Utilizing herbarium specimens to quantify historical mycorrhizal communities.

ABSTRACT:

Premise of the study

Mycorrhiza are critical to ecosystem functioning, but a lack of historical baseline data limits our understanding of the long-term belowground effects of global change. Herbarium specimens may provide this needed insight. However, it is unknown whether DNA of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can be reliably extracted from vascular plant specimen roots.

Methods

We sampled roots from herbarium specimens of four herbaceous forest species collected in western Pennsylvania between 1881-2008. Using molecular methods (terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism and sequence analysis), we quantified AMF communities from specimen roots and tested for contamination.

Results

We successfully amplified AMF DNA from 44% (21/48) of the root but not leaf

SUBMITTER: Heberling JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6476165 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature