Data from: Does warming by open-top chambers induce change in the root-associated fungal community of the arctic dwarf shrub Cassiope tetragona (Ericaceae)?

Climate change may alter mycorrhizal communities, which impact ecosystem characteristics such as carbon sequestration processes. These impacts occur at a greater magnitude in Arctic ecosystems, where the climate is warming faster than in lower latitudes. Cassiope tetragona (L.) D. Don is an Arctic plant species in the Ericaceae family with a circumpolar range. C. tetragona has been reported to form ericoid mycorrhizal (ErM) as well as ectomycorrhizal (ECM) symbioses. In this study, the fungal taxa present within roots of C. tetragona plants collected from Svalbard were investigated using DNA metabarcoding. In light of ongoing climate change in the Arctic, the effects of artificial warming by open-top chambers (OTCs) on the fungal root community of C. tetragona were evaluated. We detected only a weak effect of warming by OTCs on the root-associated fungal communities that was masked by the spatial variation between sampling sites. The root fungal community of C. tetragona was dominated by fungal groups in the Basidiomycota traditionally classified as either saprotrophic or ECM symbionts, including the orders Sebacinales and Agaricales and the genera Clavaria, Cortinarius, and Mycena. Only a minor proportion of the operational taxonomic units (OTUs) could be annotated as ErM-forming fungi. This indicates that C. tetragona may be forming mycorrhizal symbioses with typically ECM-forming fungi, although no characteristic ECM root tips were observed. Previous studies have indicated that some saprophytic fungi may also be involved in biotrophic associations, but whether the saprotrophic fungi in the roots of C. tetragona are involved in biotrophic associations remains unclear. The need for more experimental and microscopy-based studies to reveal the nature of the fungal associations in C. tetragona roots is emphasized.R ScriptThis is the R Script used running the ordinations as well as creating the figures and supplementary materials for this study.Cassiope_Rscript.ROTUs in BlankThis is an OTU-sample table of the OTUs found in the blank sample (negative control) and removed from further analysis. The representative sequences and the BLAST matches are included.OTU_seqs_in_Blank.xlsxMapping FileThis is the barcode and primer mapping file used in this study.Cassiope_mapfile.txtOTU TableThis is the OTU-sample table used in this study after quality filtering with raw read abundances and in presence-absence format.Cassiope_OTU_table.xlsxRaw Data (forward)Paired-end Illumina seqeuncing output fastq file with forward reads.Cassiope_raw_data01.fastq.zipRaw Data (reverse)Paired-end Illumina seqeuncing output fastq file with reverse reads.Cassiope_raw_data02.fastq.zipRepresentative SequencesThis file contains the representative sequences of the OTUs from this study in fastq format.Cassiope_rep_seqs.fast