Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 11, 2026

Mycorrhizal Maps as a Tool to Explore Colonization Patterns and Fungal Strategies in the Roots of Festuca rubra and Zea mays
Published on: August 26, 2022
Solving the ecological puzzle of mycorrhizal associations using data from annotated collections and environmental
Jonathan Hwang1, Qi Zhao2, Zhu L Yang2
1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, 165 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
Abstract:
The relation between ecological and genetic divergence of Helvella species (saddle fungi) has been perplexing. While a few species have been clearly demonstrated to be ectomycorrhizal fungi, ecological roles of many other species have been controversial, alternately considered as either saprotrophic or mycorrhizal. We applied SATé to build an inclusive deoxyribonucleic acid sequence alignment for the internal transcribed spacers (ITS) of annotated Helvella species and related environmental sequences. Phylogenetic informativeness of ITS and its regions were assessed using PhyDesign. Mycorrhizal lineages present a diversity of ecology, host type and geographic distribution. In two Helvella clades, no Helvella ITS sequences were recovered from root tips. Inclusion of environmental sequences in the ITS phylogeny from these sequences has the potential to link these data and reveal Helvella ecology. This study can serve as a model for revealing the diversity of relationships between unculturable fungi and their potential plant hosts. How non-mycorrhizal life styles within Helvella evolved will require expanded metagenomic investigation of soil and other environmental samples along with study of Helvella genomes.
Related Concept Videos
The Roles of Bacteria and Fungi in Plant Nutrition
Fungal Group Zygomycota
Epiphytes, Parasites, and Carnivores
Microbial Interactions: Mutualism
Fungal Phylum Basidiomycota
Microbial Interactions: Cooperation

