In vitro culture of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi: advances and future prospects

Abstract

Arbuscular mycorrhizal {(AM)} fungi are ecologically important for most vascular plants for their growth and survival. {AM} fungi are obligate symbionts. In recent years, there have been many attempts to cultivate in vitro. Some relevant results indicate efforts are not far from successful growth of {AM} fungi independent of a plant host. This paper describes the methods to cultivate root organs, and to select and purify {AM} fungal inocula (intraradical and extraradical forms). Axenic and monoxenic cultures of {AM} fungi are summarized and we propose a methodology to recover and achieve continuous culture of {AM} fungi without lost of infectivity. The in vitro systems have proved to be a valuable tool to study fundamental and practical aspects of {AM} symbiosis, complementing the in vivo experimental approaches. Finally, we give some proposals of in {vitro AM} researches to exploit more the potentialities of {AM} symbiosis.   Key {words: Arbuscular} mycorrhizal fungi, continuous culture, root organ cultures, intraradical and extraradical forms, in vitro.