Abstract: We examined the effects of Phyllostachys edulis expansion on the diversity of endophytic fungal community in leaves of Rhododendron latoucheae in an evergreen forest which were affected by different degrees of P. edulis expansion (non-expanded, slightly expanded and severely expanded) in Dagangshan forest ecological station, Jiangxi Province. High throughput sequencing technique was used to characterize endophytic fungi in leaves of R. latoucheae. We found that P. edulis expansion significantly increased leaf cellulose content, lignin content, and leaf tissue density, but significantly decreased flavonoid content of R. latoucheae. There were differences in the taxa and relative abundance of endophytic fungi in the leaves of R. latoucheae under different degrees of P. edulis expansion. A total of 5 phyla, 18 classes and 81 genera were recorded by high-density sequencing. Ascomycota and Basidiomycotawere the dominant phyla of endophytic fungi in the leaves of R. latoucheae. The relative abundances of G_hyphoderma,F_hyphodermataceae, C_leotiomycetes, O_helotiales, G_roussoella, O_thelephorales, F_thelephorceae, F_Thyridariaceae, G_Tomentella, F_Diaporthaceae, andG_Diaporthe changed significantly, which could be used as the indicator species showing the difference in endophytic fungi of R. latoucheae leaves under the influence of P. edulisexpansion. P. edulisexpansion did not affect α-diversity of endophytic fungi. The results of principal coordinate analysis showed that P. edulisinvasion changed the community structure of endophytic fungi in R. latoucheae leaves. The results of redundancy analysis and Spearman analysis showed that cellulose, lignin, and leaf toughness had significant effects on community assembly of endophytic fungi. Cellulose is an important factor that indirectly affects the diversity of endophytic fungal community in R. latoucheae leaves under the P. edulisexpansion.

Key words: space instead of time, high-throughput sequencing, redundancy analysis.