Fungal endophytic community of ancient wheat varieties. endophyte metagenome

Plant-associated microbial community (plant “microbiota”) plays a fundamental role in plant wellness health and productivity by influencing important functions such as nutrient uptake, stress tolerance and disease resistance. Due to the importance of wheat in the agro-food sector and the growing interest on endophytes, in this work a metabarcoding approach was used to analyse the fungal community composition and structure of wheat endophytes. To this aim, wheat sap was collected from two ancient tetraploid wheat varieties, native to the Sicilian territory, Perciasacchi (winter wheat) and Tumminia(spring wheat) grown in two fields located in the Sicilian inland. The results showed a predominant presence of Ascomycetes and Basidiomycetes fungi which were mainly represented by the genera Alternaria, Fusarium, Mycosphaerella, Filobasidium, Cystofilobasidium, Cryptococcus, Leucosporidium, Dioszegia, Puccinia, Sporobolomyces, Aureobasidium, Cladosporium, Holtermanniella and Gibberella. Principal Coordinates Analysis (PCoA) and Linear discriminant analysis Effect Size (LEfSE) evidenced that Mycosphaerella, Dioszegia, Filobasidium, Protomyces and Alternaria were discriminant genera between the two fields under study, while Aureobasidium, Leucosporidium and Puccinia resulted to be differentially abundant between the two wheat varieties. The overall results obtained in the present study contribute to expand our knowledge about the endophytic fungal community associated to ancient wheat cultivars.