{"title":"Building Field-Ready Environmental RNA Panels","authors":"Mehran Khorshid, Zahra Alizadeh Khatibani, Ehsan Pashay Ahi","doi":"10.1111/mec.70593","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mec.70593","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Environmental RNA (eRNA) has been increasingly used to move beyond ‘who is there’ toward ‘who is active’ and ‘what is happening’ in ecosystems. Yet, most workflows have been optimised for laboratory sequencing, and decision-grade field use has remained sporadic. In this article, field-ready eRNA panels are defined as curated sets of transcripts paired with process controls and a transparent scoring rule, and a build–test pathway is described from marker discovery to deployment. Candidate markers are prioritised with field constraints in mind (abundance, specificity, persistence, and confounding seasonality), and RNA class choice (mRNA, rRNA, small, and other non-coding RNAs) is treated as a design lever for robustness. Pre-analytics are discussed as panel engineering, with emphasis placed on capture, rapid stabilisation, and inhibitor management to preserve multi-marker relationships. Field readout options are then compared, including isothermal amplification, CRISPR-assisted detection, portable qPCR, and portable nanopore sequencing for on-site verification and panel refresh. Finally, minimum controls and staged validation levels are proposed to support defensible ecological claims. Deliberate attention is directed toward shared terminology and testable standards so that discussion within and between ecology, diagnostics, and conservation practice is stimulated and priorities for future investigations are sharpened.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 20","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mec.70593","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149190463","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yi-Ming Weng, David H. Kavanaugh, Bryan Rubio-Perez, Jad Salman, Mikhail A. Kats, Sean D. Schoville
{"title":"The Genomic Landscape of Metallic Colour Variation in Ground Beetles","authors":"Yi-Ming Weng, David H. Kavanaugh, Bryan Rubio-Perez, Jad Salman, Mikhail A. Kats, Sean D. Schoville","doi":"10.1111/mec.70591","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.70591","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The metallic colour variation of beetles is a spectacular feature that has inspired diverse human cultures. However, little is known about the genetic basis of this trait or its ecological importance. In this study, we characterize the geographical distribution, optical mechanism, genetic basis and ecological and evolutionary importance of metallic colour variation in the <i>Nebria ingens</i> complex, an alpine ground beetle in the Sierra Nevada, California. We find that elytral colour varies continuously across two allopatric species (from black <i>N. ingens</i> to green <i>N. riversi</i>), with hybrid populations showing intermediate coloration, and we demonstrate that the metallic colour is generated from multilayer reflectors in the epicuticle of the elytra. By applying association mapping in natural populations (wild-GWAS) using high-density genotype variants, we identify five promising candidate genes covarying with metallic variation, with known roles in cuticle formation and pigmentation pathways. This finding, together with a significant correlation between colour variation and water availability, suggests that metallic variation evolves as a local adaptation to environmental variation in the <i>N. ingens</i> complex.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 20","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mec.70591","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149205830","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Enrique Celemín, Kristín E. Tiedemann, Katja Havenstein, Harald Benke, Per Berggren, Michael Dähne, Judith Denkinger, Lisa Klemens, Christina Lockyer, Iwona Pawliczka, Anna Roos, Ursula Siebert, Linda Westphal, Ralph Tiedemann
{"title":"Drift and Selection in a Recently Colonized Sea: The Genomic Basis of Adaptation to Low-Salinity Waters in Baltic Harbour Porpoises","authors":"Enrique Celemín, Kristín E. Tiedemann, Katja Havenstein, Harald Benke, Per Berggren, Michael Dähne, Judith Denkinger, Lisa Klemens, Christina Lockyer, Iwona Pawliczka, Anna Roos, Ursula Siebert, Linda Westphal, Ralph Tiedemann","doi":"10.1111/mec.70595","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.70595","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Understanding how demography and natural selection interact during colonization of novel environments is a central question in evolutionary biology. The Baltic Sea region combines one of the world's strongest salinity gradients with a well-characterized postglacial history of less than ~12,000 years. The harbour porpoise (<i>Phocoena phocoena</i>) is distributed across this gradient as three populations—the North Sea, Belt Sea and Proper Baltic Sea populations. Using whole genome resequencing data from 59 individuals, we reconstructed the demographic history of Baltic colonization and identified genomic signatures of local adaptation. Demographic modelling supported a sequential colonization in which the Belt Sea population diverged first from an ancestral North Sea population, followed by an independent divergence of the Proper Baltic Sea population, with two equally supported timing hypotheses placing initial colonization either during the Yoldia Sea (~11,800 years ago) or the Baltic Sea period (~8000 years ago). The Proper Baltic Sea population showed drift-dominated divergence consistent with a founder effect, while two discrete genomic islands of differentiation with selective sweep signatures were identified between North and Belt Sea populations, pointing to recent positive selection. Both regions contain osmoregulatory candidate genes, most notably SCNN1D, encoding part of the epithelial Na<sup>+</sup> channels, a key regulator of sodium homeostasis. A non-synonymous mutation in SCNN1D showed striking allele frequency divergence along the salinity gradient, confirmed across ~400 individuals. Together, these results reveal how genetic drift and divergent selection interact to drive rapid adaptation to a brackish environment, and identify SCNN1D as a compelling candidate for cetacean osmoregulatory adaptation.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 20","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mec.70595","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149205925","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S. Geneste, M. Gautier, S. Boitard, J. Ronfort, A. M. Chevre, C. Falentin, M. Tiret, G. Deniot, L. Gay
{"title":"Insight Into the Genetic Architecture of Local (Mal)Adaptation in Wild and Feral Brassica rapa Populations","authors":"S. Geneste, M. Gautier, S. Boitard, J. Ronfort, A. M. Chevre, C. Falentin, M. Tiret, G. Deniot, L. Gay","doi":"10.1111/mec.70596","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mec.70596","url":null,"abstract":"<p>As climate change drives rapid environmental shifts, crops face significant challenges due to their limited adaptive genetic diversity, threatening food security. Crop wild relatives and potentially feral populations can serve as valuable reservoirs of adaptive diversity for breeding. Exploring and conserving this diversity is therefore essential, as it may encompass a wide range of adaptations. In this study, we investigate the genetic basis of local climate adaptation and the risk of maladaptation under future conditions in spontaneous populations—naturally occurring in the wild—of <i>Brassica rapa</i> (field mustard). A total of 62 populations were sampled, revealing strong differentiation between feral (France, Slovenia) and wild (Algeria, Sicily) populations. A genome–environment association analysis identified genomic regions associated with climatic variables, with broader patterns suggesting a polygenic architecture. Feral populations broadened the climatic range explored, but their reduced genetic diversity limited our ability to capture the full spectrum of adaptive variation in wild populations, indicating that the genetic architecture of climate adaptation is only partly shared between the two groups. We also used genomic offset (GO) analyses to assess mismatches between current and predicted-optimal genetic composition under 2050 climate projections. A common garden experiment indicated that GO captures some component of fitness variation, with feral populations providing additional predictive information beyond the environmental space occupied by wild populations. These findings highlight the complex genetic architecture of climate adaptation in <i>B. rapa</i>, as well as the potential and limitations of genomic tools for guiding conservation and crop improvement under climate change.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 20","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mec.70596","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149190454","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ben J. G. Sutherland, Cory Williamson, Brian Toth, Gordon Sterritt
{"title":"Genomic Islands of Divergence Reveal Signature of Selection on the Alternate Homeolog in Upper Fraser River Sockeye Run-Timing Groups","authors":"Ben J. G. Sutherland, Cory Williamson, Brian Toth, Gordon Sterritt","doi":"10.1111/mec.70594","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.70594","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Effective wildlife conservation and management depends on a thorough understanding of both neutral and adaptive intraspecific genomic variation. Population structure is often well understood in many ecologically or economically important species, but the extensive population genomic resources required to characterize putatively adaptive variation and punctuated genomic regions is typically only recently available for some species, if available at all. Here, we explore recently published whole-genome resequencing data in the upper Fraser River and identify a large island of divergence separating Nechako Watershed populations with different return migration timings (i.e., run timing). The island of divergence at 56.3–58.0 Mbp of Chr18 has extended homozygosity and reduced Tajima's <i>D</i> in sockeye salmon <i>Oncorhynchus nerka</i> from the Nadina River, Stellako River and the Stuart-Summer run timing group, but not the geographically proximal Early Stuart sockeye. In the populations without the Stuart-Summer haploblock, genetic variation is similar to elsewhere in the chromosome. Gene content in the haploblock includes <i>leucine rich-repeat containing 9-like</i> (<i>lrrc9-like</i>) and the surrounding homeologous region to the <i>lrrc9</i> region of Chr12. <i>lrrc9</i> is within a conserved and selected island of divergence associated with life history traits and run timing throughout the species range and <i>lrrc9-like</i> has recently been associated with run timing in other salmonids. By also inspecting the samples in the present work at the Chr12 haploblock, three genotypic states were observed throughout the region, with the Stuart River run timing groups mainly comprised of the reference haplotype. No other regions of major differentiation were observed in the analysed samples in the Chilcotin or Quesnel River systems. These results provide additional evidence for the importance of both homeologous regions holding <i>lrrc9</i> and <i>lrrc9-like</i> in different geographic regions and underscore the uniqueness of upper Fraser River sockeye in this potentially adaptive island of divergence.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 20","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149206080","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pei-Wei Sun, Yu-Hsin Huang, Chien-Ti Chao, Jenn M. Coughlan, Ashley R. Field, Katharina Nargar, Yung-I Lee, Pei-Chun Liao
{"title":"Parallel Genomic Responses to Ecological Gradients in the Phalaenopsis amabilis Complex","authors":"Pei-Wei Sun, Yu-Hsin Huang, Chien-Ti Chao, Jenn M. Coughlan, Ashley R. Field, Katharina Nargar, Yung-I Lee, Pei-Chun Liao","doi":"10.1111/mec.70597","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mec.70597","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>There are multiple mechanisms that can underlie parallel adaptation to similar habitats at the genetic level, including <i>de novo</i> mutations, introgression, and shared standing variation. While evidence for each pathway is emerging, few studies have directly examined how demographic processes, range expansion and introgression interact to shape the fate of adaptive alleles. In the <i>Phalaenopsis amabilis</i> complex, we applied a dimensionality reduction approach to identify environmental extremes and link alleles to ecological gradients. By combining gene–environment association analyses with demographic inference and historical gene flow reconstruction, we evaluated whether repeated adaptation arises from <i>de novo</i> convergent mutations or introgression. The candidate SNP set departed strongly from neutral expectations in DMC analyses; standing variation was the best-fitting model, although its separation from migration was modest. We also found heterogeneous allele sharing and historical introgression involving range-margin populations, coinciding with demographic expansion. These findings suggest that standing variation, demographic history, and heterogeneous introgression may jointly contribute to repeated genomic responses across ecological gradients. A limited subset of environmentally associated candidates also overlapped with floral morphology-associated candidates, but the magnitude of overlap was strongly threshold- and denominator-dependent. These overlaps identify hypotheses concerning ecological and floral trait differentiation, but do not establish pleiotropy or a shared causal architecture. This work highlights how parallel adaptation in plants may emerge from the interplay of neutral and adaptive evolutionary mechanisms in recently diverged lineages.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 20","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149190465","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Claudia Londoño-Nieto, Roberto García-Roa, Stuart Wigby, Irem Sepil, Pau Carazo
{"title":"Chilling Out or Heating Up? Thermal Plasticity of Seminal Fluid Proteins in Drosophila melanogaster","authors":"Claudia Londoño-Nieto, Roberto García-Roa, Stuart Wigby, Irem Sepil, Pau Carazo","doi":"10.1111/mec.70599","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.70599","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Seminal fluid proteins (SFPs) play crucial roles in reproduction by shaping female post-mating physiology and behaviour, male sperm competition and sexual conflict between the sexes. However, we know little about how abiotic ecological factors regulate SFP expression and transfer. Here, we use quantitative proteomics in adult flies from a wild <i>Drosophila melanogaster</i> population to test how exposure to natural temperature variation (20°C, 24°C and 28°C) across two time scales (48 h and 13d), and under either no- or high-sperm competition risk, interact to shape SFP production and transfer. Short-term exposure to different temperatures resulted in lower SFP production and transfer at 24°C under no sperm competition risk, but no differences under high sperm competition risk. In contrast, both the production and transfer of SFPs were consistently reduced across sperm competition treatments after long-term (13d) exposure to low (20°C) and high (28°C) temperatures, including for key proteins in the sex peptide and ovulin networks that mediate female post-copulatory responses, sperm competition and sexual conflict. Our results show that natural temperature fluctuations can have a strong effect on SFP production and transfer, and thus on post-copulatory sexual selection dynamics.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 20","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149205895","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Samantha Mellinger, Lars Råberg, Anna Drews, Bengt Hansson, Pavel Zehtindjiev, Dennis Hasselquist, Helena Westerdahl
{"title":"Static Expression of Major Histocompatibility Complex Genes Across Life-Stages, Generations and Tissues in a Songbird","authors":"Samantha Mellinger, Lars Råberg, Anna Drews, Bengt Hansson, Pavel Zehtindjiev, Dennis Hasselquist, Helena Westerdahl","doi":"10.1111/mec.70590","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mec.70590","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The extraordinarily polymorphic Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) is an iconic genomic region that has been associated with, for example, disease susceptibility, mate choice, and fitness. Both the MHC class I and II gene families have expanded considerably in songbirds (Passeriformes) compared to other bird orders, but our understanding of the functional relevance of the large number of gene copies in songbirds is hampered by lack of data on gene expression. We therefore took advantage of longitudinal data from our wild long-term monitored population of great reed warblers <i>Acrocephalus arundinaceus</i> as well as a long-term experiment to study patterns of MHC class I (MHC-I) gene expression during individuals' lifetimes and across generations, and between tissues. As could be expected within a species, the expressed diversity increased linearly with genomic MHC-I diversity. However, most MHC-I alleles were expressed at low levels, with only a handful of alleles showing moderate to high expression in each individual. The MHC-I expression patterns in blood were highly consistent (i) over an individual's lifetime, (ii) between parents and offspring, and (iii) among siblings, and (iv) were strongly correlated with expression in other tissues. The moderately to highly expressed MHC-I genes likely play a key role in antigen presentation in adaptive immunity and thus comprise primary targets for studies of host-pathogen coevolution.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 20","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mec.70590","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149190478","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jack L. Boyette, Tamilie Carvalho, David Rodriguez, Wesley J. Neely, Daniel Medina, Renato A. Martins, Robert J. Ossiboff, Zaira Gomez, William C. Vuyk, Shannon M. Buttimer, Karen A. Paniagua Torres, Ananda Brito de Assis, Carlos A. Navas, Carly R. Muletz-Wolz, Michael G. Campana, Corinne L. Richards-Zawacki, C. Guilherme Becker
{"title":"Overcoming Detection Lag in a Cryptic Panzootic: Chytrid Invasion Linked to Historically Enigmatic Amphibian Declines in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest","authors":"Jack L. Boyette, Tamilie Carvalho, David Rodriguez, Wesley J. Neely, Daniel Medina, Renato A. Martins, Robert J. Ossiboff, Zaira Gomez, William C. Vuyk, Shannon M. Buttimer, Karen A. Paniagua Torres, Ananda Brito de Assis, Carlos A. Navas, Carly R. Muletz-Wolz, Michael G. Campana, Corinne L. Richards-Zawacki, C. Guilherme Becker","doi":"10.1111/mec.70573","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mec.70573","url":null,"abstract":"<p>As human activity accelerates the spread of pathogens and other invasive species, reconstructing the cryptic early dynamics of undetected invasions has become a central challenge in disease ecology and invasion biology. Here, we leverage museum specimens to reconstruct the invasion of <i>Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis</i> (Bd), a fungal panzootic driving global amphibian biodiversity loss, across historically enigmatic declines in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Two hypotheses have been proposed to explain Bd's historical dynamics in this region: long-term enzootic persistence versus recent epizootic invasion coinciding with declines. Using molecular screening, histopathology, and genotyping of museum and modern specimens, we find no evidence of Bd infection prior to the decline, followed by widespread infection immediately thereafter. Only the global panzootic lineage (Bd-GPL) was detected during the first year of post-decline sampling, implicating its invasion in driving regional losses. Infection prevalence varied among species following the decline, likely reflecting species-specific interactions between baseline susceptibility and ecological exposure risk. Contemporary host populations exhibit more uniform prevalence regardless of decline history, consistent with the evolution of pathogen tolerance under enzootic conditions. Together, these results provide the first site-specific evidence linking Bd-GPL invasion to enigmatic amphibian declines in Brazil and demonstrate the power of museum collections for resolving detection lag dynamics in emerging infectious diseases.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 19","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13662623/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149178309","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rhizosphere Fungal Community Responses to Nitrogen Addition Reflect Genotypic Versus Trait Variation in the Marsh Sedge Schoenoplectus americanus Over Time","authors":"Yue Liu, Michael J. Blum, Candice Y. Lumibao","doi":"10.1111/mec.70588","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.70588","url":null,"abstract":"<p>There is growing recognition that shifting environmental conditions can alter the nature and potential benefits of plant-microbe interactions. While it is well established that interactions with fungi can benefit plants under environmental stress, little is known about how plant exposure responses correspond to different factors that might shape fungal communities, particularly over time. Using a resurrection ecology approach, we examined the relative influence of contrasting environmental conditions and intraspecific variation in the foundational marsh sedge <i>Schoenoplectus americanus</i> on rhizosphere fungal communities. Cohorts of ancestral plants germinated from 100+ year old seeds and modern plants were grown under low and high nitrogen (N) concentration in a common-garden experiment. Fungal communities were characterized according to plant presence as well as genotypic and associated trait variation. The study revealed that the influence of <i>S. americanus</i> on fungal communities differed between the nitrogen regimes. Under low N, fungal taxonomic, but not guild, diversity was higher in rhizosphere soils than unplanted controls. Plant effects were, however, diminished under high N conditions. We also found that heritable traits had limited influence on fungal communities, whereas both taxonomic and guild diversity and composition reflected genotypic variation and G × E interactions. Cohorts of ancestral and modern plants also recruited distinct fungal communities depending on N conditions. These results indicate that shifts in plant-fungal associations over time are contingent on prevailing environmental conditions. Our findings also indicate that N-driven changes in plant–fungal interactions likely alter ecosystem processes that are central to saltmarsh resilience to shifting environmental conditions.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 20","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mec.70588","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149176977","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}