Causal determinism by plant host identity in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community assembly

An assumption in ecology is that plant identity plays a central role in the assembly of root-colonising arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal communities. While numerous correlational studies support this notion, with evidence of host selectivity among fungal taxa and host-specific responses to different AM fungi, empirical demonstrations of host-driven AM fungal community assembly remain surprisingly limited. We conducted a factorial experiment growing two globally significant crop species, wheat (Triticum aestivum) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), with a common pool of AM fungal species, or without AM fungi. We hypothesised strong differences in AM fungal community structure between the two species driven by strong habitat filtering. Plants were harvested at two time points in which we analysed the community structure of AM fungi in the roots, the phylogenetic diversity, and interactions with plant physiological responses. As we expected, there were distinct trajectories in both the composition and phylogenetic diversity of AM fungal communities between the two host plants through time. However, the effect of habitat filtering during community assembly differed between the two species. In sorghum roots, AM fungal communities exhibited increased richness and became more phylogenetically clustered over time. This shift suggests that community assembly was primarily driven by habitat filtering, or selectivity, imposed by the host which was accompanied by significant increases in plant mycorrhizal growth (from 11.83% to 43.67%) and phosphorus responses (from −0.6% to 43.3%). In contrast, AM fungal communities in wheat displayed little change in diversity, remained phylogenetically unstructured, and provided minimal benefits to the host, indicating a more stochastic assembly process with a stronger influence of competitive interactions. As the field looks to understand what determines the distribution of AM fungi and their community composition while simultaneously seeking to utilise AM fungi for ecosystem benefits, it is important to know the extent to which host identity can influence fungal assembly within plant roots. Our results provide empirical support of host-determinism in AM fungal community assembly and suggest that this determinism is associated with the growth and nutrient benefits provided by the symbiosis to plants.