Collembola interact with mycorrhizal fungi in modifying oak morphology, C and N incorporation and transcriptomics.

Soil detritivores such as Collembola impact plant growth, tissue nutrient concentration and gene expression. Using a model system with pedunculate oak () microcuttings that display a typical endogenous rhythmic growth with alternating shoot (SF) and root flushes (RF), we investigated the transcriptomic response of oak with and without mycorrhiza () to the presence of Collembola (), and linked it to changes in resource allocation by pulse labelling the plants with C and N. Collembola impacted Gene Ontology (GO) terms as well as plant morphology and elemental ratios with the effects varying markedly with developmental phases.

OakContigDF159.1, a reference library for studying differential gene expression in Quercus robur during controlled biotic interactions: use for quantitative transcriptomic profiling of oak roots in ectomycorrhizal symbiosis.

Oaks (Quercus spp.), which are major forest trees in the northern hemisphere, host many biotic interactions, but molecular investigation of these interactions is limited by fragmentary genome data. To date, only 75 oak expressed sequence tags (ESTs) have been characterized in ectomycorrhizal (EM) symbioses.