Metagenomic analysis of soil fungal communities on Ulleungdo and Dokdo Islands.

Ulleungdo and Dokdo are volcanic islands that experience a characteristic marine climate, influenced by warm currents. The richness and diversity of the plant species, particularly vascular plants, are higher on Ulleungdo than on Dokdo. In contrast to the native plant life, little is known about the diversity of soil fungi living in the rhizosphere of these two islands. In this study, we utilized the barcoded pyrosequencing method to analyze rhizosphere soil fungi on Ulleungdo and Dokdo. In total, 768 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were analyzed from the Ulleungdo samples, while 640 OTUs and 382 OTUs were analyzed from the Dongdo and Seodo (islets of Dokdo) samples, respectively. Species richness was considerably higher in the Ulleungdo samples than in the Dongdo and Seodo samples, while there was little difference in species diversity between the samples. The taxonomic composition analyses demonstrated that members of the phylum Basidiomycota dominated the Ulleungdo samples, whereas members of the phylum Ascomycota were predominant in the Dokdo samples. Ectomycorrhizal fungi belonging to the phylum Basidiomycota, in particular, were more abundant in the Ulleungdo samples. This finding suggests that the difference in the abundance of the ectomycorrhizal fungi in the rhizospheres of Ulleungdo and Dokdo may have been affected by species richness and diversity of the vascular plants. Our study is the first detailed report of the composition of soil fungal communities on the Ulleungdo and Dokdo islands. In addition, our findings provide a basis for understanding the ecological interactions between plants and fungi.

Diversity and Plant Growth Promoting Capacity of Endophytic Fungi Associated with Halophytic Plants from the West Coast of Korea.

Five halophytic plant species, Suaeda maritima, Limonium tetragonum, Suaeda australis, Phragmites australis, and Suaeda glauca Bunge, which are native to the Muan salt marsh of South Korea, were examined for fungal endophytes by sequencing the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region containing ITS1, 5.8S rRNA, and ITS2. In total, 160 endophytic fungal strains were isolated and identified from the roots of the 5 plant species. Taxonomically, all 160 strains belonged to the phyla Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Zygomycota. The most dominant genus was Fusarium, followed by the genera Penicillium and Alternaria. Subsequently, using 5 statistical methods, the diversity indices of the endophytes were determined at genus level. Among these halophytic plants, P. australis was found to host the greatest diversity of endophytic fungi. Culture filtrates of endophytic fungi were treated to Waito-C rice seedlings for plant growth-promoting effects. The fungal strain Su-3-4-3 isolated from S. glauca Bunge provide the maximum plant length (20.1 cm) in comparison with wild-type Gibberella fujikuroi (19.6 cm). Consequently, chromatographic analysis of the culture filtrate of Su-3-4-3 showed the presence of physiologically active gibberellins, GA1 (0.465 ng/mL), GA3 (1.808 ng/mL) along with other physiologically inactive GA9 (0.054 ng/mL) and GA24 (0.044 ng/mL). The fungal isolate Su-3-4-3 was identified as Talaromyces pinophilus.

Metagenomic analysis of bacterial communities on Dokdo Island.

Dokdo, located east of the mainland of South Korea, is a volcanic island designated as a natural monument of South Korea due to its ecological value. Dokdo is divided into Dongdo and Seodo, islands with geological differences. The soil bacterial communities on Dokdo (Dongdo and Seodo) were analyzed using the pyrosequencing method. There were 1,693 and 1,408 operational taxonomic units (OTU) from Dongdo and Seodo, respectively. The statistical analyses (rarefaction curves as well as Chao1, Shannon, and Simpson indices) showed that bacterial diversity was slightly higher in Dongdo than Seodo. From results of a BLASTN search against the EzTaxon-e database, the validated reads (obtained after sequence preprocessing) were almost all classified at the phylum level. From the phylum level down to the species level, the number of classified reads considerably decreased due to the absence of information concerning unculturable or unidentified bacteria to date. Among the 36 phyla identified, three phyla (Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Acidobacteria) accounted for around 74.64%. The taxonomic composition was similar at the higher ranks (family and above) between Dongdo and Seodo, but a little different at the genus level. There were also various differences in the relative abundance of taxonomic ranks between Dongdo and Seodo. In particular, the proportion of the genus Acidobacterium (of the phylum Acidobacteria) was about six times higher in Seodo than Dongdo. In addition, the percentage of the genus Mycobacterium (of the phylum Actinobacteria) was nearly three times higher in Seodo than Dongdo, and the proportion of the genus Gaiella was about 3.7 times higher in Dongdo than Seodo. Overall, through the metagenomic analysis, the number of species identified in Dongdo and Seodo was 1,239 and 1,055, respectively. This information on the numerous culturable and unculturable bacteria is expected to help in the screening of new species in Dokdo.