Establishment of endomycorrhizal fungi on micropropagated teak (Tectona grandis L.f.)

Background Commercial micropropagation of teak (Tectona grandisL.f.) has been achieved for a number of years in countries such as Thailand, India and Malaysia. This has led to the availability of elite genotypes for large scale plantation production. Teak has been shown to develop arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal associations [1], and this has been attributed to increasing productivity [2]. It is likely that the establishment of mycorrhiza, through the introduction of Glomusspecies, on the roots of micropropagated plantlets will improve the productivity of selected clones. Established hyphal networks can speed up plant colonization [3] and in the long term may also increase carbon storage through glomalin production [4].Our research is pursuing the development of a mycorrhization protocol for micropropagated teak at the acclimatization stage.