Does Neotyphodium pampeanum impact on soil phosphorus solubilizing fungi?.

ARRIETA A, IANNONE L, SCERVINO M, VIGNALE V, SCAMBATO A, ROGIC G & NOVAS MV.

Congreso; 8th International Symposium on Fungal Endophytes of Grasses (ISFEG); 2012

Phosphorus is one of the most important major nutrients required for the growth and development of crop plants, playing a vital role in virtually every plant process. However, is one of the most immobile and unavailable nutrient present in the soil. Phosphorus solubilizing microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) enable P to become available for plant uptake after solubilization. Several soil fungi belonging to the genera Aspergillus and Penicillium possess the ability to bring insoluble phosphates in soil into soluble forms by secreting organic acids such as formic, acetic, propionic, lactic, glycolic, fumaric, and succinic acids (Rashid et al., 2004). These acids lower the pH and bring about the dissolution of bound forms of phosphates. In addition to saprobes, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are among the most relevant soil microorganism Neotyphodium endophytes frequently increase plant growth and may promote changes that affect the environment where the hosts live (Omacini et al., 2001), altering soil conditions and altering the rhizosphere communities (Omacini et al., 2007). Through these changes, they may affect the establishment of different fungal species modulating the diversity of the rhizospheric community (Matthews & Clay, 2001). If endophytes promote/select P- solubilizing fungi (PSF) then the phosphorus available to plants may increase (Kapoor et al., 2007). The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of Neotyphodium endophytes on the diversity and abundance of P- solubilizing fungi (PSF) from the rhizosphere.