INTERSPORAL GENETIC-VARIATION OF GIGASPORA-MARGARITA, A VESICULAR-ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZAL FUNGUS, REVEALED BY M13 MINISATELLITE-PRIMED PCR

Spores of vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizal (VAM) fungi contain thousan ds of nuclei, In order to understand the karyotic structure of a VAM f ungus spore, the genetic variation of the first generation of spores f rom a VAM fungus (Gigaspora margarita) was examined, Spores originatin g from both single- and multispore inoculations of the species G, marg arita were analyzed by M13 minisatellite-primed PCR, In both cases, di fferent fingerprints were obtained from individual spores with few spo res exhibiting similar fingerprints, These results can be explained on ly by a heterokaryotic status of the nuclear population within a spore .