Community assembly of fungi associated with crops is thought to be strongly influenced by the deterministic selection of host plants, rather than stochastic processes.
Results/Conclusions:
Here we use a simple, sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] system with abundant sampling to discover that a completely stochastic force, drift, acts in leaves and roots early in host development, when the mycobiome is small, and again when sorghum is stressed by drought. For all fungi, host compartment exerted the strongest effects on mycobiome assembly, followed by the timing of plant development and lastly by plant genotype. For arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, alone, host plant development exerted strongest effect on community assembly, followed by compartment and lastly by plant genotype. We now are analyzing the plant transcriptome to investigate the host plant’s role in AMF partner selection and succession.