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Fungal communities in mycorrhizal roots of conifer seedlings in forest nurseries under different cultivation systems, assessed by morphotyping, direct sequencing and mycelial isolation

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Abstract

Fungi colonising root tips of Pinus sylvestris and Picea abies grown under four different seedling cultivation systems were assessed by morphotyping, direct sequencing and isolation methods. Roots were morphotyped using two approaches: (1) 10% of the whole root system from 30 seedlings of each species and (2) 20 randomly selected tips per plant from 300 seedlings of each species. The first approach yielded 15 morphotypes, the second yielded 27, including 18 new morphotypes. The overall community consisted of 33 morphotypes. The level of mycorrhizal colonisation of roots determined by each approach was about 50%. The cultivation system had a marked effect on the level of mycorrhizal colonisation. In pine, the highest level of colonisation (48%) was observed in bare-root systems, while in spruce, colonisation was highest in polyethylene rolls (71%). Direct internal transcribed spacer ribosomal DNA sequencing and isolation detected a total of 93 fungal taxa, including 27 mycorrhizal. A total of 71 (76.3%) fungi were identified at least to a genus level. The overlap between the two methods was low. Only 13 (13.9%) of taxa were both sequenced and isolated, 47 (50.5%) were detected exclusively by sequencing and 33 (35.5%) exclusively by isolation. All isolated mycorrhizal fungi were also detected by direct sequencing. Characteristic mycorrhizas were Phialophora finlandia, Amphinema byssoides, Rhizopogon rubescens, Suillus luteus and Thelephora terrestris. There was a moderate similarity in mycorrhizal communities between pine and spruce and among different cultivation systems.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the staff of Dubrava, Kaunas, Tytuvenai, Varena and Veisejai Forest Enterprises for providing plant material. This research was funded by The Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry (KSLA) and The Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research (MISTRA).

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  1. Department Forest Mycology and Pathology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7026, 750 07, Uppsala, Sweden

    Audrius Menkis, Rimvydas Vasiliauskas, Andrew F. S. Taylor, Jan Stenlid & Roger Finlay

  2. Lithuanian Forest Research Institute, Liepų 1, Girionys, 53101, Kaunas region, Lithuania

    Audrius Menkis

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  1. Audrius Menkis
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  2. Rimvydas Vasiliauskas
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Correspondence to Audrius Menkis.

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Table S1

Frequency of mycorrhizal morphotypes (shown as % of plants colonised/% of mycorrhizal roots colonised) on root tips of P. sylvestris and P. abies seedlings in six Lithuanian forest nurseries under different cultivation systems (PDF 144kb)

Table S2

Frequency of fungal taxa (shown as % of plants colonised/% of mycorrhizal roots colonised) directly sequenced from root tips of P. sylvestris and P. abies seedlings in six Lithuanian forest nurseries under different cultivation systems (PDF 119kb)

Table S3

Frequency of fungi (% of colonised plants/% of total isolates) isolated from the root tips of P. sylvestris and P. abies seedlings in Lithuanian nurseries under different cultivation systems (PDF 103kb)

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Menkis, A., Vasiliauskas, R., Taylor, A.F.S. et al. Fungal communities in mycorrhizal roots of conifer seedlings in forest nurseries under different cultivation systems, assessed by morphotyping, direct sequencing and mycelial isolation. Mycorrhiza 16, 33–41 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00572-005-0011-z

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