title: A widespread plant-fungal-bacterial symbiosis promotes plant biodiversity, plant nutrition and seedling recruitment.
abstract: Highly diverse microbial assemblages colonize plant roots. It is still poorly understood whether different members of this root microbiome act synergistically by supplying different services (for example, different limiting nutrients) to plants and plant communities. In order to test this, we manipulated the presence of two widespread plant root symbionts, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and nitrogen-fixing rhizobia bacteria in model grassland communities established in axenic microcosms. Here, we demonstrate that both symbionts complement each other resulting in increased plant diversity, enhanced seedling recruitment and improved nutrient acquisition compared with a single symbiont situation. Legume seedlings obtained up to 15-fold higher productivity if they formed an association with both symbionts, opposed to productivity they reached with only one symbiont. Our results reveal the importance of functional diversity of symbionts and demonstrate that different members of the root microbiome can complement each other in acquiring different limiting nutrients and in driving important ecosystem functions.
authors.affiliation: Plant-Soil-Interactions, Institute for Sustainability Sciences, Agroscope, Zürich, Switzerland.|Plant-Microbe-Interactions, Institute of Environmental Biology, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.|Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Marcel G A
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: van der Heijden
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecological Science, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: de Bruin
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecological Science, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ludo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Luckerhoff
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecological Science, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Richard S P
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: van Logtestijn
authors.affiliation: Plant-Soil-Interactions, Institute for Sustainability Sciences, Agroscope, Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Schlaeppi
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000254:growth & development; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D044822:Biodiversity; D007887:Fabaceae / Q000254:growth & development / Q000382:microbiology*; D005658:Fungi / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D038821:Mycorrhizae / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000378:metabolism; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000254:growth & development / Q000382:microbiology*; D036226:Seedlings / Q000254:growth & development / Q000382:microbiology*; D013559:Symbiosis
chemical_list: D009584:Nitrogen