Underground Explorers

The project will be carried out in the main biodiverse mountain system of Guatemala, Sierra de las Minas, a particular geological and natural system originated from the encounter of ancient land blocks and tectonic plates. It is still now the natural limit in America of Holartic genera as Abies and Acer but contains many others that are distributed in Central America as well as many Neotropical genera.  The scope of this project is to identify molecularly the mycorrhizal composition of its different forest according to the altitudinal gradient.  And after then, 1. To identify the dominant fungal genera and species, 2. To identify those that could be useful for inoculum in forestry and 3. To determine or confirm the taxonomic identity of many fruit bodies of ectomycorrhizal mushrooms, mainly basidiomycetes in the orders Russulales, Boletales and Cantharellales collected before and during the sampling. This is the first large molecular study that will provide information about fungal diversity in the country.