Ectomycorrhizal and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi associated with aspen (Populus tremuloides) roots yielded from Illumina sequencing

On August 24, 2019, Justine Karst and Nadir Erbilgin sampled a 30–50 cm segment of root from each of three aspen trees within each plot at the interface of the humus layer of the forest floor and mineral soil. We traced roots from boles and confirmed their identity to be aspen by taste-testing. Sampled roots were put on ice after collection and transported to the University of Alberta the same day and stored at -20 °C prior to processing. Aspen roots were thawed and washed free of adhering soil. Fine roots (< 1 mm in diameter) were retained, cut into 1 cm fragments, mixed thoroughly in a dish of water, and subsampled for DNA sequencing of AM and EM fungal communities using Illumina. The ITS1 and SSU regions of fungal rDNA were separately amplified in two-step PCRs using primers ITS1F - ITS2 and WANDA - AML2, respectively. James Franklin performed benchwork and Joseph Birch performed bioinformatics.