Whitish truffles found in Finland: soil characteristics, and identification based on morphological and molecular properties.

The growing demand for truffles has led to a global pursuit for their occurrence in the wild, and studies concerning their cultivation. Although European countries such as Italy, France and Spain have been known for truffle production, truffle hunting is new to Finland. The present study reports for the first time, the findings of Tuber maculatum in Finland on the basis of morphological and molecular analysis. The chemical characteristics of soil samples collected from the truffle sites have also been discussed. The species of the Tuber samples were identified primarily using morphological analysis. Molecular analysis was carried out for the confirmation of the identity of the species. Two phylogenetic trees were constructed based on internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences produced in this study and including representative sequences of whitish truffles available in GenBank. The truffles were identified as T. maculatum and T. anniae. This study could be considered as a basis for encouraging research on findings and identification of truffles in Finland.

Mycorrhization of pecan (Carya illinoinensis) with black truffles: Tuber melanosporum and Tuber brumale.

Pecan, Carya illinoinensis, is an economically important nut producing tree that can establish ectomycorrhizal symbiosis with a high diversity of fungi. In the southern USA, truffles (Tuber spp.) sometimes fruit prolifically in cultivated pecan orchards and regularly associate with pecan roots as ectomycorrhizae (ECMs). It has been demonstrated that some valuable European truffle species (e.g., Tuber borchii and Tuber aestivum) can form ECMs with pecan seedlings in nursery conditions. Thus, pecan may represent an attractive alternative host to forest trees for truffle growers given the potential for co-cropping truffles and pecans. To further explore the capacity of pecan to host truffle symbionts, pecan seedlings were inoculated with species of black truffles that are economically important in Europe, T. melanosporum and T. brumale. Ectomycorrhizae were characterized molecularly and their morphology was described in detail. Mycorrhization rates on pecan roots were assessed over a 2-year period. Tuber melanosporum and T. brumale produced well-formed ECMs with a level of root colonization in the first year of 37.3 and 34.5%, respectively. After 24 months, the level of mycorrhization increased for T. brumale (49.4%) and decreased for T. melanosporum (10.5%) inversely to that of non-target ECM greenhouse contaminants (e.g., Sphaerosporella brunnea, Trichophaea woolhopeia, Pulvinula constellatio). To assess whether mating types segregated in T. melanosporum as been reported for other host species, we amplified the mating-type locus from single T. melanosporum ECM belonging to different seedlings over a 2-year period. The two mating idiomorphs were nearly equally represented along the 2-year time span: MAT 1-1-1 decreased from 59.4% in the first year to 48.5% in the second year after inoculation. Data reported in this study add to knowledge on the mycorrhization of pecan trees with commercial truffles and has application to truffle and nut co-cropping systems.

Draft Genome Sequence of the Ectomycorrhizal Ascomycete Sphaerosporella brunnea.

Sphaerosporella brunnea is a pioneer ectomycorrhizal fungus with facultative saprophytic capacities. Here, we sequenced the genome of S. brunnea strain Sb_GMNB300, which is estimated at 51.6 Mb in size with 872 assembled contigs accounting for 12,597 predicted coding genes. This genome will be useful for comparative studies of Pezizales ectomycorrhizal symbioses.