Poster Presentation Australian Microbial Ecology Conference 2024

AusAMF a database of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal diversity and composition across Australia (#18)

Adam Frew 1 , Meike K Heuck 1 , Jeff R Powell 1 , Jarrod Kath 2 , Christina Birnbaum 2 , John Dearnaley 2 , Eleonora Egidi 1 , Yuxiong Zheng 1 , Maarja Öpik 3 , Jane Oja 3 , Stephanie Watts-Fawkes 4 , Tanel Vahter 3 , Kadri Koreem 3 , Carlos A Aguilar-Trigueros 5
  1. Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Sydney
  2. School of Agriculture and Environmental Science, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba
  3. University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
  4. University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
  5. University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, which have played a critical role in plant colonisation of terrestrial environments for over 400 million years, remain essential to plant nutrition, stress tolerance, and ecosystem processes. Despite their significance, global understanding of AM fungal diversity and distribution is uneven, with substantial underrepresentation of certain regions, particularly Australia. We developed a comprehensive continental-scale database of AM fungal communities in Australia (AusAMF), encompassing 610 sampling locations across mainland Australia and Tasmania, collected between 2011 and 2023. The database is openly available and will be updated regularly to include data from additional sampling efforts in the future. Soil samples were uniformly processed, and the small subunit rRNA gene (SSU) was sequenced using Illumina NextSeq. The resulting dataset, comprising over 69 million amplicon reads, was analysed to identify 200 virtual taxa (VT) within nine AM fungal families. The data reveal that tropical and equatorial regions exhibit the highest mean VT richness, while temperate regions display the lowest. Glomeraceae dominated the AM fungal community composition across all samples. This dataset, publicly available for further research, provides a crucial foundation for advancing our understanding of AM fungal biogeography and ecology in Australia, a region historically underrepresented in mycorrhizal research. The findings highlight the need for continued exploration of AM fungal diversity, particularly in under-sampled regions, to fully appreciate their ecological roles and contributions to global ecosystem functioning.