Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2019
College/Unit
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Department/Program/Center
Biology
Faculty Sponsor
Stephen DiFazio
Abstract
Invasive species are found to cause alteration of biodiversity, competition with native species, and other environment and ecological changes across the globe. Also, invasive species have economic implications. When specifically talking about invasive plant species, an important influence is soil microbes that can altered or are altered after growth of invasive plant species. One invasive plant, Lonerica japonica, is extensively spread across the globe but has had little research done, specifically in if it alters the microbes of the soil. Having L. japonica readily available in the West Virginia University Core Arboretum, soil samples were collected from sites of absent infestation, low infestation, and high infestation. Illumina Miseq sequencing was performed on to analyze the V3 and V4 hypervariable regions of 16S rRNA gene. L. japonica displayed a significant difference in soil microbial diversity and community composition. Mesorhizobium and Rhizobiaceae were found to be vary between sites. Further investigation is needed to verify findings with more sequencing depth between sites and during non-dormant period of year.
Digital Commons Citation
Mullins, Jackie, "Infestation of Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonerica Japonica) shows variation in soil microbial community composition and species diversity in WVU Core Arboretum" (2019). Undergraduate Student Research. 2.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/core_arboretum_ug/2