Differences in the endophytic fungal community and effective ingredients in root of three <i>Glycyrrhiza</i> species in Xinjiang, China

Abstract

We observed that the liquiritin content was not affected by the root depth (0-20 cm, 20-40 cm, and 40-60 cm). Still, it was significantly affected by the <i>Glycyrrhiza</i> species (<i>Glycyrrhiza uralensis, Glycyrrhiza inflata, Glycyrrhiza glabra</i>) (<i>P</i> < 0.05). In <i>Glycyrrhiza</i> root, a total of eight phyla and 140 genera were annotated so far, out of which Ascomycota and Basidiomycota phyla, and the <i>Fusarium</i>, <i>Paraphoma,</i> and <i>Helminthosporium</i> genera were found to be significantly dominant. Spearman correlation analysis revealed that liquiritin content was accountable for the differences in the diversity of the endophytic fungal community. Furthermore, distance-based redundancy analysis (db-RDA) showed that physicochemical properties of the soil (available potassium and ammonium nitrogen) and the root factors (liquiritin and water content) were the main contributing factors for the variations in the overall structure of the endophytic fungal community. Our results showed that the effective ingredients of <i>Glycyrrhiza</i> root and physicochemical properties of the soil regulated the endophytic fungal community composition and medicinal licorice diversity.