Mycorrhizal response in crop versus wild plants

Department of Biology, University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, Canada
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Quebec Research and Development Centre, Quebec, Canada
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.27384v1
Subject Areas
Microbiology
Keywords
biofertilizer, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, fungal inoculant, Rhizoglomus irregulare DAOM197198, life history traits, mycorrhizal response, wild plants, crop plants, mutualistic quality
Copyright
© 2018 Kokkoris et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Kokkoris V, Hamel C, Hart M. 2018. Mycorrhizal response in crop versus wild plants. PeerJ Preprints 6:e27384v1

Abstract

We proposed a theoretical framework predicting mutualistic outcomes for the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis based on host identity (crop versus wild).

To test the framework, we grew two isolates of Rhizoglomus irregulare (commercial versus an isolate locally sourced from a site in Saskatchewan), with five crop plants and five wild plants that are endemic to the region and co-occur with the locally sourced fungus.

While inoculation had no effect on plant biomass, it decreased leaf P content, particularly for wild plants. All plants associating with the commercial fungus had lower leaf P. Overall, our data shows that wild plants may be more sensitive to differences in mutualistic quality among commercial biofertilizers.

Author Comment

This is a submission to PeerJ for review.

Supplemental Information

Effects of inoculation treatments on the five crop plants and five wild plants

Descriptive statistics along with Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey’s multiple comparisons test (agricolae version 1.2-3, Statistical Procedures for Agricultural Research) (Felipe de Mendiburu 2015). The values are reported as: mean ± SD {MR}. MR (Mycorrhizal response) as described by Baon et al. (1993) (100*(M- NM)/NM) by using mean values for M and NM. Positive MR is colored green while negative MR is colored red.

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.27384v1/supp-2

Fungal inoculation effects on crop and wild plants phosphorus:

Percentage of leaf phosphorus*shoot biomass among the treatments (Commercial, locally sourced inoculum and a non-mycorrhizal control). The third quartile (Q3) and first quartile (Q1) (box edges), median (middle line), and range of the data (whiskers) are shown. Three asterisks signify statistical significance at p<0.001.

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.27384v1/supp-3

Fungal inoculation effects on crop and wild plants phosphorus:

Percentage of leaf phosphorus*total biomass among the treatments (Commercial, locally sourced inoculum and a non-mycorrhizal control). The third quartile (Q3) and first quartile (Q1) (box edges), median (middle line), and range of the data (whiskers) are shown. Three asterisks signify statistical significance at p<0.001.

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.27384v1/supp-4