Diversity and function of fungal root endophytes in Canadian boreal forests

植物的根被各种各样的真菌占据。这些不仅包括有害的病原体，也包括促进植物生长的有益物种。还有一些以“内生菌”的形式存在于植物根组织中，它们不会引起疾病症状，也不会形成通常在有益关联中发现的结构。根内生真菌数量丰富，几乎存在于所有已研究的植物中，但其隐蔽性限制了对其在土壤环境生态学中的作用的研究。根内生真菌可能代表了一种未被发现的生物多样性来源。以前对真菌根内生真菌的研究不仅揭示了高度的多样性，而且叶片内生真菌（地上的类比）也被认为是“超多样性”的。现代基于DNA的检测技术比以前使用的技术要灵敏得多，应该能揭示这些看不见的生物的真正多样性。

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.