Profiling mycobiota communities associated with the Pine Wilt Disease

Abstract

Pine wilt Disease (PWD) is one of the most damaging diseases for conifer forests worldwide. This complex disease involves the interaction between three primary biological elements - the pinewood nematode (PWN) Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, the insect-vector Monochamus sp., and the host tree Pinus spp. – and other secondary elements such as endophytic bacteria and fungi. The development of B. xylophilus is strongly associated with fungi that colonize the declining trees, with special impact in their reproduction and number of individuals carried by the vector. In light of previous knowledge, we are focused in obtaining a detailed characterization of the structure and dynamics of the nematode-fungi interactions. Using the ITS2 amplicon-based metagenomic approach, we compared the fungal communities from PWN infected and non-infected P. pinaster trees collected in two distint study sites, Tróia (location where PWN was first detected in 1999) and Seia (northwestern of Portugal).