Soil and mycorrhizal fungi are key players for soil functioning

Vortragender: Prof. Dr. Francois Buscot, Department of Soil Ecology, Centre for Environmental Research UFZ Leipzig Halle
Do. 22.06.2006 (16:15), H6

Together with bacteria, fungi are the most important group of soil organisms in terms of biomass and they represent a huge biodiversity pool with a remarkably wide spectrum of enzymatic activities. In the present lecture, we will focus on two aspects of the role played by fungi for soil functioning.
The first aspect deals with the role of fungi for immobilization and turnover of soil organic matter (SOM). We developed molecular tools to monitor soil fungi producing exoenzymes belonging to the group of laccase like multi copper oxidases that are involved in both mineralization and stabilization of SOM. On this basis, distribution of fungi with the corresponding genes and the gene expression patterns were investigated in forest and agricultural soils and the spatial heterogeneity of soils was considered. In a starting project, we aim at relating the laccase fungal activity to primary attack of SOM in N limited forest soils.
The second aspect deals with mycorrhizal fungi that are associated to roots and provide adaptation of plants to the soil medium. We will summarize the evolutionary importance of this symbiosis and bring an example of ist role in vegetation restoration after a man made disturbance of the soil nutrient status by massive pollution with phosphorus at a site near to a former fertilizer production plants near Jena.

Literature:
LUIS P., WALTHER, G., KELLNER H., MARTIN F., BUSCOT F (2004). Diversity of laccase gene from basidiomycetes in a forest soil. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 36, 1025-1036.
LUIS P., KELLNER H., MARTIN F., BUSCOT F. (2005) A molecular method to evaluate basidiomycete laccase gene expression in forest soils. Geoderma 128, 18-27.
LUIS P., KELLNER H., ZIMDARS B., LANGER U., MARTIN F., BUSCOT F. (2005) Patchiness and spatial distribution of laccase genes of ectomycorrhizal, saprotrophic and unknown basidiomycetes in the upper horizons of a mixed forest Cambisol. Microbial Ecology 50, 570-579.
RENKER C., HEINRICHS J., KALDORF M. & BUSCOT F. (2003). Combining nested PCR and restriction digest of the internal transcribed spacer region to characterize arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on roots from the field. Mycorrhiza 13, 191-198.
RENKER C., BLANKE V., BUSCOT F. (2005) Diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in grassland spontaneously developed on area polluted by a fertilizer plant. Environmental Pollution 135, 255-266.
BLANKE V., RENKER C., WAGNER M., FÜLLNER K., HELD M., KUHN A.J., BUSCOT F. (2005) Nitrogen supply affects arbuscular mycorrhizal colonization of Artemisia vulgaris L. in a phosphate-polluted field site. New Phytologist 166, 981-992.


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