Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Sep;54(3):1885-1897.
doi: 10.1007/s42770-023-00977-5. Epub 2023 Jun 16.

Exploring the mycobiota of bromeliads phytotelmata in Brazilian Campos Rupestres

Vera Lúcia Dos Santos  1 , Ubiana Cássia Silva  2 , Eduardo Horta Santos  2 , Alessandra Abrão Resende  3 , Marcela França Dias  2 , Sara Cuadros-Orellana  4 , Andréa Rodrigues Marques  5
Affiliations

Exploring the mycobiota of bromeliads phytotelmata in Brazilian Campos Rupestres

Vera Lúcia Dos Santos et al. Braz J Microbiol. 2023 Sep.

Abstract

The phytotelmata is a water-filled tank on a terrestrial plant, and it plays an important role in bromeliad growth and ecosystem functioning. Even though previous studies have contributed to elucidate the composition of the prokaryotic component of this aquatic ecosystem, its mycobiota (fungal community) is still poorly known. In the present work, ITS2 amplicon deep sequencing was used to examine the fungal communities inhabiting the phytotelmata of two bromeliads species that coexist in a sun-exposed rupestrian field of Southeastern Brazil, namely Aechmea nudicaulis (AN) and Vriesea minarum (VM). Ascomycota was the most abundant phylum in both bromeliads (57.1 and 89.1% in AN and VM respectively, on average), while the others were present in low abundance (< 2%). Mortierellomycota and Glomeromycota were exclusively observed in AN. Beta-diversity analysis showed that samples from each bromeliad significantly clustered together. In conclusion, despite the considerable within-group variation, the results suggested that each bromeliad harbor a distinct fungi community, what could be associated with the physicochemical characteristics of the phytotelmata (mainly total nitrogen, total organic carbon, and total carbon) and plant morphological features.

Keywords: Aechmea nudicaulis; Bromeliaceae; Fungal community; ITS deep sequencing; Vriesea minarum.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Piedade Mountains (Serra da Piedade) (Minas Gerais, Brazil (Google Earth, 2022) (A); location of sampling sites (image from Google Earth, 2022) (B); AN, Aechmea nudicaulis; VM, Vriesea minarum (C, D series, respectively), (Photo: Marques A)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Principal component analysis based on clr-transformed ASVs counts (A) and non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) showing fungal communities’ distribution according to the physicochemical parameters of the phytotelmata (B). AN, Aechmea nudicaulis; VM, Vriesea minarum
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Venn diagram of taxa shared by the fungi communities in each bromeliad species at class (A), order (B), family (C), and genus (D) levels. AN, Aechmea nudicaulis; VM, Vriesea minarum
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Taxonomic composition at the class level of the fungal communities of the Vriesea minarum (VM) and Aechmea nudicaulis (AN) bromeliads tanks (A). Volcano plot showing the differential abundances of taxa between bromeliad species obtained by DESeq2 analysis (B). The red spheres represent the taxa with significantly different abundances between the tanks of the two species (p<0.05)
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Taxonomic composition at the order level of the fungal communities of the Vriesea minarum (VM) and Aechmea nudicaulis (AN) bromeliads tanks. The rare category indicates the sum of the abundance of the taxa that individually represented less than 0.1% of the total, while UI indicates unidentified sequences at the order level (A). Volcano plot showing the differential abundances of taxa between bromeliad species obtained by DESeq2 analysis. The red spheres represent the taxa with significantly different abundances between the tanks of the two species (p<0.05) (B)
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Taxonomic composition at the family level of the fungal communities present of the Vriesea minarum (VM) and Aechmea nudicaulis (AN) bromeliads tanks. The rare category indicates the sum of the abundance of the taxa that individually represented less than 0.1% of the total, while UI indicates unidentified sequences at the family level (A). Volcano plot showing the differential abundances of taxa between bromeliad species obtained by DESeq2 analysis. The red spheres represent the taxa with significantly different abundances between the tanks of the two species (p<0.05) (B)
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Composition of genera in fungal communities present in Vriesea minarum (VM) and Aechmea nudicaulis (AN) bromeliads tanks. The circle represents the abundance of assigned taxa that individually represented more than 0.1% of the total (A). Volcano plot showing the differential abundances of taxa between bromeliad species obtained by DESeq2 analysis. The red spheres represent the taxa with significantly different abundances between the tanks of the two species (p<0.05) (B)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Giongo A, Medina-Silva R, Astarita LV, Borges LGA, Oliveira RR, Simão TLL, Gano KA, Davis-Richardson AG, Brown CT, Fagen JR, Arzivenco PM, Neto CP, Abichequer AD, Lindholz CG, Baptista-Silva A, Mondin CA, Utz LRP, Triplett EW, Eizirik E. Seasonal physiological parameters and phytotelmata bacterial diversity of two bromeliad species (Aechmea gamosepala and Vriesea platynema) from the Atlantic Forest of Southern Brazil. Diversity. 2019;11:111. doi: 10.3390/d11070111. - DOI
    1. Vergne A, Darbot V, Bardot C, Enault F, Le Jeune A-H, et al. Assemblages of anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria in tank bromeliads exhibit a host-specific signature. J Ecol. 2021;109:2550–2565. doi: 10.1111/1365-2745.13657. - DOI
    1. Marques AR, Resende AA, Gomes FCO, Santos ARO, Rosa CA, Duarte AA, de Lemos-Filho JP, Dos Santos VL. Plant growth-promoting traits of yeasts isolated from the tank bromeliad Vriesea minarum L.B. Smith and the effectiveness of Carlosrosaea vrieseae for promoting bromeliad growth. Braz J Microbiol. 2021;52:1417–1429. doi: 10.1007/s42770-021-00496-1. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Benzing DH. Bromeliaceae: profile of an adaptive radiation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2000. p. 675.
    1. Brandt FB, Martinson GO, Conrad R. Bromeliad tanks are unique habitats for microbial communities involved in methane turnover. Plant Soil. 2017;410:167–179. doi: 10.1007/s11104-016-2988-9. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources