In Vitro Mycorrhization of Some Seasonal Plants By Using Local Soil Fungi

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to study the influence of local endo-symbiotic fungus on the growth of two important plants. So we achieved a bibliographic introduction that describes our knowledge about the phenomenon of mycorrhization in general and the endomycorrhization in particular. To serve this objective we summarized some works dealing with the effects of the mycorrhization on ecosystem, the important of this phenomenon on plant nutrition and growth and factors influencing mycorrhization. This first part is a preliminary study for our experimental work. The second part was an experimental study which shows the influence of a local fungus extracted from squash seedling on the growth of summer squash and watermelon plants. Theses two seedlings have been shown on vermiculite substrates containing little amount of organic matters. 20 days after planting 120 seedling of each species, we have inoculated part of seedling by the symbiotic fungus. The inoculation has been achieved in two ways, the first by injection of a suspension of fungus spores around the seedling roots and the second by surrounding the plant roots by the fungus mycelium. The impact of symbiotic fungus on the plant growth was measured by comparing the inoculated plants, with control plants and plants treated with chemical fertilizer. Our results show a positive influence of the symbiotic fungus on the growth of summer squash seedling compared with control and with the seedling treated with chemical fertilizers especially root systems. Concerning watermelon plants the positive effect of the fungus was compared only with control plants. We also show that the plant roots inoculation with spore suspension was given the best results. We conclude that the use of arubuscular mycorrhizal fungus gives positive influence on the growth of plants especially compared with control and better or similar compared with plants treated with chemical fertilizer. According to these results we strongly recommend the use of symbiotic fungi as total or partial substitute of chemical fertilizer.