Mycorrhizal fungal communities associated with temperate trees
December 9, 2015 @ 12:20 pm
to 01:10 pm
Weile Chen, Penn State
102 Forest Resources Bldg
Mycorrhizal fungi form associations with most land plants and benefit plants in nutrient uptake. These mycorrhizal nutritional benefits may depend largely on the identities and diversity of mycorrhizal fungi within the colonized roots of plants. The Location of the plant host, as well as its identity may regulate the diversity and community composition of mycorrhizal fungi at a local scale, but in situ evidences are rare. The study collected root samples from common temperate trees located at two nearby sties in central Pennsylvania, including trees in the arbuscular mycorrhizal group (e.g. maples) and ectomycorrhizal group (oaks). Fungal DNA was extracted from roots and Next-Gen sequencing techniques were applied to identify the mycorrhizal fungal species. The results showed that mycorrhizal fungal composition differed significantly among host plants, but the difference between site locations was even stronger, especially for arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. These results indicated that the local fungal species pool may be the priority source in shaping the mycorrhizal fungal community with a tree species at local scale, probably due to the dispersal limitations of the mycorrhizal fungi.
Contact
Laura Radville
lur150@psu.edu