Scientists have found "invisible mushrooms" on the traces of their DNA in the soil

For most people, the word "mushroom" is associated with something like a chanterelle or fly agaric, which can be seen.

However, mushrooms often do not form distinct fruiting bodies and are not  conspicuous .Invisible to the naked eye, they are nevertheless common in the forest soils of Northern and Central Europe.This conclusion was made by scientists based on the analysis of DNA in soil samples.

The discovery of such "invisible" species is possible thanks to a method that relies on extracting both long DNA sequences (to investigate the relationships of species) and short ones to get an idea of how common the species are.

“Our data shows that the detectedfungi are two closely related but distinct species that compete for resources in the soil. One wins this competition and dominates the organic soil. We named it Archaeorhizomyces victor (Latin victoria - “victory”). In second place we have Archaeorhizomyces secundus,” explains Anna Rosling from the Department of Ecology and Genetics at Uppsala University, who led the work.

Where two species coexist —in the soil and roots of mixed and coniferous forests, Archaeorhizomyces victor predominates in humus-rich soil. A little deeper in the ground, where the soil contains fewer nutrients, victor «does poorly» and secundusnothing prevents it from spreading.

These species belong to the classArchaeorhizomycetes, a group of ancient fungal root endophytes: fungi that colonize plant root tissue from the inside and live in symbiosis with their host, improving plant productivity without causing obvious harm.

Thanks to these two newly discovered mushroomsthe number of known species of Archaeorhizomycetes has doubled. What's even more important, the researchers say, is that they've developed a method for identifying new species. It does not depend on the cultivation or detection of the mushroom fruiting body.

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