Ammani Kandru
Acharya Nagarjuna University, India
Title: Past, Present and Recent trends in Arbuscular mycorrhizae
Biography
Biography: Ammani Kandru
Abstract
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are the most widely distributed, obligate and significant soil fungi that form mutualistic association with almost all types of plants round the globe. AMF are now considered as multipurpose fungi as they play a crucial role in improving plant absorption efficacy of phosphorus along with other minor nutrients as they explore soil beyond the P depletion zone with their extensive external hypal network that ramify the soil surrounding the root zone. Also these fungi improve water uptake and plays a significant role in integrity and sustainability of soil system. As environmental protection is the need of the hour the use of the costly chemical fertilizer that pollutes the soils should be discouraged. The cleaner and better option is to go for Arbuscular mycorrhizae, the promising biofertilizer. Working on AMF since 32 years on a variety of soil types and host species ( in native ecosystems & agricultural fields) and established that these fungi considerably improved the performance of plants in both pot culture and field experiments .Recent research demonstrated that the AMF produce a cell surface glycoprotein, Glomalin that contributes to the soil organic matter pool and improves the physical quality of the soil thereby playing a constructive role in structural stability and soil aggregation. The past, present and recent trends will be discussed at length.