In Canada, willow (Salix spp.) short rotation intensive cultures (SRIC) have been established to investigate their potential to produce biomass for bioenergy. Since root-associated fungal communities are involved in plant nutrition and disease susceptibility, it is relevant to understand their interactions with willows and their role on the sustainability of SRIC. In this project traditional methods together with molecular techniques were used to: i) assess the diversity of fungal communities in roots of willows and their relationship with major characteristics of SRIC ii) evaluate the effects on plant development of potentially beneficial and pathogenic fungi, and iii) identify arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) species and their interaction with promising Salix clones.
Potentially pathogenic fungi were more dominant in diseased and recently planted cuttings than in healthy older ones. This suggested the occurrence of a positive shift prompted by the establishment of the cuttings on the site. Gibberella/Fusarium sp. and Neonectria sp. were the most dominant taxa particularly in diseased plants. Under greenhouse conditions the inoculation with potentially beneficial and potentially pathogenic fungi induced significant differences in root biomass but not in overall aerial biomass production. PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis was successfully standardized and used to identify arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal species associated with different clones. The results indicated a degree of specificity between AMF species and plant genotype.
Root-associated fungal communities appear to be useful to monitor the impacts of SRIC on soil ecology and their study may enlighten effective ways to increase the productivity of these biomass systems.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:SSU.etd-02102011-214052 |
| Date | 22 February 2011 |
| Creators | Corredor, Aura Helena |
| Contributors | Vujanovic, Vladimir, van Rees, Ken, Korber, Darren, Tanaka, Takuji, Schoenau, Jeff |
| Publisher | University of Saskatchewan |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-02102011-214052/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Saskatchewan or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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