Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi influence host infection during epidemics in a wild plant pathosystem

O_LIWhile pathogenic and mutualistic microbes are ubiquitous across ecosystems and often co-occur within hosts, how they interact to determine patterns of disease in genetically diverse wild populations is unknown. C_LIO_LITo test whether microbial mutualists provide protection against pathogens, and whether this varies among host genotypes, we conducted a field experiment in three naturally-occurring epidemics of a fungal pathogen, Podosphaera plantaginis, infecting a host plant, Plantago lanceolata, in the [A]land Islands, Finland. In each population, we collected epidemiological data on experimental plants from six allopatric populations that had been inoculated with a mixture of mutualistic arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi or a non-mycorrhizal control. C_LIO_LIInoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi increased growth in plants from every population, but also increased host infection rate. Mycorrhizal effects on disease severity varied among host genotypes and strengthened over time during the epidemic. Host genotypes that were more susceptible to the pathogen received stronger protective effects from inoculation. C_LIO_LIOur results show that arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi introduce both benefits and risks to host plants, and shift patterns of infection in host populations under pathogen attack. Understanding how mutualists alter host susceptibility to disease will be important for predicting infection outcomes in ecological communities and in agriculture. C_LI Plain Language SummaryBeneficial, mycorrhizal fungi in roots help plants grow and may protect them from diseases caused by pathogenic microbes. This study shows that arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi can influence patterns of plant disease during pathogen outbreaks in a natural landscape.