ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Symbiotic Interactions
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1567041
This article is part of the Research TopicCross-Kingdom Communications Among Plants, Fungi and Bacteria: From Molecules to Ecological FactorsView all 11 articles
Interspecific variation and environmental drivers of rhizosphere microbiomes in endemic Impatiens species
Provisionally accepted
- 1The Administration Center of Jiulong Mountain National Nature Reserve, Suichang County, Lishui City, China
- 2Lishui University, Lishui, China
- 3Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, China
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Introduction: Understanding rhizosphere microbiomes of endemic plants is crucial for their conservation, yet remains poorly explored, particularly for species-rich genera with high endemism rates like Impatiens.Methods: We investigated rhizosphere bacterial and fungal communities of five Impatiens species (including two endemics) across elevation gradients in subtropical China using high-throughput sequencing. We analyzed microbial community structure in relation to environmental factors, soil properties, and plant traits. Results: Significant interspecific variations were observed in both bacterial and fungal communities, with endemic species harboring distinct microbiomes. Fungal communities showed stronger species-specificity than bacterial communities, particularly in endemic I. suichangensis. Redundancy analysis revealed that elevation explained a substantially higher proportion of fungal community variation compared to bacterial variation. Soil nutrients and pH strongly influenced microbial community structure, while plant traits showed species-specific correlations with particular microbial taxa. Notably, companion plant diversity positively correlated with fungal diversity indices.Discussion: These findings highlight the complex associations among plant traits, environmental factors, and rhizosphere microbiomes in Impatiens species, providing correlative evidence for potential plant-microbe interactions in endemic plant species. Our results emphasize the importance of considering both above- and below-ground components in conservation strategies for endemic plant species.
Keywords: plant-soil interactions, Microbial Diversity, Endemic species, Environmental filtering, elevation gradient
Received: 26 Jan 2025; Accepted: 14 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tang, Xie, Chen, Wang and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yalei Li, Lishui University, Lishui, China
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