The structure of the microbial community in the barley root zone

A study of the structure of the micromycete community in the barley root zo ne revealed the domination of representatives of the genus Penicillium and the presence of species belonging to the genera Aspergillus, Mucor, Fusariu m, Trichoderma, and Humicola in the soil, rhizosphere, and rhizoplane. A to tal of 75 fungal species were isolated, and their diversity was found to be similar in the soil, rhizosphere, and rhizoplane. In the course of success ion, the diversity of micromycetes decreased in the soil and rhizosphere an d increased in the rhizoplane. The species composition of micromycetes in t he root zone of such taxonomically distant plants as barley and pea was sho wn to be different; these differences are more likely to be related to the peculiarities of these plants rather than to differences in the micromycete species composition in the original soils. In the root zone of barley, spe cies belonging to the genus Humicola were more numerous and diverse, wherea s, in the root zone of pea, species of the genus Fusarium were more numerou s.