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First production of Italian white truffle (Tuber magnatum Pico) ascocarps in an orchard outside its natural range distribution in France

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Abstract

Truffles are ectomycorrhizal species forming edible ascocarps. The Italian white truffle (Tuber magnatum Pico) is the most famous and expensive species harvested to date; it comes exclusively from natural habitats in European countries. The annual production of T. magnatum is generally insufficient to respond to the high demands making its cultivation a research hotspot. The first attempt to cultivate T. magnatum started in the 1970s without success; only recently have mycorrhized plants been successfully produced. The aims of this study were (1) to assess the persistence of T. magnatum in the soil of plantations realized with mycorrhized plants and (2) to characterize the first T. magnatum orchard that produced ascocarps outside the known natural geographic range of this species. In 2018, five orchards were sampled in France, and T. magnatum was investigated in the soil. We confirmed that T. magnatum survived in the soil 3 to 8 years after planting. The key finding of this study was the harvest of T. magnatum ascocarps in 2019 and 2020 from one orchard. The production of ascocarps started 4.5 years after planting, and the ascocarps were harvested under different trees and during two consecutive seasons. A detailed analysis of the productive orchards (i.e., soil features, soil water availability, cultivation techniques) is presented. These results demonstrate the feasibility of T. magnatum cultivation worldwide by planting mycorrhized plants. The cultivation of T. magnatum could therefore become a real opportunity for farmers and could respond to the high demand of this high-priced food.

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Acknowledgments

The French National Research Agency (ANR) as part of the ‘Investissements d’Avenir’ program (ANR-11-LABX-0002-01, Lab of Excellence ARBRE) financed UMR IaM. The authors are grateful to the truffle orchard owners for their cooperation and their help in the choice of trees under which to perform soil sampling. We thank Dr Gérard Chevalier for his participation to the joint INRAE/Robin nursery research program. We are grateful to Dr. Zaklina Marjanović and Dr. Francis Martin for the critical reading of the manuscript.

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Author notes

  1. Cyrille Bach, Pierre Cammaletti, and Pauline Beacco equally contributed to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Lorraine, INRAE, UMR Interactions Arbres/Microorganismes, Centre INRAE Grand Est Nancy, Champenoux, France

    Cyrille Bach, Pauline Beacco, Zhixiao Babel-Chen, Emilie Levesque, Flora Todesco & Claude Murat

  2. Robin pépinières EARL, 1 chemin de la pépinière, 05500, Saint Laurent du Cros, France

    Pierre Cammaletti, Claire Cotton & Bruno Robin

  3. Wetruf SAS, 2, avenue de la Forêt de Haye, 54500, Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France

    Flora Todesco

Authors
  1. Cyrille Bach
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  2. Pauline Beacco
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  3. Pierre Cammaletti
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  4. Zhixiao Babel-Chen
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  5. Emilie Levesque
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  6. Flora Todesco
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  7. Claire Cotton
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  8. Bruno Robin
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  9. Claude Murat
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Claude Murat.

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Conflict of interest

INRAE and Robin nursery have a know-how license based on a common INRAE/Robin process for the production and commercialization of plants mycorrhized with T. magnatum.

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Bach, C., Beacco, P., Cammaletti, P. et al. First production of Italian white truffle (Tuber magnatum Pico) ascocarps in an orchard outside its natural range distribution in France. Mycorrhiza 31, 383–388 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00572-020-01013-2

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