DOI: 10.5061/dryad.c6g84
title: Data from: Highly diverse and spatially heterogeneous mycorrhizal symbiosis in a rare epiphyte is unrelated to broad biogeographic or environmental features

description: Symbiotic interactions are common in nature. In dynamic or degraded
 environments, the ability to associate with multiple partners (i.e. broad
 specificity) may enable species to persist through fluctuations in the
 availability of any particular partner. Understanding how species
 interactions vary across landscapes is necessary to anticipate direct and
 indirect consequences of environmental degradation on species
 conservation. We asked whether mycorrhizal symbiosis by populations of a
 rare epiphytic orchid (Epidendrum firmum) is related to geographic or
 environmental heterogeneity. The latter would suggest that interactions
 are governed by environmental conditions rather than historic isolation of
 populations and/or mycorrhizal fungi. We used DNA-based methods to
 identify mycorrhizal fungi from eleven E. firmum populations in Costa
 Rica. We used molecular and phylogenetic analyses to compare associations.
 Epidendrum firmum exhibited broad specificity, associating with diverse
 mycorrhizal fungi, including six Tulasnellaceae molecular operational
 taxonomic units (MOTUs), five Sebacinales MOTUs and others. Notably,
 diverse mycorrhizal symbioses formed in disturbed pasture and roadside
 habitats. Mycorrhizal fungi exhibited significant similarity within
 populations (spatial and phylogenetic autocorrelation) and significant
 differences among populations (phylogenetic community dissimilarity).
 However, mycorrhizal symbioses were not significantly associated with
 biogeographic or environmental features. Such unexpected heterogeneity
 among populations may result from complex combinations of fine-scale
 environmental factors and macro-evolutionary patterns of change in
 mycorrhizal specificity. Thus, E. firmum exhibits broad specificity and
 the potential for opportunistic associations with diverse fungi. We
 suggest that these characteristics could confer symbiotic assurance when
 mycorrhizal fungi are stochastically available, which may be crucial in
 dynamic or disturbed habitats such as tropical forest canopies.
description: ASCO_FASTAS_ALIGNED_58S_OPTSILAlignment of 5.8S sequences corresponding to ascomycetes used in clustering analysis by OPTSIL.BASID_FASTAS_ALIGNED_58S_OPTSILAlignment of 5.8S sequences corresponding to basidiomycetes used in clustering analysis by OPTSIL. File is in FASTA format.TUL_ML56_ALNAlignment of mitochondrial large subunit ribosomal DNA used in both clustering analysis by OPTSIL and phylogenetic analysis. The file is in FASTA format.Sebacinales_58sAlignment of Sebacinales 5.8S used for inferring phylogeny. The file is in phylip format.Sebacinales_ITSAlignment of Sebacinales sequences spanning ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 used in analysis of molecular diversity. The file is in FASTA format.Sebacinales_treeThe tree file for the Sebacinales phylogeny in analysis of phylogenetic variation. The file is in newick format.Tulasnellaceae_treeThe tree file for the Tulasnellaceae phylogeny in analysis of phylogenetic variation. The file is in newick format.Tulasnellaceae_58sAlignment of Tulasnellaceae 5.8S used for inferring the phylogeny. The file is in PHYLIP format.Tulasnellaceae_ITSAlignment of Tulasnellaceae sequences spanning ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 used in analysis of molecular variation. The alignment is in FASTA format.Tulasnellaceae_MLAlignment of Tulasnellaceae mitochondrial large subunit (mtLSU) used for inferring the phylogeny. The data file is in PHYLIP format.Tulasnellaceae_MLtreeThe tree file for the phylogeny of the Tulasnellaceae mitochondrial large subunit of rDNA (mtLSU). The file is in newick format.