Summary: Diversity and phylogenetic affinities of foliar fungal endophytes in loblolly pine
inferred by culturing and environmental PCR
A. Elizabeth Arnold1
Daniel A. Henk
Rebecca L. Eells
Franc¸ois Lutzoni
Rytas Vilgalys
Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham,
North Carolina 27708
Abstract: We examined endophytic fungi in asymp-
tomatic foliage of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) in North
Carolina, USA, with four goals: (i) to evaluate
morphotaxa, BLAST matches and groups based on
sequence similarity as functional taxonomic units; (ii)
to explore methods to maximize phylogenetic signal
for environmental datasets, which typically contain
many taxa but few characters; (iii) to compare
culturing vs. culture-free methods (environmental
PCR of surface sterilized foliage) for estimating
endophyte diversity and species composition; and

Source: Arnold, A. Elizabeth - School of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona
Lutzoni, François M. - Department of Biology, Duke University

Collections: Biology and Medicine; Environmental Sciences and Ecology