Professional Documents
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DOI 10.1007/s13199-012-0208-9
Received: 2 October 2012 / Accepted: 30 November 2012 / Published online: 8 January 2013
# Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
effective mycorrhizal symbiosis but on fertilizing compounds added to products. There is growing number of
enterprises producing mycorrhiza based inocula recently
not only in developed world but increasingly in emerging
markets. Also collaboration between private sector and scientific community has an improving trend as the development of private sector can fuel further research activities.
Last but not least there is apparent growing pull of the
market and increasing tendency of reduction of agrochemical inputs and employment of alternative strategies in planting and plant production. These circumstances support
further developments of mycorrhizal inocula production
and applications and maturation of the industry.
Keywords Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi . Sustainable
agriculture . Inoculum quality . Inoculum tuning .
Large-scale trials/verification . Mycorrhizal technology
1 Introduction
For the majority of plant species including agricultural and
horticultural crops, uptake of water and mineral nutritions,
particularly phosphorus, is mediated by the mycorrhizal
fungi. As applies to nitrogen (N), the contribution of mycorrhizal uptake and the costs to the plant are still not fully
clear (Smith and Smith 2011). Mycorrhizal fungi have also a
lot of non-nutritional effects on plant physiology often
alleviating plant stress caused by biotic and abiotic factors,
acting as biocontrol agent, stabilising soil aggregates, preventing erosion and influencing plant fittness and sustainability of the whole plant-soil system (Smith and Read
2008). Many lines of scientific evidence prove not only
improved crop yield and resistance of mycorrhizal plants
to environmental factors but improvement of many foodquality properties, such as increased contents of desirable
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M. Vostka et al.
natural plant health insurance (Gianinazzi and GianinazziPearson 1988). During the last decade, mycorrhizal inoculations are becoming recognized as a modern feasible biotechnology in plant production and the whole industry on its
own with its specifics has emerged (Vostka et al. 2008a,
2008c); there is an increasing number of examples of the
positive impact of mycorrhiza in crop production and in
particular AM. Mycorrhizal technology is currently reaching an industrial stage supported by extensive applied research and commercial applications emphasizing an
ecological, sustainable aspects of the use of mycorrhiza
(Vostka and Dodd 2002; Vosatka and Albrechtova 2009;
Gianinazzi et al. 2010).
31
Gianinazzi et al. 2010). One of the most important ecosystem services are enhancement of soil erosion control by soil
binding capacity via mycorrhizal extraradical mycelium
(ERM) (Caravaca et al. 2002; Rillig 2004; Piotrowski et
al. 2004), and significant allocation of plant carbon products
of photosynthesis into mycorrhizal structures being a significant carbon sink on global level (Gianinazzi et al. 2010).
There are also new findings on AM role in mediation of
allelopathy through easier transport mediated common mycorrhizal networks (Cipollini et al. 2012).
Currently, soil microbe management leading to sustainable management practices belongs to possible applications
of mycorrhizal or combined-microbial inoculations with
ever increasing importance. During time of ongoing climate
change desertification of agricutlrural land increases, however, microbe management still plays a secondary role in
conventional agricultural practices. One of the reasons is an
ongoing lack of legislative policy focusing explicitly on soil
ecosystems and degradation processes, scarce international
policy framework to guide sustainable soil management
(Thomas et al. 2012). According to the authors, the United
Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
remains the only Rio Convention that is not supported by
involvement of scientific community and lacks the equivalent of an IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change) or the proposed IPBES (Intergovernmental SciencePolicy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem
Services).
Implementation of mycorrhizal inoculum into practice of
phytoremediation (phytoextraction, phytostabilisation) has
some potential (Miransari 2011a; Bhargava et al. 2012;
Meier et al. 2012). There are several evidences that certain
selected AM fungi have capacity to reduce translocation of
heavy metals into above-ground plant tissues and therefore
improve safety and quality of edible parts of the food crop
(Rivera-Becerril et al. 2002).
On the other side, some fungi can increase phytoextraction and then help in decontamination of polluted soils.
Nevertheless careful selection of inoculants in this aspect
should be performed prior large scale applications because
some fungi can have an opposite effects on heavy metal
translocations (Janoukov et al. 2012).
Newly exploited potential of AM became enhancement
of food quality in crop plants. There has been recently
reports on increase of sugar content in plant, increase of
essential elements (Zn, Mg etc.) and mainly antioxidants
and beneficial mineral elements (Perner et al. 2008;
Albrechtova et al. 2012; Gianinazzi et al. 2010).
Currently, a lot of attention has been devoted to the
research on the impact on interactions between mycorrhizal
plants and pathogens, herbivores, and parasitic plants (Jung
et al. 2012). Modulation of plant defense responses as a
consequence of mycorrhiza establishment results in a mild,
32
M. Vostka et al.
Symbiom company.). For example, commercial micropropagated plants can be inoculated post-vitro (Vestberg et
al. 2002; Gryndler et al. 2002) straight at the transplantation
stage or bare roots plants can be dipped into gel formulations of mycorrhizal inocula before transplantation, or the
dry formulations of inocula can be spread into the planting
hole. For large-scale application, machinery is needed, i.e.
mixing tanks for application in substrates or sowing
machines for field applications.
One of the main issues will always be economical feasibility of mycorrhizal applications especially in low value
and extensive crops. Cost benefit ratio of different applications is crucial for any large scale use of mycorrhiza. Savings on fertilizers, water, pesticides should be compared
with increased yield of target crops and cost of inoculum
and inoculum application should be taken into account.
Cost/benefit calculations for commercial rose production
(production facilities size about 100 ha) showed that by
reducing NPK to 50 % and application of the AM fungi at
planting time, a total 267 Euro is saved per hectare per
month (cost of AM fungi is calculated 2 Euro per L) and
resulting saving is about 1.5 M Euro for commercial production of roses in Kenya (Vostka M, Maimba F, unpublished results on rose production in Kenya.). The inoculation
is, however, too costly for extensive crops like cereals.
Main problem of inoculations is that it is not always working and there might be lack of consistent positive results in
field applications. Sometimes present native fungi are abundant in target cultivation systems and they can be sufficiently
effective and costs of inoculation is not outbalanced by the
outcomes. Advances in molecular techniques enable to prove
effectiveness of AM fungal inoculation expressed by improved
yield even in high presence of indigenous populations of AM
fungi in the field soil (Hernadi et al. 2012; Pellegrino et al.
2012; Sykorova et al. 2012). Future research should focused
more on the interaction of introduced and native mycorrhizal
populations and on tracing of inoculated strains to determine
their persistence of inocula in field soils and their effectiveness
in forming colonization with either annual or perennial crops.
Another problem often encountered in mycorrhiza application is that in conventional practice of plant production there are numerous agricultural practices (e.g.
agrochemical applications, tillage, cropping systems),
which inhibit mycorrhiza development, particularly in top
soil layers (Oehl et al. 2004, 2005). There are concerns
particularly on the use of pesticides. Insecticides and fungicides (particularly systemic, copper ones) have been
reported to exhibit many negative effects on soil organisms
whereas few significant effects of herbicides have been
documented (Bunemann et al. 2006). Another concern
arose based on new findings on the role of mycorrhiza in
allelopathy via common mycorrhizal networks (Cipollini
et al. 2012). Authors suggest, that implications of
33
34
M. Vostka et al.
4,5
3,0
b
1,5
0,0
Inoc 1
Inoc 2
Inoc 3
Inoc 4
Inoc 5
mycorrhizal colonization in %
100
80
60
40
20
b
b
0
Inoc 1
Inoc 2
Inoc 3
Inoc 4
Inoc 5
cultivation in zeolite. Bars above columns represent SD, the different letters above the bars indicate significant differences betwen
means (n06) P<0.05, ANOVA
6 Conclusions
The main way forward in mycorrhizal applications in agriculture depends on the scientific knowledge derived from
fundamental and applied research and collaboration of both
mycorrhizal science and mycorrhizal industry. That is driving force for advances in safe and effective applications of
mycorrhizal products in agricultural practices.
Population growth together with climate change, ongoing soil degradation and increasing costs of chemical
fertiliser is making the need for the envisaged New
Green Revolution which comprises better exploitation
of existing soil resources including proper soil-microbe
management (Lynch 2007).
There is growing number of enterprises producing inocula based on mycorrhizal fungi and recently not only in
developed world but increasingly in emerging markets. Also
collaboration between private sector and scientific community has an improving trend as the development of private
sector can fuel further research activities. Last but not least
there is apparent growing pull of the market and increasing
tendency of reduction of agrochemical inputs and employment of alternative strategies in planting and plant production. These circumstances support further developments of
mycorrhizal inocula production and applications and maturation of the industry.
Still the missing components of biotechnology are appropriate, cheap, highly reproducible and effective methods for
inocula purity testing and quality control. Also there is a
weak traceability of the origin of the mycorrhizal fungi
strains used in commercial inocula. Appropriate and accessible methods for quality and products certification are
paramount as there are numerous low quality inocula occurr
on the markets. We should be aware that mycorrhiza inoculation is not a Panacea, which is going to sort out all the
35
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