XVI International Botanical Congess
As part of an ecological study of the wetwood microbial community, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to amplify eubacterial DNA from wetwood tissues of P. trichocarpa. Capillary fluid contained several bacterial cell types including Clostridium sp. and methanogenic archea. Total genomic DNA was extracted and used as a template for PCR. PCR products will be sequenced to characterize wetwood communities and used to construct species specific probes to identify and track wetwood organisms in situ. This technique will allow investigation of ecological questions for which traditional culturing methods are inadequate. These questions concern the relationship between the wetwood microbial community and wetwood symptom induction, interactions among community members and between the community and its host, and dispersal mechanisms.