3.4 Community composition among treatments
Current results indicated significant difference in community composition between two tissue types and across control and treatments. NMDS ordination revealed differences in both bacterial and fungal community compositions between aerial tissues and roots (Fig. 3a, b). ANOSIM results showed larger differences in community composition among the groups based on tissue type compared with those based on radiation level for both bacterial and fungal endophytes. We further investigated the community composition of endophytes in different tissues ofK . schrenkianum . Bacterial communities in roots and fungal communities in both aerial tissues and roots showed significant differences in composition among the radiation levels (Fig. 3d-f). Meanwhile, the bacterial communities in aerial tissues showed no significant differences in composition among the radiation levels (Fig. 3c). PerMANOVA indicated that the community composition of endophytic bacteria and fungi was significantly affected by tissue type (F 1, 39 = 12.021, R2 = 0.220,p = 0.001; F 1, 39 = 15.304, R2 = 0.242, p = 0.001), radioactive level (F 3, 39 = 2.022, R2 = 0.111,p = 0.001; xF 3, 39 = 3.143, R2 = 0.149, p = 0.001), and their interaction (F 3, 39 = 1.534, R2 = 0.084,p = 0.032; F 3, 39 = 2.155, R2 = 0.102, p = 0.002). PerMANOVA subjected to microbial communities in different tissues separately indicated that the composition was affected by radiation level in case of bacterial communities in roots (F 3, 19 = 2.164, R2 = 0.289, p = 0.002) and fungal communities in aerial tissues (F 3, 19 = 2.189, R2 = 0.291, p = 0.001) and roots (F 3, 19 = 2.885, R2 = 0.351,p = 0.001).