Mycorrhizal status and AMF community structure of fruit crops from low-input cropping system in Showa Robit, Ethiopia

Abstract

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) association of Mangifera indica (mango), Musa acuminate (banana), Carica papaya (papaya), Citrus limon (lemon), Persea americana (avocado), and Psidium guajava (guava) was investigated from a lowland area of Showa Robit. Percentage of root colonization, spore abundance, species richness and diversity were examined. The result showed that fruit crops fell into higher spore density group of (7.2-8.8 spores g^-1 of soil) and low spore density group (3.7-5.3 spores g^-1 of soil). Accordingly, spore density from mango, avocado, banana and lemon belongs to the high density spore group; whereas, spore from papaya and guava fell into the low spore density group at P<0.05. The AM colonization also showed that mango and lemon have high mycorrhization (71.7%), and guava have a low mycorrhization of 27.3%. A total of 32 morphospecies belonging to 12 genera were characterized from all the fruit crops. The highest AMF species richness was for mango (18 species) followed by banana (16 species) and guava (14 species). The species Claroideoglomus claroideum and Glomus aggregatum were the dominant species (“generalists”) among the fruit trees. A total of 13 AMF species were detected in only one of the tested fruits, out of which four species were recovered from mango indicating that the crops are selective to specific mycorrhizal fungi.

Key words/phrases: Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, Claroideoglomus, Fruit crops, Glomus, Root colonization.