Adaptation and acclimation of the clonal oak's ectomycorrhizal fungi to biotic and abiotic environmental factors

In this project, we will examine the ectomycorrhizas of oak as a unit of adaptation and acclimation (A&A) to new environments. It will help to decipher at the genomics and transcriptomics levels the responses of ectomycorrhizas to drought, an obligatory symbiotic organ for oaks in natural environments. The two main parts of the project will disentangle in each experimental setup between interspecific changes among members of the ectomycorrhizal root tip communities, and intraspecific changes that constitute A&A at the level of an individual ECM fungal species, that of C. geophilum interacting with oak. Thus, we will be able to make a clear distinction between the community- and taxon-based adaptation of the oak ectomycorrhizal fungal partners.

Further information is available at www.uni-marburg.de/en/fb17/phytoakmeter