Abstracts

The bioluminescent fungi Neonothopanus gardneri grows only in the base of the babassu palm tree, in Brazil. It is the biggest bioluminescent mushroom of the region and also has the highest light emission. Fungi-plant association is world-widely seen and known for giving the plant an enormous advantage in nutrient gathering through different approaches, therefore this symbiosis may lead the plant to have an advantage against the others in the ecosystem.This way of thinking is supported by the fact that the babassu palm is the main large plant of the palm forest biome, highly overcoming moriche and carnauba palms.To discover if there is symbiosis between N. gardneri and babassu and if it gives the plant some advantage we must test growing the plant in the presence and in the absence of the fungi and see its roots under microscope.Germinating the embryo using different combinations of plant growth hormone and creating calluses directly from a plant seedling collected in the wild are two of the strategies being tested in our lab, results have yet to come due to the long wait reality of the techniques.Another test planned to the laboratory made seedlings is to compare N. gardneri infected and control plants metabolome, for the plant may produce a specific molecule that is necessary for the fungi.With this work we expect to elucidate the first relationship between a plant and a bioluminescent organism.