Arbuscular mycorrhizal community in a permanent pasture and development of species-specific primers for detection and quantification of two AM fungi / Zaida Ines Antoniolli.

Abstract

The 152 species of mycorrhizal fungi can be difficult to identify and quantify because the taxonomy of these fungi is based on the description of spores, which is time consuming, requires considerable expertise and cannot be assumed to reflect the situation within the root. Few attempts have been made to identify the species which are present in roots. Several approaches have been identified in previous work and the development of sensitive molecular methods for identification and quantification of two species of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are described in this study. Mycorrhizal fungal communities were sampled in both natural and agricultural ecosystems at two sites in South Australia. The combination of spore identification from trap culture and field-collected soil promises to be an effective means to study diversity of AM fungi in a particular system. PCR primers for Glomus mosseae and Gigaspora margarita were designed from the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences of field-collected spores, with the aim of providing tools for field diagnosis.