Tracing an inoculated arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus, Funneliformis mosseae, in a field experiment using molecular tools

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the presence of inoculated AM fungus Funneliformis mosseae (earlier called Glomus mosseae), applied as part of the microbial consortia (MC) in the root zone of chilly (Capsicum annuum L.) plants from the field experiment through nested PCR based approach. A field experiment was conducted with 100% recommended level of chemical fertilizers and 50% recommended level of chemical fertilizers plus selected microbial consortia i.e., Funneliformis mosseae + Bacillus sonorensis in order to find out the possibility of reducing the recommended level of chemical fertilizer for cultivation of chilly. The introduced inoculum Funneliformis mosseae was tracked from the field by amplifying a region of rRNA gene using specific primers followed by sequencing. Total DNA was extracted from the roots of chilly plants. The universal eukaryote primer pair NS5/ITS4 was initially used for the first amplification and further amplified by Glomeraceae specific primer GLOM1310, in conjugation with the universal primer ITS4i. The amplicon was obtained only from plant root inoculated with microbial consortia and its sequence validated the presence of F. mosseae.