Mycorrhizal synthesis studies revealed that allopatric
populations of Suillus granulatus differ in host
specificity. Tissue cultures of Suillus granulatus used
were from Nepal, (associated with Pinus wallichiana), Korea
(Pinus densiflora) and the U.S. (Pinus strobus).
Mycorrhizal effectiveness was used to measure host
specificity. Useful characters for measuring mycorrhizal
effectiveness were determined by ANOVAs between the
uninoculated controls and mycorrhizal treatments. In
addition, those characters which were stable within one
population were determined via ANOVA. Useful characters, as
defined by these two tests were: shoot wet weight, total wet
weight, percentage mycorrhizal short roots, shoot dry
weight, total dry weight and Hartig net penetration. These
characters were subsequently used to measure variation in
mycorrhizal effectiveness among the allopatric populations
of Suillus granulatus. Isolates associated with Pinus
strobus were most effective with Pinus strobus and least
effective with the other trees, whereas isolates from Pinus
wallichiana and Pinus densiflora showed variable
effectiveness with all three trees. Phenetic analyses used
to determine how similarly the isolates responded with the
hosts confirmed these results. We conclude that isolates
associated with Pinus strobus are most specific for this
host, whereas isolates from the other two trees are not host
specific. These results are discussed and hypotheses put
forward to explain them.
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