Metagenomic Analyses of the Viruses Detected in Mycorrhizal Fungi and Their Host Orchid.

In nature, mycorrhizal association with soilborne fungi is indispensable for orchid families. Fungal structures from compatible endo-mycorrhizal fungi in orchid cells are digested in cells to be supplied to orchids as nutrition. Because orchid seeds lack the reserves for germination, they keep receiving nutrition through mycorrhizal formation from seed germination until shoots develop (leaves) and become photoautotrophic.

Ephemerality of a Spring Ephemeral Gagea lutea (L.) is Attributable to Shoot Senescence Induced by Free Linolenic Acid.

Spring ephemerals are a group of herbaceous plants that fulfill their life cycle on the floor of deciduous forests in temperate and boreal regions during a short period of time between snowmelt and closure of the tree canopy. Near the closure, these plants' shoots senesce rapidly and the plants disappear from the floor. Since the major role of the synchronous senescence is thought to be the recycling of nutrients from vegetative organs to seeds or storage organs, some endogenous compound that is capable of promoting senescence must be involved in the timely senescence.

Isolation and identification of an anti-bolting compound, hexadecatrienoic acid monoglyceride, responsible for inhibition of bolting and maintenance of the leaf rosette in radish plants.

Generally, the bolting (stem elongation from rosette plants) of winter annuals is believed to be induced by an increase in the levels of gibberellin that occurs after a certain period of chilling (vernalization), and a deficiency of gibberellin allows the plant to maintain a rosette style. Lack of direct evidence proving the above assumption in radish plants (Raphanus sativus L.) encouraged us to assume the presence of an anti-bolting compound actively maintaining the rosette habit through inhibition of bolting.

Characterization of mycorrhizal fungi isolated from the threatened Cypripedium macranthos in a northern island of Japan: two phylogenetically distinct fungi associated with the orchid.

We isolated Rhizoctonia-like fungi from populations of the threatened orchid Cypripedium macranthos. In ultrastructural observations of the septa, the isolates had a flattened imperforate parenthesome consisting of two electron-dense membranes bordered by an internal electron-lucent zone, identical to the septal ultrastructure of Rhizoctonia repens (teleomorph Tulasnella), a mycorrhizal fungus of many orchid species. However, hyphae of the isolates did not fuse with those of known tester strains of R.

An antifungal compound involved in symbiotic germination of Cypripedium macranthos var. rebunense (Orchidaceae).

Germination of orchid seeds fully depends on a symbiotic association with soil-borne fungi, usually Rhizoctonia spp. In contrast to the peaceful symbiotic associations between many other terrestrial plants and mycorrhizal fungi, this association is a life-and-death struggle. The fungi always try to invade the cytoplasm of orchid cells to obtain nutritional compounds.