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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2000, p. 5035-5042, Vol. 66, No. 11
"Giorgio Fornaini" Institute of
Biochemistry1 and Institute of
Botany,2 University of Urbino, 61029 Urbino,
and Water Research Institute, CNR, 00198 Rome,3 Italy, and Vermicon AG, 80992 Munich, Germany4
Received 29 September 1999/Accepted 2 August 2000
Mycorrhizal ascomycetous fungi are obligate ectosymbionts that
colonize the roots of gymnosperms and angiosperms. In this paper we
describe a straightforward approach in which a combination of
morphological and molecular methods was used to survey the presence of
potentially endo- and epiphytic bacteria associated with the
ascomycetous ectomycorrhizal fungus Tuber borchii Vittad. Universal eubacterial primers specific for the 5' and 3' ends of the
16S rRNA gene (16S rDNA) were used for PCR amplification, direct
sequencing, and phylogenetic analyses. The 16S rDNA was amplified
directly from four pure cultures of T. borchii Vittad. mycelium. A nearly full-length sequence of the gene coding for the
prokaryotic small-subunit rRNA was obtained from each T. borchii mycelium studied. The 16S rDNA sequences were almost
identical (98 to 99% similarity), and phylogenetic analysis placed
them in a single unique rRNA branch belonging to the
Cytophaga-Flexibacter-Bacteroides (CFB) phylogroup which
had not been described previously. In situ detection of the CFB
bacterium in the hyphal tissue of the fungus T. borchii was
carried out by using 16S rRNA-targeted oligonucleotide probes for the
eubacterial domain and the Cytophaga-Flexibacter phylum, as
well as a probe specifically designed for the detection of this
mycelium-associated bacterium. Fluorescent in situ hybridization showed
that all three of the probes used bound to the mycelium tissue. This
study provides the first direct visual evidence of a not-yet-cultured
CFB bacterium associated with a mycorrhizal fungus of the genus
Tuber.
0099-2240/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Phylogenetic Characterization and In Situ Detection
of a Cytophaga-Flexibacter-Bacteroides Phylogroup Bacterium
in Tuber borchii Vittad. Ectomycorrhizal
Mycelium
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: "Giorgio
Fornaini" Institute of Biochemistry, University of Urbino, Via Saffi,
2, 61029 Urbino (PU), Italy. Phone: 39 0722 305262. Fax: 39 0722 320188. E-mail: vstocchi{at}uniurb.it.
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