Morphological and molecular characterization of mycelia of some Tuber species in pure culture

Pure cultures of Tuber maculatum, Tuber melanosporum, Tuber aestivum, Tuber macrosporum, Tuber rufum and Tuber brumale were isolated and characterized by morphological and molecular methods. The Tuber mycelia were isolated from fruit bodies and molecular identification was performed using specific primers, restriction fragment length polymorphism and/or sequence analyses of the ITS region. The species grew between 1.1 mm wk-1 and 14 mm wk-1 on the selected medium. The mycelium of different Tuber species showed several common morphological features such as hyphal anastomoses, vesicle formation and hyphal aggregation. Differences were found in the frequency of these morphological features and in the hyphal pattern. The isolated mycelia also showed differences in the hyphal branch angle, septal distance, hyphal diameter and rate of growth of the hyphae. This result opens the possibility of using pure mycelial cultures of Tuber spp. for experimental purposes and for the commercial production of infected truffle plants. © New Phytologist (2002).