Publications
97 results found
Bidartondo MI, Read DJ, Trappe JM, et al., 2011, The dawn of symbiosis between plants and fungi., Biology Letters, ISSN: 1744-957X
The colonization of land by plants relied on fundamental biological innovations, among which was symbiosis with fungi to enhance nutrient uptake. Here we present evidence that several species representing the earliest groups of land plants are symbiotic with fungi of the Mucoromycotina. This finding brings up the possibility that terrestrialization was facilitated by these fungi rather than, as conventionally proposed, by members of the Glomeromycota. Since the 1970s it has been assumed, largely from the observation that vascular plant fossils of the early Devonian (400 Ma) show arbuscule-like structures, that fungi of the Glomeromycota were the earliest to form mycorrhizas, and evolutionary trees have, until now, placed Glomeromycota as the oldest known lineage of endomycorrhizal fungi. Our observation that Endogone-like fungi are widely associated with the earliest branching land plants, and give way to glomeromycotan fungi in later lineages, raises the new hypothesis that members of the Mucoromycotina rather than the Glomeromycota enabled the establishment and growth of early land colonists.
Hardwick KA, Fiedler P, Lee LC, et al., 2011, The role of botanic gardens in the science and practice of ecological restoration., Conservation Biology, ISSN: 1523-1739
Many of the skills and resources associated with botanic gardens and arboreta, including plant taxonomy, horticulture, and seed bank management, are fundamental to ecological restoration efforts, yet few of the world's botanic gardens are involved in the science or practice of restoration. Thus, we examined the potential role of botanic gardens in these emerging fields. We believe a reorientation of certain existing institutional strengths, such as plant-based research and knowledge transfer, would enable many more botanic gardens worldwide to provide effective science-based support to restoration efforts. We recommend botanic gardens widen research to include ecosystems as well as species, increase involvement in practical restoration projects and training practitioners, and serve as information hubs for data archiving and exchange.
Tse-Laurence MA, Bidartondo MI, 2011, Mapping fungi from below ground: online genetic resources and ectomycorrhizal geographic distributions, iForest, Vol: 4, Pages: 252-255
Waterman RJ, Bidartondo MI, Stofberg J, et al., 2011, The effects of above- and belowground mutualisms on orchid speciation and coexistence, American Naturalist, Vol: 177, Pages: E54-E68
Humphreys CP, Franks PJ, Rees M, et al., 2010, Mutualistic mycorrhiza-like symbiosis in the most ancient group of land plants., Nature Communications, Vol: 1, ISSN: 2041-1723
Over 35 years ago, it was hypothesized that mutualistic symbiotic soil fungi assisted land plants in their initial colonization of terrestrial environments. This important idea has become increasingly established with palaeobotanical and molecular investigations dating the interactions between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and land plants to at least 400 Ma, but the functioning of analogous partnerships in 'lower' land plants remains unknown. In this study, we show with multifactorial experiments that colonization of a complex thalloid liverwort, a member of the most ancient extant clade of land plants, with AMF significantly promotes photosynthetic carbon uptake, growth and asexual reproduction. Plant fitness increased through fungal-enhanced acquisition of phosphorus and nitrogen from soil, with each plant supporting 100-400 m of AMF mycelia. A simulated CO(2)-rich atmosphere, similar to that of the Palaeozoic when land plants originated, significantly amplified the net benefits of AMF and likely selection pressures for establishment of the symbiosis. Our analyses provide essential missing functional evidence supporting AMF symbionts as drivers of plant terrestrialization in early Palaeozoic land ecosystems.
Pressel S, Bidartondo MI, Ligrone R, et al., 2010, Fungal symbioses in bryophytes: New insights in the Twenty First Century, Phytotaxa, Vol: 9, Pages: 238-253, ISSN: 1179-3155
Cox F, Barsoum N, Lilleskov EA, et al., 2010, Nitrogen availability is a primary determinant of conifer mycorrhizas across complex environmental gradients., Ecology Letters, Vol: 13, Pages: 1103-1113, ISSN: 1461-0248
Global environmental change has serious implications for functional biodiversity in temperate and boreal forests. Trees depend on mycorrhizal fungi for nutrient uptake, but predicted increases in nitrogen availability may alter fungal communities. To address a knowledge gap regarding the effects of nitrogen availability on mycorrhizal communities at large scales, we examine the relationship between nitrogen and ectomycorrhizas in part of a European biomonitoring network of pine forest plots. Our analyses show that increased nitrogen reduces fungal diversity and causes shifts in mycorrhizal community composition across plots, but we do not find strong evidence that within-plot differences in nitrogen availability affect ectomycorrhizal communities. We also carry out exploratory analyses to determine the relative importance of other environmental variables in structuring mycorrhizal communities, and discuss the potential use of indicator species to predict nitrogen-induced shifts in fungal communities.
Liebel HT, Bidartondo MI, Preiss K, et al., 2010, Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope signatures reveal constraints to nutritional modes in orchids from the Mediterranean and Macaronesia., AM J BOT, Vol: 97, Pages: 903-912, ISSN: 0002-9122
We compared the nutritional modes and habitats of orchids (e.g., autotrophic, partially or fully mycoheterotrophic) of the Mediterranean region and adjacent islands of Macaronesia. We hypothesized that ecological factors (e.g., relative light availability, surrounding vegetation) determine the nutritional modes of orchids and thus impose restrictions upon orchid distribution. Covering habitats from dark forests to open sites, orchid samples of 35 species from 14 genera were collected from 20 locations in the Mediterranean and Macaronesia to test for mycoheterotrophy. Mycorrhizal fungi were identified via molecular analyses, and stable isotope analyses were applied to test whether organic nutrients are gained from the fungal associates. Our results show that orchids with partial or full mycoheterotrophy among the investigated species are found exclusively in Neottieae thriving in light-limited forests. Neottioid orchids are missing in Macaronesia, possibly because mycoheterotrophy is constrained by the lack of suitable ectomycorrhizal fungi. Furthermore, most adult orchids of open habitats in the Mediterranean and Macaronesia show weak or no N gains from fungi and no C gain through mycoheterotrophy. Instead isotope signatures of some of these species indicate net plant-to-fungus C transfer.
Bidartondo MI, Duckett JG, 2010, Conservative ecological and evolutionary patterns in liverwort-fungal symbioses, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Vol: 277, Pages: 485-492, ISSN: 0962-8452
Liverworts, the most ancient group of land plants, form a range of intimate associations with fungi that may be analogous to the mycorrhizas of vascular plants. Most thalloid liverworts contain arbuscular mycorrhizal glomeromycete fungi similar to most vascular plants. In contrast, a range of leafy liverwort genera and one simple thalloid liverwort family (the Aneuraceae) have switched to basidiomycete fungi. These liverwort switches away from glomeromycete fungi may be expected to parallel switches undergone by vascular plants that target diverse lineages of basidiomycete fungi to form ectomycorrhizas. To test this hypothesis, we used a cultivation-independent approach to examine the basidiomycete fungi associated with liverworts in varied worldwide locations by generating fungal DNA sequence data from over 200 field collections of over 30 species. Here we show that eight leafy liverwort genera predominantly and consistently associate with members of the Sebacina vermifera species complex and that Aneuraceae thalloid liverworts associate nearly exclusively with Tulasnella species. Furthermore, within sites where multiple liverwort species co-occur, they almost never share the same fungi. Our analyses reveal a strikingly conservative ecological and evolutionary pattern of liverwort symbioses with basidiomycete fungi that is unlike that of vascular plant mycorrhizas.
Arnold AE, Lamit LJ, Gehring CA, et al., 2010, Interwoven branches of the plant and fungal trees of life, New Phytologist, Vol: 185, Pages: 874-878, ISSN: 0028-646X
Cox F, Barsoum N, Bidartondo MI, et al., 2010, A leap forward in geographic scale for forest ectomycorrhizal fungi, Annals of Forest Science, Vol: 67, ISSN: 1286-4560
Peay KG, Bidartondo MI, Arnold AE, 2010, Not every fungus is everywhere: scaling to the biogeography of fungal-plant interactions across roots, shoots and ecosystems, New Phytologist, Vol: 185, Pages: 878-882, ISSN: 0028-646X
Liebel HT, Bidartondo MI, Preiss K, et al., 2010, C and N stable isotope signatures reveal constraints to nutritional modes in orchids from the Mediterranean and Macaronesia., American Journal of Botany, Vol: 6, Pages: 903-912
Merckx V, Bidartondo MI, Hynson NA, 2009, Myco-heterotrophy: when fungi host plants, Annals of Botany, Vol: 104, Pages: 1255-1261, ISSN: 0305-7364
Myco-heterotrophic plants are partly or entirely non-photosynthetic plants that obtain energy and nutrients from fungi. These plants form a symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal, ectomycorrhizal or saprotrophic fungi to meet their nutrient demands.This Botanical Briefing summarizes current knowledge about myco-heterotrophy, discusses its controversial aspects and highlights future directions for research.Considerable recent progress has been made in terms of understanding the evolutionary history, germination and nutrition of myco-heterotrophic plants. Myco-heterotrophic plants: (1) are diverse and often ancient lineages that have coevolved with fungi, (2) often demonstrate unusually high specificity towards fungi during germination and maturity, and (3) can either cheat common mycorrhizal networks supported by neighbouring photosynthetic plants to satisfy all or part of their energetic and nutritional needs, or recruit free-living saprotrophic fungi into novel mycorrhizal symbioses. However, several fundamental aspects of myco-heterotrophy remain controversial or unknown, such as symbiotic costs and physiology.
Collier FA, Bidartondo MI, 2009, Waiting for fungi: the ectomycorrhizal invasion of lowland heathlands, Journal of Ecology, Vol: 97, Pages: 950-963, ISSN: 0022-0477
P>1. In England, the loss of lowland heathland, a habitat of global conservation importance, is primarily due to the invasion of birch and pine. This encroachment has been researched in depth from a plant perspective but little is known about the role of mycorrhizal fungi. In lowland heathlands the resident dwarf shrubs form ericoid mycorrhizas whereas invading trees form ectomycorrhizas. Therefore, tree encroachment into heathlands can be regarded as the replacement of a resident mycorrhizal community by an invading one.2. This study examined how fungi form mycorrhizas with Betula and Pinus in lowland heathlands. We addressed the question of whether there are mycorrhizal fungi that mediate invasion using a molecular ecology approach to compare the mycorrhizal inoculum potential of soil at three levels of invasion (uninvaded heathland, invaded heathland and woodland) and the fungi forming mycorrhizas on tree seedlings and trees across diverse sites.3. We show that in lowland heathlands: (i) seedlings have severely limited access to ectomycorrhizal fungi relative to woodlands, (ii) there are few keystone spore-dispersed ectomycorrhizal fungi that can mediate tree invasion, (iii) tree seedlings can remain non-mycorrhizal for at least one year when no inoculum is present, even near saplings, and (iv) mycorrhizal seedlings achieve greater biomass than non-mycorrhizal seedlings. Within uninvaded heathland we detected only Rhizopogon luteolus, Suillus variegatus, S. bovinus (Pinus symbionts) and Laccaria proxima (primarily a Betula symbiont).4.Synthesis. Overall, ectomycorrhizal inoculum in lowland heathlands is rare; most tree seedlings growing in heathland soil are not mycorrhizal due to limited spore dispersal, poorly developed spore banks and weak common mycorrhizal networks. These seedlings can persist awaiting mycorrhization to boost their growth.
Brock PM, Döring H, Bidartondo MI, 2009, How to know unknown fungi: the role of a herbarium., New Phytologist, Vol: 181, Pages: 719-724, ISSN: 1469-8137
The development of a universal approach to the identification of fungi from the environment is impeded by the limited number and narrow phylogenetic range of the named internal transcribed spacer DNA sequences available on GenBank. The goal here was to assess the potential impact of systematic DNA sequencing from a fungal herbarium collection. DNA sequences were generated from a diverse set of 279 specimens deposited at the fungal herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew (UK) and bioinformatic analyses were used to study their overlap with the public database. It is estimated that c. 70% of the herbarium taxonomic diversity is not yet represented in GenBank and that a further c. 10% of our sequences match solely to 'environmental samples' or fungi otherwise unidentified. Here it is shown that the unsampled diversity residing in fungal herbaria can substantially enlarge the coverage of GenBank's fully identified sequence pool to ameliorate the problem of environmental unknowns and to aid in the detection of truly novel fungi by molecular data.
Bidartondo MI, Read DJ, 2008, Fungal specificity bottlenecks during orchid germination and development, Molecular Ecology, Vol: 17, Pages: 3707-3716, ISSN: 0962-1083
Fungus-subsidized growth through the seedling stage is the most critical feature of the life history for the thousands of mycorrhizal plant species that propagate by means of 'dust seeds.' We investigated the extent of specificity towards fungi shown by orchids in the genera Cephalanthera and Epipactis at three stages of their life cycle: (i) initiation of germination, (ii) during seedling development, and (iii) in the mature photosynthetic plant. It is known that in the mature phase, plants of these genera can be mycorrhizal with a number of fungi that are simultaneously ectomycorrhizal with the roots of neighbouring forest trees. The extent to which earlier developmental stages use the same or a distinctive suite of fungi was unclear. To address this question, a total of 1500 packets containing orchid seeds were buried for up to 3 years in diverse European forest sites which either supported or lacked populations of helleborine orchids. After harvest, the fungi associated with the three developmental stages, and with tree roots, were identified via cultivation-independent molecular methods. While our results show that most fungal symbionts are ectomycorrhizal, differences were observed between orchids in the representation of fungi at the three life stages. In Cephalanthera damasonium and C. longifolia, the fungi detected in seedlings were only a subset of the wider range seen in germinating seeds and mature plants. In Epipactis atrorubens, the fungi detected were similar at all three life stages, but different fungal lineages produced a difference in seedling germination performance. Our results demonstrate that there can be a narrow checkpoint for mycorrhizal range during seedling growth relative to the more promiscuous germination and mature stages of these plants' life cycle.
Merckx V, Bidartondo MI, 2008, Breakdown and delayed cospeciation in the arbuscular mycorrhizal mutualism., Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Vol: 275, Pages: 1029-1035, ISSN: 0962-8452
The ancient arbuscular mycorrhizal association between the vast majority of plants and the fungal phylum Glomeromycota is a dominant nutritional mutualism worldwide. In the mycorrhizal mutualism, plants exchange photosynthesized carbohydrates for mineral nutrients acquired by fungi from the soil. This widespread cooperative arrangement is broken by 'cheater' plant species that lack the ability to photosynthesize and thus become dependent upon three-partite linkages (cheater-fungus-photosynthetic plant). Using the first fine-level coevolutionary analysis of mycorrhizas, we show that extreme fidelity towards fungi has led cheater plants to lengthy evolutionary codiversification. Remarkably, the plants' evolutionary history closely mirrors that of their considerably older mycorrhizal fungi. This demonstrates that one of the most diffuse mutualistic networks is vulnerable to the emergence, persistence and speciation of highly specific cheaters.
Bidartondo MI, Bruns TD, Blackwell M, et al., 2008, Preserving accuracy in GenBank, Science, Vol: 319, Pages: 1616-1616, ISSN: 0036-8075
Waterman RJ, Bidartondo MI, 2008, Deception above, deception below: linking pollination and mycorrhizal biology of orchids, Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol: 59, Pages: 1085-1096, ISSN: 0022-0957
Several key characteristics of the species-rich orchid family are due to its symbiotic relationships with pollinators and mycorrhizal fungi. The majority of species are insect pollinated and show strong adaptations for outcrossing, such as pollination by food- and sexual-deception, and all orchids are reliant on mycorrhizal fungi for successful seedling establishment. Recent studies of orchid pollination biology have shed light on the barriers to reproductive isolation important to diversification in different groups of deceptive orchids. Molecular identification of orchid mycorrhizal fungi has revealed high fungal specificity in orchids that obtain organic nutrients from fungi as adults. Both pollinator and fungal specificity have been proposed as drivers of orchid diversification. Recent findings in orchid pollination and mycorrhizal biology are reviewed and it is shown that both associations are likely to affect orchid distribution and population structure. Integrating studies of these symbioses will shed light on the unparalleled diversification of the orchid family.
Bidartondo MI, 2005, The evolutionary ecology of myco-heterotrophy., New Phytologist, Vol: 167, Pages: 335-352, ISSN: 0028-646X
Nonphotosynthetic mycorrhizal plants have long attracted the curiosity of botanists and mycologists, and they have been a target for unabated controversy and speculation. In fact, these puzzling plants dominated the very beginnings of the field of mycorrhizal biology. However, only recently has the mycorrhizal biology of this diverse group of plants begun to be systematically unravelled, largely following a landmark Tansley review a decade ago and crucial developments in the field of molecular ecology. Here I explore our knowledge of these evolutionarily and ecologically diverse plant-fungal symbioses, highlighting areas where there has been significant progress. The focus is on what is arguably the best understood example, the monotropoid mycorrhizal symbiosis, and the overarching goal is to lay out the questions that remain to be answered about the biology of myco-heterotrophy and epiparasitism.
Bidartondo MI, Bruns TD, 2005, On the origins of extreme mycorrhizal specificity in the Monotropoideae (Ericaceae): performance trade-offs during seed germination and seedling development., Molecular Ecology, Vol: 14, Pages: 1549-1560, ISSN: 0962-1083
Fungal-induced seed germination is a phenomenon characteristic of mycorrhizal plants that produce dust-like seeds with only minimal nutritional reserves. In such systems, fungi trigger germination and/or subsidize development. We studied mycorrhizal germination in relation to mycorrhizal specificity in the Monotropoideae, a lineage of dust-seeded non-photosynthetic plants that are dependent upon ectomycorrhizal fungi of forest trees. A total of 1695 seed packets, each containing two to five compartments with seeds from different sources, were buried for up to 2 years near known ectomycorrhizal fungi in six different native forest locations. Upon harvest, seedlings were analysed by cultivation-independent molecular methods to identify their mycorrhizal fungi. We report that (i) germination is only induced by the same fungus that associates with mature plants or by closely related congeners; (ii) seedlings associated with the latter fungi develop less than those associated with maternal fungal species in most settings; and (iii) exceptions to this pattern occur in allopatric settings, where novel plant-fungal associations can result in the greatest seedling development. We interpret these results as evidence of performance trade-offs between breadth of host range and rate of development. We propose that in conjunction with host-derived germination cues, performance trade-offs can explain the extreme mycorrhizal specificity observed at maturity. The allopatric exceptions support the idea that performance trade-offs may be based on a coevolutionary arms race and that host range can be broadened most readily when naive fungal hosts are encountered in novel settings.
Martin I Bidartondo, Monique Gardes, 2005, Fungal diversity in molecular terms: profiling, identification, and quantification in the environment., The Fungal Community, Editors: Dighton J, White JF, Oudemans PV, Boca Raton, Florida, Publisher: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, Pages: 215-239, ISBN: 9780824723552
Bidartondo MI, Burghardt B, Gebauer G, et al., 2004, Changing partners in the dark: isotopic and molecular evidence of ectomycorrhizal liaisons between forest orchids and trees., Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Vol: 271, Pages: 1799-1806, ISSN: 0962-8452
In the mycorrhizal symbiosis, plants exchange photosynthates for mineral nutrients acquired by fungi from the soil. This mutualistic arrangement has been subverted by hundreds of mycorrhizal plant species that lack the ability to photosynthesize. The most numerous examples of this behaviour are found in the largest plant family, the Orchidaceae. Although these non-photosynthetic orchid species are known to be highly specialized exploiters of the ectomycorrhizal symbiosis, photosynthetic orchids are thought to use free-living saprophytic, or pathogenic, fungal lineages. However, we present evidence that putatively photosynthetic orchids from five species which grow in the understorey of forests: (i) form mycorrhizas with ectomycorrhizal fungi of forest trees; and (ii) have stable isotope signatures indicating distinctive pathways for nitrogen and carbon acquisition approaching those of non-photosynthetic orchids that associate with ectomycorrhizal fungi of forest trees. These findings represent a major shift in our understanding of both orchid ecology and evolution because they explain how orchids can thrive in low-irradiance niches and they show that a shift to exploiting ectomycorrhizal fungi precedes viable losses of photosynthetic ability in orchid lineages.
Leake JR, McKendrick SL, Bidartondo M, et al., 2004, Symbiotic germination and development of the myco-heterotroph Monotropa hypopitys in nature and its requirement for locally distributed Tricholoma spp., New Phytologist, Vol: 163, Pages: 405-423, ISSN: 0028-646X
Germination and symbiotic development of the myco-heterotrophic plant Monotropa hypopitys were studied by sequential recovery of packets of seed buried in dune slacks in relation to distance from mature M. hypopitys and presence and absence of shoots of its autotrophic coassociate Salix repens.Fungal associates of M. hypopitys growing under S. repens in the dune slacks, and under S. caprea and Pinus sylvestris at two other locations in the UK, were identified by molecular analysis.While the earliest stage of germination could be found in the absence both of mature M. hypopitys, and S. repens, further development was dependent upon mycorrhizal colonisation, which was most common close to these plants. Molecular analysis showed that when growing with Salix, M. hypopitys associated with the Salix-specific ectomycorrhizal fungus Tricholoma cingulatum, whereas under Pinus it was colonised by the closely related, Pinaceae-specific, T. terreum.We establish the first definitive chronology of development of M. hypopitys and highlight its critical dependence upon, and specificity for, locally distributed Tricholoma species that link the myco-heterotroph to its autotrophic coassociates. (C) New Phytologist (2004).
Bidartondo MI, Bruns TD, Weiss M, et al., 2003, Specialized cheating of the ectomycorrhizal symbiosis by an epiparasitic liverwort., Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Vol: 270, Pages: 835-842, ISSN: 0962-8452
Many non-photosynthetic vascular plants in 10 diverse families obtain all of their carbon from fungi, but in most cases the fungi and the ultimate sources of carbon are unknown. In a few cases, such plants have been shown to be epiparasitic because they obtain carbon from neighbouring green plants through shared mycorrhizal fungi. In all such cases, the epiparasitic plants have been found to specialize upon narrow lineages of ecto- or arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Here we show that a non-vascular plant, the non-photosynthetic liverwort Cryptothallus mirabilis, is epiparasitic and is specialized on Tulasnella species that form ectomycorrhizae with surrounding trees at four locations in England, France and Portugal. By using microcosm experiments we show that the interaction with Tulasnella is necessary for growth of Cryptothallus, and by using labelling experiments we show that (14)CO(2) provided to birch seedlings is transferred to Cryptothallus by Tulasnella. This is one of the first documented cases of epiparasitism by a non-vascular plant and of ectomycorrhizal formation by Tulasnella. These results broaden the emerging association between epiparasitism and mycorrhizal specialization into a new class of plants and a new order of fungi.
Russell AJ, Bidartondo MI, Butterfield BG, 2002, The root nodules of the Podocarpaceae harbour arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, New Phytologist, Vol: 156, Pages: 283-295, ISSN: 0028-646X
Here we present the ultrastructure and molecular identification of the fungi in the mycorrhizal nodules of four species of Podocarpaceae endemic to New Zealand. Podocarps form a major component of the rain forest of New Zealand, where they grow on soils poor in extractable phosphate and high in organic matter.Histological studies showed that the mycorrhizal nodules develop as modified lateral roots, and are colonised by an endophytic fungus. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy showed the fungus to contain intracellular coils and arbuscules typical of the order Glomales.DNA was extracted and amplified using PCR to identify mycorrhizal fungi. Several different lineages of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi colonising the nodules were identified. Individual nodules contained more than one fungal lineage.This study is the first to indicate species of Glomales present in the New Zealand rain forest. It is likely that many of the taxa sampled are new to science because there has been little taxonomic work on Australasian Glomales.
Bidartondo MI, Redecker D, Hijri I, et al., 2002, Epiparasitic plants specialized on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, NATURE, Vol: 419, Pages: 389-392, ISSN: 0028-0836
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Bruns T, Tan J, Bidartondo M, et al., 2002, Survival of Suillus pungens and Amanita francheti ectomycorrhizal genets was rare or absent after a stand-replacing wildfire, New Phytologist, Vol: 155, Pages: 517-523, ISSN: 0028-646X
We looked for evidence of mycelial survival by Suillus pungens and Amanita francheti following a stand-replacing wildfire. These species were selected because we had previously mapped and genotyped their fruiting bodies in the pre-fire forest.Mycelial survival was investigated in two ways. First, we sampled seedlings in areas where these species had fruited abundantly before the fire, and second, we collected and genotyped mushrooms of S. pungens.Neither species was detected on seedlings within the areas sampled, and A. francheti was not detected in any above- or below-ground samples after the fire. Genetic evidence from S. pungens revealed that post-fire genets were small and numerous, and none were found to be identical to the genets sampled prior to the fire.From these results we conclude that A. francheti was not a common survivor or an early colonist of the post-fire forest, and that spores are the primary means by which S. pungens recolonized. If mycelial survival occurred in either species, it must have been relatively rare.
Bruns TD, Bidartondo MI, Taylor DL, 2002, Host specificity in ectomycorrhizal communities: What do the exceptions tell us?, Integrative and Comparative Biology, Pages: 352-359, ISSN: 1540-7063
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