Ectomycorrhizae and their importance for plants colonizing areas degraded by industry

The important role of mycorrhizae for plants, particularly those introduced to hardly−regenerating post−agricultural areas, post−industrial areas or degraded soils, promotes use of artificial mycorrhizal inocula. Their effectiveness depends, to a large extent, on the species or rather strain of a fungus. Analysing the resistance of strains isolated from contaminated and uncontaminated areas attempts were made in the paper towards solving the question about the role of the origin of mycorrhizal fungi used for mycorrhization. Also attempts were made to verify the hypothesis that symbiotic fungi growing in degraded areas are selected and adapted to unfavourable environmental conditions. It was shown that the resistance of fungi, even of the same species, to high concentrations of heavy metals, differ depending on the symbiont's origin. Fungi isolated from contaminated areas are better adapted to high concentrations of xenobiotics