Microbial diversity associated with Tricholoma matsutake fruiting bodies

Endophytes play an important role in the growth and development of the host. However, the study of endophytes is mostly focused on plants and animals, and reports on microorganisms associated with fungus are relatively rare. We studied the microorganisms associated with Tricholoma matsutake fruiting bodies picked from three main T. matsutake-producing areas in Sichuan, China, by both culture-dependent and culture- independent methods. Altogether 13 fungus, 15 yeast and 14 bacterial strains were isolated from the T. matsutake fruiting bodies. The most abundant cultivable fungus, yeast and bacteria isolates were assigned as Fusarium solanis, Cryptococcus sp. and Pseudomonas sp., respectively. Terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis (T-RFLP) showed that the bacteria in T. matsutake were abundant and diverse. Betaand gamma-proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Sphingobacterium were found in samples from all collecting sites. Among these bacteria, we may find some strains that can promote the growth of T. matsutake.