Arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis and its role in plant nutrition in sustainable agriculture

Abstract

The soil microbiota is associated with the formation and maintenance of the stability of aggregates for the production of proteins and extracellular polysaccharides, and can be a determining factor in controlling the diversity of vegetable and other organisms that live aboveground. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi have yet to be fully utilized in agriculture, because certain aspects of their symbiotic nature (e.g., biogeography, ecology) are not fully understood. This symbiosis is an association formed between the roots of plant species and members of soil fungi belonging to the phylum Glomeromycota. Species of this phylum are obligate biotrophs, which, during symbiosis, establish a source sink for plant photosynthates. In exchange, the symbiont provides, through the hyphae, uptake of inorganic nutrients and water from the soil solution and their translocation to the host plant. Establishment of this symbiosis implies changes in the host plant's primary and secondary metabolism. This reprogramming transcriptome induced by the symbiont results in mycorrhizal plant acclimatization to environmental stresses. This chapter attempts to highlight the contribution that AM symbiosis can play as an ecosystem service provider to guarantee host plant nutrition under abiotic stress conditions, and discusses briefly the exploitation of arbuscular mycorrhiza in sustainable agriculture.