Checking the balance between pathogenic and mutualistic pine needle fungi of the genus Lophodermium in forested and urban areas of Slovakia

ABSTRACT Lophodermium species are well known to be among the dominant endophytic fungi colonizing pine needles. The occurrence of two species with different life strategies on different Pinus trees across Slovakia was detected by PCR using species-specific primers. In general, the commensalistic species L. pinastri was more frequent than parasitic L. seditiosum. There were no significant differences observed between urban and natural environments, but natural environments have more frequent colonization by L. pinastri and less frequent were trees negatively tested to Lophodermium colonization. Among the most frequently sampled trees were non-native P. nigra and native P. sylvestris. A significant difference in Lophodermium incidence was detected between these two species in a natural environment, with increased frequency of L. pinastri on native Scots pine. In addition to one clade of L. pinastri, culture based species identification confirmed the presence of L. corconticum and an undescribed clade of L. seditiosum that is not sensitive to used PCR primers for the species detection.