Role of Beneficial Microsymbionts on the Plant Performance and Plant Fitness

In vivo Assessment of Stress Impact on Plant’s Vitality: Applications in Detecting and Evaluating the Beneficial Role of Mycorrhization on Host Plants

“…In many cases, they result in an increase in growth and crop yield, especially when the soil conditions (for example, nutrient-deficient degraded habitats, or polluted soil) are suboptimal for the plant or during stress periods (see, e.g., Varma 1995Varma , 1998Varma and Schuepp 1996;Biro et al 2006). They are therefore a main parameter in ecosystem functions and highly advantageous in sustainable agriculture.…”

“…For the detection and evaluation of mycorrhization effectiveness we apply biophysical phenomics; we perform the in vivo vitality analysis of PSII that we use for stress detection and evaluation, as summarized in Section 2 Tsimilli-Michael and Strasser 2002;Biro et al 2006). The PSII structural and functional parameters assessed by the analysis of the fluorescence transients with the JIP-test provide a quantification of the three (interrelated) components of plant's vitality, namely activity, adaptability and stability.…”

Biophysical Phenomics: Evaluation of the Impact of Mycorrhization with Piriformospora indica

“…Accordingly, we have applied as a testing method for recognising and, moreover evaluating, the impact of symbiosis in several cases Biro et al 2006;Strasser et al 2007;Tsimilli-Michael and Strasser 2008;Zubek et al 2009;Jurkiewicz et al 2010) the same experimental approach we use when addressing the impact of any other biotic or abiotic stress. This method provides a description of a biophysical phenotype in respect to the photosynthetic apparatus, which we hence termed as Biophysical Phenomics (Strasser and Tsimilli-Michael 2005;Strasser et al 2007;Tsimilli-Michael and Strasser 2008).…”

Effects of Soil Chemical Properties and Seasonality on Mycorrhizal Status of Prickly Pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) Planted in Hot Arid Steppe Rangelands

“…Therefore it must maintain a high level of mycorrhization at all time to ensure the best physiological performance, in particular during seasons with harsh climatic conditions like summer vs. spring (Mekahlia et al 2013;Neffar et al 2014). Moreover, during the early stages, the growth of plants is usually exponential (Fitter & Hay 2012), so plants refer to mycorrhization in order to supplement their nutritional requirements (Biró et al 2006). This statement is clearly observed through high mycorrhizal values of young plantations on the one hand and low values recorded in old plantation and during spring on the other hand ( Figure 2).…”