Abstract: By using nested-PCR, DNA cloning, and sequencing techniques, this paper studied the diversity of the community structure of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in wild and cultured Gynostemma pentaphyllum roots. A total of 551 clones containing 18S rDNA genes of AMF were obtained from the roots. After the analysis of the restriction fragment length polymorphism, 100 different RFLP types were obtained, which were further divided into 20 AMF phylotypes belonging to seven families. The comparison of the sequences of 20 AMF phylotypes with the GenBank database showed that there were 5 AMF phylotypes having high similarity to the sequences of reported AMF species Glomus viscosum, Claroideoglomus etunicatum, Racocetra tropicana, Acaulospora spinosa, and Acaulospora mellea, respectively. These sequences were then assessed for the similarities against the MaarjAM database, and 12 phylotypes showed high similarity to the corresponding molecular virtual taxa, of which, 7 phylotypes were not obtained by the morphological identification of soil asexual spores. Statistical analysis indicated that there were significant differences in the AMF community between wild and cultured G. pentaphyllum roots. The analysis of relative abundance data indicated that Glo₂, Amb₁, and Para₁ were the dominant phylotypes in wild G. pentaphyllum roots, while Glo₃, Glo₈, Glo₁₀, and Div₁ were the prevalent phylotypes in cultured ones. Claroideoglomeraceae and Ambisporaceae were only detected in wild G. pentaphyllum roots, and Diversisporaceae was only identified in cultured ones.

Key words: arbuscular mycorrhiza,  Gynostemma pentaphyllum, diversity, RFLP, nested-PCR.