Mycorrhiza: Creating good spaces for interactions

Abstract

Soil is a complicate environment, where complex systems of multiple interactions between the organisms take place. Plant health is majorly determined by these vital interactions in the soil. The ubiquitous arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and a number of microbes interact synergistically to enhance the fitness of each other as well as plants they are associated with. Both the interacting partners are cross facilitators, where AM fungi provide suitable specialized ecological niches as well as nutrients for bacteria, and in turn bacteria improves the mycorrhization, provides pool of available P and N, and helps in management of biotic and abiotic stresses. Given the importance of AM and the interacting microbes in low-input sustainable agriculture, it is important to understand their interactions.