Tropical seasonally dry forest environmental AMF 18S sequences. soil metagenome

The Glomeromycota (arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi; AMF) are the most common and widespread fungal symbionts of terrestrial plants, but functional taxonomic groups, rules of community assembly, and the extent of cryptic species diversity remains largely unresolved, particularly in tropical systems. We used Illumina sequencing of an amplified ribosomal small-subunit barcode region in mixed soil and root samples collected from dry seasonal tropical forests at three locations in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico the dry season, 2013, in order to validate the effectiveness of the novel Illumina-adapted primer constructs, assess environmental AMF species richness and diversity, and explore the roles of location and nutrient availability as drivers of AMF community structure.