| Abstract Detail
Ecology/Pathology Huggins, Julia [1], Kennedy, Peter G. [1]. Unlocking environmental keys to host specificity: differential tolerance of acidity and nitrate by Alnus-associated ectomycorrhizal fungi. The ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungal communities associated with the host genus Alnus have been widely noted for their low richness and high proportion of genus-specific species, but the processes underlying their atypical structure remain poorly understood. In this study, we investigated whether the acidity and nitrate concentrations characteristic of Alnus soils may act as important environmental filters that limit the membership in Alnus ECM fungal communities. Using a pure culture approach, we grew four species from each host group (Alnus vs. non-Alnus) in liquid media containing a range of acidity and nitrate concentrations. We found that the growth of the Alnus-associated ECM fungi was not, on average, affected by high acidity, while the non-Alnus-associated ECM fungi had a significantly negative growth response under the same conditions. Similarly, when grown at high nitrate, the non-Alnus-associated ECM fungi also generally performed more poorly.  The growth responses of the Alnus-associated ECM fungi in both the high acidity and high nitrate treatments indicated tolerance rather than preference for those chemical conditions. The mechanism underlying the differential acidity tolerance may involve active hyphal buffering of local acidity environments. Taken together, our results suggest that soil chemical conditions likely do act as significant environmental filters that, along with a range of other factors, drive the atypical specificity of Alnus ECM interactions.
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1 - University of Minnesota , Plant Biology, 1445 Gortner Ave., 250 Biological Science Center, St. Paul, MN, 55108, United States
Keywords:
host specificity.
Presentation Type: Offered Paper - Paper
Session: 15
Location: Auditorium/Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center
Date: Wednesday, June 11th, 2014
Time: 11:15 AM
Number: 15004
Abstract ID:195
Candidate for Awards:None |
