Detection of fungal community composition in Inner Mongolia steppe.. Miseq sequencing

Fungi serve important roles in terrestrial ecosystem. However, its geographic distribution and driving factors shaping fungal community structure remain elusive. In this study, we utilized Illumina Miseq sequencing technique for the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) region to investigate soil fungal distribution along a 360-km transect in Inner Mongolian steppe. In total, 406,638 fungal ITS2 sequences were obtained from 87 soil samples and the sequnces could be clustered into 11081 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) at 97% similarity, suggesting a high fungal diversity in Inner Mongalia steppe. Ascomycota was the dominant phylum that accounted for 72.67% of the total relative abundance, then Basidiomycota 13.65%, Glomeromycota 2.05%. Significant correlation was observed between the relative abundance of fungi in the phylum and genus levels and MAP, TOC, TN. In addition, the 87 samples could be grouped into two clusters obviously based on sampling site. Similar ecosystems were more likely to have similar fungal community structure. This research is the first time using next generation sequencing to study comprehensively the composition and structure of soil fungal community in Inner Mongolian steppe.