properties. However, the differentiation of phyllosphere microbiota in dioecious plants remains largely unexplored. Here, the diversity and composition of female and male Populus cathayana phyllosphere bacterial and fungal communities were investigated using 16S rRNA/ITS1 gene–based MiSeq sequencing. The divergences of bacterial and fungal community compositions occurred between females and males. Both females and males had their unique phyllosphere bacterial and fungal microbiota, such as bacterial Gemmata spp. (5.41%) and fungal Pringsheimia spp. (0.03%) in females and bacterial Chitinophaga spp. (0.009%) and fungal Phaeococcomyces spp. (0.02%) in males. Significant differences in the relative abundance of phyla Proteobacteria and Planctomycetes bacteria and phyla Ascomycota and Basidiomycota fungi (P < 0.05) were also found between females and males. Some bacterial species of genera Spirosoma and Amnibacterium and fungal genera Venturia, Suillus, and Elmerina spp. were significantly enriched in males (P < 0.05). In contrast, levels of fungal genera Phoma and Aureobasidium spp. were significantly higher in females than in males (P < 0.05). The mineral, inorganic, and organic nutrients content contributed differently to the divergence of female and male phyllosphere microbial communities, with 87.08 and 45.17% of the variations being explained for bacterial and fungal communities, respectively. These results highlight the sexual discrimination of phyllosphere microbes on the dioecious plants and provide hints on the potential host-associated species in phyllosphere environments.

Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY 4.0 International license.

雌雄异体植物的雌性和雄性在形态和生理特性方面已经进化出性别特异性特征。然而，雌雄异株植物叶际微生物群的分化在很大程度上仍未被探索。在这里，使用基于 16S rRNA/ITS1 基因的 MiSeq 测序研究了雌性和雄性青杨叶际细菌和真菌群落的多样性和组成。女性和男性之间的细菌和真菌群落组成存在差异。雌性和雄性都有其独特的叶际细菌和真菌微生物群，例如细菌Gemmata spp。 (5.41%) 和真菌Pringsheimia spp。 (0.03%) 存在于雌性和细菌Chitinophaga spp 中。 (0.009%) 和真菌褐球菌属(Phaeococcomyces spp.) (0.02%) 男性。雌性和雄性之间变形菌门和浮霉菌门以及子囊菌门和担子菌门真菌的相对丰度也存在显着差异（ P <<0.05）。螺旋体属和氨杆菌属的一些细菌物种以及文丘里氏菌属、牛霉属和埃尔梅氏菌属的真菌。男性显着富集（ P < 0.05）。相反，真菌属Phoma和Aureobasidium spp的水平。女性显着高于男性（ P < 0.05）。矿物质、无机和有机养分含量对雌性和雄性叶际微生物群落差异的贡献不同，分别为87.08和45。17% 的变异分别可以用细菌和真菌群落来解释。这些结果强调了雌雄异体植物上叶际微生物的性别歧视，并为叶际环境中潜在的宿主相关物种提供了线索。

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