Arbuscular mycorrhizal root colonization depends on the spatial distribution of the host plants.

ABSTRACT: Despite their ubiquity in terrestrial ecosystems, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) experience dispersion constraints and thus depend on the spatial distribution of the plant hosts. Our understanding of fungal-plant interactions with respect to their spatial distributions and implications for the functioning of the symbiosis remain limited. We here manipulated the location of habitat patches of Medicago lupulina in two experiments to explore the responses of AMF root colonization and extraradical hyphae. We tested the specific hypothesis that AMF-plant habitats high in connectance would stimulate root colonization and induce denser functional root colonization (colonization rate of arbuscules plus coils) because of higher propagule availability between nearby host plant patches (experimen

SUBMITTER: Grunfeld L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9561028 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature