Biodiversity and characterization of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi at the molecular level

Biodiversity within a biological group provides the basis for distinguishing members into genera and species according to taxonomic criteria, and between individuals within a species depending on more detailed differences at the genetic level. Diversity between species occurs after a genetic barrier has been created either by a geographic or genetic impedance of gene flow. Divergence can continue by nucleotide substitutions and by mutations in a broader sense (deletions, translocations, duplications), and resulting diversity can be evaluated at the molecular level and used as a phylogenetic character. Diversity at the subspecies level is a function of both mutation rates and gene flow betwe…