Molecular Identification of the Truffles Tirmania pinoyi and Detection of Mycorrhizae Association with the Roots of Wild Helianthemum Species in Western Iraqi Desert

Abstract

Desert truffles are edible fungi formed beneath the soil surface. They are ecologically native to the ecosystem of the Mediterranean, Eastern and Arab Gulf countries of the arid and semi-arid areas. The western Iraqi desert in Al-Anbar Governorate is an important region for truffle production in Iraq. Contrary to the previous seasons, the 2018-2019 in Iraq was an unprecedented in the abundance of truffles and rain averages, their frequencies. The rains spanned from October of 2018 to the end of May 2019. The sample of truffles in this study were collected from the desert and the markets easily recognized into two forms according to their traditional name, appearance, forming nature, delicacy, color, shape, inner tissue color, texture, smell, and sell price. These types were identified as Tirmania spp. and Terfezia spp. as macro and microscopically examination. Histological inspection of a wild Helianthemum spp. (Rugrug plants) roots showed the association of a mycorrhizal fungus. The BLASTn results for the sequence analyses revealed that the truffles that was morphologically identified as Tarminia spp. showed significant alignment with 1066/1066 (99.32%) identity for Tarminia pinoyi. On the other hand, soil sample obtained from around a truffle was of positive DNA extraction also showed significant alignment with 1038/1038 (99.30 %) identity for Tarminia pinoyi ( MK 478864.1). This finding, reported for the first time detection of the fungal truffles in the desert soil from the outside the ascocarps. In addition the association of mycorrhizal fungi with the wild plants Helianthemum roots that collected directly from the desert was confirmed.