Jump to main content
US EPA
United States Environmental Protection Agency
Search
Search
Main menu
Environmental Topics
Laws & Regulations
About EPA
Health & Environmental Research Online (HERO)
Contact Us
Print
Feedback
Export to File
Search:
This record has one attached file:
Add More Files
Attach File(s):
Display Name for File*:
Save
Citation
Tags
HERO ID
3307334
Reference Type
Journal Article
Title
The molecular revolution in ectomycorrhizal ecology: peeking into the black-box
Author(s)
Horton, TR; Bruns, TD
Year
2001
Is Peer Reviewed?
1
Journal
Molecular Ecology
ISSN:
0962-1083
EISSN:
1365-294X
Publisher
WILEY-BLACKWELL
Location
HOBOKEN
Volume
10
Issue
8
Page Numbers
1855-1871
PMID
11555231
Web of Science Id
WOS:000170667500001
Abstract
Molecular tools have now been applied for the past 5 years to dissect ectomycorrhizal (EM) community structure, and they have propelled a resurgence in interest in the field. Results from these studies have revealed that: (i) EM communities are impressively diverse and are patchily distributed at a fine scale below ground; (ii) there is a poor correspondence between fungi that appear dominant as sporocarps vs. those that appear dominant on roots; (iii) members of Russulaceae, Thelephoraceae, and/or non-thelephoroid resupinates are among the most abundant EM taxa in ecosystems sampled to date; (iv) dissimilar plants are associated with many of the same EM species when their roots intermingle - this occurs on a small enough spatial scale that fungal individuals are likely to be shared by dissimilar plants; and (v) mycoheterotrophic plants have highly specific fungal associations. Although, these results have been impressive, they have been tempered by sampling difficulties and limited by the taxonomic resolution of restriction fragment length polymorphism methods. Minor modifications of the sampling schemes, and more use of direct sequencing, has the potential to solve these problems. Use of additional methods, such as in situ hybridization to ribosomal RNA or hybridization coupled to microarrays, are necessary to open up the analysis of the mycelial component of community structure.
Keywords
community ecology; ectomycorrhizae; fungi; PCR
Home
Learn about HERO
Using HERO
Search HERO
Projects in HERO
Risk Assessment
Transparency & Integrity