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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Terrestrial Microbiology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1422360
This article is part of the Research Topic Forest Microbiome: Dynamics and Interactions in the Anthropocene Era View all 13 articles

MYCOBIOME ANALYSIS OF LEAF, ROOT, AND SOIL OF SYMPTOMATIC OIL PALM TREES (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) AFFECTED BY LEAF SPOT DISEASE

Provisionally accepted
Abiodun Abeeb Azeez Abiodun Abeeb Azeez 1,2*Daniel Ofeoritse Esiegbuya Daniel Ofeoritse Esiegbuya 3Adebola Azeez Lateef Adebola Azeez Lateef 1,4Fred O Asiegbu Fred O Asiegbu 1
  • 1 Department of Forest Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland
  • 2 Rainforest Research Station, Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria, P.M.B 5054, Jericho Hill,, Ibadan, Nigeria
  • 3 Pathology Division, Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR), P.M.B 1030,, Benin city, Nigeria
  • 4 Department of Plant Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Recently, attention has been shifting toward the perspective of the existence of plants and microbes as a functioning ecological unit. However, studies highlighting the impacts of the plant microbial community on plant health are still limited. In this study, fungal community (mycobiome) of leaf, root, and soil of symptomatic leaf-spot diseased (SS) oil palm were compared against asymptomatic (AS) trees using ITS2 rRNA gene metabarcoding. A total of 3,435,417 high-quality sequences were obtained from 29 samples investigated. Out of the 14 phyla identified, Ascomycota and Basidiomycota were the most dominant accounting for 94.2% and 4.7% of the total counts in AS, and 75% and 21.2% in SS respectively. Neopestalotiopsis is the most abundant genus for AS representing 8.0% of the identified amplicons compared to 2.0% in SS while Peniophora is the most abundant with 8.6% of the identified amplicons for SS compared to 0.1% in AS. The biomarker discovery algorithm LEfSe revealed different taxa signatures for the sample categories, particularly soil samples from asymptomatic trees, which were the most enriched. Network analysis revealed high modularity in all groups except root samples and the rare taxa as a large proportion of the identified keystone species suggesting potential ecosystem functions. Surprisingly both AS and SS leaf samples shared taxa previously associated with oil palm leaf spot disease. The significant abundance of Trichoderma asperellum in the asymptomatic root samples could be further explored as a potential biocontrol agent against oil palm disease.

    Keywords: Oil palm, leaf spot disease, Mycobiome, fungal community, Symptomatic, asymptomatic

    Received: 23 Apr 2024; Accepted: 31 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Azeez, Esiegbuya, Lateef and Asiegbu. 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: Abiodun Abeeb Azeez, Department of Forest Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, FI-00014, Uusimaa, Finland

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