Browsing by Subject "sporocarp"

Fungi play a crucial role in the ecosystem by recycling nutrients and forming mycorrhizal roots with plants. Many of the decomposer and mycorrhizal fungi are Bacidiomycetes. In the sexual reproduction stage, Bacidiomycetes produce fruiting bodies which enable them to produce and disseminate spores allowing fungi to spread to new growing sites. Fruiting bodies have been discovered to contain bacteria which may have a role in differentiation and maintenance of the fruiting body. They might also protect fruiting bodies against animals and diseases, and influence the nutritional value of the fruiting body. There is little knowledge about the amount of bacteria in the fruiting bodies. All previous research has been carried out entirely by cultivation-based methods and it shows that different fungal species contain very different amounts of bacteria. Some fruiting bodies have been shown not to contain easily cultivatable bacteria. The occurrence of archaea in fruiting bodies has not been previously studied and investigation into their function in fungi has only recently begun. In the present work significant amounts of bacterial and archaeal 16S rRNA -gene copies were discovered in the fruiting bodies of three ectomycorrhizal and three decomposer fungi species. This is the first time fruiting bodies have been shown to contain archaea. The occurrence of bacteria and archaea and the abundance of their 16S rRNA -genes in the fruiting bodies were determined using PCR ja quantitative PCR methods. Suillus bovinus and Boletus pinophilus fruiting bodies contained significantly more archaeal than bacterial gene copies. Cantharellus cibarius and Lycoperdon perlatum contained more bacterial than archaeal 16S rRNA -gene copies. In two decomposer fungi fruiting bodies, Agaricus arvensis and Piptoporus betulinus, the abundance of bacterial and archaeal gene copy numbers were equal. Suillus bovinus fruiting bodies had the largest copy number of archaeal 16S rRNA -genes from all species investigated. According to the results obtained in this work, the occurrence of bacteria and archaea might be common in fruiting bodies. The presence of bacteria and archaea in significant amounts in fruiting bodies may indicate their necessity for the development and sustainability of the fruiting body and hence to the whole life cycle of fungi.