Blessed are the foodies! European black truffles are expected to achieve artificial stable production cultivation

Science and Technology Daily reporter Zhao Hanbin

European black truffle, also known as Truffle Nigra, is a valuable underground mycorrhizal edible mushroom. The reporter learned from the Kunming Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences on the 22nd that the research team of the Institute has recently obtained a series of research results, laying the foundation for the artificial cultivation of European black truffles and the operation and management of plantations.

In forest ecosystems, many trees have a symbiotic relationship with native fungi, and the formation of exophytic mycorrhizae plays an important role in the nutrient cycle. European black truffles have been successfully cultivated in many countries, but stable yield and high yield have been difficult to achieve, and there are still many basic scientific questions to be answered in terms of exogenous mycorrhizal interphysiology and its correlation with fruiting body output and yield.

Eugenic mycorrhizae of Quercus mongola-Truffle nigra (Image source: Kunming Institute of Botany)

Previously, the research team of fungi and mycorrhizal at the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences found that Truffle nigra can form exophytic mycorrhizae well with Mongolian oak seedlings and significantly promote the growth and development of Mongolian oak, but the mechanism of how exogenous mycorrhizae regulate the rhizosphere physiological ecology and thus affect the growth and development of Mongolian oak is still poorly understood.

The research team of Kunming Institute of Botany systematically analyzed the photosynthetic efficiency, nutrient absorption, rhizosphere carbon secretion and rhizosphere bacterial communities of Mongolian oak by 3 years old Mongolian oak and truffle niger melanomyces seedlings as research objects. The results showed that the phosphorus absorption of Mongolian oak was significantly increased, while the potassium uptake was inhibited, and the secretion of total organic carbon in the aboveground part of photosynthetic carbon sequestration and underground part was significantly enhanced, but the secretion of organic acid was reduced by about 50%. At the same time, the rhizosphere bacterial community has undergone great changes, enriching more actinomycetes, and the abundance of some bacterial communities has a certain correlation with rhizosphere carbon secretion.

These results show that it is possible to promote exohizal mycorrhizal growth and nutrient absorption in Oak and Truffle Niger by regulating carbon synthesis and secretion and rhizosphere bacterial communities of Oak mongolii. The study further verified the existence of carbon efficiency trade-off strategies in the plants themselves, which can more rationally and effectively distribute photosynthetic carbon sequestration, and regulate the rhizosphere microbial community through carbon secretion, thereby promoting plant nutrient uptake and soil carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus and other nutrient cycles, which provides a theoretical basis for the artificial cultivation and plantation management of European black truffles.

The results were published in Mycorrhizal and Plants and Soils.

Editor: Zhang Qiqi

Review: Yue Liang