Factors influencing water solubility and plant availability of mineral compounds in the tripartite fairy rings ofMarasmius oreades(Bolt.: Fr.) Fr.

Abstract

Fairy rings of M. oreades on pasture land were denoted by the dark-green vegetation. Grasses and rooted soils were analyzed to determine the influence of nonsymbiotic fungal mats on plant uptake of (heavy) metals. In soil colonized by M. oreades, degradation of 20-35% of plant roots in the presence of fungal laccase increased the content of dissolved organic carbon (3.74x), hexose sugar (3.75x), NH(3)/NH(4) (+) (5.1x), NO(3) (-) (11.1x), the number of aerobic bacteria (14.4x), and the formation of the phytochelators, oxalic, citric, and malonic acids. Soil pH diminished by 1.5 units mainly due to nitrification and carboxylic acid production. Although the solubility of trace elements increased (6.1x), plant roots had the same trace metal content as control plants, whereas the shoot content in Al, Cr, Fe, Ni, and Ti decreased by more than 50% due to inhibited root-to-shoot transfer. It is concluded that M. oreades and its associated bacteria increase the solubility of soil minerals significantly, but make them, due to presumed particularities in their complexation, less plant available and less re-complexable for the translocation into the plant vascular system.

Fungal laccases – occurrence and properties

“…The activity of laccase also reflects the presence of fungal mycelia. Significantly increased laccase activity was detected in the fairy rings of Marasmius oreades along with the production of organic acids and a high concentration of available nitrogen and carbon due to the degradation of plant roots by the fungus (Gramss et al , 2005). Along with the vertical gradient of fungal distribution in soil profiles, the laccase activity decreases with increasing depth.…”

Dominant plant species shift their nitrogen uptake patterns in response to nutrient enrichment caused by a fungal fairy in an alpine meadow

“…1) and circular fruit body distributions. Basidiomycete fungi grow on dead organic matter (Cooke and Rayner 1984) and return nutrients to the soil, leading to higher N availability in annular areas of rings than outside the rings (Kaiser 1998;Edwards 1988;Gramss et al 2005;Griffith and Roderick 2008). This provides a unique environment for testing how dominant plant species acclimate to nutrient enrichment in alpine meadows, circumventing manipulations by fertilizer addition.…”

Mutual influence of soil basidiomycetes and white mustard plants on their enzymatic and catabolic activities

“…Root cell occupation by Agaricus campestris and degradation of senescent sward roots by fairy-ring fungi such as A. arvensis [1] and Marasmius oreades [2] bind several basi-diomycetes obligately to grasses. In contrast, Agrocybe, Coprinus, Lepista, Stropharia, and several Agaricus sp.…”