The formation and alteration of macrofungal “small islands” from the Qinling Mountains based on a novel DNA metabarcoding identification method

Abstract Sporocarps of macrofungi support other diverse fungal species that are termed fungicolous fungi. However, a pipeline for the simultaneous processing and analysis of macrofungi and their fungicolous fungi, in addition to the external environmental factors that affect the diversity and composition of fungicolous fungal communities, remains largely unknown. In this study, a novel specialized pipeline was constructed to automatically analyze the sequence diversity of host macrofungi along with their associated fungicolous fungi. Moreover, the alpha and beta diversities of fungicolous fungal communities residing in host macrofungi from diverse habitats in the Qinling Mountains were analyzed, revealing that the diversity and composition of fungicolous fungal communities varied with host growth month and habitats. Furthermore, saprophytic fungi had greater abundances of cell wall degrading enzymes than parasitic and symbiotic fungi, potentially explaining why saprophytic fungi grew more abundant on wood, and revealing the formation mechanism of “small islands” growing on wood.