Evidence that a common arbuscular mycorrhizal network alleviates phosphate shortage in interconnected walnut sapling and maize plants

ABSTRACT: Under agroforestry practices, inter-specific facilitation between tree rows and cultivated alleys occurs when plants increase the growth of their neighbors especially under nutrient limitation. Owing to a coarse root architecture limiting soil inorganic phosphate (Pi) uptake, walnut trees (Juglans spp.) exhibit dependency on soil-borne symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi that extend extra-radical hyphae beyond the root Pi depletion zone. To investigate the benefits of mycorrhizal walnuts in alley cropping, we experimentally simulated an agroforestry system in which walnut rootstocks RX1 (J. regia x J. microcarpa) were connected or not by a common mycelial network (CMN) to maize plants grown under two contrasting Pi levels. Mycorrhizal colonization parameters showed that the inoculum res

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PROVIDER: S-EPMC10448772 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature