BACKGROUND The stability of cooperative interactions among different species can be compromised by cheating. In the plant-mycorrhizal fungi symbiosis, a single mycorrhizal network may interact with many plants, providing the opportunity for individual plants to cheat by obtaining nutrients from the fungi without donating carbon. Here we determine whether kin selection may favour plant investmen...

Lead is a nonessential element that has a negative effect on plant growth and development. Plant symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in soils contaminated with heavy metals can affect growth of plant, nutrition and tolerance against heavy metals. In this study, the effect arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi Glomus intraradices on the growth, photosynthetic pigments, protein content, prol...

The influence of the specific Descolea antarctica (Da) and the non-specific Pisolithus tinctorious (Pt) ectomycorrhizal fungi on some physiological leaf parameters of the Chilean evergreen Nothofagus dombeyi subjected to a low soil water potential (-1.6 to -1.9 MPa in a growth chamber for 35 days) and a high water potential (-0.07 to -0.09 MPa, control) was studied. Drought decreased the water ...

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are obligate soil biotrophs that establish intimate relationships with 80 % of terrestrial plant families. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi obtain carbon from host plants and contribute to the acquisition of mineral nutrients, mainly phosphorus. The presence of invasive plants has been identified as a soil disturbance factor, often conditioning the structure and f...

Mycorrhizal associations are known to improve the hydro-mineral nutrition of their host plants. However, the importance of mycorrhizal symbiosis for plant potassium nutrition has so far been poorly studied. We therefore investigated the impact of the ectomycorrhizal fungus Hebeloma cylindrosporum on the potassium nutrition of Pinus pinaster and examined the involvement of the fungal potassium t...

Aluminum in acidic conditions is toxic to plants. Aluminum tolerance in some plant species has been ascribed to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal symbiosis. In this study, the application of aluminum was found to inhibit mycelia development of saprobe fungi Fusarium concolor and Trichoderma koningii and the hyphal length of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi Glomus mosseae and Glomus deserticola in v...

The potential of interactions between saprophytic and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi to improve Eucalyptus globulus grown in soil contaminated with Zn were investigated. The presence of 100 mg kg 1 Zn decreased the shoot and root dry weight of E. globulus colonized with Glomus deserticola less than in plants not colonized with AM. Zn also decreased the extent of root length colonization by A...

effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (glomus mossea ca) and plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (pgpr) of bacillus pantea and psedomonas putida were evaluated on growth parameters of osteospermum (osteospermum hybrida ‘passion mix’) under different watering conditions (field capacity, two and one third of field capacity). arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (amf) and pgpr were applied as single ...

The amount of carbon plants allocate to mycorrhizal symbionts exceeds that emitted by human activity annually. Senescent ectomycorrhizal roots represent a large input of carbon into soils, but their fate remains unknown. Here, we present the surprising result that, despite much higher nitrogen concentrations, roots colonized by ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi lost only one-third as much carbon as no...

Mycorrhiza is a mutualistic symbiosis between plants and fungi localized in roots or root like structures in which energy moves primarily from plants to fungi and inorganic resources move from fungi to plants. Mycorrhizal fungi may play important roles in nature. Findings of many researches are helpful in understanding the role of mycorrhizal fungi in the structure and functioning of ecosystems...