Tahir Abdoulaye Diop

Solanum cultivar responses to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi: growth and mineral status

A greenhouse experiment was carried out in a sandy soil with a low available phosphorus to evaluate responsiveness of four Solanum aethiopicum cultivars to indigenous arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Results showed clear interaction between genetic variability of cultivars and fungal isolates on shoot biomass and on mineral status. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi can be ranked as Glomus aggregatum > Glomus mosseae > Glomus versiforme for improving yield as well as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium acquisition of Solanum cultivars. Key words : Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, Solanum aethiopicum, sterile soil, relative mycorrhizal dependency. African Journal of Biotechnology Vol.2(11) 2003: 429-433

In vitro culture of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi: advances and future prospects

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are ecologically important for most vascular plants for their growth and survival. AM fungi are obligate symbionts. In recent years, there have been many attempts to cultivate in vitro. Some relevant results indicate efforts are not far from successful growth of AM fungi independent of a plant host. This paper describes the methods to cultivate root organs, and to select and purify AM fungal inocula (intraradical and extraradical forms). Axenic and monoxenic cultures of AM fungi are summarized and we propose a methodology to recover and achieve continuous culture of AM fungi without lost of infectivity. The in vitro systems have proved to be a valuable tool to study fundamental and practical aspects of AM symbiosis, complementing the in vivo experimental approaches. Finally, we give some proposals of in vitro AM researches to exploit more the potentialities of AM symbiosis. Key words : Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, continuous culture, root organ cultures, intraradical and extraradical forms, in vitro. African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 2 (12), pp. 692-697, December 2003

Actinorhizal, mycorhizal and rhizobial symbioses: how much do we know?

In this review, we discuss the recent progress in research on symbiotic association of rhizobia, Frankia and fungi with plant roots. We compare infection processes of symbiotic establishment; structure, functioning and molecular biology of the symbiotic organ including the regulation of genes implicated in rhizobial, actinorhizial and arbuscular mycorhizal symbioses. (African Journal of Biotechnology: 2003 2(1): 1-7)