Ectomycorrhizal fungal species of Kashmir Himalaya: identification and characterization by ITS analysis

Most vascular plants in terrestrial ecosystems form mutualistic mycorrhizal associations, among which ectomycorrhizal (ECM) associations predominate. Although coniferous forests of Kashmir Himalaya harbor wide diversity of such ECM fungi, their identification remains largely obscure. The present study was carried out to explore the diversity of ECM fungi from coniferous forests of Kashmir Himalaya. Herein we report four new potential ECM fungal species from Kashmir Himalaya, India on the basis of their morphological and molecular characterization. Morphological characteristics of all species were measured and compared with standard taxonomic literature. Internal transcribed spacer-ribosomal DNA (ITS-rDNA); the fungal molecular marker) was used for molecular analysis. The target region of rDNA (ITS1 5.8S ITS2) of these species was amplified using universal fungal primers (ITS1 and ITS4). The sequencing of amplified products and their subsequent Basic Local Alignment Search Tool analysis confirmed the identification of species by comparing the sequences of these species with respective species sequences present in GenBank. Phylogenetic analysis also confirmed the identification of species.