Development of conservation techniques of mycoheterotrophic plants using plant-fungi symbiosis

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K14442
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Conservation of biological resources
• Research Institution: National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Yukawa Tomohisa 独立行政法人国立科学博物館, 植物研究部, グループ長 (50280524)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): TSUTSUMI Chie 独立行政法人国立科学博物館, 植物研究部, 研究主幹 (30455422)
• Research Collaborator: YAGAME Takahiro
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 菌根 / 保全 / 植物 / 共生 / 菌類

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We developed new methods to resolve three central issues concerning efficient ex situ conservation of mycoheterotrophic plants, i. e., 1) isolation of particular fungi in association with the host plant species, 2) culture and preservation of isolated fungi, and 3) establishment of plant-fungi symbiosis. Regarding the first issue, mass isolation of target fungal species was accomplished by repeated washes of hyphae in aqueous solution of antibiotics. In relation to the second issue, covering of hyphae with humus from the habitat of target species facilitated the growth and subsequent formation of fruit bodies. On the last issue, mycoheterotrophic plant-fungi symbiosis was established in this study, while further experiments are needed to establish tripartite symbiosis involving an autotrophic plant, a fungus, and a mycoheterotrophic plant.

Free Research Field

植物系統分類学