# Mother trees of common ash (Fraxinus excelsior) disperse different sets of mycobiome through their seed wings

## TL;DR

Common ash trees spread unique fungal communities through their seed wings, which might help seedlings grow, especially with threats like ash dieback.

## Contribution

This study shows that mother trees of common ash disperse distinct mycobiomes via seed wings, which could influence seedling success.

## Key findings

- Seed wings had higher fungal richness than seed stalks within each genotype.
- Mycobiome composition differed significantly between seed wings from different genotypes.
- Seed wings may carry unique fungal communities important for germination and seedling establishment.

## Abstract

The endophytic mycobiome is present in all studied plant compartments, including fruits and seeds. Here, we studied the mycobiome of seed wings as they are transferred with seeds in common ash and tested whether the mycobiome differs among trees. To achieve this, we used ITS1-based amplicon sequencing and two genotypes of F. excelsior as a model to compare the mycobiome of mother trees and their wings.

We compared the mycobiome of 57 seed wings to the seed stalks (57) collected from two genotypes of F. excelsior using three ramets of each genotype. Alpha diversity indices (ACE, Fisher and Observed OTUs) suggested a higher richness of the mycobiome associated with the seed wing than the seed stalk within each genotype. However, there were neither significant differences in Shannon diversity between the mycobiomes from the two tissue types nor the two genotypes. PERMANOVA revealed significant differences in the mycobiome composition between tissue types (P < 0.001). It also showed a significant difference between seed wings (P = 0.04), but not between seed stalks of the two genotypes. Our results suggest that Fraxinus excelsior mother trees disperse different sets of mycobiomes with their seed wings, which may be important for germination and seedling establishment—especially in the light of ash dieback.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13104-024-06863-z.