Divergence in responsiveness to soil biota and mycorrhizal partner-specificity between montane annual and coastal perennial ecotypes of yellow monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus)

The community-level diversity in plant interactions with root-associated microbes has its evolutionary origins within species, where dissection of its mechanistic basis is also tractable. We use locally-adapted montane annual and coastal perennial populations (ecotypes) of Mimulus guttatus (yellow monkeyflower) to ask whether and how plant-microbial-soil interactions have diverged within species. We characterized fungal communities for the two ecotypes in-situ and then used a full-factorial greenhouse experiment to investigate the effects of plant ecotype, microbial source, and soil origin on plant performance and on root-associated fungal communities.