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Are fungi from adult orchid roots the best symbionts at germination? A case study

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Abstract

We studied mycobionts from advanced seedlings and adult mycorrhizal roots of the terrestrial orchid Arundina graminifolia. Fungi were isolated, identified by ITS sequencing, and tested for their impact on seed germination, protocorm formation, and development of advanced seedlings (emergence of first leaf) in vitro. Among the six fungal species isolated, four were not standard orchid mycorrhizal fungi (Fusarium solani, Cylindrocarpon sp., Acremonium sp., and Phlebiopsis flavidoalba) and did not support germination beyond imbibition and greening of the seeds during a span of 35 days. Over the same time, one Tulasnella species isolated from adult mycorrhiza allowed protocorm formation but not further development. However, another Tulasnella species isolated from advanced seedlings facilitated development to the advanced seedling stage. Our results support (i) the inability of occasional orchid root colonizers to support late seed germination, and (ii) the growing literature showing that fungal associates can change over orchid development. Functionally, we show that mycorrhizal taxa isolated from advanced seedlings can be more efficient than those from adults in supporting germination in some species, leading to recommendations for ex situ orchid conservation.

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Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to Shicheng Shao, Xuli Fan, and Qiang Liu for field and laboratory assistance, David March for language corrections, and to three referees and Prof. J. Colpaert for helpful comments on earlier versions of this manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key R & D Program of China (2017YFC0505204) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. U1702235 and 31470450).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Integrative Conservation, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, 666303, Yunnan, China

    Yuan-Yuan Meng

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Yuan-Yuan Meng

  3. Laboratory of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650500, Yunnan, China

    Wen-Liu Zhang & Jiang-Yun Gao

  4. Département Systématique et Evolution, UMR 7205 ISYEB, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, CP50, 45 rue Buffon, 75005, Paris, France

    Marc-André Selosse

  5. Faculty of Biology, University of Gdansk, ul. Wita Stwosza 59, 80-308, Gdansk, Poland

    Marc-André Selosse

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  1. Yuan-Yuan Meng
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  4. Jiang-Yun Gao
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Correspondence to Jiang-Yun Gao.

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Two tables (Appendix Table S1 and S2) and two figures (Appendix Fig. S1 and S2) are available online. Queries (other than absence of the material) should be directed to the corresponding author.

Appendix Figure S1

Morphology and microscopic characteristics of six fungal species in PDA medium. A & a for Fusarium solani; B & b for Acremonium sp.1; C & c for Phlebiopsis flavidoalba; D & d for Tulasnella sp.1; E & e for Tulasnella sp.2; F & f for Cylindrocarpon sp.1, respectively. Black and white arrows indicate conidia and monilioid cells. (PNG 1145 kb)

High resolution image (TIF 9213 kb)

Appendix Figure S2

Morphology of an Arundina graminifolia seed at stage 1, showing the greening of enlarging embryos. (PNG 927 kb)

High resolution image (TIF 1246 kb)

Appendix Table S1

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Appendix Table S2

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Meng, YY., Zhang, WL., Selosse, MA. et al. Are fungi from adult orchid roots the best symbionts at germination? A case study. Mycorrhiza 29, 541–547 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00572-019-00907-0

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