A great diversity of plants and fungi engage in mycorrhizal associations. In natural habitats, and in an ecologically meaningful time span, these associations have evolved to improve the fitness of both plant and fungal symbionts. In systems managed by humans, mycorrhizal associations often improve plant productivity, but this is not always the case. Mycorrhizal fungi might be considered to be ...

Disruption of mycorrhizal fungi that form symbioses with local native plants is a strategy used by some invasive exotic plants for competing within their resident communities. Example invasive plants include Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard) and Brassica nigra (black mustard), both non-mycorrhizal plants in the Family Brassicaceae. Although there is clear evidence for mycorrhizal degradation,...

To investigate the growth response of various crop species to mycorrhizal inoculation, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi were applied to Glycine max, Vigna angularis, Senna tora, Hordeum vulgare var. hexastichon. Zea mays, Sorghum bicolor, Allium tuberosum, Solanum melongena, and Capsicum annuum. The biomass of the inoculated crops was measured every two weeks for the 12-week growth period. By measu...

The arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis formed between plant roots and fungi is one of the most widespread symbiotic associations found in plants, yet our understanding of events underlying its development are limited. The recent integration of biochemical, molecular and genetic approaches into analyses of the symbiosis is providing new insights into various aspects of its development. In the...

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...

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...

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...