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...

Pennisetum pedicellatum plants were inoculated with Glomus mosseae, G. aggregatum and Gigaspora margarita. There were both quantitative and qualitative changes in the protein pattern of inoculated plants. Gi. margarita induced increase in protein in the plants. Acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase, superoxide dismutase and chitinase activities were high at the beginning of infection, but decl...

Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.), widely used for berry and wine production, is highly susceptible to the pathogenic oomycete Plasmopara viticola, etiological agent of grapevine downy mildew disease. The method commonly prevent control P. viticola infection relies on multiple applications chemical fungicides. However, with European Union goals lower usage such chemicals in viticulture there a need...

Roots and rhizomes of Salvia miltiorrhiza (S. miltiorrhiza) are widely used for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMFs) have been shown to enhance plant growth and increase secondary metabolites concentration in many plant species. However, effects of AMFs on S. miltiorrhiza have not been explored. A pot culture was designed as one control (non-AMF) treatme...

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis often stimulates gas exchange rates of the host plant. This may relate to mycorrhizal effects on host nutrition and growth rate, or the influence may occur independently of these. Using meta-regression, we tested the strength of the relationship between AM-induced increases in gas exchange, and AM size and leaf mineral effects across the literature. With on...

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi can interconnect plant root systems through hyphal common mycorrhizal networks, which may influence the distribution of limiting mineral nutrients among interconnected individuals, potentially affecting competition and consequent size inequality. Using a microcosm model system, we investigated whether the members of Andropogon gerardii monocultures compete via commo...

The selection of genotypes under high soil fertility may alter the effectiveness of mycorrhizal symbioses naturally forming between crop plants and the mycorrhizal fungi residing in cultivated fields. We tested the hypothesis that the mycorrhizal symbiosis of 5 landraces functions better than the mycorrhizal symbiosis of 27 cultivars of durum wheat that were bred after the development of the fe...

While agricultural research has traditionally focused on average environmental conditions, environmental variability, independent of the mean, can also have biological consequences. Using lettuce (Lactuca sativa) as a model system, we tested two hypotheses: (1) increased temporal variability in water supply impacts plant growth, yield, photosynthesis, water relations, and nutrition and (2) AM f...

1. While both arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and plant and insect genotype are well known to influence plant and herbivore growth and performance, information is lacking on how these factors jointly influence the relationship between plants and their natural herbivores. 2. The aim of the present study was to investigate how a natural community of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi affects the grow...

Tropical crops of great economic importance such as banana are known to benefit from mycorrhizal association. Development and survival of introduced mycorrhizal propagules depend not only on the crops but mainly on the edaphic conditions and soil types where the symbiosis is established. Seven soils from banana fields of Martinique were sampled and tested to determine their receptiveness to myc...