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Hindi Research Article
Rapid Response by the Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) Community of a Lodgepole Pine Forest to Diesel Application as Indicated by Laccase Gene Fragment Diversity
| Ken Cullings* and Julia DeSimone | |
| NASA-Ames Research Center, MS 239-11, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000, USA | |
| Corresponding Author : | Ken Cullings NASA-Ames Research Center, MS 239-11 Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000, USA Tel: 805-698-1610 Fax: 650-604-3954 E-mail: cullings1@earthlink.net |
| Received May 14, 2014; Accepted July 11, 2014 Published July 15, 2014 | |
| Citation: Cullings and DeSimone (2014) Rapid Response by the Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) Community of a Lodgepole Pine Forest to Diesel Application as Indicated by Laccase Gene Fragment Diversity. J Bioremed Biodeg 5:1000235. doi:10.4172/2155-6199.1000235 | |
| Copyright: © 2014 Cullings K, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | |
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Abstract
A combination of field baiting and molecular methods was used to identify basidiomycete fungi that are able to withstand conditions within diesel contamination in a pine forest soil. Diesel was applied to 3, 1 meter x 1 meter blocks, which penetrated to a depth of 4 cm. After two weeks fungi that exhibited positive growth responses were identified by amplifying laccase (phenol oxidase) gene fragments using primers specific to basidiomycete laccase genes. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) gene repeat was amplified as well to provide a broad community screen, to indicate the pool of basidiomycete fungi that could respond to diesel application. Results indicated that ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi in the genera Russula, Piloderma and the ECM species Tricholoma saponaceum (rather than wood-rotting basidiomycetes) responded rapidly to diesel application. These results support recent hypotheses regarding the ecological role of ECM fungi in carbon cycling via exploitation of short chain phenolic carbon compounds. Further the ECM fungi that responded correspond roughly to classification of ECM exploration type, a criterion that describes ECM fungi on the basis of their hyphal growth patterns and potential for enzymatic activity. Finally, because it is apparent that these ECM fungi can survive and express laccase genes under conditions created by diesel contamination, these data provide new models for phytoremediation and site restoration strategies that utilize ECM fungi and pines.
