Molecular Markers for the Identification and Diversity Analysis of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF)

Abstract

Fungal phylum Glomeromycota is a monophyletic group which is conceivably sep- arated from the same ancestor as the Ascomycota and Basidiomycota (Schüssler et al. 2001 ). Glomeromycota consists of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), which form symbiotic association with more than 80 % of the land plants and the endocytobiotic Geosiphon pyriformis . AMF are widely distributed organisms in soil with the widespread mycelia network, but no sexual state has been observed so far. AMF cannot be easily identifi ed as they do not have conspicuous above ground fruiting body and they cannot grown in the absence of plant roots. From the 97,000 of fungal species described so far only 214 species are belong to Glomeromycota, this may be due to the diffi culties in the identifi cation and the requirement of spe- cifi c growth condition.