Abstract
The quality of seedlings colonized by Tuber melanosporum is one of the main factors that contributes to the success or failure of a truffle crop. Truffle cultivation has quickly grown in European countries and elsewhere, so a commonly shared seedling evaluation method is needed. Five evaluation methods are currently published in the literature: three are used in Spain and two in France and Italy. Although all estimate the percentage colonization by T. melanosporum mycorrhizae, they do it in different ways. Two methods also estimate total number of mycorrhizae per seedling. Most are destructive. In this work, ten batches of holm oak seedlings inoculated with T. melanosporum from two different nurseries were evaluated by means of the five methods noted above. Some similarity was detected between the percentages of T. melanosporum mycorrhizae estimated by each method but not in their ability to assess the suitability of each batch. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages for each method and suggest approaches to reach consensus within the truffle culture industry for certifying mycorrhizal colonization by T. melanosporum and seedling quality.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the INIA (Ministry of Science and Innovation, Spanish Government) within the project RTA 2010-00070-C02-01. The authors would like to thank the support of Domizia Donnini, Christine Fischer, Carlos Palazón, Santiago Reyna, Sergi García-Barreda, and Gerard Chevalier, for their insightful comments, and Luz Cocina, Jorge Lora, Afif Headly, Alessandra Zambonelli, and Randy Molina for an early revision of the manuscript. Finally, we are also very grateful to the owners of the nurseries for their generous help.
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Andrés-Alpuente, A., Sánchez, S., Martín, M. et al. Comparative analysis of different methods for evaluating quality of Quercus ilex seedlings inoculated with Tuber melanosporum . Mycorrhiza 24 (Suppl 1), 29–37 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00572-014-0563-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00572-014-0563-x