Symbiotic Exchange of Nutrients in Arbuscular Mycorrhizas: Transport and Transfer of Phosphorus

Abstract

The most common benefit host plants receive form arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi is enhanced phosphorus nutrition. Important aspects of this process: P metabolism in the fungus, cytological and enzymological factors involved in transport, and what is known about the mechanism and location of transfer to host cells are summarized. Finally a model is proposed which synthesizes these data to describe the flow of P from soil, though the AM fungus, to the root cortical cell.