Host preference and network properties in biotrophic plant–fungal associations

What is it about?

Comparison of host effect among communites of different biotrophic fungi revealed that by large extent host effect is equivalent among different fungal guilds. The only exception were orchid mycorrhizal fungi exhibiting the strongest host preference which is probably attributable to their semi-parasitic nature. Network properties (nestedness and modularity) of plant root associated fungi were largely comparable and generally unrelated to phylogenetic distance among hosts. Instead, network metrics were predominantly affected by sampling and matrix properties, indicating the importance of study design in properly inferring ecological patterns.

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