Abstract :
Belowground biological interactions that occur among plant roots, animals and microorganisms are dynamic and substantially influence ecosystem processes. Among belowground biota are the fungi, which are diverse and play a wide range of functions in forest ecosystem processes. In the forest, we can distinguish three main functional groups of fungi according to their carbon acquisition, namely, saprotrophic, pathogenic and symbiotic fungi. Mycorrhizas are symbiotic fungi and are commonly divided into ectomycorrhizal (ascomycetes such as Tuber sp. and basidiomycetes such as Russula spp.) and arbuscular fungi (zygomycetes such as Glomus spp.). The two main groups are differentiated by the fact that the hyphae of ectomycorrhizal fungi do not penetrate individual cells within the root, while the hyphae of arbuscular fungi penetrate the cell wall and invaginate the cell membrane.
