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Forty years of inoculating seedlings with truffle fungi: past and future perspectives

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Abstract

The first commercialization of seedlings inoculated with truffle fungi occurred in 1973. Over the last 40 years, considerable progress has been made relative to quality control for inoculated seedlings. A recently published paper by Andrés-Alpuente and colleagues (Mycorrhiza 24:29–37, 2014) reviewed and tested the different methods of mycorrhization assessment currently used in Europe. The aim of this paper is to augment their findings by adding information to the discussion about the most important steps in seedling quality control. Additionally, the history of seedlings inoculated with truffles, procedures currently used in France for seedling control quality, and a reflection on future research aimed at increasing truffle production will be presented.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Dr. Randy Molina for giving me the opportunity to prepare this commentary paper as well as for the help in the manuscript preparation. I would also like to thank Dr. Francis Martin and Dr. François Le Tacon for their stimulating discussions and their help in preparing this manuscript and Aimée Orsini for the English correction. Also highly appreciated was the discussion with Prof. Alessandra Zambonelli. I am grateful to Dr. Gérard Chevalier for teaching me about seedling control and for having shared with me his 40-year experience working with truffles at INRA. I also thank Dr. Carlos Colinas and Dr. Herminia De La Varga for their help. Lastly, thanks to Damien Berlureau and Bruno Robin for allowing me to present the seedling rate criteria used in the Chevalier and Grente methods as well as statistics since 1973 on commercialized seedlings. The UMR1136 is supported by a grant overseen by the French National Research Agency (ANR) as part of the “Investissements d’Avenir” program (ANR-11-LABX-0002-01, Lab of Excellence ARBRE), by ANR SYSTERRA SYSTRUF (ANR-09-STRA-10), and by the Lorraine Region.

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  1. UMR1136 INRA, Interactions Arbres/Micro-organismes, Laboratory of Excellence ARBRE, INRA Nancy, Université de Lorraine, 54280, Champenoux, France

    Claude Murat

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Murat, C. Forty years of inoculating seedlings with truffle fungi: past and future perspectives. Mycorrhiza 25, 77–81 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00572-014-0593-4

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