Data from: Differences in endophyte communities of introduced trees depend on the phylogenetic relatedness of the receiving forest

Plant species sometimes perform extraordinarily well when introduced to
new environments, through achieving higher growth rates, individual
biomasses or higher densities in their receiving communities compared to
their native range communities. One hypothesis proposed to explain
enhanced performance in species’ new environments is that their soil
microbial communities may be different and provide greater benefit than
microbial communities encountered in species’ native environments.
However, detailed descriptions of soil biota associated with species in
both their native and introduced environments remain scarce. We
established a global network of sites in regions where the tree species
Pinus contorta has been introduced (Chile, New Zealand, Finland, Scotland
and Sweden), as well as native range sites where the introduced
populations originated (Canada and USA). We conducted pyrosequencing
analysis to compare the root fungal endophyte communities associated with
P. contorta in its native environments and in introduced environments with
phylogenetically similar and dissimilar tree species (i.e. P. sylvestris
in Europe and Nothofagus spp. in the Southern Hemisphere). Fungal
communities associated with P. contorta consistently differed between its
introduced and native environments. In Europe, P. contorta associated with
the same community as P. sylvestris, where one particular species
(Piloderma sphaerosporum) was particularly abundant relative to Canadian
sites. In the Southern Hemisphere, P. contorta fungal communities were
composed primarily of North American taxa and exhibited very little
overlap with fungal communities associated with native Nothofagus spp.
Synthesis. Our work shows that plants exhibit considerable plasticity in
their interaction with fungi, by associating with different fungal
communities across native and introduced environments. Our work also
indicates that fungal communities associated with introduced plants can
assemble through different mechanisms, that is by associating with
existing fungal communities of phylogenetically close species, or through
reassembly of co-introduced and co-invading fungi. The identification of
different fungal communities in a plant species new environment provides
an important step forward in understanding how soil biota may impact
growth and invasion when a species is introduced to new environments.