Ectomycorrhizal fungi (EcMF) are the key symbion ts of numerouswoody plants in many ecosystems worldwide (Smith & Read,2008; Tedersoo, 2017). They positively affect host plant nutrientuptake (Smith & Read, 2008) and take part in essential ecosystemprocesses such as carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling anddecomposition of organic matter (Read & Perez-Moreno, 2003;Clemmensen et al., 2014; Shah et al., 2016).
The majority ofectomycorrhizal (EcM) plants fully depend on the mycorrhizalsymbionts and cannot complete their life cycle without these rootassociations (Smith & Read, 2008)