Diversity and function of fungal root endophytes in Canadian boreal forests

植物的根被各种各样的真菌所定殖。这些不仅包括有害的病原体，还包括促进植物生长的有益物种。还有一些作为植物根组织内的“内生菌”存在，其不引起疾病症状或形成通常在有益的关联中发现的结构。根内生真菌在植物中的数量非常丰富，但其隐蔽性限制了对它们在土壤生态学中作用的研究。根内生真菌潜在地代表了生物多样性的一个未被发现的来源。不仅以前的研究发现真菌根内生菌的多样性高水平，但内生真菌的叶子（地上类比）被认为是“超多样性”。现代的DNA检测技术比以前使用的技术灵敏得多，应该能揭示这些看不见的生物的真实多样性。

Plant roots are colonized by a diverse array of fungi. These include not only detrimental pathogens, but also beneficial species which improve plant growth. Still others exist as "endophytes" within the plant root tissue, which do not cause disease symptoms or form the structures normally found in beneficial associations. Root endophytic fungi are often abundant and found on almost all plants so far studied, yet their cryptic nature has constrained investigation into their role in the ecology of the soil environment. Root endophytic fungi potentially represent an undiscovered source of biodiversity. Not only have previous studies of fungal root endophytes uncovered high levels of diversity, but the endophytic fungi of leaves (the above-ground analogy) are thought to be "hyperdiverse". Modern DNA based detection techniques are far more sensitive than those previously employed, and should reveal the true diversity of these unseen organisms.