Field Inoculation of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Improves Fruit Quality and Root Physiological Activity of Citrus

Abstract

Soil arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi form a mutualistic symbiosis with plant roots and produce many benefits on host plants under potted conditions, while field inoculation of AM fungi on citrus (a woody plant) has been rarely reported. The present study aimed to analyze the changes in mycorrhizal growth, root vitality, and fruit quality of Citrus reticulata Blanco var. Ponkan mandarin cv. Jinshuigan grafted on Poncirus trifoliata L. after inoculation with a mix of AM fungi (Diversispora versiformis, Funneliformis mosseae, and Rhizophagus intraradices) and single F. mosseae. After the second year of AM fungal inoculations, root mycorrhizal colonization (%), root vitality, hyphal length in soil, and easily extractable glomalin-related soil protein content were significantly increased, while difficult-to-extract glomalin-related soil protein content was decreased. Two mycorrhizal fungal inoculation treatments collectively improved fruit quality parameters such as polar diameter, equatorial diameter, the weight of single fruits, fruit peel, and sarcocarp, coloration value, and soluble solids content. Our study, therefore, suggested that field inoculation with AM fungi improved root physiological activities in terms of mycorrhizal growth and root vitality and thus improved fruit quality. The effect of mixed-AM treatment was more significant than that of F. mosseae alone.

Symbiotic Fungi Alter the Acquisition of Phosphorus in Camellia oleifera through Regulating Root Architecture, Plant Phosphate Transporter Gene Expressions and Soil Phosphatase Activities

“…All the fungal inoculations significantly promoted leaf P concentration, and PI and RI treatments also promoted root P concentration. Plant growth improvement was consistent with the trend of fungi-induced plant P acquisition, indicating that symbiotic fungi promoted P acquisition of host plants, thus resulting in improved growth [ 31 ].…”

“…The symbiosis between symbiotic fungi and plants requires the plant to provide carbohydrates to the fungi for growth maintenance [ 30 ]. The change in plant growth in PI- and DV-inoculated plants represented that the fungal colonization was associated with symbiotic fungi-improved growth responses [ 31 ]. In the present study, PI, FM, RI and mixed-AMF dramatically promoted plant growth parameters to varying degrees, which was consistent with the findings of Standish et al [ 32 ] in mango.…”

Deep nutrients and soil fungal communities support tomato fruit yield and quality in dry farm management systems

“…AMF inoculation is a prime example of how biological outcomes might be realized via external inputs. While AMF inoculation has indeed shown some benefit in more industrially managed systems (Ortas 2012, Hijri 2016, Benami et al 2020, Cao et al 2021, in the present study we observe that in a more diversified system, adding exogenous AMF inocula does not improve plant outcomes. Rather than replacing one external input (in this case irrigation water) with another (AMF inocula), we find that farmers who already practice diversified management will likely have better outcomes pairing local climatic conditions with locally-adapted microbial communities.…”

Individual and combined effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and phytohormones on the growth and physiobiochemical characteristics of tea cutting seedlings

“…This point of view was indirectly confirmed in our study. This study showed that regardless of AMF inoculation, the AMF structure was observed in the rhizosphere of Fuding-Dabaicha in all treatment groups, while the RI or FM inoculations promoted AMF colonization compared to the corresponding control treatments (Cao et al, 2021b). This was because in the field, although the seedling bed was treated with 5% formaldehyde for disinfection over 24 h before the test, a small quantity of AMF still survived.…”