Characterization of fungal soil communities by F-RISA and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi from Araucaria angustifolia forest soils after replanting and widfire disturbances

• Grant number: 08/11003-2
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants - Publications - Scientific article
• Start date: January 01, 2009
• End date: June 30, 2009
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Soil Science
• Principal Investigator: Elke Jurandy Bran Nogueira Cardoso
• Grantee: Elke Jurandy Bran Nogueira Cardoso
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Fungal Ribosomal Intergenic Spacer Analysis (F-RISA) was used to characterize soil fungal communities from three ecosystems of Araucaria angustifolia from Brazil: a native forest and two replanted forest ecosystems, one of them with a past history of wildfire. The arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) infection was evaluated in Araucaria roots of 18-montholdaxenic plants previously inoculated with soils collected from those areas in a greenhouse experiment. The principal component analysis of F-RISA profiles showed different soil fungal community between the three studied areas. Sixty three percent of F-RISA fragments amplified in the soil and the substrate samples presented lengths between 500 and 700 bp. The number of Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) was 34 for soil and 38 for substrate, however, more fragments were detected in soil (214) than in substrate (163). An in silico F-RISA analysis to compare our data with ITS1-5.8S-ITS2sequences from NCBI database showed the presence of Ascomycota, Basidiomycota and Glomeromycota among the soil and substrate fungal communities. AMF infection was higher in plants inoculated with soil from the native forest and there planted forest with wildfire, both presenting similar chemical characteristics but with different disturbance levels. These results indicate that soil chemical composition may influence the soil fungal community structures rather than the anthropogenic or fire disturbances. (AU)