Jeffrey D. del Cano Annotated Bibliography
Crucillo
BSCE 4-2
SOIL FUNGI: DIVERSITY AND DETECTION
INTRODUCTION
The fungi are an immensely diverse
grou of arganisms, encompassing a huge range
of forms from microscoic single celled yeasts to
large macrofungi, as exemplified by the well-
known mushrooms and toadstools and the
largest of fruitbodies, the giant puff-ball. Recent
published estimates for the number of fungal
species report 72 065 species spread accross 11
phyla in 7745 genera (Hawksworth et al., 1995).
New fungal species continue to be
described, and a year 2000 estimate based on the
description rate in The Index of Fungi would be
of the order of 80-100 000 species of fungi.
These species are however only those isolated
and characterised so far, and it is uncertain as to
how man species and genera remain undetected.
Hawksworth (1991) estimated that greater than 1
million species are as yet undescribed, and
Driver and Milner (1998) suggested that there
may be approaching 500 000 species associated
with insects alone. It seems likely that the great
majority of fungal species have some part of
their life cycle either in, or directly associated
with the soil environment. Their role in the soil
is an extremely complex one and is fundamental
to the soil ecosystem (Warcu, 1951).
SUMMARY
The great majority of the 80,000+
fungal species so far named and described are
likely to occur in the soil environment at some
stage in their life-cycle. Fungi therefore have
many different functions in soils, which include
both active roles, such as the degradation of
dead plant material, or inactive roles where
propagules are present in the soil as resting
states. Current knowledge of fungal diversity in
soil is based largely on observations of fruiting
Reference : www.link.springer.com/articles/10.1023%2FA%3A1010346305799
Engr. Ralph T.
September 3, 2018
bodies present in an environment, or from
cultures obtained from soil isolation exercises.
Both of these approaches have serious
limitations for the detection of the true diversity
in any chosen environment.
An organism that exist only in a
mycelial form in the soil is unlikely to be
identified from direct observation if a fruiting
body is not formed. Therefore classical
observation through direct microscopy will give
a greatly reduced measure of the true diversity in
the environment. Culturing fungi from soil
isolations will only result in the detection of
those propagules that are able to grow and
sporulate on the isolation medium used. This
again will lead to a greatly reduced measure of
diversity, as at the present time only about 17%
of the fungal secies can be successfully grown in
culture.
CONCLUSION
The study of soil fungi has been the
domain of soil scientists for over a century.
Some 20 functions of fungi were described by
Christensen (1989), and one of the main
functions of fungi in the soil is as primary
degraders. The classical life cycle for this is as
mycelial growth on organic material in the soil,
which gives rise to either a surface or subsurface
fruiting body. Many soil fungi have othe roles
and interactions, one of the most widely studied
being mycorrhizae. Mycorrhizal relationshis
vary and they may involve direct cross feeding
with plants, aiding in plant seed germinations or
the prevention of invasion by pathogens through
niche exclusion. (Brundrett et al., 1996)