Fungal metabarcoding of tall fescue leaves. Tall fescue

Parasites can affect and be affected by the microbiome of a host, with consequences for host susceptibility, parasite transmission, and host and parasite fitness. Yet, two aspects of the relationship between parasite infection and host microbiota remain little understood: the nature of the relationship under field conditions, and how the relationship varies among parasites. To overcome these limitations, we performed a field survey of the within-leaf fungal community in a tall fescue population. We investigated how diversity and composition of the fungal microbiome associate with natural infection by fungal parasites with different feeding strategies. Parasite feeding strategy affects both parasite requirements of the host environment and parasite impacts on the host environment.