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Mycorrhizal fungi associated with Coccoloba uvifera in Colombian tropical dry forest: an approach for ecological restoration
Fecha
2022-07-29Registro en:
instname:Universidad de los Andes
reponame:Repositorio Institucional Séneca
Autor
Chavarro Vargas, Luisa Fernanda
Institución
Resumen
The study of mycorrhizal fungi community composition, diversity, and structure is
important to understand mechanisms of local dynamics of native forests. Despite their
importance and the strong dependency that plant have on these symbiotic fungi, MF are
often overlooked in restoration efforts. This study case focuses on Coccoloba uvifera (sea
grape), a plant species present in tropical dry forests, which an important floristic element
in coastal ecological restoration and commonly propagated in forest nurseries. This species
also forms ectomycorrhizal) associations. This research compares the composition and
diversity of root-associated fungal communities present in seedlings of C. uvifera growing
in natural forest and in a forest nursery with and without natural soil inoculum. To do so
the nursery¿s traditional treatment and a native soil modified one were used to grow C.
uvifera seedlings and measure them after two and four months of growth. After four
months, the entire root system of 32 seedlings was collected for DNA extraction and
quantification of mycorrhizal colonization. DNA sequencing was carried out by amplifying
the fungal ITS2 region using the Illumina miseq platform. In addition, 19 fruiting bodies
of ectomycorrhizal fungi found near the sampled C. uvifera natural populations were
collected. Our results showed strong differences in root-associated fungal community
composition of seedlings growing in different nursery treatments and natural population.
Strikingly, seedling growing in traditional nursery substrates without natural soil inoculum
show very little to no colonization of symbiotic fungi in their roots. Preliminary results of
seedlings growth rate showed no significant differences in plant between treatments after
four months. The characterization of EcM fungal communities associated with of this
iconic tropical dry forest tree species allows the improvement of local restauration and
conservation efforts. The differences found suggest inoculating seedling could be an
effective way of restoring soil microbial communities with plants produced ex-situ for
reforestation.