Fungal endophytes in potato roots studied by traditional isolation and cultivation-independent DNA-based methods.

The composition and relative abundance of endophytic fungi in roots of field-grown transgenic T4-lysozyme producing potatoes and the parental line were assessed by classical isolation from root segments and cultivation-independent techniques to test the hypothesis that endophytic fungi are affected by T4-lysozyme. Fungi were isolated from the majority of root segments of both lines and at least 63 morphological groups were obtained with Verticillium dahliae, Cylindrocarpon destructans, Colletotrichum coccodes and Plectosporium tabacinum as the most frequently isolated species. Dominant bands in the fungal fingerprints obtained by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis of 18S rRNA gene fragments amplified from total community DNA corresponded to the electrophoretic mobility of the 18S rRNA gene fragments of the three most abundant fungal isolates, V.