Amanita rubescens is a very common taxon widespread in the forests of the Northern Hemisphere, most frequently reported from Europe (Větrovský et al. 2020). This is an ectomycorrhizal fungus symbiotic with a variety of hosts including oak, spruce and pine trees. It is found typically in places with high N deposition and high N availability in soils (van der Linde et al. 2018). It is not surprising that it is one of the most abundant mycorrhizal associates of spruce in acidic soils with high N content such as in the coniferous stands of lowland plantations of Central Europe (Kohout et al. 2018) and coniferous mountain spruce forests affected by acidic deposition that are N-saturated (Žifčáková et al. 2016). The fact that Amanita rubescens prefers N-rich soils makes it a suitable model of the functioning of the tree-fungus symbiosis in the system where the trees are not dependent on mycorrhizal N-supply. A. rubescens forms fruiting bodies in summer and fall and is a delicious edible mushroom. The sporocarp for this genome was collected in a mountainous coniferous forest in the Bavarian Forest, Germany, Central Europe with dominant Fagus sylvatica.
References:
- Kohout P, Charvátová M, Štursová M, Mašínová T, Tomšovský M, Baldrian P. 2018. Clearcutting alters decomposition processes and initiates complex restructuring of fungal communities in soil and tree roots. The ISME Journal, in press, doi: 10.1038/s41396-017-0027-3.
- Van der Linde S et al. 2018. Environment and host as large-scale controls of ectomycorrhizal fungi. Nature 558: 243-248.
- Větrovský T et al. 2020. GlobalFungi, a global database of fungal occurrences from high-throughput-sequencing metabarcoding studies. Scientific Data 7: 228.
- Žifčáková L, Větrovský T, Howe A, Baldrian P. 2016. Microbial activity in forest soil reflects the changes in ecosystem properties between summer and winter. Environmental Microbiology 18(1): 288-301.
