Characterization of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus communities of Aquilaria crassna and Tectona grandis roots and soils in Thailand plantations

Amornrat Chaiyasen*, J. Peter W Young, Neung Teaumroong, Paiboolya Gavinlertvatana, Saisamorn Lumyong

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Aquilaria crassna Pierre ex Lec. and Tectona grandis Linn.f. are sources of resin-suffused agarwood and teak timber, respectively. This study investigated arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungus community structure in roots and rhizosphere soils of A. crassna and T. grandis from plantations in Thailand to understand whether AM fungal communities present in roots and rhizosphere soils vary with host plant species and study sites. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism complemented with clone libraries revealed that AM fungal community composition in A. crassna and T. grandis were similar. A total of 38 distinct terminal restriction fragments (TRFs) were found, 31 of which were shared between A. crassna and T. grandis. AM fungal communities in T. grandis samples from different sites were similar, as were those in A. crassna. The estimated average minimum numbers of AM fungal taxa per sample in roots and soils of T. grandis were at least 1.89 vs. 2.55, respectively, and those of A. crassna were 2.85 vs. 2.33 respectively. The TRFs were attributed to Claroideoglomeraceae, Diversisporaceae, Gigasporaceae and Glomeraceae. The Glomeraceae were found to be common in all study sites. Specific AM taxa in roots and soils of T. grandis and A. crassna were not affected by host plant species and sample source (root vs. soil) but affected by collecting site. Future inoculum production and utilization efforts can be directed toward the identified symbiotic associates of these valuable tree species to enhance reforestation efforts.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere112591
JournalPLoS ONE
Volume9
Issue number11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Nov 2014

Bibliographical note

Copyright: 2014 Chaiyasen et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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