Screening of efficient arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi for Azadirachta indica under nursery condition: a step towards afforestation of semi-arid region of western India

Abstract

To optimize nursery practices for efficient plant production procedures and to keep up to the ever growing demand of seedlings, identification of the most suitable species of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), specific for a given tree species, is clearly a necessary task. Sixty days old seedlings of Neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss) raised in root trainers were inoculated with six species of AMF and a mixed inoculum (consortia) and kept in green house. Performances of the treatments on this tree species were evaluated in terms of growth parameters like plant height shoot collar diameter, biomass and phosphorous uptake capabilities. Significant and varied increase in the growth parameters and phosphorous uptake was observed for most of the AMF species against control. Consortia culture was found to be the best suited AMF treatment for A. indica, while Glomus intraradices and Glomus mosseae were the best performing single species cultures. It is the first time in the state of Gujarat that a wide variety of AMF species, isolated from the typical semi-arid region of western India, were tested for the best growth performance with one of the most important tree species for the concerned region.

The Potential Role of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in the Restoration of Degraded Lands

“…Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi may also interact with each other synergistically. It was experimentally found out that AMF effects are greater when AMF consortia inoculums are applied than single AMF ( Banerjee et al, 2013 ). After long years of observation, Barea et al (2011) concluded that the use of native AMF consortia has the maximum effect.…”

“…Meanwhile, AMF inoculation has proved to be effective under wide range of soil conditions ( Janos, 1980 ; Brundrett and Abbott, 2002 ) including on soils with good AMF abundance (e.g., Banerjee et al, 2013 ). Positive AMF effect is not ensured by the presence of abundant indigenous AMF but by both abundance (quantity) and efficiency (quality) of indigenous fungal populations ( Onguene and Kuyper, 2005 ).…”

“…The external hyphae network (extraradical mycelium) of the fungi permeate in to the microsites of rocks and soils surrounding the plant roots ( Finlay, 2008 ; Barea et al, 2011 ) increasing the root absorbing surface area 100 or even 1000 fold ( Larcher, 1995 ). Therefore, AMF increase plants’ nutrient and water relation (e.g., Birhane et al, 2012 , 2015 ; Banerjee et al, 2013 ), and can improve plants’ field survival and establishment (e.g., Pouyu-Rojas and Siqueira, 2000 ; Habte et al, 2001 ; Ouahmane et al, 2006 ; Dag et al, 2009 ; Kapulnik et al, 2010 ; Karthikeyan and Krishnakumar, 2012 ; Manaut et al, 2015 ). AMF improve soil structure, soil water relation, plants’ tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, increase plants’ nutrient supply, plants’ growth, yield and reproductive success and reduce fertilizer requirement ( Finlay, 2008 ; Gianinazzi et al, 2010 ; Simard and Austin, 2010 ; Barea et al, 2011 ; Al-Karaki, 2013 ; Soka and Ritchie, 2014 ).…”

Effect of Mycorrhizal Fungi on the Growth of Ailanthus excelsa Seedlings Grown in Different Potting Media under Nursery Condition

“…The perusal of data in Table-1 indicated that root growth parameters of Ailanthus excelsa like root length, fresh root weight and dry root weight were found significantly higher in treatment containing FS + FYM+A.S whereas, shoot parameters like shoot length, fresh shoot weight dry shoot weight, collar diameter and number of leaves were found significantly higher in treatment containing FS + FYM + G.I as compared with control after three and six months of growth of Ailanthus excelsa seedlings and other treatments under studied. Growth parameters of Azadirachta indica was found significantly higher when treated with mycorrhiza fungi over control reported by Banerjee et. al (2013).…”

A bioeconomic Approach for the Production of Biofertilizers and their influence on Faba Bean (Vicia faba L) Productivity

“…), attacked by M. javanica. (Mwangi et al, 2011;Marro et al, 2014;Banerjee et al, 2013). The AMF, applied on G. intraradices increased plant height, leaf and root dry biomass, panicle length, and protein content in the grain of sorghum (Diaz-Franco et al, 2008).…”