What goes in must come out: testing for biases in molecular analysis of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities.

ABSTRACT: Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are widely distributed microbes that form obligate symbioses with the majority of terrestrial plants, altering nutrient transfers between soils and plants, thereby profoundly affecting plant growth and ecosystem properties. Molecular methods are commonly used in the study of AM fungal communities. However, the biases associated with PCR amplification of these organisms and their ability to be utilized quantitatively has never been fully tested. We used Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (TRFLP) analysis to characterise artificial community templates containing known quantities of defined AM fungal genotypes. This was compared to a parallel in silico analysis that predicted the results of this experiment in the absence of bias. The data sugge

SUBMITTER: Cotton TE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4183568 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature