Abstract
Flooding is an environmental stress for plants that not only limits aeration and nutrient acquisition, but also disturbs underground plant-associated fungal communities. Despite frequent flooding, red pine (Pinus densiflora) seedlings thrive in streamside environments. However, whether the compatible ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF) of red pine are affected by natural flooding is unclear. As EMF are vital symbionts for the development of many trees and allow them to overcome various environmental stresses, in this study, the EMF species associated with red pine seedlings in a streamside environment in Korea were investigated after flooding. The EMF species in 47 seedlings collected from the streamside site were identified by observing their different morphotypes using internal transcribed spacer sequence analysis, and a total of 10 EMF species were identified. The EMF species diversity was lower than that in samples collected from a nearby forest analyzed as a control. The dominant EMF species of streamside seedlings included Amphinema spp., Rhizopogon luteolus, Suillus luteus, and Thelephora terrestris. This study could serve as a basis for investigating the mechanisms by which advantageous EMF aid plant development under flooding stress.
Highlights
Ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF) uptake nutrients and water through the extension of hyphae, which they exchange with host plants for carbon [1]
The EMF species composition of 62 red pine seedlings was determined by morphotype sequencing
23 EMF species were identified in seedlings from the streamside habitat and the nearby forest, all of which were similar to the commonly reported EMF species of red pine seedlings in forests and disturbed areas [17,18,24,25,26]
Summary
Ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF) uptake nutrients and water through the extension of hyphae, which they exchange with host plants for carbon [1]. In addition to assisting with the acquisition of essential nutrients and water, EMF allow plants to tolerate various detrimental environmental factors, such as droughts, flooding, and high heavy metal, salt, and organic pollutant concentrations [2,3,4,5,6,7]. Previous studies on ectomycorrhizal plants inhabiting regions that naturally flood reported that ectomycorrhizal formation is uncommon or infrequent [6,11]. Some woody plants have been reported to form ectomycorrhizae when submerged in water, including Populus sp. Some woody plants have been reported to form ectomycorrhizae when submerged in water, including Populus sp. and Salix sp. [12,13], and
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