Table 3.

Mechanisms of the functions of major soil fungal communities in tea gardens.

Functions	Mechanisms	Phyla of Microorganisms	Examples (Genera)	References
Biofertilizers (Plant growth promoters)	Indole-3- acetic acid production	Glomeromycota Ascomycota	Penicillium, Aspergillus, Trichoderma, AMF	Nath et al. (2015), Chen et al. (2023), and Kolandasamy et al. (2023)
	Siderophore production	Ascomycota	Trichoderma	Kolandasamy et al. (2023)
	ACC deaminase production	Ascomycota	Trichoderma	Kolandasamy et al. (2023)
	Uptake of nutrients	Glomeromycota	Glomus, Claroideoglomus	Shao et al. (2018) and Li et al. (2020)
Biofertilizers (Nutrient cycling)	Phosphate Solubilizing	Glomeromycota Ascomycota	Penicillium, Aspergillus, Fusarium, Trichoderma, Rhizophagus	Nath et al. (2015), Bhattacharyya and Sarmah (2018), Zhang Z. et al. (2022), and Kolandasamy et al. (2023)
	Potassium solubilizing	Ascomycota, Glomeromycota,	Penicillium, Aspergillus, Fusarium	Nath et al. (2015)
	Ammonia production	Ascomycota	Trichoderma	Kolandasamy et al. (2023)
Biocontrol	Production of antibiotics/ antifungals	Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Glomeromycota	Trichoderma, Glomus, Rhizophagus	Chelangat et al. (2021), Chen W. et al. (2022), and Kolandasamy et al. (2023)
Tolerance to stress	Enhances resistance of tea plant to abiotic stress	Glomeromycota	Trichoderma, Glomus, Glomus, Clariodeoglomus, Rhizophagus	Chelangat et al. (2021), Chen W. et al. (2021), Kolandasamy et al. (2023), and Gao et al. (2023)