The French black "Perigord" truffle, Tuber n~lanosporum, an ectomycorrhizal fungus living in a symbiotic relationship with certain species of trees. has been successfully produced on filberts and oaks using spore mass inoculation techniques, in Europe for the past 20 years and in North Carolina since 1993. While this method has had great success with Pisolithus tinctonus on pines and Rhizopogon spp. On Douglas fir (Castellano, 1994), it has had limited Access with T. melanospon~m on its hosts. Approaches involving mycelia generated by tissue culture techniques directed towards production of trees with vigorous T. melanospon~m strains have met with little success due to the slow growth of the fungus in vitro (Starnets, 1993). Contamination and short life span in art)ficial media have compounded this problem. The proposed research is intended to demonstrate ~ novel method using mycorrhized roots from heavily producing trees to propagate a desirable strain of Tuber melanospon~m in an efficient way.Applications:This project will demonstrate the feasibility of generating commercial quantities of inexpensive trees mycorrhized with a producing strain of Tuber mclanosporum. Since it has been proven to grow in North America, the possibility exists for creating an extremely profitable agricultural crop in the United States. The technology could be further applied to the production of other truffles and mushrooms of economic importance. The timber industry would benefit if this method proves to be an economical, alternative means for inoculating conifers grown for lumber. Studies have shown conclusively that mycorrhized Douglas fir used for lumber grows more vigorously and productively (Castellano, 1994).
