Resupinate Ectomycorrhizal Fungal Genera

Abstract

Molecular methods have facilitated the identification of the ectomycorrhizal (ECM) mycobionts on single root tips and there are an increasing number of studies which compare ECM community structure both on the roots below and as sporocarps above ground (Mehmann et al. 1995; Gardes and Bruns 1996; Dahlberg et al. 1997; Jonsson et al. 1999). A feature common to most of these studies is the low correlation between species which are abundant as sporocarps and species which are abundant on the roots. In addition, many of the species which do occur abundantly on the roots have evaded identification despite access to reference libraries of RFLP-patterns (Kårén et al. 1997) and to identification guides for ECM (Agerer 1986–1997; Ingleby et al. 1990; Haug and Pritsch 1992) even where these have contained the majority of the ECM macromycetes fruiting in the studied areas. It is thought that some ECM fungi may not form sporocarps, while others may form inconspicuous sporocarps which are easily overlooked (Smith and Read 1997).