Authors: P E Lovato F GarciaFigueres A Camprubí J Parladé C Calvet
Publish Date: 2014/06/29
Volume: 140, Issue: 2, Pages: 207-212
Abstract
Among other benefits arbuscular mycorrhizal AM fungi may increase plant tolerance to root diseases The research on the underlying mechanisms requires growth conditions that are both controlled and realistic To study these interactions a semiaxenic phototrophic system was developed in which the roots grow in a controlled environment and can be inoculated with both pathogenic and symbiotic fungi Micropropagated fig plantlets were grown in containers having shoots in the outside and roots in a growth medium without sugar inoculated or not with the AM fungus Rhizophagus irregularis and the pathogenic fungus Armillaria mellea Dual inoculated plants developed the mycorrhizal association and pathogen infection symptoms Mycorrhizal inoculation lowered disease index and increased plant growth Colonization of A mellea in fig roots was quantified by realtime PCR showing that R irregularis did not significantly lower the quantity of Armillaria suggesting that other mechanisms were involved in increased tolerance to the pathogen The results show that the system proposed is suitable to study the triple interaction involving plant AM and root pathogenic fungi
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