Impact of phosphorus fertilization on tomato growth and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities

Abstract

Understanding the impact of phosphorus (P) addition on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) is crucial to understanding tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) P nutrition. However, it remains unknown how P fertilization is associated with the structure of AMF communities on tomato plants. Thus, we investigated whether levels of P fertilizer interacted with the colonization and structure of AMF in tomato roots in a field trial. In this study, we established three different amounts of P fertilizer treatments (0 kg ha−1, 50 kg ha−1, and 100 kg ha−1). We investigated AMF root colonization and community structure, as well as plant growth in tomatoes at seven weeks following transplantation. The structure of the AMF communities in the roots of tomato were determined by MiSeq amplicon sequencing. As expected, P fertilizer input enhanced the P uptake and plant biomass. In contrast, the P fertilizer level did not affect the AMF root colonization and diversity or the structure of the AMF communities in the tomato. However, we found a negative correlation between AMF colonization and richness in the roots of the tomato plants. Therefore, we need to investigate whether and how AMF communities and P fertilization develop more effective P management for tomato plants.