2022/12/05 by KASSIM, Issifou Tchan, Gbètondji, Hounwanou Basile, Nourou, Soulemane Yorou
paper · doi:10.26167/f6f4-0q76
The soil mycobiome is a major biological component involved in environmental and host functioning. Despite fungi fundamental role in ecosystem processes there is a lack of data on their distribution and biogeography in Subsaharian Africa. This study investigated the soil mycobiome composition within two ecoregion of Benin using the ITS region and 18S-V9 sequences extracted from the Global Soil Mycobiome Consortium (GSMc) open database (https://doi.org/10.15156/BIO/2263453). A beta diversity analysis followed by NMDS was applied to determine the similarities and differences between the climatic zones in terms of soil mycobiome composition. The multipatt function followed by a redundancy analysis (RDA) was applied to identify the species confined to each climatic zone and the drivers that govern the composition of the soil mycobiome. A total of 18 phyla were identified at the sampled sites with a dominance of Ascomycota in the Sudanian zone (53.34%) and Basidiomycota in the Sudano-Guinean zone (57.98%). The functional guilds were dominated by saprotrophs (21.52%) followed by ectomycorrhizae (10. 51%), arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (10.16%) and plant pathogens (6.49%). The diversity indices and similarity analysis indicate a difference with some overlap (R = 0.3854), but not significant (p = 0.0566) in terms of soil mycobiome composition between the two areas. However, Aspergillus niger is confined (p = 0.0302) to the Sudan zone, while Fuscoporia senex (p = 0.0302) and Conocybe dunensis (p = 0.0302) are indicative of the Sudan-Guinea zone. This specificity of mycobiome composition is influenced by climate (temperature; p = 0.008). This study is among the pioneer works on soil mycobiomes according to climatic zones and environmental factors responsible for their distribution in Benin and also highlights the need for future research. Keywords : Soil mycobiomes; environmental factors; Benin; climatic zone; indicator species; diversity