ABSTRACT

Prairies in the Pacific Northwest are dominated by perennial bunchgrasses. A Mycena in the citrinomarginata complex was observed to tightly co-occur with bunchgrasses at several prairie study sites. Mapping and spatial statistics showed that it was strongly and significantly associated with Festuca roemeri tussocks. We further found that this fungus is attached to F. roemeri roots (17/17 examined) and both specific primers and next-generation DNA sequencing established that the fungus is in the roots, suggesting that M. citrinomarginata may be endophytic or biotrophic in some contexts, and not simply saprotrophic. These results combined with a literature review indicate that Mycena species are often found as endophytes in grass roots. Given the importance of grasses and grasslands for humans, this ecological association deserves further study.

摘要

太平洋西北部的大草原以多年生草丛为主。在几个草原研究地点，观察到citrinomarginata复合体中的Mycena与束草紧密地共存。测绘和空间统计表明，它与羊茅草丛密切且显着相关。我们进一步发现这种真菌附着在F. roemeri根上（检查了 17/17），并且特异性引物和下一代 DNA 测序均确定真菌存在于根中，这表明M. citrinomarginata 在某些情况下可能是内生的或生物营养的上下文，而不仅仅是腐生的。这些结果与文献综述相结合表明迈锡纳物种通常作为内生菌存在于草根中。鉴于草和草原对人类的重要性，这种生态关联值得进一步研究。