The arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis is the association between fungi of the order Glomales (Zygomycetes) and the roots of terrestrial plants (Harley and Smith, 1983). Conservative estimates suggest that this ancient symbiosis, dating back to the early Devonian age (398 million years ago), affects approximately 90% of the Earth’s land plant species (Remy et al., 1994). This symbiosis is in...

Darwin's model of evolution by natural selection was based on his observations of change in discrete organisms in which individuals are easy to define. Many of the most abundant functional groups in ecosystems, such as fungi and bacteria, do not fit this paradigm. In this review, we seek to understand how the elegant logic of Darwinian natural selection can be applied to distributed clonal orga...

The arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis is the association between fungi of the order Glomales (Zygomycetes) and the roots of terrestrial plants (Harley and Smith, 1983). Conservative estimates suggest that this ancient symbiosis, dating back to the early Devonian age (398 million years ago), affects approximately 90% of the Earth’s land plant species (Remy et al., 1994). This symbiosis is in...

Arbuscular mycorrhizas (AM) have mutualistic symbiosis with plants and thus efforts have been placed on application of these symbiotic relationships to agricultural and environmental fields. In this study, AM fungi were collected from 25 sites growing with 16 host plant species in Korea and cultured with Sorghum bicolor in greenhouse condition. AM fungal spores were extracted and identified usi...

Understanding the natural dynamics of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and their response to global environmental change is essential for the prediction of future plant growth and ecosystem functions. We investigated the long-term temporal dynamics and effect of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2 ) and ozone (O3 ) concentrations on AM fungal communities. Molecular methods were used to ch...

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are the most abundant plant symbiont and a major pathway of carbon sequestration in soils. However, their basic biology, including their activity throughout a 24-h day : night cycle, remains unknown. We employed the in situ Soil Ecosystem Observatory to quantify the rates of diurnal growth, dieback and net productivity of extra-radical AM fungi. AM fungal hypha...

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are a diverse group of soil fungi (Glomeromycota) that form the most ancient mutualistic association termed AM symbiosis with a majority of land plants, improving their nutrition uptake and resistance to stresses. In contrast to their great ecological implications, the knowledge of the molecular biological mechanisms involved is still scant, partly due to the l...

Mycorrhizal fungi can contribute to soil carbon sequestration by immobilizing carbon in living fungal tissues and by producing recalcitrant compounds that remain in the soil following fungal senescence. We hypothesized that nitrogen (N) fertilization would decrease these carbon stocks, because plants should reduce investment of carbon in mycorrhizal fungi when N availability is high. We measure...

introduction: herbicides, despite of their control of weeds, have the potential to affect sensitive crops in rotation and also beneficial non-targeted soil microbes including vesicular arbuscular mycorrhiza (vam) fungi (6). am fungi can increase the growth of crops through increasing uptake of phosphorus and insoluble micronutrients, and indirectly by improving soil quality parameters (30). how...