Is a mixture of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi better for plant growth than single-species inoculants?

• Published in: Mycorrhiza Vol. 29; no. 4; pp. 325 - 339
• Main Authors: Crossay, Thomas, Majorel, Clarisse, Redecker, Dirk, Gensous, Simon, Medevielle, Valérie, Durrieu, Gilles, Cavaloc, Yvon, Amir, Hamid
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.07.2019; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Verlag
• Subjects: Abiotic factors; abiotic stress; Agriculture; Arbuscular mycorrhizas; biomass; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biotechnology; Calcium; Complementarity; ecological restoration; Ecology; Forestry; Fungi; greenhouse experimentation; Heavy metals; Host plants; Indigenous species; Inoculation; Inoculum; Life Sciences; Magnesium; Metal concentrations; Metrosideros; Microbiology; mycorrhizae; mycorrhizal fungi; Nutrient concentrations; nutrient deficiencies; Nutrition; Original Article; Plant growth; Plant growth promoters; plant growth substances; Plant nutrition; Plant Sciences; Restoration; soil; Soil analysis; Statistics; Ultramafic soil; Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi; Abiotic stress; Mixed inocula; Heavy metals; Restoration ecology
• ISSN: 0940-6360; 1432-1890; 1432-1890
• DOI: 10.1007/s00572-019-00898-y

Inoculation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) as plant growth promoters has mostly been conducted using single-species inoculum. In this study, we investigated whether co-inoculation of different native AMF species induced an improvement of plant growth in an ultramafic soil. We analyzed the effects of six species of AMF from a New Caledonian ultramafic soil on plant growth and nutrition, using mono-inoculations and mixtures comprising different numbers of AMF species, in a greenhouse experiment. The endemic Metrosideros laurifolia was used as a host plant. Our results suggest that, when the plant faced multiple abiotic stress factors (nutrient deficiencies and high concentrations of different heavy metals), co-inoculation of AMF belonging to different families was more efficient than mono-inoculation in improving biomass, mineral nutrition, Ca/Mg ratio, and tolerance to heavy metals of plants in ultramafic soil. This performance suggested functional complementarity between distantly related AMF. Our findings will have important implications for restoration ecology and mycorrhizal biotechnology applied to ultramafic soils.