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. 2023 Jun 15;9(6):678.
doi: 10.3390/jof9060678.

Ectomycorrhizal Fungal Community and Ascoma Production in a Declining Tuber borchii Plantation

Francesca Ori  1 , Marco Leonardi  1 , Federico Puliga  2 , Enrico Lancellotti  3 , Giovanni Pacioni  1 , Mirco Iotti  1 , Alessandra Zambonelli  2
Affiliations

Ectomycorrhizal Fungal Community and Ascoma Production in a Declining Tuber borchii Plantation

Francesca Ori et al. J Fungi (Basel). .

Abstract

Tuber borchii is an edible ectomycorrhizal mushroom of considerable economic value. Its cultivation has become popular in recent years, but there are few studies on the factors affecting its productivity. In this work, the ascoma production and the ectomycorrhizal (ECM) community of a T. borchii plantation, established in an intensive farming area where this truffle is not naturally present, were studied. Tuber borchii production drastically declined from 2016 to 2021, and ascomata of other Tuber species (T. maculatum and T. rufum) were found from 2017. Molecular characterization of ectomycorrhizae carried out in 2016 identified 21 ECM fungal species, of which T. maculatum (22%) and Tomentella coerulea (19%) were the most abundant. Tuber borchii ectomycorrizae (16%) were almost entirely confined to the fruiting points. The diversity and structure of the ECM community on Pinus pinea were significantly different from those observed on hardwood trees. The obtained results suggest that T. maculatum (a native of the study site) tends to replace T. borchii through a mechanism of competitive exclusion. Although T. borchii cultivation is possible in suboptimal environments, particular care should be taken to limit competition with ECM fungi more suitable for local conditions.

Keywords: Pinus pinea; Tuber maculatum; Tuber rufum; ascoma production; competition; oak; rDNA ITS region.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Number and weight of ascomata collected in the study site (2016–2021). Columns and black circles indicate the weight and the number of ascomata, respectively.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Dominance-diversity curves of ECM community in 2016: whole community (a); non-inoculated tree samples (b); hardwoods (c) and pine (d) root samples; fruiting points (e) and fruiting area (f) samples. The black circles and bars indicate the relative abundance (Log values) and the incidence (n. of root samples) for each OTU, respectively.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Constrained Analysis of Principal Coordinates: pine (blue triangles) and hardwood (red circles) root samples (a); fruiting point (red circles) and fruiting area (blue triangles) samples (b).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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