Subject: Symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi resources

From: Steve Diver <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 6 Sep 2002 13:35:43 -0500

"Lawrence F. London, Jr." wrote:

> Topics I am interested in learning more about include:

> mycorrhizal fungi
> ectomycorrhizal fungi
> endomycorrhizal fungi

See my resource listing; expanded and updated December 2001.
It lists mycorrhizal suppliers and features key web- and print-based
resources on mycorrhizae; some fascinating knowledge exists
amongst all these resource links.

Symbiotic Mycorrhizal Fungi:  Quarterback of the Microbial
Herd
http://ncatark.uark.edu/~steved/mycorrhizae.html

Want to go even deeper, check out these rough web
notes containing additional resources; some very good;
supplemental to the above resource list.

Index of /~steved/archives/mycorrhizae
http://ncatark.uark.edu/~steved/archives/mycorrhizae/

I was teaching a workshop and found it helpful to
provide this analogy.  It may not be 100% botanically
accurate in every situation, but it helps to get
people into mycorrhizae-land fairly quickly.

Mycorrhizae is the root-fungus association, not the fungus
itself.   Though, it is accurate to say mycorrhizal fungi
to indicate their ability to form symbiotic mycorrhizal associations.

Think of lichen growing on trees.  Lichen is an
association of algae and fungi, an above-ground
symbiosis.  The fusion of these two organisms
actually creates a new organism that has tissue
growth which looks distinctly different from the
parent organisms.

Mycorrhizae is an association of mycorrhizal
fungi and plant roots, a below-ground symbiosis.
Some mycorrhizal associations actually grow a
form of fused root-fungus tissue that extends a few
millimeters into the surrounding soil, thus expanding
the plant root rhizosphere and therefore the plant's
ability to acquire water and nutrients.

Here's another one.  In one of those web note
resources, a forestry publication from Canada,
it says that a typical forest in British Columbia
may contain 4,000 to 5,000 species of
fungus that form mycorrhizal associations
with tree root systems.

Best,
Steve Diver
ATTRA

.