Propagating arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi associated with coffee plant by using the herbaceous host

Abstract

    Coffee (Coffea spp.) is one of important industrial crops. Additionally, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF)provide many benefits for plants such as increasing nutrient uptake, enhancing tolerance in drought and stresscondition, etc. Therefore, preservation and propagation of AMF spores collected from coffee's rhizosphere arenecessary for coffee cultivation. The AMF preservation on coffee plant is not feasible because coffee is a long-termplants, which led to study on symbiotic ability of AMF on several short-term host plants (maize (Zea mays), plantain(Plantago spp.), rice (Oryza sativa), beggarticks (Bidens pilosa), and bahia grass (Pensacola bahia)) to maintainAM association. Investigation of symbiosis ability with four types of AMF spores showed that maize had the highestrate of fungal infection. The total number of AMF spore per 50g soil after 3 months of inoculation on maize reached352 spores, which was 4.1 times higher than that of the origin while the lowest figure recorded in bahia grass is withonly 2.3 times.