Plant-microbe interactions for phosphate management in tropical soils

Abstract

Low soil phosphate (P) availability is a major limiting factor for tropical agriculture and forestry because this severely limits the plant productivity. A viable alternative consists of using arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) that form a symbiotic association with plant roots, the AMF hyphae are by far most efficient than roots alone in taking up water and low-mobile nutrient from soils, particularly P. Also, there are phosphate-solubilizing microorganisms (PSM) capable of dissolving native and applied P compounds. With both microbial groups, plants enhance its capability of taking up P and thus overcome this limiting factor. The objective in this chapter was to discuss the effectiveness of both AMF and PSM to enhance plant P uptake in tropical soils.