Miscellaneous contributions to the taxonomy and mycorrhiza of AMF-exploiting myco-heterotrophic plants [Elektronische Ressource] / vorgelegt von Thassilo Franke

Miscellaneous Contributions to the Taxonomy and Mycorrhiza of AMF-exploiting Myco-heterotrophic Plants Dissertationzur Erlangung des Doktorsgrades der Naturwissenschaften (Dr. rer. nat.) der Fakultät für Biologie der Ludwig-Maximilians-UniversitätMünchenvorgelegt von Thassilo Franke München15. Januar 2007 Datum der mündlichen Prüfung: 16. Mai 2007 Erstgutachter: Prof. Dr. Reinhard Agerer Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Tillich Acknowledgements First and foremost I would like to thank my wife Paras for her willingness to sacrifice a nor-mal private life for the sake of research, and her never-ending patience during my field trips, when the two of us were separated for weeks and sometimes months. I am deeply grateful to my supervisor Reinhard Agerer, who didn’t just allow me, but eagerly encouraged me, from the very beginning of our collaboration, to freely cross the borders be-tween mycology and the biological disciplines representing the other branches of the tree of life, botany in particular. No wonder that much of the content of this thesis is a rather unusual output for a member of a mycological research team. While working on this thesis, I also profited from conversations with many colleagues. Spe-cial thanks are due to Philomena Bodensteiner, Rita Verma, Eva Facher, Harald Förther, Alexander Kocyan, Stefan Raidl and my dear friend and travel companion Ludwig Beenken.