Department of Plant Anatomy, Institute of Biology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/C, Budapest, 1117, Hungary.
Behavioural Ecology Group, Department of Systematic Zoology and Ecology, Institute of Biology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/C, Budapest, 1117, Hungary.
Microb Ecol. 2022 Apr;83(3):714-723. doi: 10.1007/s00248-021-01794-9. Epub 2021 Jul 3.
The degradation capacity and utilisation of complex plant substrates are crucial for the functioning of saprobic fungi and different plant symbionts with fundamental functions in ecosystems. Measuring the growth capacity and biomass of fungi on such systems is a challenging task. We established a new micro-scale experimental setup using substrates made of different plant species and organs as media for fungal growth. We adopted and tested a reliable and simple titration-based method for the estimation of total fungal biomass within the substrates using fluorescence-labelled lectin. We found that the relationship between fluorescence intensity and fungal dry weight was strong and linear but differed among fungi. The effect of the plant organ (i.e. root vs. shoot) used as substrate on fungal growth differed among plant species and between root endophytic fungal species. The novel microscale experimental system is useful for screening the utilisation of different substrates, which can provide insight into the ecological roles and functions of fungi. Furthermore, our fungal biomass estimation method has applications in various fields. As the estimation is based on the fungal cell wall, it measures the total cumulative biomass produced in a certain environment.
复杂植物基质的降解能力和利用率对腐生真菌以及在生态系统中具有基本功能的不同植物共生体的功能至关重要。测量真菌在这些系统上的生长能力和生物量是一项具有挑战性的任务。我们使用不同植物物种和器官作为真菌生长介质的基质建立了一种新的微尺度实验装置。我们采用并测试了一种可靠且简单的基于滴定的方法，使用荧光标记的凝集素来估计基质内的总真菌生物量。我们发现，荧光强度与真菌干重之间的关系很强且呈线性，但在真菌之间存在差异。用作基质的植物器官（即根与茎）对真菌生长的影响因植物物种和根内生真菌物种而异。新的微尺度实验系统可用于筛选不同基质的利用情况，这可为真菌的生态角色和功能提供深入了解。此外，我们的真菌生物量估计方法在各个领域都有应用。由于该估计基于真菌细胞壁，因此它可测量在特定环境中产生的总累积生物量。
