Diversity and function of fungal root endophytes in Canadian boreal forests

植物的根部被各种各样的真菌侵占。这些不仅包括有害的病原体，而且还包括促进植物生长的有益物种。还有一些是作为植物根组织中的“内生菌”存在的，它们不会引起疾病症状，也不会形成通常在有益群丛中发现的结构。根内生真菌种类繁多，几乎存在于迄今研究的所有植物中，但其神秘的性质限制了人们对其在土壤环境生态中的作用的研究。根内生真菌可能是一种未被发现的生物多样性来源。不仅以前对真菌根内生真菌的研究发现了高度的多样性，而且叶的内生真菌(地上的类比)被认为是“超多样化”的。现代基于DNA的检测技术比以前使用的技术要敏感得多，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.