Unlike spores, hyphae need plant roots to live, making their shelf life much shorter than spores. However, they are more sensitive to factors like light, aggregation, moisture, and temperature. Hyphae colonize a plant quicker than spores. Hyphae are the microscopic, threadlike filaments that make up the mycelium of the fungi.Spores can be dormant for years without a host plant, although viability may be reduced in time. These large (20–1000+ μm) asexual spores have a long shelf life and are resilient to high and low temperatures, moisture, drying out, etc., due to their hard exterior shell. Spores are made within the root cortex or on the hyphae. Propagule is a word that defines spores, mycelium, and root pieces-all viable means of mycorrhizal infection.Studies have shown the importance mycorrhizal fungi have in providing plants nutrients required to grow.ĪM fungi can reproduce through spores, hyphae, and colonized root pieces. ĪM fungi (arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi) can be found naturally in soils around the world. ĪM fungi release immobilized nutrients such as phosphorus, sulfur, nitrogen, and micronutrients from material sources in the soil to be passed onto the host plant. This symbiosis enhances water and nutrient uptake to host plants while protecting roots from soil-borne pathogens. ĭuring this intracellular symbiosis, AM fungi colonize a plant’s roots, increasing its rhizosphere. Rhizophagus irregularis (previously known as Glomus intraradices) are the most prolific species of AM fungi known to facilitate nutrient uptake in plants.ĪM fungi have been shown to increase the growth and nutritive status of nearly every annual (or biennial) agronomic crop (excluding the Brassica family of vegetables).Over 150 AM fungal species have been described so far.Arbuscular is a term to describe the tree-like structure of the fungi, forming a visible mycelium of branching white filaments, as shown below.The earliest fossils of plant roots contain Arbuscular Mycorrhiza nearly identical to the kind found in today’s soils. AM fungi are found in 80% of vascular plants and are considered the #1 most abundant symbionts in ecosystems around the world. The most common type of endomycorrhizae is known as Arbuscular Mycorrhizae ( AM fungi, AMF, VAM). Endomycorrhizae have been further classified as arbuscular, ericoid, arbutoid, monotropoid, and orchid mycorrhizae.Most vegetables, crops, shrubs, trees, grass, and cannabis only associate with endomycorrhizae. Ectomycorrhiazae do not penetrate the cells of the plant rootĬoniferous trees, oak, beech, birch, chestnut, and hickory trees only associate with ectomycorrhizae.
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