Multiple interactions: Ambrosia Fungi-Populus sp.-Megaplatypus mutatus

CERIANI NAKAMURAKARE, ESTEBAN DANIEL; D´JONSILES, FERNANDA; DOLINKO, ANDRES; GONZALEZ AUDINO, PAOLA; CARMARAN, CECILIA

Congreso; 32 New Phytologist Symposium: ¨ Plant interactions with other organisms: molecules, ecology and evolution¨; 2013

The New Phytologist Trust

Species of the genus Populus (L.) have a high importance in the forest production carried out in Argentina. Several provinces of this country hold more than 63.500 forested hectare. This number is increased if we consider urban-windbreak poplars. Up to 99% of the commercial plantations belongs to P. deltoides. Megaplatypus mutatus (Coleoptera: Platypodinae) is one of the most important forest pest, in commercial plantation. This ambrosia beetle, that attacks standing live trees, is native from South America and it has recently been introduced to Italy. The nature of the interaction between Ambrosia Fungi-Poplar-M. mutatus and the role of the fungal community remain mostly unknown. In order to comprehend this multiple interaction, the diversity of fungal communities associated with tree and insect were evaluated and the galleries architecture was studied by computed tomography. Our data, based in morphological and molecular approach, showed a high diversity of fungal communities, with a few predominant species. The impacts of the obtained results in the frame of the pathogenic system are discussed.