RESEARCH ARTICLE Endophytic Fungal Communities Associated with Vascular Plants in the High Arctic Zone Are Highly Diverse and Host-Plant Specific

This study assessed the diversity and distribution of endophytic fungal communities associ-ated with the leaves and stems of four vascular plant species in the High Arctic using 454 pyrosequencing with fungal-specific primers targeting the ITS region. Endophytic fungal communities showed high diversity. The 76,691 sequences obtained belonged to 250 oper-ational taxonomic units (OTUs). Of these OTUs, 190 belonged to Ascomycota, 50 to Basi-diomycota, 1 to Chytridiomycota, and 9 to unknown fungi. The dominant orders were Helotiales, Pleosporales, Capnodiales, and Tremellales, whereas the common known fun-gal genera were Cryptococcus, Rhizosphaera,Mycopappus,Melampsora, Tetracladium, Phaeosphaeria,Mrakia, Venturia, and Leptosphaeria. Both the climate and host-related fac-tors might shape the fungal communities associated with the four Arctic plant species in this region. These results suggested the presence of an interesting endophytic fungal communi-ty and could improve our understanding of fungal evolution and ecology in the Arctic terres-trial ecosystems