The cultivable endophytic community of Norway spruce ectomycorrhizas from microhabitats lacking ericaceous hosts is dominated by ericoid mycorrhizal Meliniomyces variabilis Martin VOHN  IK a,b, *, Libor MRNKA a , Tereza LUKE  SOV  A a,b , Mar  ıa Clara BRUZONE c , Petr KOHOUT a,b,1 , Judith FEHRER d a Department of Mycorrhizal Symbioses, Institute of Botany ASCR, Pr  uhonice 252 43, Czech Republic b Department of Plant Experimental Biology, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Prague 128 44, Czech Republic c Laboratorio de Microbiolog  ıa Aplicada y Biotecnolog  ıa, Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche, INIBIOMA (Universidad Nacional del Comahue e CONICET), San Carlos de Bariloche, R  ıo Negro, Argentina d DNA Laboratory, Institute of Botany ASCR, Pr  uhonice 252 43, Czech Republic article info Article history: Received 21 August 2012 Revision received 7 February 2013 Accepted 22 February 2013 Available online 14 May 2013 Corresponding editor: Kevin K. Newsham Keywords: Cadophora finlandica Dark septate endophytes Ectomycorrhiza Endophytic fungi Ericaceae Ericoid mycorrhiza Meliniomyces bicolor Rhizoscyphus ericae Root associated fungi abstract Most of the temperate conifers associate with ectomycorrhizal fungi, but their roots also harbour a wide range of endophytes. We focused on ascomycetes associating with basidio- mycetous ectomycorrhizas of Norway spruce in a temperate montane forest in central Europe and found that the majority of the co-associated fungi belonged to the Rhizoscyphus ericae aggregate (REA), being dominated by Meliniomyces variabilis. We further tested the ability of representative isolates to colonize spruce root tips and European blueberry (Vaccinium myr- tillus) hair roots in an agar system as well as their effect on blueberry growth in a peat-agar system. M. variabilis intracellularly colonized spruce (Picea abies) root tip cortex, formed eri- coid mycorrhizas in blueberry and enhanced blueberry shoot and root growth in comparison with non-inoculated plants. Our findings suggest that spruce ectomycorrhizas may represent selective niches for ericoid mycorrhizal fungi in habitats lacking suitable ericaceous hosts. ª 2013 Elsevier Ltd and The British Mycological Society. All rights reserved. Introduction Any healthy or dead plant tissue contains fungal endobionts (hereafter referred to as mycobionts), both above- and below- ground (Sieber 2002; Summerbell 2005). These mycobionts range from facultative saprobes and parasites to neutral endophytes to mutualistic symbionts positively affecting host plant fitness (Rodriguez et al. 2009; Newsham 2011). While there seems to be only a small overlap between the fungi inhabiting plant stems and roots (Sieber 2002, 2007), some * Corresponding author. Department of Mycorrhizal Symbioses, Institute of Botany ASCR, Pr uhonice 252 43, Czech Republic. Tel.: þ420 271015331. E-mail addresses: martin.vohnik@ibot.cas.cz, vohnik@ibot.cas.cz (M. Vohn  ık). 1 Present address: Group of Mycology, Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, 14a Ravila, Tartu 50411, Estonia. available at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/funeco 1754-5048/$ e see front matter ª 2013 Elsevier Ltd and The British Mycological Society. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.funeco.2013.03.006 fungal ecology 6 (2013) 281 e292