ICOM1 Abstract
talk session 2 BELAND, MARC, PETER MOUTOGLIS1, PAUL WIDDEN & J.ANDRE FORTIN1. Biology Department, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W., Montreal, QuŽbec, Canada H3G 1M8. 1 Institut en Biologie vŽgŽtale, UniversitŽ de MontrŽal, 4101 est rue Sherbrooke, MontrŽal, QuŽbec, Canada H1X 2B2. rDNA characterization of VAM fungi colonizing Medeola virginiana in three QuŽbec forests. It is generally assumed that there is a lack of host-specificity in vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (VAMf). Experiments using pot- cultured VAMF under controlled conditions show that a single plant species can be colonized by a wide range of taxa. Host-specificity under field conditions is difficult to investigate due to our inability to identify VAMf in plantae. The development of fungal specific primers for the amplification of rDNA genes using the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) provides a powerful tool to address the question of host- specificity in the field. We have developed a method to extract DNA from the roots of colonized Medeola virginiana plants from the field and to the amplify rDNA genes (Internal Transcribed Spacer regions and the 5.8s gene) of the VAMf, using PCR. Restriction analysis, combined with sequencing of the genes was used to characterize the VAM genotype in three natural forest populations of this plant in QuŽbec.