Plant traits and taxonomy drive host associations in tropical phyllosphere fungal communities

Abstract

The aerial surface of plants, known as the phyllosphere, represents a widespread and diverse habitat for microbes, but the fungal communities colonizing the surface of leaves are not well characterized, and how these communities are assembled on hosts is unknown. We used high-throughput sequencing of fungal communities on the leaves of 51 tree species in a lowland tropical rainforest in Panama to examine the influence of host plant taxonomy and traits on the fungi colonizing the phyllosphere. Fungal communities on leaves were dominated by the phyla Ascomycota (79% of all sequences), Basidiomycota (11%), and Chytridiomycota (5%). Host plant taxonomic identity explained more than half of the variation in fungal community composition across trees, and numerous host functional traits related to leaf morphology, leaf chemistry, and plant growth and mortality were significantly associated with fungal community structure. Differences in fungal biodiversity among hosts suggest that individual tree species support unique fungal communities and that diverse tropical forests also support a large number of fungal species. Similarities between phyllosphere and decomposer communities suggest that fungi inhabiting living leaves may have significant roles in ecosystem functioning in tropical forests.