ORIGINAL PAPER In vitro ectomycorrhizal specificity between the Asian red pine Pinus densiflora and Tricholoma matsutake and allied species from worldwide Pinaceae and Fagaceae forests Akiyoshi Yamada & Hisayasu Kobayashi & Hitoshi Murata & Erbil Kalmiş & Fatih Kalyoncu & Masaki Fukuda Received: 23 July 2009 / Accepted: 9 November 2009 / Published online: 26 November 2009 # Springer-Verlag 2009 Abstract Tricholoma matsutake produces commercially valuable, yet uncultivable, mushrooms (matsutake) in associ- ation with pines in the Far East and Scandinavia and with both pines and oaks in the foothills of Tibet. Other matsutake mushrooms, such as Tricholoma anatolicum from the Mediterranean regions and Tricholoma magnivelare and Tricholoma sp. from the North Pacific Coast area of Canada and North America as well as Mexico, respectively, are associated with pines or oaks in their natural habitats. Tricholoma bakamatsutake and Tricholoma fulvocastaneum from Asia produce moderately valuable matsutake mush- rooms and are solely associated with Fagaceae in nature. In this study, we demonstrate for the first time that matsutake mushrooms from Scandinavia, Mediterranean regions, North America, and Tibet form ectomycorrhizae with Pinus densi- flora similar to the Far East T. matsutake. In general, worldwide T . matsutake and the symbionts of Pinaceae colonize the rhizospheres of P . densiflora as well as T . matsutake isolated from the host plant. However, T . fulvo- castaneum and T . bakamatsutake formed a discontinuous Hartig net and no Hartig net, respectively, and colonized to a lesser extent as compared to T . matsutake. The data suggest that conifer-associated matsutake mushrooms in their native habitat will associate symbiotically with the Asian red pine. Keywords Tricholoma matsutake . Pinus densiflora . Ecophysiology . Ectomycorrhizal symbiosis . Edible mushrooms Introduction The ectomycorrhizal basidiomycete Tricholoma matsutake (S. Ito et Imai) Sing (= Tricholoma nauseosum Kytt., Tricholoma zangii Z. M.) produces the most prized mushroom (matsutake) in association with pines, including Pinus densiflora Sieb. et Zucc. in the Far East and Pinus sylvestris L. in Scandinavia, and with both pines and oaks in the foothills of Tibet. Other matsutake mushrooms, such as Tricholoma anatolicum H. H. Doğan & Intini from the Mediterranean regions and Tricholoma magnivelare (Peck) Redhead and Tricholoma sp. from the North Pacific Coast A. Yamada (*) Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, Shinshu University, Minami-minowa, Nagano 399-4598, Japan e-mail: akiyosh@shinshu-u.ac.jp H. Kobayashi Ibaraki Prefectural Forestry Institute, Naka, Ibaraki 311-0122, Japan H. Murata Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8687, Japan E. Kalmiş Department of Bioengineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ege University, Bornova, İzmir, Turkey F. Kalyoncu Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Arts, Celal Bayar University, Muradiye, Manisa, Turkey M. Fukuda Faculty of Agriculture, Shinshu University, Minami-minowa, Nagano 399-4598, Japan Mycorrhiza (2010) 20:333–339 DOI 10.1007/s00572-009-0286-6