Effects of Soil Depth and Plant Species on the Fungal Diversity and Community Structure in the Rhizosphere of Ferula L.. Fungal Diversity and Community Structure in the Rhizosphere of Ferula L.

The medicinal value of the genus Ferula has been recognized for more than a thousand years. Wild resources of Ferula L. in China have declined sharply due to the long-term over-harvesting. The propose of this study was to compare the rhizosphere fungal community of different Ferula species [F. syreitschikowii K.-Pol., F. gracilis (Ledeb.) Ledeb., F. ferulaeoides (Steud.) Korov., and F. lehmannii Boiss.] in the northern part of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. The ITS1 rRNA sequences of rhizosphere fungal community were obtained with an Illumina paired-end sequence platform and analyzed to determine the richness and diversity of the rhizosphere fungal communities. Linear discriminant analysis showed that the upper part (~3 cm depth) of the root system had the largest number of biomarkers among the four Ferula species, which indicated that Ferula species significantly affected rhizosphere fungi in the upper part (~3 cm depth) of the root system. Besides, F. ferulaeoides had the largest number of biomarkers and the highest taxon level (Phylum) in all simples. The study on the community structure of fungus in the rhizosphere of Ferula L. aims to provide reference information that could be used for the commercial cultivation of Ferula spp.