Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungus Mediate Changes in Mycorrhizosphere Soil Aggregates

Many studies have shown that arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungus has an important role in soil aggregate formation and stabilization. While most studies about the effects of AM fungus on soil aggregate have experimental set-ups in single pots or containers with two compartments, these studies cannot differentiate the effects of roots, mycorrhizal roots or hyphae. In this study we used containers with four compartments to split the roots and quantitatively compare the change of soil aggregate in the mycorrhizosphere soil, rhizosphere soil, hyphosphere soil and bulk soil. Our results demonstrate a significant positive correlation among hyphal length density, easily extractable glomalin (EEG) and aggregate mean weight diameter (MWD), geometric mean diameter (GMD) and percentage of soil macroaggregate with a diameter larger than 0.25 mm (R0.25). The GMD and MWD of R0.25 in the hyphal compartment were higher than those in the non-inoculated root compartment, but were lower than those in the mycorrhizal compartment. This suggests the mycorrhizal hyphae had a greater effect than the non-inoculated roots, but less of an effect than the mycorrhizal roots on the formation and stabilization of soil aggregate. The results reveal that plant roots, mycorrhizal roots and mycorrhizal hyphae contribute to aggregate stability in individual ways and that their effects are additive, creating a synergistic stabilizing effect.

Potential of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi for soil health:A review

Soil health is an important component of“One Health”.Soils provide habitat to diverse and abundant organisms.Understanding microbial diversity and functions is essential for building healthy soils towards sustainable agriculture.Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi(AMF)form potentially symbiotic associations with approximately 80%of land plant species that are well recognized for carbon flux and nutrient cycling.In addition to disentangling the signaling pathways and regulatory mechanisms between the two partners,recent advances in hyphosphere research highlight some emerging roles of AMF and associated microbes in the delivery of soil functions.This paper reviews the contribution of AMF to soil health in agroecosystems,with a major focus on recent progress in the contribution of hyphosphere microbiome to nutrient cycling,carbon sequestration,and soil aggregation.The hyphosphere microbiome and fungal stimulants open avenues for developing new fertilizer formulas to promote AMF benefits.In practice,developing AMF-friendly management strategies will have long-term positive effects on sustainable agriculture aiming at simultaneously providing food security,increasing resource use efficiency,and maintaining environment integrity.

A trade-off between space exploration and mobilization of organic phosphorus through associated microbiomes enables niche differentiation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on the same root

Ecology seeks to explain species coexistence,but experimental tests of mechanisms for coexistence are difficult to conduct.We synthesized an arbuscular mycorrhizal(AM)fungal community with three fungal species that differed in their capacity of foraging for orthophosphate(P)due to differences in soil exploration.We tested whether AM fungal species-specific hyphosphere bacterial assemblages recruited by hyphal exudates enabled differentiation among the fungi in the capacity of mobilizing soil organic P(P_(o)).We found that the less efficient space explorer,Gigaspora margarita,obtained less ^(13)C from the plant,whereas it had higher efficiencies in P_(o)mobilization and alkaline phosphatase(Al Pase)production per unit C than the two efficient space explorers,Rhizophagusintraradices and Funneliformis mosseae.Each AM fungus was associated with a distinct alp gene harboring bacterial assemblage,and the alp gene abundance and P_(o)preference of the microbiome associated with the less efficient space explorer were higher than those of the two other species.We conclude that the traits of AM fungal associated bacterial consortia cause niche differentiation.The trade-off between foraging ability and the ability to recruit effective P_(o)mobilizing microbiomes is a mechanism that allows co-existence of AM fungal species in a single plant root and surrounding soil habitat.