title: Root-associated fungi of Rosa rugosa grown on the frontal dunes of the Baltic Sea Coast in Lithuania.
abstract: The aim of the present study was to assess fungal communities associated with fine living roots of Rosa rugosa Thunb grown on the frontal dunes of Curonian Spit at the Baltic Sea coast in Lithuania. The roots of R. rugosa were sampled at five sites (Nida, Preila, Pervalka, Juodkrante and Smiltyne) situated at a distance ca. 5-15 km from each other. Direct amplification, cloning and sequencing of fungal ITS rRNA from the fine roots resulted in 134 high-quality sequences, representing 31 fungal taxa among which saprotrophs and endophytes Mycena sp. (14.2 %), Tumularia sp. (14.2 %), Penicillium spinulosum (11.9 %) and Cadophora malorum (9.0 %) were most common. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi including Entrophospora baltica (0.7 %) and Rhizophagus irregularis (0.7 %) and potentially root pathogenic fungi--Ceratobasidium sp. (4.5 %), Fusarium oxysporum (3.0 %), Fusarium culmorum (0.7 %) and Ilyonectria crassa (0.7 %)--were also detected at low proportions. In conclusion, the results demonstrated that the fine roots of R. rugosa are inhabited by various groups of fungi. Although saprotrophs and endophytes were dominant, the detection of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi indicated that these may be important for mineral nutrition of R. rugosa established on dry and poor fertility coastal dunes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology, Uppsala BioCenter, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7026, SE-750 07, Uppsala, Sweden, Audrius.Menkis@slu.se.
authors.forename: Audrius
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Menkis
authors.forename: Katarina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ihrmark
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stenlid
authors.forename: Rimvydas
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vasaitis
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer / Q000235:genetics; D060026:Endophytes / Q000502:physiology; D004777:Environment; D005658:Fungi / Q000502:physiology*; D008097:Lithuania; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D038821:Mycorrhizae / Q000502:physiology; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000382:microbiology / Q000502:physiology; D012331:RNA, Fungal / Q000235:genetics; D027826:Rosa / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000502:physiology*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer; D012331:RNA, Fungal