The Community of Fine Root Fungi of Silver Fir (Abies alba Mill.) Saplings

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the biodiversity of fungi colonizing the fine roots (diameter up to 2 mm) of 3-year-old silver fir saplings from areas of Międzylesie Forest District in Poland. It was hypothesized that quantitatively and qualitatively, mycorrhizal fungi would be the dominant fungi in root communities of silver fir. DNA extraction was performed using Plant Genomic DNA purification. The internal transcribed spacer1 (ITS1) rDNA region was amplified using specific primers, and the amplicons were purified and sequenced using sequencing by synthesis (SBS) Illumina technology. The obtained sequences were compared with reference sequences in the UNITE database (https://unite.ut.ee/) using the basic local alignment search tool (BLAST) algorithm to facilitate species identification. A total of 307,511 OTUs was obtained from each sample. There were 246,477 OTUs (80.15%) of fungi known from cultures. The genera Tuber spp. (7.51%) and Acephala spp. (3.23%) accounted for the largest share of the fungal communities on the fine roots of fir trees. Hence our results indicate the dominance of mycorrhizal fungi in these communities and reflect the excellent quality of the saplings that were assessed. Pathogenic fungi constituted a much smaller share of the fungal communities.