High-throughput sequencing of soil fungal communities from fields cultivated with saffron (crocus sativus l. ) after dna extraction with different kits

In this study we have characterized by MiSeq Illumina the fungal communities from soil samples collected in two Alpine experimental sites (Val d'Aosta, Italy) cultivated with saffron and inoculated with two Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal (AMF) inocula: a single-species (Rhizophagus intraradices) or a multispecies mixture (R. intraradices and Funneliformis mosseae) (Caser et al.2019). The fungal communities of 42 soil samples have been determined by means of fungal primer pairs specific for ITS which is considered the optimal region for fungal barcoding. This study was also designed to rank the relative efficiencies of two soil DNA extraction procedures on the characterization of these communities, which might be influenced by the method used to recover soil metagenomic DNA (Delmont et al. 2011). The results obtained enabled us to help choosing the most appropriate soil DNA extraction procedure adapted to high-throughput sequencing. In particular fungal communities' diversity and composition associated to alpine saffron cultivated fields with or without AMF inoculation were analyzed. References 1. Caser M., Victorino I., Demasi S., Berruti B., Donno D., Lumini E., Bianciotto V. Scariot V. 2019. Agronomy Journal 9:12. DOI 10.3390/agronomy9010012 2. Delmont T.O., Robe P., Clark I., Simonet P., Vogel T.M. 2011. J Microbiol Methods. 86:397-400.