Biotechnology of Ectomycorrhizae, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1995 Molecular Approaches

Forty years after the discovery of the helix nature of DNA and more than twenty after the first applications of recombinant DNA technology to the pharmaceutical industry, the Pandora's vase of biotechnology seems far from being empty. New products for agriculture and the food industry are constantly being placed on the market, and powerful monitoring techniques have been developed to track non-modified and genetically modified vaccines, viruses, microbes and plants released into the environment. Molecular approaches for taxonomic purposes, which might also be useful for quality control and assurance, have been successfully developed and used for taxonomic purposes in the last decade for both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, including yeasts and filamentous fungi. Mycorrhizae are one example of a traditional biotechnology that can greatly benefit from the latest molecular approaches. These universal symbioses between soil fungi and plant roots playa central role in most of the naturaland agricultural ecosystems in such key processes as nutrient cycling, soil structural conservation and plant health. For these reasons, mycorrhizae have been successfully used to improve the quality of forest and agricultural seedlings, to produce high-quality micropropagated plants and to increase the production of edible mushrooms of high economic value, such as truffles. However, although controlled inoculation of oak and hazel seedlings with ectomycorrhizal truffles has been carried out for decades in France and Italy, and is still expanding commercially, several technological gaps remain to be filled.

1. Ectomycorrhizas in the Ecosystem: Structural, Functional and Community Aspects.- 2. Taxonomy of Ectomycorrhizal Fungi: A Starting Point for Their Biotechnology.- 3. Molecular Approach to the Identification of Mycorrhizal Fungi.- 4. Coincidence between Molecularly or Morphologically Classified Ectomycorrhizal Morphotypes and Fruitbodies in a Spruce Forest.- 5. Ectomycorrhiza Morphogenesis: Insights from Studies of Developmentally Regulated Genes and Proteins.- 6. Molecules and Genes Involved in Mycorrhiza Functioning.- 7. Cloning Functional Endomycorrhiza Genes: Potential for Use in Plant Breeding.- 8. The Sexual Cycle in Neurospora: From Fertilization to Ascospore Discharge.- 9. Genetics of Ectomycorrhizal Fungi and Their Transformation.- 10. Inactivation of Gene Expression Triggered by Sequence Duplication.- 11. Gene Expression in Roots during Ectomycorrhiza Development.- 12. Truffles: Their Life Cycle and Molecular Characterization.- 13. Molecular Identification of Tuber Species and Isolates by PCR-Based Techniques.- 14. Molecular Characterization of Some Truffle Species.- 15. The Polymorphism of the rDNA Region in Typing Ascocarps and Ectomycorrhizae of Truffle Species.- 16. Biochemical Characterization of Various Species of White Truffle: A Preliminary Study.- 17. Isolation and Analysis of Genomic Sequences from Mycorrhizal Fungi.- 18. Testing a Selected Region of Tuber Mitochondrial Small Subunit rDNA as a Molecular Marker for Evolutionary and Bio-Diversity Studies.- 19. Truffle Development and Interactions with the Biotic Environment: Molecular Aspects.- 20. Methods for Studying Species Composition of Mycorrhizal Fungal Communities in Ecological Studies and Environmental Monitoring: Species Composition of Mycorrhizal Communities.- 21. Isolation of Bacteria from Sporocarps of Tuber magnatum Pico, Tuber borchii Vitt. and Tuber maculatum Vitt.: Identification and Biochemical Characterization.