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Pyrosequencing reveals regional differences in fruit‐associated fungal communities
Author(s) -
Taylor Michael W.,
Tsai Peter,
Anfang Nicole,
Ross Howard A.,
Goddard Matthew R.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
environmental microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.954
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1462-2920
pISSN - 1462-2912
DOI - 10.1111/1462-2920.12456
Subject(s) - biology , pyrosequencing , species richness , fungal diversity , ecology , microbial ecology , community , metagenomics , taxon , botany , ecosystem , genetics , gene , bacteria
Summary We know relatively little of the distribution of microbial communities generally. Significant work has examined a range of bacterial communities, but the distribution of microbial eukaryotes is less well characterized. Humans have an ancient association with grape vines ( V itis vinifera ) and have been making wine since the dawn of civilization, and fungi drive this natural process. While the molecular biology of certain fungi naturally associated with vines and wines is well characterized, complementary investigations into the ecology of fungi associated with fruiting plants is largely lacking. DNA sequencing technologies allow the direct estimation of microbial diversity from a given sample, avoiding culture‐based biases. Here, we use deep community pyrosequencing approaches, targeted at the 26 S rRNA gene, to examine the richness and composition of fungal communities associated with grapevines and test for geographical community structure among four major regions in N ew Z ealand ( NZ ). We find over 200 taxa using this approach, which is 10‐fold more than previously recovered using culture‐based methods. Our analyses allow us to reject the null hypothesis of homogeneity in fungal species richness and community composition across NZ and reveal significant differences between major areas.