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Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) associations involve the most diverse category of myocrrhizae. The diversity derives from the fungal partners; more than 5,000 species of fungi, mainly Basidiomycetes, with a limited number of Ascomycetes and Zygomycetes, make the relationship very diverse. On the contrary, however, relatively few families of plants such as Fagaceae, Pinaceae, Betulaceae, and Dipterocarpaceae are involved in the ECM associations. These plants, however, are distributed over wide areas of temperate and boreal forests, and are therefore economically important. ECM fungi make associations with plants by forming a sheath (mantle) around fine root tips with hyphae that grow inward between root cells of the cortex and make Hartig net, and emanate outward through the soil, increasing the surface area to absorb nutrients and water. Thus, the mycorrhizal fungi gain photosynthates and other essential …