The interactions between plants and microbes drive biodiversity maintenance, community stability and ecosystem functioning. However, differences in the community and network structures between phyllosphere epiphytic and endophytic bacteria have been less investigated. Here, we examined phyllosphere epiphytic and endophytic bacterial communities of six mangrove species using Illumina MiSeq sequencing of 16S rRNA gene. In total, 1,046 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) of epiphytic and endophytic bacteria were obtained at a 97% sequence similarity level; Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria were abundant. The community composition of epiphytic and endophytic bacteria was significantly different. Plant identity significantly affected the OTU richness and community composition of both epiphytic and endophytic bacteria, with a greater effect on the community composition of epiphytic bacteria than that of endophytic bacteria. Network analysis showed that both plant-epiphytic and plant-endophytic bacterial network structures were characterized by significantly highly specialized and modular but lowly connected and anti-nested properties. Furthermore, the epiphytic bacterial network was more highly specialized and modular but less connected and more strongly anti-nested than the endophytic bacterial network. This study reveals that the phyllosphere epiphytic and endophytic bacterial communities differ and plant identity has a greater effect on the epiphytic bacteria than on endophytic bacteria. Our findings may provide a comprehensive insight into the role of plant identity in driving the phyllosphere epiphytic and endophytic microbial community structure in mangrove ecosystems.
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