Diversity of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Associated with Six Rice Cultivars in Italian Agricultural Ecosystem Managed with Alternate Wetting and Drying

Alternate wetting and drying(AWD)system,in which water has been reduced by approximately 35%with an increased occurrence of beneficial arbuscular mycorrhizal(AM)symbiosis and no negative impact on rice yield,was proposed to utilize water and nutrients more sustainable.In this study,we selected six rice cultivars(Centauro,Loto,Selenio,Vialone nano,JSendra and Puntal)grown under AWD conditions,and investigated their responsiveness to AM colonization and how they select diverse AM taxa.In order to investigate root-associated AM fungus communities,molecular cloning-Sanger sequencing on small subunit rDNA data were obtained from five out of the six rice cultivars and compared with Next Generation Sequencing(NGS)data,which were previously obtained in Vialone nano.The results showed that all the cultivars were responsive to AM colonization with the development of AM symbiotic structures,even if with differences in the colonization and arbuscule abundance in the root systems.We identified 16 virtual taxa(VT)in the soil compartment and 7 VT in the root apparatus.We emphasized that the NGS analysis gives additional value to the results thanks to a more in-depth reading of the less represented AM fungus taxa.

Isolation and Identification of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi from Agricultural Fields of Vietnam

The rising claim for more environmental friendly and healthy agriculture is a strong incentive to find alternative strategies to replace the use of mineral fertilizer and pesticide. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), a main component of soil microbiota, represent a promising tool as providers of key ecological services. The present work represented one of the first attempts to study, under a morphological and molecular point of view, the AMF communities associated to some strategic crops in Vietnam. The findings about the AMF morphotypes dominant in different crop systems could be a starting point for the development of well performing and adapted inocula suitable for the application in field.

From Monoculture to Norfolk System: How the Number of Crops in Rotation Can Influence the Biodiversity of Arbuscular Mycorrhiza Assemblages in the Soil

Given the attention drawn since several decades by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) as potential biological alternatives to chemicals in a low-input agriculture, much effort has been spent in the investigation of mechanisms influencing the dynamics inside AMF communities. In the present study we evaluated the influence of different crop rotations on the AMF soil community, after a 50 y long-term field experiment established at Martonvásár, Hungary. Four types of crop rotation were chosen for sampling: corn monocropping, corn-alfalfa, corn-wheat, and corn-spring barley-peas-wheat. Community composition of AMF in soil was analyzed with a molecular approach amplifying a portion of 28S rDNA. The crop rotation practice didn’t show an influence on identity of the species composing AMF assemblages, but on the other hand seemed to affect positively the true diversity, defined as number of MOTUs present in the communities.