Geographically structured host specificity is caused by the range expansions and host shifts of a symbiotic fungus.

ABSTRACT: The inability to associate with local species may constrain the spread of mutualists arriving to new habitats, but the fates of introduced, microbial mutualists are largely unknown. The deadly poisonous ectomycorrhizal fungus Amanita phalloides (the death cap) is native to Europe and introduced to the East and West Coasts of North America. By cataloging host associations across the two continents, we record dramatic changes in specificity among the three ranges. On the East Coast, where the fungus is restricted in its distribution, it associates almost exclusively with pines, which are rarely hosts of A. phalloides in its native range. In California, where the fungus is widespread and locally abundant, it associates almost exclusively with oaks, mirroring the host associations observed in

SUBMITTER: Wolfe BE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3309363 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature