Divergence of phyllosphere microbial communities between females and males of the dioecious Populus cathayana
Females and males of dioecious plants have evolved sex-specific characteristics in terms of their morphological and physiological properties. However, the differentiation of phyllosphere microbiota in dioecious plants remains largely unexplored. Here, the diversity and composition of female and male Populus cathayana phyllosphere bacterial and fungal communities were investigated using 16S rRNA/ITS1 gene-based MiSeq sequencing. The divergences of bacterial and fungal community compositions occurred between females and males. Both females and males had their unique phyllosphere bacteria and fungi microbiota, such as bacteria Gemmata (5.41%) and fungi Pringsheimia (0.03%) in females, and bacteria Chitinophaga (0.009%) and fungi Phaeococcomyces (0.02%) in males. Significant differences in the relative abundance of bacterial phyla Proteobacteria, Planctomycetes and the fungal phyla Ascomycota, Basidiomycota (P < 0.05) were also found between females and males. Some bacterial genera Spirosoma and Amnibacterium, and fungal genera Venturia, Suillus, and Elmerina were significantly enriched in males (P < 0.05). In contrast, fungal genera Phoma and Aureobasidium were found significantly higher in females than in males (P < 0.05). The mineral, inorganic and organic nutrients content contributed differently to the divergence of female and male phyllosphere microbial communities, with 87.08% and 45.17% of the variations being explained for bacterial and fungal communities, respectively. These results highlight the sexual discrimination of phyllosphere microbes on the dioecious plants and provide hints on the potential host-associated species in phyllosphere environments.