Author Correction: Hidden mycota of pine needles: Molecular signatures from PCR-DGGE and Ribosomal DNA phylogenetic characterization of novel phylotypes.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Hidden mycota of pine needles: Molecular signatures from PCR-DGGE and Ribosomal DNA phylogenetic characterization of novel phylotypes.

Previous studies for enumerating fungal communities on pine needles relied entirely on phenotypic diversity (microscopy) or identification based on DNA sequence data from those taxa recovered via cultural studies. To bypass limitations of the culturing methods and provide a more realistic diversity estimate, we employed and assessed a PCR-DGGE based method coupled with rDNA phylogenetic sequence analyses to characterize fungal taxa associated with pine needles. Fresh (living) and decayed needles from three hosts of the Pinaceae (Keteleeria fortunei, Pinus elliottii and P.